Taking the Naturalistic Turn, Or How Real Philosophy of Science Is Done
Title | Taking the Naturalistic Turn, Or How Real Philosophy of Science Is Done PDF eBook |
Author | William Bechtel |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 584 |
Release | 1993-12 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780226091860 |
This innovative book presents candid, informal debates among scholars who examine the benefits and problems of studying science in the same way that scientists study the natural world.
Every Thing Must Go
Title | Every Thing Must Go PDF eBook |
Author | James Ladyman |
Publisher | OUP Oxford |
Pages | 368 |
Release | 2007-07-05 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0191534757 |
Every Thing Must Go argues that the only kind of metaphysics that can contribute to objective knowledge is one based specifically on contemporary science as it really is, and not on philosophers' a priori intuitions, common sense, or simplifications of science. In addition to showing how recent metaphysics has drifted away from connection with all other serious scholarly inquiry as a result of not heeding this restriction, they demonstrate how to build a metaphysics compatible with current fundamental physics ('ontic structural realism'), which, when combined with their metaphysics of the special sciences ('rainforest realism'), can be used to unify physics with the other sciences without reducing these sciences to physics itself. Taking science metaphysically seriously, Ladyman and Ross argue, means that metaphysicians must abandon the picture of the world as composed of self-subsistent individual objects, and the paradigm of causation as the collision of such objects. Every Thing Must Go also assesses the role of information theory and complex systems theory in attempts to explain the relationship between the special sciences and physics, treading a middle road between the grand synthesis of thermodynamics and information, and eliminativism about information. The consequences of the author's metaphysical theory for central issues in the philosophy of science are explored, including the implications for the realism vs. empiricism debate, the role of causation in scientific explanations, the nature of causation and laws, the status of abstract and virtual objects, and the objective reality of natural kinds.
The Image in Mind
Title | The Image in Mind PDF eBook |
Author | Charles Taliaferro |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Pages | 339 |
Release | 2013-06-06 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1441148825 |
A philosophical inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of theism and naturalism in accounting for the emergence of consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. The authors begin by offering an account of modern scientific practice which gives a central place to the visual imagination and aesthetic values. They then move to test the explanatory power of naturalism and theism in accounting for consciousness and the very visual imagination and aesthetic values that lie behind and define modern science. Taliaferro and Evans argue that evolutionary biology alone is insufficient to account for consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. Insofar as naturalism is compelled to go beyond evolutionary biology, it does not fare as well as theism in terms of explanatory power.
Where the Conflict Really Lies
Title | Where the Conflict Really Lies PDF eBook |
Author | Alvin Plantinga |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 376 |
Release | 2011-08-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0199812101 |
In this long-awaited book, pre-eminent analytical philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues that the conflict between science and theistic religion is actually superficial, and that at a deeper level they are in concord.
Articulating the World
Title | Articulating the World PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph Rouse |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 430 |
Release | 2015-11-13 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 022629370X |
Naturalism as a guiding philosophy for modern science both disavows any appeal to the supernatural or anything else transcendent to nature, and repudiates any philosophical or religious authority over the workings and conclusions of the sciences. A longstanding paradox within naturalism, however, has been the status of scientific knowledge itself, which seems, at first glance, to be something that transcends and is therefore impossible to conceptualize within scientific naturalism itself. In Articulating the World, Joseph Rouse argues that the most pressing challenge for advocates of naturalism today is precisely this: to understand how to make sense of a scientific conception of nature as itself part of nature, scientifically understood. Drawing upon recent developments in evolutionary biology and the philosophy of science, Rouse defends naturalism in response to this challenge by revising both how we understand our scientific conception of the world and how we situate ourselves within it.
The Philosopher Queens
Title | The Philosopher Queens PDF eBook |
Author | Rebecca Buxton |
Publisher | Unbound Publishing |
Pages | 203 |
Release | 2020-09-17 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 178352829X |
'This is brilliant. A book about women in philosophy by women in philosophy – love it!' Elif Shafak Where are the women philosophers? The answer is right here. The history of philosophy has not done women justice: you’ve probably heard the names Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Locke – but what about Hypatia, Arendt, Oluwole and Young? The Philosopher Queens is a long-awaited book about the lives and works of women in philosophy by women in philosophy. This collection brings to centre stage twenty prominent women whose ideas have had a profound – but for the most part uncredited – impact on the world. You’ll learn about Ban Zhao, the first woman historian in ancient Chinese history; Angela Davis, perhaps the most iconic symbol of the American Black Power Movement; Azizah Y. al-Hibri, known for examining the intersection of Islamic law and gender equality; and many more. For anyone who has wondered where the women philosophers are, or anyone curious about the history of ideas – it's time to meet the philosopher queens.
The Recalcitrant Imago Dei
Title | The Recalcitrant Imago Dei PDF eBook |
Author | J.P. Moreland |
Publisher | SCM Press |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 2013-02-12 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0334049032 |
The Veritas Series refuses to accept disciplinary isolation: both for theology and for other disciplines. The Recalcitrant Imago Dei offers a critical discussion of naturalism, the idea that all phenomena can be explained by the physical sciences.