Epistemology Books - Page 4

Foucault For Beginners

Lydia Alix Fillingham

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The portal into a maze - but a good one 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful.

FOUCAULT FOR BEGINNERS

Foucault's range is amazing. Very few disciplines escaped his epistemological examination. His examination includes literary criticism, criminology, and gender studies. Arguing that definitions of abnormal behaviour are socially constructed, Foucault explored the power relations between those who meet and those who deviate from social norms. Foucault's examination of the birth the prisons includes a very graphic description of early punishment and the orgy of suffering does not escape Moshe Süsser's and is cleverly written by Lydia Alix Fillingham. This book gives a very brief introduction to Foucault's work (or the part of it that interests us), plus a very good bibliography.

According to Foucault, people do not have a 'true' identity. In essence, the self is a product of discourse. Identity, is performative our interaction with others, but this is not static. It is a dynamic, temporary and shifting. Foucualt centers his epistemology around power, knowledge and language. People do not really have power per se. Power is a force which people engage in - as in power knowledge and language. Power is not owned; it is used. Where power is, there is also an equal and opposite reaction.

I was particularly impressed by the treatment of "The Birth of the Clinic" since this is one of the few of his works that I missed and hope to read soon, it placed for me the significance of his play on power and the gaze. I get the sense that "The Birth of the Clinic" is a spin-off from "Madness and Civilization" based on his take of the dis-empowerment of the sick (not well, not normal) as well as the mad. I understand when this comic book mentions that reading "The Order of Things" is not the best starting point to understanding Foucault and I will venture to "The Archeology of Knowledge" aremd with this introduction and the other readings I have done on Foucault. A primer, I think it is a really good start. However, in reality, Foucault and French deconstruction is NOT infinitely incomprehensible. Conversely, be warned, if you think you can read this as a substitute and come to class to discuss Foucault, you might be disappointed.I highly recommend this to start and hopefully it leads you to the fascinating maze that is Foucault.

Miguel Llora

Editorial Review:

Michel Foucault’s work has profoundly affected the teaching of such diverse disciplines as literary criticism, criminology, and gender studies. Arguing that definitions of abnormal behavior are culturally constructed, Foucault explored the unfair divisions between those who meet and those who deviate from social norms. In Foucault For Beginners, the reader will discover Foucault’s deeply visual sense of scenes such as ritual public executions.

Critique of the Power of Judgment (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant in Translation)

Immanuel Kant

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Novalis 2 out of 5 stars.
31 of 35 people found this review helpful.

The editors list as one of their principles for rendering Kant's difficult German into English: "Our translators try to avoid sacrificing literalness to readability." Their notion of literalness is simply this: if one of Kant's sentences has five subordinate clauses, the English version should have five subordinate clauses. They obtusely fail to consider that German has grammatical markers that English does not have (e.g., gender of nouns and pronouns). Hence while Kant's German sentence might have a pronoun separated from its noun by some distance, gender will indicate the appropriate reference. In English, the referent for a pronoun is usally the noun most proximate--thus their introduction of great ambiguity into the English that does not exist in the German. The translators also presume that the only way to preserve Kant's argumentative structure is by adhering to his complex surface structure. But the logical grammar of Kant's arguments is obscured in English by the sacrifice of readability to their notion of literalness. Werner Pluhar has a better translation.

Editorial Review:

This entirely new translation of Kant's Critique of the Power of Judgment follows the principles and high standards of all other volumes in The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. This volume includes for the first time the first draft of Kant's introduction to the work; the only English edition notes to the many differences between the first (1790) and second (1793) editions of the work; and relevant passages in Kant's anthropology lectures where he elaborated on his aesthetic views.

IB Theory of Knowledge Course Companion: International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB Diploma Programme)

Eileen Dombrowski, Lena Rotenberg, Mimi Bick

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Developed in collaboration with the International Baccalaureate Organization, Oxford's Course Companions provide extra support for students taking IB Diploma Programme courses. They present a whole-course approach with a wide range of resources, and encourage a deep understanding of each subject by making connections to wider issues and providing opportunites for critical thinking.
This companion stimulates students to think about learning and knowledge from their own and from others' perspectives in a way that crosses disciplines and cultures. It encourages reflection, discussion, critical thinking, and awareness or the ways in which knowledge is constructed, and will students to recognize the implications of knowledge for issues of global concern. Places students at the center of the course, with lively material providing opportunities for questioning, discussion, and interaction Invites students to add their own voices to those in the book, which include students, teachers, and professionals in various areas of knowledge Encourages students to frame their own perspectives with international awareness and recognition of the impact of knowledge on the world Contains guidance for current assessment, with support for the Theory of Knowledge essay and class presentation Written by experienced teachers, authors, and examiners, including recent deputy and chief examiners of Theory of Knowledge

On Certainty

Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

My favorite Wittgenstein 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

"On Certainty" represents a much more honed work than the more common "Philosophical Investigations," though the depth of its insights are no less than than that work. OC is, by far, my favorite Wittgenstein book because it focuses so much on epistemological issues. Some examples include showing the error realists _and_ idealists are making (showing the fly the way out of the bottle), why there isn't necessarily a clear division between mathematical certainty and other kinds, and the failures of unchecked skepticism. He does this in a manner similar to the one used in "Philosophical Investigations": by an analysis of how we _normally_ know and doubt things.

The remarkable depth of this technique in highbrow philosophy is a breath of fresh air. Though I am currently investigating phenomenology, I always return to Wittgenstein (quite literally, by rereading passages of this or PI) to get my bearings when I suspect my ideas are getting a little too big for their britches. Wittgenstein sometimes thought philosophy should be therapeutic, and I must say that when I find myself in a muddle, his works or at least his methodology helps me find my way about.

As with his other works, though he spends some time knocking down familiar walls he does not leave you standing in the rubble but instead paves the way for new construction. I have read (not here) many references to Wittgenstein as some kind of postmodern deconstructionist, though even a little time spent trying to understand his points should be sufficient to demonstrate that he would not be satisfied until a problem was _resolved_, not just exposed. It is not enough, for example, to call the realism/idealism debate nonsense (for after all, he comments, to those involved in it the debate is not nonsense, so such a thing, while possibly satisfying, is not sufficient) and show the problem for what it is but instead to show them the way out of the problem they've walked in to.

Throughout the work, Moore's work on common sense is used as a platform from which to tackle a great many epistemological issues, so while it does stand in direct contrast to that work, it is not exactly a piece that has nothing else going for it but a criticism.

If you want some ready-made ideas to wrap your mind around, I get the impression from this book that Wittgenstein was heading towards a coherence theory of truth with a side of epistemological relativism, but please be aware that Wittgenstein did not intend to be a theory-builder as he largely felt the problems of philosophy were caused from conceptual mistakes regarding everyday phenomena and did not feel that the proper response to such problems would be "shoring up" a theory in response. This line of thought also lends itself to naturalisms. If that helps you understand what you'll be facing in "On Certainty," then it is worth it for an introduction.

If nothing else, "On Certainty" serves as an excellent response to general skepticism as much as it stands as a response to unabashed assertion. A short, terse, and wonderful read. If you enjoy philosophy, I have no doubt that you will enjoy this book. Please do not rest contented with companion works or other philosopher's assertions regarding the man (Kripke, Searle, etc); his works, while challenging, are not unapproachable in themselves-read them for yourself before you see them through someone else's eyes.

If you are more interested in problems of will, I would suggest Anscombe's "Intention." She uses a style unashamedly like that of Wittgenstein (she came up under Wittgenstein and was greatly influenced by him) in both methodology and writing in that work. Amazon, at the time of this post, carries it:
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Thought as a System

David Bohm

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Editorial Review:

In Thought as a System, best-selling author David Bohm takes as his subject the role of thought and knowledge at every level of human affairs, from our private reflections on personal identity to our collective efforts to fashion a tolerable civilization.

Elaborating upon principles of the relationship between mind and matter first put forward in Wholeness and the Implicate Order, Professor Bohm rejects the notion that our thinking processes neutrally report on what is `out there' in an objective world. Bohm carefully explores the manner in which thought actively participates in forming our perceptions, our sense of meaning and our daily actions. He suggests that collective thought and knowledge have become so automated that we are in large part controlled by them, with a subsequent loss of authenticity, freedom and order.

In conversations with fifty seminar participants in Ojai, California, David Bohm offers a radical perspective on an underlying source of human conflict and inquires into the possibility of individual and collective transformation.

Hamlet's Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge And Its Transmission Through Myth

Giorgio De Santillana, Hertha Von Dechend

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Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

As above, so below. 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Please note this is NOT an easy book by any means and should not be attempted by those looking for the casual read. Although very well researched, the organization of the book is somewhat chaotic making it more difficult to understand and follow. The main idea outlined by the authors of the book is that myths, on a primeval level, represented a "technical language" designed to record and transmit astronomical observations - most importantly those connected with the precession of the equinoxes. The mythology of many ancient cultures including Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, MesoAmerican, Chinese, and a wealth of others all included this knowledge. The authors show by dissecting some mythological stories of these cultures the imbedded astronomical data contained within and their precessional implications. Although some of these myths are easier understood than others, there are some cases made by the authors that are arguable at best.
To take it to the next level, check out Fingerprints of the Gods and its sequel Heavens Mirror by Graham Hancock; The Orion Mystery by Adrian Gilbert and Robert Bauval; The Message of the Sphinx by Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock; The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple.

Editorial Review:

Ever since the Greeks coined the language we commonly use for scientific description, mythology and science have developed separately. But what came before the Greeks? What if we could prove that all myths have one common origin in a celestial cosmology? What if the gods, the places they lived, and what they did are but ciphers for celestial activity, a language for the perpetuation of complex astronomical data? Drawing on scientific data, historical and literary sources, the authors argue that our myths are the remains of a preliterate astronomy, an exacting science whose power and accuracy were suppressed and then forgotten by an emergent Greco-Roman world view. This fascinating book throws into doubt the self-congratulatory assumptions of Western science about the unfolding development and transmission of knowledge. This is a truly seminal and original thesis, a book that should be read by anyone interested in science, myth, and the interactions between the two.

Against Method

Paul Feyerabend

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Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Troubliing to say the least! 3 out of 5 stars.
48 of 67 people found this review helpful.

Paul Feyerabend, in writing this book during the anti-authoritarian, hippie infested, mid 60's was, like Kuhn, just asking for heavy misinterpretation. This should make us want to read the book all the more. Feyerabend, as you will discover, is NOT anti-science, Feyerabend is NOT anti-reason and for god's sake, FEYERABEND IS NOT A SUBJECTIVIST! What he is advocating is scientific anarchism, meaning: science does not proceed by any set of rules, criterion or methods. So, as may suprise you, Feyerabend is not even that contraversial.

Feyerabend supports himself like this. Science operates from theories which inextricably use observation, preconcieved theories (like "the earth is moving right now"), language and subject-dependent vantage point. Since none of these are completely, or ever could be, accurate, no theory can ever be proved, and so many theories would be refuted because of changing paradigms, preconceptiois and world-views affecting all of the above, science would never make any progress. Thus, if there are any rules, they are pragmatic hence science is purely instrumental meaning it can only be judged in retrospect and rules only exist situationally. All may be broken.

So how is Feyerabend not contraversial? Between Popper (all theories are inextricable from preconceptions that sometimes are shown erroneous), Dewey (science is pragmatic and instrumental) and Kuhn (paradigm shifts mark heavy changes in science and because of their scope, make scientific change excruciating and unreliable), all of these Feyerabendian critiques have been made before. The other detriment is that while he makes strategic points against method, it would've helped his credibility if he guided us to a new starting point. If we can only judge science in retrospect, but still can't even be sure that are preconceptions won't get in the way, than how could we even do THAT. An attempt at an answer (even in guess form) would have been nice.

To his credit, the book is written well (certainly not difficult to read), is thought provoking (this coming from a Popperian) and does make some good adjustments to what came before. Popper's insistence that theories, when replacing others, need to be at least as explanative as the old ones. Feyerabend smartly answers with a quick retort - 'Why? Why couldn't a new theory solve most of the problems so well, that we use it assuming the rest will be figured out in due course?' There is also a brilliant post-script where Feyerabend advocates 'seperation of science and state' and makes a beautiful case for science education that teaches many 'hows' instead of many 'whats'. Also his "postscript on relativism" and three prefaces (original, third edition and chinese edition) give a much deserved slap in the face to those that still look at Feyerabend as a relativist and non-believer in science. They need to read this book like they should've the first time. You should read it too.

Causality: Models, Reasoning, and Inference

Judea Pearl

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Written by one of the pre-eminent researchers in the field, this book provides a comprehensive exposition of modern analysis of causation. It shows how causality has grown from a nebulous concept into a mathematical theory with significant applications in the fields of statistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, cognitive science, and the health and social sciences. Pearl presents a unified account of the probabilistic, manipulative, counterfactual and structural approaches to causation, and devises simple mathematical tools for analyzing the relationships between causal connections, statistical associations, actions and observations. The book will open the way for including causal analysis in the standard curriculum of statistics, artifical intelligence, business, epidemiology, social science and economics. Students in these areas will find natural models, simple identification procedures, and precise mathematical definitions of causal concepts that traditional texts have tended to evade or make unduly complicated. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in a wide variety of fields. Anyone who wishes to elucidate meaningful relationships from data, predict effects of actions and policies, assess explanations of reported events, or form theories of causal understanding and causal speech will find this book stimulating and invaluable. Professor of Computer Science at the UCLA, Judea Pearl is the winner of the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Award in Computers and Cognitive Science.

Truth: A Guide

Simon Blackburn

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Editorial Review:

The author of the highly popular book Think, which Time magazine hailed as "the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy," Simon Blackburn is that rara avis--an eminent thinker who is able to explain philosophy to the general reader. Now Blackburn offers a tour de force exploration of what he calls "the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy"--the age-old war over truth.
The front lines of this war are well defined. On one side are those who believe in plain, unvarnished facts, rock-solid truths that can be found through reason and objectivity--that science leads to truth, for instance. Their opponents mock this idea. They see the dark forces of language, culture, power, gender, class, ideology and desire--all subverting our perceptions of the world, and clouding our judgement with false notions of absolute truth. Beginning with an early skirmish in the war--when Socrates confronted the sophists in ancient Athens--Blackburn offers a penetrating look at the longstanding battle these two groups have waged, examining the philosophical battles fought by Plato, Protagoras, William James, David Hume, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and many others, with a particularly fascinating look at Nietzsche. Among the questions Blackburn considers are: is science mere opinion, can historians understand another historical period, and indeed can one culture ever truly understand another.
Blackburn concludes that both sides have merit, and that neither has exclusive ownership of truth. What is important is that, whichever side we embrace, we should know where we stand and what is to be said for our opponents.

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson

Jennifer Michael Hecht

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Editorial Review:

In this grand sweeping history, Jennifer Michael Hecht celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and intellectual dangers of certainty. Just as belief has its own history featuring people whose unique expressions of faith have forever changed the world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints, martyrs, and sages.

Hecht blends her wide-ranging historical expertise, passionate admiration of the great doubters, and poet's sensibility to tell a stimulating story that is part intellectual history and part showcase of ordinary people asking themselves the difficult questions that confront us all. She celebrates the heroes of doubt -- people such as Confucius, Socrates, Jesus, Wang Ch'ung, Hypatia, Maimonides, Galileo, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Emily Dickinson, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Margaret Sanger -- who drove history forward by challenging the powers and conventional wisdom of their time and heritage.

Hecht views the history of doubt as not only a tradition of challenging accepted religious beliefs, including the existence of God, but also as a progression of attempts to make sense of life, the natural world, and the self, each on their own terms. She shows that the great doubters ponder the same ultimate issues as the great believers: "We live in a meaning-rupture because we are human and the universe is not." Both doubters and believers have to confront this rupture. Doubt: A History reveals for the first time how the doubters bravely and inventively came up with their own answers to life's big questions.