The Meaning Of Life A Very Short Introduction

Author : Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191654337
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Happiness: A Very Short Introduction written by Daniel M. Haybron and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-08-29 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Happiness is an everyday term in our lives, and most of us strive to be happy. But defining happiness can be difficult. In this Very Short Introduction, Dan Haybron considers the true nature of happiness. By examining what it is, assessing its importance in our lives, and how we can (and should) pursue it, he considers the current thinking on happiness, from psychology to philosophy. Illustrating the diverse routes to happiness, Haybron reflects on contemporary ideas about the pursuit of a good life and considers the influence of social context on our satisfaction and well-being. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Author : Paul Thagard
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691142726
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Brain and the Meaning of Life written by Paul Thagard and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-14 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defending the superiority of evidence-based reasoning over religious faith and philosophical thought experiments, Thagard argues that minds are brains and that reality is what science can discover. Brains come to know reality through a combination of perception and reasoning. Just as important, our brains evaluate aspects of reality through emotions that can produce both good and bad decisions. Our cognitive and emotional abilities allow us to understand reality, decide effectively, act morally, and pursue the vital needs of love, work, and play. Wisdom consists of knowing what matters, why it matters, and how to achieve it."--Jacket.

Author : Terry Eagleton
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191579033
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction written by Terry Eagleton and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-04-24 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have all wondered about the meaning of life. But is there an answer? And do we even really know what we're asking? Terry Eagleton takes a stimulating and quirky look at this most compelling of questions: at the answers explored in philosophy and literature; at the crisis of meaning in modern times; and suggests his own solution to how we might rediscover meaning in our lives.

Author : Simon Blackburn
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191585874
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Being Good written by Simon Blackburn and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002-03-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity, or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or be paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. Simon Blackburn, author of the best-selling Think, structures this short introduction around these and other threats to ethics. Confronting seven different objections to our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures, he charts a course through the philosophical quicksands that often engulf us. Then, turning to problems of life and death, he shows how we should think about the meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the sound-bite sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. Finally he offers a critical tour of the ways the philosophical tradition has tried to provide foundations for ethics, from Plato and Aristotle through to contemporary debates.

Author : E. P. Sanders
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192854518
Total Pages : 177 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Paul: A Very Short Introduction written by E. P. Sanders and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-02-22 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this original introduction to Paul's life and thought Sanders pays equal attention to Paul's fundamental convictions and the sometimes convoluted ways in which they were worked out.

Author : Michael Ruse
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190933232
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Meaning to Life written by Michael Ruse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does human life have any meaning? Does the question even make sense today? For centuries, the question of the meaning or purpose of human life was assumed by scholars and theologians to have a religious answer: life has meaning because humans were made in the image of a good god. In the 19th century, however, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution changed everything-and the human organism was seen to be more machine than spirit. Ever since, with the rise of science and decline of religious belief, there has been growing interest - and growing doubt - about whether human life really does have meaning. If it does, where might we find it? The historian and philosopher of science Michael Ruse investigates this question, and wonders whether we can find a new meaning to life within Darwinian views of human nature. If God no longer exists-or if God no longer cares-rather than promoting a bleak nihilism, many Darwinians think we can convert Darwin into a form of secular humanism. Ruse explains that, in a tradition going back to the time of Darwin himself, and represented today by the evolutionist E. O. Wilson, evolution is seen as progress -- "from monad to man" - and that positive meaning is found in continuing and supporting this upwards path of life. In A Meaning to Life, Michael Ruse argues that this is a false turn, and there is no real progress in the evolutionary process. Rather, meaning in the Darwinian age can be found if we turn to a kind of Darwinian existentialism, seeing our evolved human nature as the source of all meaning, both in the intellectual and social worlds. Ruse argues that it is only by accepting our true nature - evolved over millennia - that humankind can truly find what is meaningful.

Author : Elmer Daniel Klemke
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.79/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Meaning of Life written by Elmer Daniel Klemke and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2008 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a revision of an anthology on the meaning of life intended for introduction to philosophy and human nature courses. It includes primarily the writings by philosophers but also offers some selections from literary figures and religious thinkers.

Author : Oxford University Press
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199808945
Total Pages : 24 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Meaning of Life: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide written by Oxford University Press and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ebook is a selective guide designed to help scholars and students of social work find reliable sources of information by directing them to the best available scholarly materials in whatever form or format they appear from books, chapters, and journal articles to online archives, electronic data sets, and blogs. Written by a leading international authority on the subject, the ebook provides bibliographic information supported by direct recommendations about which sources to consult and editorial commentary to make it clear how the cited sources are interrelated related. This ebook is a static version of an article from Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy, a dynamic, continuously updated, online resource designed to provide authoritative guidance through scholarship and other materials relevant to the study Philosophy. Oxford Bibliographies Online covers most subject disciplines within the social science and humanities, for more information visit www.oxfordbibligraphies.com.

Author : Katherine Hawley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199697345
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Trust: A Very Short Introduction written by Katherine Hawley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-23 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Katherine Hawley explores the key ideas about trust in this Very Short Introduction. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, psychology, and evolutionary biology, she emphasizes the nature and importance of trusting and being trusted, from our intimate bonds with significant others to our relationship with the state.

Author : Barbara Gail Montero
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192536737
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Philosophy of Mind: A Very Short Introduction written by Barbara Gail Montero and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-06 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy of Mind: A Very Short Introduction probes some of the great philosophical questions about the mind: What is the relationship between mind and matter? Can science unravel the mystery of consciousness? How can our thoughts represent things in the world? Are computers genuinely intelligent? In the book, Barbara Gail Montero highlights key thought experiments used by philosophers to explore the nature of mind and how mind and body relate to each other (the mind-body problem). She leads readers through the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed solutions to the mind-body problem and explores the philosophical conundrums associated with sensation, perception, cognition, and emotion. While keeping an eye on the contemporary philosophical debate, Montero also considers the cross-cultural roots of philosophy of mind, and its connections to psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and physics. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.