Making use of our prescientific understanding of things, as well as relevant scientific theories, this book presents original arguments for monism with respect to the concept of a natural kind, for essentialism with respect to the members of a natural kind, and for natural-kinds realism with respect to a few chemical, physical, and biological kinds.

Wherever we look, we notice complexity. Philosophically, the concept constitutes a tangled web of problems, in theory as well as daily life. Complexity and Analysis is a meticulous rendering of these problems, tackling the seldom considered nature of complexity that confronts ontological analysts and holists alike. Stewart Umphrey expertly describes the limits of analysis as they have come to light within mathematics, the natural sciences, and analytic philosophy, explaining how Aristotle came upon, and sought to move beyond, the (...) limits of ontological analysis. In trying to understand any complex entity, Umphrey argues, one succeeds in meeting the criterion of metaphysical adequacy only if one fails to meet the crietrion of epistemological adequacy. Ranging across an array of subjects including Kantian and Hegelian idealism, this book provides a superb account of how our own complexity presents not only theoretical problems, but ethical and political dilemmas of great practical significance. (shrink)

Goldberg regards the Protagoras as "an artistic whole" intended to invite and direct an inquiry associated with, but deeper than, that dramatized in the dialogue itself. Accordingly he investigates not only the theme of virtue's teachability but also, for example, the difference between the sophist Protagoras and the philosopher Socrates, and the relation of each to Athens in particular, and to political society in general. Goldberg does not try to reconstruct the position of the historical Protagoras. Nor does he try (...) to elicit from the Protagoras Plato's moral theory at the time. Nor is his principal intention to present another in the series of essays on Prt 329-33 or 349-60. Debates with other commentators are confined to end-notes. There is a select bibliography, but no index. (shrink)

In her study of the Republic Annas has progressed, she says, from initial shock and disgust to fascination with the parts, then to an understanding of the whole. The understanding she presents is on the whole traditional: Bk. I of the Republic is a Socratic introduction to a Platonic teaching; Bks. II-IV and VIII-IX contain the main argument, a moral argument about justice; Bk. X is a lame and messy appendix. This Introduction is uncommonly good in three respects. First, though (...) she tells us that the Republic is not a self-contained whole, Annas shows us that one can gain much by treating the dialogue apart from earlier and later members of the Platonic Corpus, and by refusing to treat the dialogue's parts apart from the dialogue as a whole. Secondly, though it belies a residual waspishness, her writing is a model of lucidity. Thirdly, though she argues that Plato was mistaken or confused about many things, her work is primarily an introduction to the Republic for English-speaking readers today, only secondarily an exposition of her own thoughts about justice, and only incidentally a synopsis of recent literature about the dialogue. (shrink)

Wright's book has four parts: an introduction, in which she presents and discusses evidence regarding Empedocles' life, attempts to reconstruct the teachings offered in his Physics and Katharmoi, introduces rules for allocating fragments to one or the other of these two poems, discusses their traditional titles, and provides concordances; a presentation of the extant fragments, together with their immediate contexts and a full critical apparatus; a translation of each fragment together with a commentary; indices of sources, of words occurring in (...) the fragments, of ancient texts cited in the introduction and commentary, and of "names and things.". (shrink)

While others were investigating the philosophical origins of modern political thought in the writings of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Locke, Richard Kennington focused more on the philosophical origins of modern natural science in the works of Bacon and Descartes. This book collects the widely scattered fruits of his investigations. There are fourteen essays in all—four on Bacon and seven on Descartes, followed by one each on Spinoza, Leibniz, and Locke. He wrote them over a period of almost four decades. Six are (...) published here for the first time. By reading them straight through in their present order, one realizes that Kennington returned again and again to the same fundamental themes. Yet there is no sense that he repeated himself: reiterations occur in different contexts, sometimes with different audiences in mind, and in each case he seems to be thinking something through from the beginning, as if for the first time. (shrink)

Stewart Shapiro's ambition in Vagueness in Context is to develop a comprehensive account of the meaning, function, and logic of vague terms in an idealized version of a natural language like English. It is a commonplace that the extensions of vague terms vary according to their context: a person can be tall with respect to male accountants and not tall (even short) with respect to professional basketball players. The key feature of Shapiro's account is that the extensions of vague (...) terms also vary in the course of conversations and that, in some cases, a competent speaker can go either way without sinning against the meaning of the words or the non-linguistic facts. As Shapiro sees it, vagueness is a linguistic phenomenon, due to the kinds of languages that humans speak; but vagueness is also due to the world we find ourselves in, as we try to communicate features of it to each other. (shrink)

Guthrie contends that religion can best be understood as systematic anthropomorphism - the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things and events. Religion, he says, consists of seeing the world as human like. He offers a fascinating array of examples to show how this strategy pervades secular life and how it characterizes religious experience.

This book comprises all of John Bell's published and unpublished papers in the field of quantum mechanics, including two papers that appeared after the first edition was published. It also contains a preface written for the first edition, and an introduction by Alain Aspect that puts into context Bell's great contribution to the quantum philosophy debate. One of the leading expositors and interpreters of modern quantum theory, John Bell played a major role in the development of our current understanding of (...) the profound nature of quantum concepts. First edition Hb (1987): 0-521-33495-0 First edition Pb (1988): 0-521-36869-3. (shrink)

It describes and explains the patient-centered model examining and evaluating qualitative and quantitative research. It comprehensively covers the evolution and the six interactive components of the patient-centered clinical method, taking the reader through the relationships between the patient and doctor and the patient and clinician. All the editors are professors in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.

The dominant response to this problem of the criterion focuses on the alleged requirement that we need to know a belief source is reliable in order for us to acquire knowledge by that source. Let us call this requirement, “The KR principle”.

The dominant response to this problem of the criterion focuses on the alleged requirement that we need to know a belief source is reliable in order for us to acquire knowledge by that source. Let us call this requirement, “The KR principle”.

The traditional view in epistemology is that we must distinguish between being rational and being right (that is also, by the way, the traditional view about practical rationality). In his paper in this volume, Williamson proposes an alternative view according to which only beliefs that amount to knowledge are rational (and, thus, no false belief is rational). It is healthy to challenge tradition, in philosophy as much as elsewhere. But, in this instance, we think that tradition has it right. In (...) this paper we defend our version of the traditional view and argue against Williamson’s alternative. (shrink)

Timothy Williamson has fruitfully exploited formal resources to shed considerable light on the nature of knowledge. In the paper under examination, Williamson turns his attention to Gettier cases, showing how they can be motivated formally. At the same time, he disparages the kind of justification he thinks gives rise to these cases. He favors instead his own notion of justification for which Gettier cases cannot arise. We take issue both with his disparagement of the kind of justification that figures in (...) Gettier cases and the specifics of the formal motivation. (shrink)

In the early twentieth century an apparently obscure philosophical debate took place between F. H. Bradley and Bertrand Russell. The historical outcome was momentous: the demise of the movement known as British Idealism, and its eventual replacement by the various forms of analytic philosophy. Since then, a conception of this debate and its rights and wrongs has become entrenched in English-language philosophy. Stewart Candlish examines afresh the events of this formative period in twentieth-century thought and comes to some surprising (...) conclusions. (shrink)

(1998). Contextualist solutions to epistemological problems: Scepticism, Gettier, and the lottery. Australasian Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 289-306. doi: 10.1080/00048409812348411.

A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments may be a robust framework for the measurement, management and development of wellbeing. While the original PERMA framework made great headway in the past decade, its empirical and theoretical limitations were recently identified and critiqued. In response, Seligman clarified the value of PERMA as a framework for and not a theory of wellbeing and called for further research to expand the construct. To expand the framework (...) into organizational contexts, recent meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews showed that physical health, mindset, physical work environments and economic security could be seen as essential contextually relevant building blocks for work-related wellbeing and are therefore prime candidates to expand the PERMA framework for use within organizational contexts. Through expanding the original PERMA framework with these four factors, a new holistic approach to work-related wellbeing and work performance was born: the PERMA+4. As such, the purpose of this brief perspective paper is to provide a conceptual overview of PERMA+4 as holistic framework for work-related wellbeing and work performance which extends beyond the predominant componential thinking of the discipline. Specifically, we aim to do so by providing: a brief historical overview of the development of PERMA as a theory for wellbeing, a conceptual overview of PERMA+4 as a holistic framework for work-related wellbeing and work performance, empirical evidence supporting the usefulness of PERMA+4, and charting a course for the second wave of positive organizational psychological research. (shrink)

I argue that epistemologists’ use of the term ‘epistemic’ has led to serious confusion in the discussion of epistemological issues. The source of the problem is that ‘epistemic’ functions largely as an undefined technical term. I show how this confusion has infected discussions of the nature of epistemic justification, epistemic norms for evidence gathering, and knowledge norms for assertion and belief.

Alan Stewart - Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early-Modern Philosophy - Journal of the History of Philosophy 40:4 Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.4 542-543 Book Review Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early-Modern Philosophy Stephen Gaukroger. Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early-Modern Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xii + 249. Cloth, $59.95. Paper, $21.95. In Stephen Gaukroger's new study, Francis Bacon is lauded all too familiarly as the inaugurator of "the transformation of (...) philosophy into science, and philosophers into scientists" . But it's far from the old story: Gaukroger sees Bacon not as progenitor of the Scientific Revolution or revered Father of Modern Science, but as launching "the first systematic, comprehensive attempt to transform the early-modern.. (shrink)