Part novella, part philosophy, Clara was Schelling's most popular work during his lifetime, and appears here in English for the first time.

John Beloff is one of our foremost authorities in parapsychology. He is credited with an instrumental role in the acceptance of parapsychology into academia. On April 21 and 22, 2000, a two-day international conference was held by the Koestler Parapsychology Unit of the Psychology Department at the University of Edinburgh to celebrate Beloff's eightieth birthday. Most of the essays in this work were presented at this conference honoring John Beloff. All of the contributors have published a number of articles in (...) mainstream philosophy and their essays promote Beloff's greatest interest--a philosophical interaction with parapsychology. The book is divided into three sections and each section has three papers. The papers in the first section, "Parapsychology, Philosophy and the Mind," explore "the mind-brain problem," parapsychology and the principle of closure, and a cross-cultural perspective on dualism and the self. The second section, "Parapsychology, Self and Survival," looks at parapsychological phenomena and the sense of self, chrysalid therapy, and the problem of super psi. The third section, "Parapsychology, Religion and Spirituality," features papers that discuss parapsychology and how it relates to Hume's view of miracles, to religion, and to the origin of the Copernican hypothesis. (shrink)

The Monist Interactive Issue discussion on Gender and Postmodern Communication ran from 22nd June — 15th July 1996. The participants debated about the form of this programme during August 1996. An accurate rendition of the discussion is difficult, however, because any formalized presentation will fail to capture the interweaving free-flow of comments and ideas that takes place on the Internet. Moreover, by giving the debate an artificially imposed structure, some issues will necessarily be omitted from the “official” discussion and other (...) points will, by contrast, be given more emphasis than was originally the case. As a result, some of the flavour of the live discussion will be lost. Thus, to the extent that the final, published account does not wholly reflect what took place, any formalized presentation will have an element of fiction to it. Hence the decision to offer the discussion in the form of a play. (shrink)

Do some people have a paranormal power to ‘see’ into the future? There are innumerable anecdotes of events foretold, of course. But is there any scientific evidence of the ability? Fiona Steinkamp, a leading investigator of the paranormal, believes there is.

In this paper I aim to show how Schelling’s use of the law of contradiction and his employment of the concept of the unitary principle to overcome the problem of contradiction entails certain difficulties from the very start. Due to the complexity of The Ages of the World, I will concentrate on just the beginning of this work. This should be sufficient to bring out the problems involved. In the course of my exposition and critique I will put forward an (...) amendment to Schelling’s concept of the unity which, I believe, will render his thought in this text more coherent. As can be ascertained by the title of this paper, my main concern will be with the concept of primal nature in The Ages of the World. I will first of all explain why Schelling entitles this work as The Ages of the World and introduce the term “primal nature.” I do not intend to criticize the reasons for which Schelling decides that any investigation must be grounded in primal nature. For the sake of argument I will merely expound these reasons and then take them as given. (shrink)

It is often claimed that Schelling has no one theory and that his work consists of many different systems. Indeed, this is one reason why many think that Schelling's thought has failed to gain much influence in the English-speaking world. It is possible, however, that Schelling's writings would receive more attention if various works were considered as dealing primarily with specific themes. For example, it may be helpful to consider The Ages of the World as primarily about time, Of Human (...) Freedom as essentially about freedom in connection with the problem of evil, and the Philosophy of Art as centring on the nature of art. My interest here lies with Schelling's concept of the will-an area that may have consequences not only for the History of Philosophy, but also for the Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Action and for Moral Philosophy. I will focus on The System of Transcendental Idealism since Schelling discusses will in more depth in this work than in any other of his writings. Moreover, to my knowledge, his account of the will has received relatively little specific attention. My aim is simply to construct in some detail the theory of the will that Schelling holds in The System of Transcendental Idealism; it is not my aim to analyze the theory historically or to delineate ways in which Schelling's theory may have consequences for other accounts of the will, for this would require more space than I have here. Indeed, due to the complexity of Schelling's thought, conflicting interpretations of his work and the fact that The System of Transcendental Idealism is not directly presented as a theory of the will, the goal of this paper to present Schelling's theory of the will is certainly of sufficient importance and of sufficient difficulty to be of interest in its own right. Moreover, once Schelling's thought in the System has been explained in terms of a theory of the will, the paper may serve as a foundation for further, more integrative enterprises. (shrink)