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This book critically overcomes the traditional dichotomy introduced by the empiricist tradition between knowledge and values. To do so, it refers to the composite tradition of European critical rationalism inaugurated by Kant and matured with the lesson of Husserl’s phenomenology. The book illustrates a normativist and transcendentalist conception of knowledge, showing its value as well as its limits. The book will be of use to scholars, teachers and people interested in developing a new image of scientific knowledge without forgetting the role and importance of axiology for the life of…
This book overcomes the traditional dichotomy between knowledge and values. Drawing on European critical rationalism from Kant to Husserl, it illustrates a new conception of knowledge, showing its value and limits for scholars and anyone interested in a new image of science.
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Nietzsche and Transhumanism
Precursor or Enemy?
This essay collection deals with the question of whether Nietzsche can be seen as a precursor of transhumanism or not. Debates on the topic have existed for some years, particularly in the Journal of Evolution and Technology and The Agonist. This book combines existing papers, from these journals, with new material, to highlight some of the important issues surrounding this argument. The collection addresses a variety of issues to show whether or not there is a close connection between transhumanist concerns for progress and technology and Nietzsche’s ideas.
This collection deals with the question of whether or not Nietzsche can be seen as a precursor of transhumanism or not, addressing a variety of issues to show if there is a close connection between transhumanist concerns for progress and technology and Nietzsche’s ideas.
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Aristotelian Metaphysics as a Unifying Paradigm for 21st Century Science
Common Sense-ible Science
Are there foundational principles that apply to all human knowledge and are accessible to all? Are entities and causes that lie outside the material realm mere myth? How can we remedy the fragmentation of knowledge and the ensuing schism between a perceived scientific elite and non-scientists? Do we have a framework to remedy this situation? This book updates the foundational principles of science laid down by Aristotle in his metaphysics to provide a rational framework and a “common language” for those inside and outside of the modern scientific…
This book updates Aristotle’s foundational principles to remedy the fragmentation of knowledge. It provides a rational framework and common language for all, seeking answers to the question “why?,” not just “how?”, creating a unified approach to knowledge.
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The Disembodied Mind
An Exploration of Consciousness in the Physical Universe
Since classical times we have seen considerable progress in our understanding of the physical world through the disciplines of science. However, when it comes to the mind and its most palpable property, consciousness, we have difficulty attempting any kind of meaningful discussion. Can material things be conscious, or is the mind entirely separate from physics? If we insist on the latter, how does the mind relate to the physical world? Relying more on evidence rooted in the empirical sciences than on standard philosophical arguments, this book disseminates a persuasive and…
Is the mind entirely separate from physics? Relying on empirical science, this book presents a model of an objective mind completely unconnected with anything physical. The mind has no effect on the physical world, but, by free volition, navigates the world we experience.
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The Truly Infinite Universe
Hegel, Hawking, and the Quantum Cosmo-logic of the Absolute
The discoveries of general relativity and quantum mechanics in the 20th century provide the perfect opportunity for Hegel’s thought to become more topical than it has ever been. By bringing speculative philosophy into conversation with quantum cosmology, this book develops Hegel’s metaphysics of true infinitude and Hawking’s theory on the origins of spacetime in tandem, providing a compelling rationale for the idea that the universe is a self-generating, self-organizing, self-enclosed whole. Ever sensitive to the complex relationship of scientific, philosophical, and theological issues in theoretical cosmology, the study brings…
By bringing speculative philosophy into conversation with quantum cosmology, this book develops Hegel’s metaphysics and Hawking’s theory on the origins of spacetime, revealing the universe as a self-generating, self-organizing, self-enclosed whole.
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From £30.99
Today’s philosophy of knowledge usually takes into consideration only two leading components: the material world in which we live, and the ideal world of the human brain. They contradict and, at the same time, complement each other, while their cooperation creates new knowledge and its practical implications. This book propounds quite a different conception of producing new ideas, and introduces onto the scene the semiotic reality: signs and sign systems (progenies of human mind). According to this view, the material world is transformed in our mind, where it receives its…
This book propounds a different conception of producing ideas, introducing semiotic reality—signs and sign systems. It shows how the interplay of three realities (the material world, signs, and the human mind) gives rise to new notions like metathinking.
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Quine on Ethics
The Gavagai of Moral Discourse
This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Quine’s brief yet memorable foray into ethics. It defends Quine against his most formidable critics, corrects misconceptions in the reception of his outlook on ethics as a philosophical enterprise and morality as a social institution, and restores emphasis on observationality as the impetus behind his momentous intervention in metaethics. The central focus is on Quine’s infamous challenge to ethical theory: his thesis of the methodological infirmity of ethics as compared with science. The book ultimately demonstrates that the challenge is not only…
This first comprehensive treatment of Quine’s foray into ethics defends his infamous challenge to ethical theory: the methodological infirmity of ethics compared with science. The book demonstrates that the challenge is not only valid but valuable for reforming ethical reasoning.
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Cyberspace Odyssey
Towards a Virtual Ontology and Anthropology
The emergence of the hominids, more than five million years ago, marked the start of the human odyssey through space and time. This book deals with the last stage of this fascinating journey: the exploration of cyberspace and cybertime. Through the rapid global implementation of information and communication technologies, a new realm for human experience and imagination has been disclosed. Reversely, these postgeographical and posthistorical technologies have started to colonize our bodies and minds. Taking Homer’s Odyssey and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as his starting point, the author investigates…
This book deals with the last stage of the human odyssey: the exploration of cyberspace. As new technologies colonize our bodies and minds, the author investigates the implications for our culture and form of life. Winner of the Socrates Prize.
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Quining and Unquining Qualia
An Examination of Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Debate
Quining and Unquining Qualia critically examines Daniel Dennett’s claim that qualia—our subjective sensations—are illusions that should be dismissed from consciousness studies. The book introduces the ‘epistemic distance hypothesis,’ proposing that qualia are essential aspects of consciousness but lie beyond the reach of current scientific methods. It further argues that qualia distinguish human experience from artificial intelligence, challenging their elimination. Aimed at philosophers of mind, cognitive scientists, psychologists, and AI researchers, this book is also a valuable resource for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate philosophy students. It offers fresh insights into the…
This book challenges the claim that qualia—our subjective sensations—are illusions. It proposes that qualia are essential aspects of consciousness that lie beyond science’s reach, and are what distinguish human experience from artificial intelligence.
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Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World
Gifford Lectures of 1927, An Annotated Edition
Arthur S. Eddington, FRS, (1882–1944) was one of the most prominent British scientists of his time. He made major contributions to astrophysics and to the broader understanding of the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is famed for his astronomical observations of 1919, confirming Einstein’s prediction of the curving of the paths of starlight, and he was the first major interpreter of Einstein’s physics to the English-speaking world. His 1928 book, The Nature of the Physical World, here re-issued in a critical, annotated edition, was largely…
Arthur S. Eddington was a prominent scientist famed for confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity and interpreting modern physics for the public. His classic book, The Nature of the Physical World, had a significant influence on the understanding of 20th-century physics.
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£61.99
As the culmination of a long career in philosophy plus long excursions in physics, history, and theology, the author reflects on what must be done to make philosophy relevant to non-philosophers. Philosophers, the author argues, should go beyond specialized philosophical studies, acquire a knowledge of other disciplines, and then try to clarify the way things hang together on a deep conceptual level. A novel feature of this book is that it emphasis on public morality, understanding it in an evolutionary perspective, and guides efforts to raise accepted moral standards.
To make philosophy relevant, the author argues philosophers must go beyond their specializations to clarify how things hang together. This book has a novel emphasis on public morality, understanding it from an evolutionary perspective to raise moral standards.
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Willing the Good
Empirical Challenges to the Explanation of Human Behavior
Science increasingly deals with human behavior: biology, neuroscience, genetics, psychology, evolutionary theory, and ethology all bring new insights into our actions and uncover new facts about our agency. However, what is the philosophical significance of their findings? The answer to this question varies according to one’s background philosophical views. On the one hand, the dominant empiricist view contends that the sciences can in principle tell us everything there is to know about human agency. On the other hand, there are other non-empiricist views – such as Kantian or Aristotelian perspectives…
Science brings new insights into human agency, but can it be reduced to mere scientific facts? This collection of essays explores non-empiricist views, reconciling the scientific and manifest images of the world to reach a stereoscopic vision of reality.
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£39.99
The contributors to The Harmony of the Sphere include professional historians of science, philosophers of science, and scientists, who offer different perspectives from which Kant’s and Herschel’s systems can be approached. The title, The Harmony of the Sphere, is an evocative one. In it, the reader will hear an echo of Kepler’s cosmological system. In fact, however, this title refers to the new model of the world defended by Kant and Herschel. This model dismissed the idea of a finite static cosmos, and introduced an evolutionary perspective. This volume represents…
This is the first comparative study of Kant and Herschel. Their model of the world dismissed the idea of a finite, static cosmos and introduced an evolutionary perspective that had a crucial influence on nineteenth- and twentieth-century astronomy.
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£34.99
The central thought of this book is that definite predictions of classical physics can be explained by mathematics of special relativity. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics is determined by peculiar mathematics which can only describe the quantum phenomena – this mathematics gives statistical explanations to these phenomena and no other explanations could in principle be given to them; as well, the phenomena of classical physics which are to be described definitely (but not in principle probabilistically) can be described this way only because, in its turn, it is determined…
While quantum mechanics is probabilistic, classical physics makes definite predictions. This book argues these predictions can be explained by the mathematics of special relativity, and explores the profound philosophical consequences. No advanced math or physics is required.
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£44.99
Our world became engineered, remaining, nevertheless, human. Through the philosophy of engineering, both Engineering and Philosophy are profoundly involved in the transcendental curve of the debates on the future of humankind in the Era of the Artifacts, brought by the emergent technologies of robotics, genetic engineering and nanotechnology. In the Era-Just-Before-Singularity, while engineering is improved by philosophy (as Peter Simons has demonstrated), the “respected system of perplexities we call philosophy” (Jorge Luis Borges) are encouraged by engineering. This book is an anthology of papers presented during PHEADE 2009 (Philosophy of…
Our world became engineered, yet remains human. Through the philosophy of engineering, this book explores debates on the future of humankind in an era of robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, in an attempt to redefine our engineered future.
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