Epistemology Books - Page 8

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (International Non-Aristotelian Library)

Alfred Korzybski

Amazon Price: $39.95 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Institute of General Semantics Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $33.51

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Applied Psychology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Unrecognized Genius 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Korzybski aimed his discussion at professionals, so disregarded definitions (multi-ordinal anyway), etc. Despite this many criticisms resulted, some from professionals, notably Martin Gardner (1993): "...poorly organized, verbose, philosophically naive, repetitious, mish-mash of sound ideas borrowed from abler scientists."
Gardner had sought attention for himself via outing cults, which is not so here. Yet his comments typically betray that, he failed to make non-elementalistic connections (point of 'repetition'), resulting from an Aristotelian 'analysis' (compartmental 'thinking') of a superior, emergent, etc., structure (methodology). Made clear via a useful table comparing the Aristotelian with Non-Aristotelian systems provided by Korzybski (1941) in "Introduction To The Second Edition." While the "ideas borrowed from abler scientists" (apart from an ad hominen argument), misses the point of unifying anomalies. Further the implied not original, is not true, since Korzybski makes connections (Neil Postman's (1992) "unsupportable assertions") not made before (not by other supposed geniuses); though many involved conducted experiments by other scientists, while others can become verifiable, for example as did Albert Einstein's (1905, 1916) Special and General Relativity. Did not Isaac Newton (1642-1727) say, he stood on the shoulders of great men. Further Aristotle's (circa 350 B.C.) treatises often involved a commentary of others' works, for example Aristotle develops from his teacher, Plato's (circa 381 B.C.) universals. Thus innovating perhaps not original, but the basis of Korzybski's (1921) own Time-Binding. Whereas the 5th edition, has a note on errata.
Korzybski's comments were constructive, for example men and women regress to infantilism if they copy animals in their nervous reactions (conditioning).
Paradox: though discoveries involve seeing things afresh, we require systems to organize (from Greek organon), guide, etc., our search! So Korzybski left his system open, avoiding hindering human progress, dogmatism, etc., introducing General Semantics (replacing Aristotle's 'logic') as a basis for critical evaluating: feeling-thinking.

On Certainty

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Amazon Price: $37.59 List Price: $42.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley-Blackwell Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $25.56

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Modern
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
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:
(...)

Editorial Review:

Written over the last 18 months of his life and inspired by his interest in G. E. Moore's defence of common sense, this much discussed volume collects Wittgenstein's reflections on knowledge and certainty, on what it is to know a proposition for sure.

Knowledge of God (Great Debates in Philosophy)

Alvin Plantinga, Michael Tooley

Amazon Price: $30.78 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley-Blackwell Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $25.68

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Religious
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Difficult, Dense, and Interesting 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.

"Knowledge of God" is part of a debate series. It's difficult to locate this book, since, in the series, there is already a book entitled "Atheism and Theism (Great Debates in Philosophy)." The difference is that this book is more focused on the rationality of theism--is it reasonable to believe in God--than the question of God's existence (though the latter obviously informs the former). The book is divided into six sections. Both authors get a 75 page opening statement, a 35 page response, and a final 15 page rejoinder.

Alvin Plantinga defends the rationality of theism. He spends a real brief period presenting his "Reformed Epistemology" that he has developed elsewhere (Warranted Christian Belief, and Faith & Rationality: Reason & Belief in God)--namely that, if theism is true, then it is rational to believe in God because God has provided us with a sensus divinitatis. He then turns the bulk of his essay to critiquing the major opponent of theism--philosophical naturalism. He levels three arguments. First, that naturalism cannot provide an acceptable model of `proper function' and therefore cannot explain what it means to be sick, health, etc. Second, naturalism, construed as materialism regarding human persons, gives one reason to believe that the majority of one's beliefs are false. Finally, naturalism, as materialism again, does not allow for a person to hold beliefs.

Tooley begins by making many important distinctions that many atheologians do not. After many qualifications, he begin with his arguments for theism being unreasonable. First, he argues that the a priori probability of God existing is lower than (or equal to) a third, and, therefore, the default position should be atheism. Then he spends the bulk of his essay devoted to one (16 premised) argument from evil. It is a very complicated and dense one. He focuses on one particular event--the Lisbon earthquake of 1755--and argues that, probably God did not exist at that time. The reason? That earthquake exhibited certain wrong-making properties that are inconsistent with a morally perfect loving God allowing. He then generalizes to other events, using the same rough formulation. (This rough characteristic leaves out many of Tooley's interesting and complicated points.)

There are many things to like about this book. There are some very interesting responses between the authors, and each makes important distinctions and very critical and probing remarks. Tooley's argument from evil highlights (and tries to amend) some of the problems with current formulations of inductive/probabilities accounts of the problems of evil. Despite these virtues, there are some things readers should be warned of. First, much of Plantinga's comments (except for his critique of materialism), he has extensively treated before, and this book is, in many ways, simply a condensed version of things he has said elsewhere. Second, the book is very difficult at times. Although most advanced undergraduates should be able to tackle the majority of the text, this text is most at home in a graduate level setting. General readers ought to think about perhaps passing on this book for a little while until they are more familiar with this particular niche of philosophy. Nevertheless, this is an interesting piece of professional philosophy which highlights how amicable discussions of this sort can be.

Editorial Review:

Is belief in God epistemically justified? That's the question at the heart of this volume in the Great Debates in Philosophy series, with Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley each addressing this fundamental question with distinctive arguments from opposing perspectives.

• The first half of the book contains each philosopher's explanation of his particular view; the second half allows them to directly respond to each other's arguments, in a lively and engaging conversation
  
• Offers the reader a one of a kind, interactive discussion
  
• Forms part of the acclaimed Great Debates in Philosophy series

Philosophy: The Quest for Truth

List Price: $71.95 By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $0.27

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History & Surveys
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Praised for its accessibility and comprehensiveness, Philosophy: The Quest for Truth provides an excellent selection of classical and contemporary readings on nineteen key problems in philosophy. Louis Pojman has carefully organized the essays in each section so that they present pro/con dialogues that allow students to compare and contrast the philosophers' positions. Topics covered include the nature of philosophy, the existence of God, immortality, knowledge, the mind-body question, personal identity, free will and determinism, ethics, political philosophy, and the meaning of life. The fifth edition offers selections from Plato, Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, William James, Bertrand Russell, John Hick, John Hospers, and James Rachels--as well as essays by Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, Thomas Hobbes, George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, Gilbert Ryle, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alvin Plantinga, and many others.
In Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, 5th edition, Pojman offers substantial introductions to each of the nineteen philosophical problems. In addition, each of the seventy-three readings is accompanied by an individual introduction with a biographical sketch of the philosopher, study questions, and reflective questions that challenge students to analyze and critique the material. Short bibliographies following each major section, an appendix on how to read and write philosophy papers, and a detailed glossary further enhance the text's pedagogical value. Invaluable for introductory courses in philosophy, this highly acclaimed text inspires and guides students' quest for wisdom.

The fifth edition adds new study questions and nine new articles:
* Father F. C. Copleston and Bertrand Russell: "A Debate on the Argument from Contingency"
* Corliss Lamont: "Freedom of the Will and Human Responsibility"
* Richard Taylor: "Fate"
* Louis Pojman: "A Critique of Ethical Egoism"
* Robert Paul Wolff: "In Defense of Anarchism"
* Brian Barry: "A Cosmopolitan Theory of International Society"
* Thomas Nagel: "The Absurd"
* Thurgood Marshall: "The Death Penalty Is a Denial of Human Dignity"
* Burton Leiser: "The Death Penalty Is Permissible"

The life divine

Aurobindo Ghose

By: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $49.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Occult -> Metaphysical Phenomena
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Spirituality -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Look at yourself and the world from a different angle 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 17 people found this review helpful.

This is a difficult book to read. Let us be under no illusions about that. It is verbose, repetitive and massive in its scope: tackling virtually the entire gamut of issues that philosophy traditionally deals with. But by the time you have finished reading the book (it took me three months to finish)it would have transformed the way you live your life. You may not agree with Aurobindo, and in fact, he probably does not want you to blindly agree with him, he would much rather that you think things out for yourself; but one thing that he certainly does is to question the 'commonsense' view of the world: the view of the world that we build up using bits of unexamined,untested, received, 'truths'. Take just one such 'truth': We believe--or at least we have done so ever since Descartes--that Matter and Consciousness are two separate things. Aurobindo puts forward the suggestion that the two are actually one and the same entity, only they are in different states being: somewhat like Ice and Steam being different states of water. If we concede that matter may be a form of consciousness, only in an inert state, all sorts of consequences would follow: especially with regard to our attitudes towards the environment.
As I had said earlier, the scope of the book is massive. Its three parts can be roughly divided into Ontology (where he discusses the Nature of the Cosmos), Epistemology (where he discusses the nature of Knowledge (&Ignorance), and the problem of Evil--which he attributes to Ignorance: a consequence of Ahamkara or ego-centricism) and finally, in the last part, he provides a broad, general direction for living our lives in accordance with our revised view of the world (Ethics). However, the book is not tightly structured (If you are looking for a book like Wittgenstein's Tractatus you will find yourself truly frustrated) it is loose, repetitive, and disjointed. Possibly because it was originally written as a series of essays and published monthly in a magazine called the Arya (between 1914 to 1919). He must have had to repeat himself because his original audience would have forgotten a point that he would have made five years ago. But the cumulative effect of the repetitions is that his ideas have a tendency to gradually seep in and sink into your mind, rather than strike you as a sort of brilliant epiphany.
Aurobindo's philosphy is ultimately rooted in ancient Hindu Vedic thought. In the course of the book, Aurobindo tackles Marx, Darwin, Nietzche, Freud, Hegel, Feurbach, (plus a whole range of European philosophers) and his idea is to adapt their philosophy to the 'Truth' as expressed by the Seers of the ancient Vedas. Does he succeed in doing so? I don't know. That is for professional philosophers to decide. For me, the book has been a revelation, the scales have dropped from my eyes: I see things differently now. Hopefully, I will continue to do so for a while before the snares of living in a modern city finally engulf me once again. Haven't they said that we can't stand to face the truth for too long?

Editorial Review:

The Life Divine explores for the Modern mind the great streams of Indian metaphysical thought, reconciling the truths behind each and from this synthesis extends in terms of consciousness the concept of evolution. The unfolding of Earth's and man's spiritual destiny is illuminated, pointing the way to a Divine Life on Earth. Index.

When Good Thinking Goes Bad: How Your Brain Can Have a Mind of Its Own

Todd C. Riniolo

Amazon Price: $12.91 List Price: $18.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prometheus Books Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $11.13

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Cognitive
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1975, the Environmental Fund sponsored a full-page advertisement in leading newspapers, which predicted that 'the world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2000', due to the assumed inability of world food production to keep pace with the increase in population. The statement was endorsed by some of the finest thinkers of the time - scientists, scholars, and other professionals who had spent their careers applying the principles of critical thinking to their chosen disciplines. Nonetheless, in this instance, they all failed to use the same rigor in assessing the probability of looming disaster and badly miscalculated. This is just one example of how even the best thinkers can sometimes go astray, and it illustrates how easily unconscious biases can undermine the critical thinking process.In this insightful analysis of the mental pitfalls that trip up even elite critical thinkers, psychologist Todd C Riniolo makes a compelling case that under certain circumstances everyone is vulnerable to accepting erroneous beliefs. Riniolo begins by reviewing the hallmarks of critical thinking related to the evaluation of claims, such as the use of the double-blind procedure and the law of parsimony. He then provides an evolutionary framework and empirical supporting evidence from cognitive psychology to explain why being inconsistent in the use of critical thinking is part of our evolutionary heritage. Each of us possesses cognitive biases that make us prone to maintaining our current beliefs (both true and false).He concludes by focusing on a wide range of claims - environmental, political, economic, multicultural - to illustrate how in certain contexts we all are tempted to abandon critical thinking. Thoroughly researched yet written in a lively, witty style, this unique approach to critical thinking will interest students, teachers, and anyone who wishes to become a better thinker.

Museum of Lost Wonder

Jeff Hoke

Amazon Price: $32.97 List Price: $49.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Weiser Books Amazon Marketplace: 67 new & used starting at $8.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Jeff Hoke has created a history of the human imagination with visual cues and clues and wonderment about and around everything you ever thought and everything you wish you'd been crafty enough to think. He has built a museum accessible to all, in book format, arranged with 7 halls (representing the seven stages of alchemical process) in which the questions of the universe unfold. All one needs to enter is some basic understanding of the human experience. Hoke begins with The Calcinatio Hall where the featured exhibit is The Beginning of Everything and leads us into halls like The Sublimatio Hall, with the exhibit How To Have Visions. In The Separatio Hall the exhibit Where Are You Going challenges us in our own journey. Through each hall we are led into an exhibit that questions our own understanding of life and urges us into new ways of thinking. As in wandering the great, immense halls of an ancient museum with endless corridors and fascinating exhibits, the reader is instantly pulled into this enormously imaginative pursuit. Each page is full of depth and questions. And each hall features a special fold-out interactive page. The Museum of Lost Wonder is a ray of hope in a dreary world. It is an oasis in an age when we are inundated everywhere we go with messages of consumption and materialism. It is an invitation into the imagination of a brilliant artist as well as a welcome back into your own imagination. It is a call to challenge your mind and your mind's eye to re-assess what you believe to be true and what you know to be true. Once you enter the museum, there is no turning back. For the price of admission you get a whole new perspective on the meaning of life and your purpose in it.

On Ideology (Radical Thinkers)

Louis Althusser

Amazon Price: $10.36 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Verso Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.73

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A minimalist's Althusser; look elsewhere for a more complete picture 3 out of 5 stars.
21 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This slim volume was first published more than twenty years ago under the name Essays on Ideology. The book exists mainly as an inexpensive way to get Althusser's most widely read work, the essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes toward an Investigation." Apart from that, it includes a few other works, seemingly haphazardly assembled around that essay: the "Response to John Lewis," the essay "Freud and Lacan," and the brief "Letter on Art." All of these are interesting, and the essay on Lacan is actually quite illuminating and helpful for any student of psychoanalysis -- but the volume doesn't really cohere, nor does it provide any of the best of Althusser apart from his single most famous (and hence most misunderstood) essay. If anything, this book represents '80s British Althusserianism better than it represents what Althusser himself wrote or thought.

There are better choices. The wider selection provided in the volume Lenin and Philosophy is a more useful and worthwhile single-book representation of Althusser's thought, and also contains the famous essay on ideology, while For Marx gives a much more complete picture of Althusser's contribution to Marxist thought. This book, by contrast, will serve most of its readers as a thin wrapper around a single essay. (Also, disturbingly, no translator is credited in this edition, though the translation appears to be Ben Brewster's from the earlier edition.)

Editorial Review:

A classic philosophical study on how political and cultural ideas come to dominate.

"Verso's beautifully designed Radical Thinkers series, which brings together seminal works by leading left-wing intellectuals, is a sophisticated blend of theory and thought. The authors whose writings are included in the series have worked tirelessly to expose the mechanisms by which culture and knowledge are manufactured, managed and controlled."—Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman

Scientific Representation: Paradoxes of Perspective

Bas C. van Fraassen

Amazon Price: $36.00 List Price: $50.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $36.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Metaphysics
Subjects -> Science -> History & Philosophy -> General

Editorial Review:

Bas C. van Fraassen presents an original exploration of how we represent the world. Science represents natural phenomena by means of theories, as well as in many concrete ways by such means as pictures, graphs, table-top models, and computer simulations. Scientific Representation begins with an inquiry into the nature of representation in general, drawing on such diverse sources as Plato's dialogues, the development of perspectival drawing in the Renaissance, and the geometric styles of modelling in modern physics. Starting with Mach's and Poincare's analyses of measurement and the "problem of coordination," van Fraassen then presents a view of measurement outcomes as representations. With respect to the theories of contemporary science he defends an empiricist structuralist version of the "picture theory" of science, through an inquiry into the paradoxes that came to light in twentieth-century philosophies of science. Van Fraassen concludes with an analysis of the complex relationship between appearance and reality in the scientific world-picture.

Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics

Nancy Cartwright

Amazon Price: $83.26 List Price: $90.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $72.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

Hunting Causes and Using Them argues that causation is not one thing, as commonly assumed, but many. There is a huge variety of causal relations, each with different characterizing features, different methods for discovery and different uses to which it can be put. In this collection of new and previously published essays, Nancy Cartwright provides a critical survey of philosophical and economic literature on causality, with a special focus on the currently fashionable Bayes-nets and invariance methods - and it exposes a huge gap in that literature. Almost every account treats either exclusively how to hunt causes or how to use them. But where is the bridge between? It's no good knowing how to warrant a causal claim if we don't know what we can do with that claim once we have it. This book will interest philosophers, economists and social scientists.