Methodology Books - Page 5

Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism

Robert B. Brandom

Amazon Price: $22.05 List Price: $24.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvard University Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $15.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Epistemology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Logic & Language
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Methodology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Articulating Reasons An Introduction to Inferentialism Robert B. Brandom Robert B. Brandom is one of the most original philosophers of our day, whose book Making It Explicit covered and extended a vast range of topics in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language--the very core of analytic philosophy. This new work provides an approachable introduction to the complex system that Making It Explicit mapped out. A tour of the earlier book's large ideas and relevant details, Articulating Reasons offers an easy entry into two of the main themes of Brandom's work: the idea that the semantic content of a sentence is determined by the norms governing inferences to and from it, and the idea that the distinctive function of logical vocabulary is to let us make our tacit inferential commitments explicit. Brandom's work, making the move from representationalism to inferentialism, constitutes a near-Copernican shift in the philosophy of language--and the most important single development in the field in recent decades. Articulating Reasons puts this accomplishment within reach of nonphilosophers who want to understand the state of the foundations of semantics. Robert B. Brandom is Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Making It Explicit (Harvard). May 51/2 x 81/4 256 pp.

The Heart of Philosophy

Jacob Needleman

Amazon Price: $11.21 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tarcher Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $3.92

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Methodology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Philosophy is alive! 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Jacob Needleman is not a bureaucratic philosopher. His teachings are about an intense search for a meaningful life. In this book he talks about some intense experiences in his own life and also with students and their parents. He also presents a very personal overview of occidental philosophy.

Many philosophy teachers of our days are more concerned about formalities and structures of thought. Past philosophies are studied as dead bodies: cut into pieces, dissolved with chemicals, watched through microscopes.

I have already used this book in philosophy seminars for management students, at the University of Campinas, here in Brasil (there is a Portuguese translation). The response was enthusiastic!

If you want to find more than formalism in philosophy, you will probably enjoy this book.

Editorial Review:

Philosophy as it is frequently taught in classrooms bears little relation to the impassioned and immensely practical search for self-knowledge conducted by not only its ancient avatars but also by men and woman who seek after truth today. In The Heart of the Philosophy, Jacob Needleman provides a "user's guide" for those who would take philosophy seriously enough to understand its life-transforming qualities.

Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology

Amazon Price: $104.00 List Price: $130.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sage Publications, Inc Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $104.00

Buy at Amazon.com

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

Editorial Review:

Composed by international researchers, the Handbook of Narrative Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the developing methodology of narrative inquiry. The Handbook outlines the historical development and philosophical underpinnings of narrative inquiry as well as describes different forms of narrative inquiry. This one-of-a-kind volume offers an emerging map of the field and encourages further dialogue, discussion, and experimentation as the field continues to develop.

Key Features:  
Offers coverage of various disciplines and viewpoints from around the world: Leading international contributors draw upon narrative inquiry as conceptualized in Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, and Philosophy.
Illustrates the range of forms of narrative inquiry: Both conceptual and practical in-depth descriptions of narrative inquiry are presented.
Portrays how narrative inquiry is used in research in different professional fields: Particular attention is paid to representational issues, ethical issues, and some of the complexities of narrative inquiry with indigenous and cross-cultural participants as well as child participants.
 
Intended Audience:  
The Handbook of Narrative Inquiry is a must have resource for narrative methodologists and students of narrative inquiry across the social sciences. Individuals in the fields of Nursing, Psychology, Anthropology, Education, Social Work, Sociology, Organizational Studies, and Health research will be particularly well served by this masterful work. (20070709)

G. W. Leibniz's Monadology

Nicholas Rescher

Amazon Price: $19.75 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University of Pittsburgh Press Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $13.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Criticism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> History, 17th & 18th Century
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Logic & Language

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

G.W. Leibniz’s Monadology, one of the most important pieces of the Leibniz corpus, is at once one of the great classics of modern philosophy and one of its most puzzling productions. Because the essay is written in so condensed and compact a fashion, for almost three centuries it has baffled and beguiled those who read it for the first time.

Nicholas Rescher accompanies the text of the Monadology section-by-section with relevant excerpts from some of Leibniz’s widely scattered discussions of the matters at issue. The result serves a dual purpose of providing a commentary of the Monadology by Leibniz himself, while at the same time supplying an exposition of his philosophy using the Monadology as an outline.

The book contains all of the materials that even the most careful study of this could text could require: a detailed overview of the philosophical background of the work and of its bibliographic ramifications; a presentation of the original French text together with a new, closely faithful English translation; a selection of other relevant Leibniz texts; and a detailed commentary. Rescher also provides a survey of Leibniz’s use of analogies and three separate indices of key terms and expressions, Leibniz’s French terminology, and citations.

Rescher’s edition of the Monadology presents Leibniz’s ideas faithfully, accurately, and accessibly, making it especially valuable to scholars and students alike.

Wittgenstein's Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments

Martin Cohen

Amazon Price: $19.75 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Wiley-Blackwell Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $7.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Free Will & Determinism
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Logic & Language
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Methodology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

heterogeneous 5 out of 5 stars.
24 of 26 people found this review helpful.

If I may be allowed to coin a common noun `a cohen' to signify a type of philosophical work containing a series of short sections each dealing with a distinct topic that exemplifies or illustrates a broad area of philosophical interest, I could say confidently that with his latest book Wittgenstein's Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments Dr Martin Cohen has offered us yet another splendid cohen, following upon the successes of its precedents 101 Philosophy Problems and 101 Ethical Dilemmas.
The new book opens with a Foreword entitled `Forward!' in which our author characterizes thought experiments as `that special kind of theory that predicts particular consequences given certain initial starting points and conditions'. Cohen does not think that it is appropriate to draw a sharp distinction between empirical experiments and thought experiments. He suggests both `are tests devised either to explore intuitions about how the world works - or to destroy them...' adding: `The characteristic thing about both real and thought experiments is that you control and limit the circumstances and conditions for the test, so as to pick out just one variable or one unknown. The key difference is that in the latter, everything is set out not in reality but merely in the imagination. The circumstances are described, not created, and the action is imagined, not created.'
Cohen's broad conception of a thought experiment enables him to select a highly heterogeneous variety of examples of the genre. One gets a taste of the importance of the subject in the Introduction of the book entitled `Deep Thought - a brief history of thought experiments' which provides historical evidence for what may appear a surprisingly creative use to which this technique of inquiry was put throughout the development of philosophical, scientific and also ethical thought.
The author proceeds to the main part of the book, which comprises an A - Z series of 26 sections, beginning with `A is for Alice and Astronomers Arguing about Acceleration', followed by `B is for Bernard's [. Bernard Williams'] Body-Exchange Machine' and so on, all the way to `Z is for Zeno and the Mysteries of Infinity'. Each section offers a brief exposition of a particular thought experiment and then a philosophical discussion of the topic liberally punctuated with irreverent jeux d'esprit.
There follows a chapter on `Notes for Experimenters' which includes a highly suggestive section on `How to Experiment' - in my judgment the most original part of the book.
The interest of the book is clearly dependent on, and derived from, the interest and value of the technique of thought experiment in science and philosophy. On this last point Cohen is emphatic. `It is no exaggeration to say,' he exaggerates, `that the whole of modern science is built upon the surprisingly modest foundation of half a dozen of the thought experiments included here' - or so it strikes me. I would say rather that scientific work involves a dynamic interplay between, on the one hand, empirical data in various degrees of rawness accumulated by scientists in response to a problem and provisionally conceived, described, classified, analysed and so on, in a language impregnated by low-level theory (For instance, Darwin's observation and study of fossils and bones of long-extinct animal species or Brownian motion described in terms of the kinetic theory of fluids), and on the other, intellectual efforts to bring these phenomena under explanatory schemata of increasing scope and predictive power which can be tested against experience (for example, the theory of evolution or atomic theory of matter and the relevant mathematical models).
This book is not addressed to professional philosophers, but is by no means a beginners' piece, much less reading matter for Aunt Edna to take on the train. It will best be appreciated by readers who already have some understanding of philosophy and scientific methodology, and have developed some taste for conceptual inquiry. For all the clarity of the writing, the text is never facile - indeed, it is occasionally hard-going and controversial in its interpretation of particular thought experiments. Like previous cohens, Wittgenstein's Beetle brings together diverse material which displays a unity of viewpoint and a seriousness of treatment, embellished with wit and delightful comic invention.

Editorial Review:

Wittgenstein’s Beetle and Other Classic Thought Experiments invites readers to participate actively in discovering the surprisingly powerful and fruitful tradition of "thought experiments."

• Gives a lively presentation of an "A to Z" of 26 fascinating and influential thought experiments from philosophy and science
  
• Presents vivid and often humorous discussion of the experiments, including strengths and weaknesses, historical context, and contemporary uses
  
• Provides a "how to" section for engaging in thought experiments
  
• Includes illustrations, mini-biographies, and suggestions for further reading.

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson

Daniel J. Boorstin

Amazon Price: $18.00 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $2.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( J ) -> Jefferson, Thomas
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The lost World of Thomas Jefferson 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson by Daniel J. Boorstin is a look into the early years preceding the birth of the United States and the climate of thought that was current at that time.
Scientific knowledge was starting to be shared and Jefferson seemed to absorb and process a lot of that times current philosophies.

This book is invaluble if you realy want to study or "get a feel" for the times of the 18th and early 19th century. The author goes to great pains in explaining particular events and ideas that were concerning these early scientific thinkers.

This book conveys the thought process behind the events and how the minds of the thinkers moved the nation. Mostly, this book is about American intellectual history, and is engaging as it is history of ideas. These ideas are blended with a purpose to bring the thought of the time into perspective and defines the key problems facing how Jefferson appeared.

This book is worthy of a place on your bookshelf, for reference and a look into American life and thought, aspects that are hard to see today, but are brought out richly in this book.

I highly recommend reading this book by one of America's leading historians .

Editorial Review:

Thomas Jefferson's fame and continued popularity does not depend upon the marvelous personal example he set, as does George Washington's, or upon the remarkable leadership qualities he displayed during the darkest national hours, like Abraham Lincoln's. Instead, he is revered for presenting a unique world-view. Daniel J. Boorstin provides a rich intellectual history of Jefferson's personal and political philosophy: "My purpose has been to get inside the Jeffersonian world of ideas--to see the relation among their conceptions of God, nature, equality, toleration, education, and government.... In a word, I have been more concerned to recapture the Jeffersonian world of ideas than to perform an autopsy on it." Although this particular book is a bit more academic than others by the same author, Boorstin capably explains why Jefferson's voice still resonates long after his passing. --John J. Miller

Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences: Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation

Paul Ricoeur

Amazon Price: $35.99 List Price: $39.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $19.88

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Foreign Language Nonfiction -> French
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Methodology

Editorial Review:

This is a collection in translation of essays by Paul Ricoeur which presents a comprehensive view of his philosophical hermeneutics, its relation to the views of his predecessors in the tradition and its consequences for the social sciences. The volume has three parts. The studies in the first part examine the history of hermeneutics, its central themes and the outstanding issues it has to confront. In Part II, Ricoeur's own current, constructive position is developed. A concept of the text is formulated as the implications of the theory are pursued into the domains of sociology, psychoanalysis and history. Many of the essays appear here in English for the first time; the editor's introduction brings out their background in Ricoeur's thought and the continuity of his concerns. The volume will be of great importance for those interested in hermeneutics and Ricoeur's contribution to it, and will demonstrate how much his approach offers to a number of disciplines.

The Consolations of Philosophy

Alain De Botton

List Price: $22.95 By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $2.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 98 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"It is common," Alain de Botton writes in The Consolations of Philosophy, "to assume that we are dealing with a highly intelligent book when we cease to understand it. Profound ideas cannot, after all, be explained in the language of children." While his easygoing exploration of philosophers from Socrates to Nietzsche isn't exactly written for the Blue's Clues set, few readers will cease to understand it. Furthermore, it's a joy to read. De Botton's 1997 How Proust Can Change Your Life forged a new kind of lit crit: an exploration of Remembrance of Things Past, delivered in the sweet-gummed envelope of an advice book. He returns to the self-help format here, this time plundering the great thinkers to puzzle out the way we ought to live.

What was stunning about the Proust book was de Botton's brazen annexing of a hallowed novelist to address lite emotional problems. That format is less arresting when applied to the philosophers, since which earnest philosophy major has not, from time to time, tried to apply the alpine heights of thought to his own humble worries? Usually, sophomoric attempts to turn to, say, Kant for advice on love tend to be unmitigated disasters. In de Botton's case, however, he is able to find consolation for a broken heart in Schopenhauer, consolation for inadequacy in Montaigne. Epicurus, usually associated with a love of luxury, is a solace for those of us without much money--and de Botton learns from him that "objects mimic in a material dimension what we require in a psychological one. We need to rearrange our minds but are lured towards new shelves. We buy a cashmere cardigan as a substitute for the counsel of friends."

Lest the reader become burdened by all this philosophizing, the book is peppered with illustrations--the section on Nietzsche of course includes a DC Comics drawing of Superman. And it's further leavened by the author's personal anecdotes and winning confessional tone. Early on, for instance, he admits his own gnawing need for popularity: "A desire to please led me to laugh at modest jokes like a parent on the opening night of a school play." Before he became a medicine man for the soul, de Botton was a first-rate novelist, and it shows in his writing. --Claire Dederer

Socratic Puzzles

Robert Nozick

Amazon Price: $34.65 List Price: $38.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvard University Press Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $19.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Logic & Language
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Methodology
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the foremost philosophers of our time, Robert Nozick continues the Socratic tradition of investigation. This volume, which illustrates the originality, force, and scope of his work, also displays Nozick's trademark blending of extraordinary analytical rigor with intellectual playfulness. As such, Socratic Puzzles testifies to the great pleasure that both doing and reading philosophy can be.

Comprising essays and philosophical fictions, classics and new work, the book ranges from Socrates to W. V. Quine, from the implications of an Israeli kibbutz to the flawed arguments of Ayn Rand. Nozick considers the figure of Socrates himself as well as the Socratic method (why is it a "method" of getting at the truth?). Many of these essays bring classic methods to bear on new questions about choice. How should you choose in a disconcerting situation ("Newcomb's Problem") when your decisions are completely predictable? Why do threats and not offers typically coerce our choices? How do we make moral judgments when we realize that our moral principles have exceptions? Other essays present new approaches to familiar intellectual puzzles, from the stress on simplicity in scientific hypotheses to the tendency of intellectuals to oppose capitalism.

As up to date as the latest reflections on animal rights; as perennial as the essentials of aesthetic merit (doggerel by Isaac Newton goes to prove that changing our view of the world won't suffice); as whimsical as a look at how some philosophical problems might appear from God's point of view: these essays attest to the timeliness and timelessness of Nozick's thinking. With a personal introduction, in which Nozick discusses the origins, tools, and themes of his work, Socratic Puzzles demonstrates how philosophy can constitute a way of life.

ADHD and the Nature of Self-Control

Russell A. Barkley

Amazon Price: $28.50 List Price: $30.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: The Guilford Press Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $24.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Attention Deficit Disorder
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Listen to his techniques, but question his theories 2 out of 5 stars.
25 of 34 people found this review helpful.

I am a clinical psychology doctoral student with ADHD who has sat and listened to Dr. Barkley's lectures, in person, on this subject at an ADHD seminar. From someone who knows this condition from the inside, this literature through my studies, and much theoretical literature outside of this field, here are my impressions:
1. Dr. Barkley's recommendations for treatment of ADHD are useful to both those of us who possess this difference and for parents as well. He has done much good work in this area.
2. Dr. Barkley is clearly threatened by newer perspectives on ADHD based in evolutionary psychology that may, in fact, help explain why this difference, which appears to have a strong genetic basis, continues to exist in such large numbers in the population. He is disparaging and rather arrogant in his treatment of others' ideas on the subject in person, making jokes at their expense which I was appalled that other psychologist appeared to find humorous.
3. In person, he also makes jokes at the expense of children with ADHD. He does not appear to have empathy for those with this difference; his empahty appears limited to those who must "deal" with this difference in others, be it parents, teachers, employers, etc. Again, I was appalled at his crass attempts at humor targeted at individuals with ADHD during the seminar I attended. It was akin to making "fat jokes" at a medical seminar on obesity, although Dr. Barkley seemed oblivious to the lack of propriety of such jokes, and furthermore, did not appear to believe that anyone in the educated audience he was addressing could suffer from ADHD.
4. He is so married to his own theoretical views, which have made him a "renowned expert" in the area of ADHD that many of his attacks on other theoretical viewpoints are clearly defensive in nature and aimed to protect his career and status in the field. His disdain for Thomas Hartman was quite apparent at the seminar, for example, although there is now some evidence that Hartmann's idea (it's not quite a theory yet) that individuals with ADHD were adaptive in past cultural environments is quite possible and supported by evidence concerning other conditions that were once protective in different physical environments (i.e., sickle cell anemia and its protection against malaria).

All in all, my recommendation is to listen to his treatment planning, but take his theories with several grains of salt.

Editorial Review:

This far-reaching work from renowned scientist-practitioner Russell A. Barkley provides a radical shift of perspective on ADHD. The volume synthesizes neuropsychological research and theory on the executive functions, illuminating how normally functioning individuals are able to bring behavior under the control of time and orient their actions toward the future. Meticulously applying this model to an examination of the cognitive and social impairments manifested in ADHD, Barkley offers compelling new directions for thinking about and treating the disorder. The paperback edition features a new afterword in which the author reflects on current research directions and the continuing evolution of his approach.