What is the connection between experience and knowledge? Evan Fales defends the contested idea that sense experience can be used to justify basic beliefs. He explores what it is for a belief to be self-evident and examines implications for his argument of Gestalt psychology and visual phenomena and illusions. Fales diverges from classical foundationalism, however, arguing that basic beliefs are often only probable, rather than infallible. A Defense of the Given is an important work not only for epistemologists but for all philosophers interested in how we can justify our beliefs.

David Sobel defends subjectivism about well-being and reasons for action: the idea that normativity flows from what an agent cares about, that something is valuable because it is valued. In these essays Sobel explores the tensions between subjective views of reasons and morality, and concludes that they do not undermine subjectivism.

Shows you how to make tough-minded survival decisions. It's a book you can't afford to live without.

A new form of philosophizing known as ordinary language philosophy took root in England after the Second World War, promising a fresh start and a way out of long-standing dead-end philosophical debates. Pioneered by Wittgenstein, Austin, and others, OLP is now widely rumored, within mainstream analytic philosophy, to have been seriously discredited, and consequently its perspective is ignored. Avner Baz begs to differ. In When Words Are Called For, he shows how the prevailing arguments against OLP collapse under close scrutiny. All of them, he claims, presuppose one version or another of the very conception of word-meaning that OLP calls into question and takes to be responsible for many traditional philosophical difficulties. Worse, analytic philosophy itself has suffered as a result of its failure to take OLP’s perspective seriously. Baz blames a neglect of OLP’s insights for seemingly irresolvable disputes over the methodological relevance of “intuitions” in philosophy and for misunderstandings between contextualists and anti-contextualists (or “invariantists”) in epistemology. Baz goes on to explore the deep affinities between Kant’s work and OLP and suggests ways that OLP could be applied to other philosophically troublesome concepts. When Words Are Called For defends OLP not as a doctrine but as a form of practice that might provide a viable alternative to work currently carried out within mainstream analytic philosophy. Accordingly, Baz does not merely argue for OLP but, all the more convincingly, practices it in this eye-opening book.

"If you're a fan of John Grisham, Scott Turow, and Brad Meltzer, then you will be a fan of Steve Cavanagh's The Defense." —Nelson DeMille, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Radiant Angel Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turns out the two aren't that different. Former con artist turned lawyer Eddie Flynn gave up the law a year ago after a disastrous case, and he vowed never to step foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice. The head of the Russian mob in New York City, on trial for murder, has kidnapped Eddie's ten-year-old daughter: Eddie has to take this case whether he likes it or not. Using his razor-sharp wit and every con, bluff, grift, and trick in the book, Eddie has only forty-eight hours to defend an impossible murder trial. And if he loses this case, he loses everything.

The key to success for any basketball team is defense, and the heart of most successful defensive systems is half-court man-to-man defense. "Winning Defense" is the ultimate book on this crucial aspect of the game. Much more than a basic primer, this advanced guide explores the intricacies of transition and half-court defense that give winning teams their edge. It's all here: trapping, switching, cutters, screeners, post defense, and defending two- and three-man exercises. Out-of-bound and end-of-game situations. Drills to enhance individual and team technique. A section on rebounding, the finishing touch to any successful defensive effort, and a unique approach to transition defense. Since it's publication in 1993, "Winning Defense" has become the bible of half-court man-to-man defense for serious and successful coaches and players everywhere! Del Harris is one of basketball's most respected, honored, and experienced teachers. He began his career as an elementary coach in Johnson City, Tennessee, and progressed through the high school, college, international, and professional ranks--enjoying great success at each stop. Harris took the NBA's Houston Rockets, who had finished the regular season with a winning percentage below .500 to the finals of the NBA playoffs in 1981 in one of the great Cinderella stories in league history. He also led the Milwaukee Bucks to the playoffs in each of his four seasons as head coach. As the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, he nearly duplicated his 1981 miracle season in 1995, leading a team expected to go nowhere to the playoffs, where they lost in a thrilling six-game Western Conference semifinal series to San Antonio. As a result, he was named1994-95 NBA Coach of the Year. A noted speaker and clinician, Harris has written two previous basketball books and a sports novel for young readers. His is a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

This book develops new techniques in formal epistemology and applies them to the challenge of Cartesian skepticism. It introduces two formats of epistemic evaluation that should be of interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science: the dual-component format, which evaluates a statement on the basis of its safety and informativeness, and the relative-divergence format, which evaluates a probabilistic model on the basis of its complexity and goodness of fit with data. Tomoji Shogenji shows that the former lends support to Cartesian skepticism, but the latter allows us to defeat Cartesian skepticism. Along the way, Shogenji addresses a number of related issues in epistemology and philosophy of science, including epistemic circularity, epistemic closure, and inductive skepticism.