Ontology Books - Page 6

The Philosophy of Art: Readings Ancient and Modern

Alex Neill, Aaron Ridley

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Editorial Review:

This anthology is intended as a core text for courses in aesthetics or philosophy of art. It contains a wealth of readings from both classic and contemporary sources, and aims to present substantial selections from those texts rather than mere "snippets." Readings are organized historically within four broad themes so that students can see how concepts of art have evolved and been debated. Each reading is introduced by the authors, who suggest connections between the reading and others in the anthology. Unlike other anthologies on the market, The Philosophy of Art is both comprehensive and affordable, making it the ideal book for course use.

Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts

David Goldblatt, Lee Brown

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Editorial Review:

This collection of readings is designed to introduce the philosophical problems of aesthetics as they pertain to specific arts e.g., Painting, Photography, Music, Film and Video Art, etc. KEY TOPICS: The nearly 90 readings represent recent continental thinking about the arts e.g., Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Heidegger, Benjamin, and Adorno. Also, represents the analytic imagination in philosophers such as Danto, Goodman, Levinson, Urmson, and Scruton.

Existence and Existents

Emmanuel Levinas

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Editorial Review:

First published in 1947, and written mostly during Levinas's imprisonment during World War II, this work provides the first sketch of his mature thought—later developed in Totality and Infinity and Otherwise Than Being, or Beyond Essence. This is essential reading for understanding both Levinas's own philosophy and the developments in philosophical thought in the twentieth century.

Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt at an Ascent to the Meaning of Being (Stein, Edith//the Collected Works of Edith Stein) (Stein, Edith//the Collected Works of Edith Stein)

Edith Stein, translated by Kurt F. Reinhardt

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Editorial Review:

This volume bears the imprint of the extraordinary intellectual and spiritual journey of its author, one of the most remarkable women of the twentieth century. Born in Breslau, Germany into a practicing Jewish family in 1891, Edith Stein abandoned her faith as a teenager and later became a key figure among the early disciples of Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. In 1921, she underwent a profound conversion and was baptized into the Catholic church. As a prominent German Catholic laywoman, she continue her teaching, writing, and promotion of women's rights, and began directing her attention toward a deeper encounter between the phenomenolgy she had helped to develop and the modern scholastic tradition of the church she had embraced. In 1933 she left the academic milieu and entered the Carmelite Monastery of Cologne. Yet, encouragd by her religious superiors, she soon took up her intellectual labors again, thoroughly recasting an earlier essay on Potency and Act to produce the present text, which remained unpublished at the time of her death in 1942 at the hands of the Nazis. Finite and Eternal Being is Edith Stein's master work, the culmination of her lifelong search for truth in all its philosophical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. With her careful step-by-step analysis, she gradually shows how the being of all finite existents (especially the human I) finds its ultimate ground and destiny in the eternal Divine Being, the Creator whose trinitarian nature is reflected throughout creation.

The Infinite (Problems of Philosophy Their Past and Present)

A.W. Moore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Thorough yet disappointing 4 out of 5 stars.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful.

This is a perfect book with which to grow impatient and ultimately to reject.

It is highly competent (no factual errors) and could be read by people with no prior exposure to any kind of Deep Thought (clear style, lots of diagrams). It succeeds in condensing the problems and treatments of the Infinite down to easy to grasp outlines; it explains and systematizes what usually appears as hopelessly arcane (LS theorem, Go:del's results, the antinomies of the infinite etc.)

The book fails (as nearly all do) in its attempt of a clear presentation of Cantor's legacy: from the diagonal procedure to the continuum hypothesis. Another omission is an outline of the 'journey to Omega' (current views on Sets that are bigger than ZF axioms can support).

The last three chapters are devoted to a 'defense of finitism'. The mere intent to defend something that is much more intuitive than any of Cantor's results is suspicious. Alas, the hidden tension (how can a finite creature create and use infinite concepts /or the concept of the infinite/) is simply deflated (not 'solved') possibly due to the author's tacit attachment to Kantianism.

Wittgenstein's name is mentioned often, disappointingly, he is also presented as a closeted Kantian (from failure to construct infinite numbers via succession procedure in Tractatus, alleged abandonment of the metaphysical infinity to the later discovery of nonsensical nature of (attempted) language-games concerned with infinity).

AW Moore's work deserves a high rating; partially because of the low quality of other authors' attempts to present the Infinite to the general public.

Editorial Review:

This historical study of the infinite covers all its aspects from the mathematical to the mystical. Anyone who has ever pondered the limitlessness of space and time, or the endlessness of numbers, or the perfection of God will recognize the special fascination of the subject. Beginning with an entertaining account of the main paradoxes of the infinite, including those of Zeno, A.W. Moore traces the history of the topic from Aristotle to Kant, Hegel, Cantor, and Wittgenstein.

On time and being

Martin Heidegger

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Editorial Review:

On Time and Being charts the so-called "turn" in Martin Heidegger's philosophy away from his earlier metaphysics in Being and Time to his later thoughts after "the end of philosophy." The title lecture, "Time and Being," shows how Heidegger reconceived both "Being" and "time," introducing the new concept of "the event of Appropriation" to help give his metaphysical ideas nonmetaphysical meanings. On Time and Being also contains a summary of six seminar sessions that Heidegger conducted on "Time and Being," a lecture called "The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking," and an autobiographical sketch of Heidegger's intellectual history in "My Way of Phenomenology."

"This collection may well vie with Vom Wesen des Grundes and Identität and Differenz as definitive statements of Heidegger's ontology."—Library Journal

"The title of the English translation is that of the lead essay, the highly celebrated lecture which Heidegger gave in 1962 and which bears the same title as the never published 'third division' of the 'first half' of Being and Time. This lecture is perhaps the most significant document to be added to the Heideggerian corpus since the Letter of Humanism. . . . Stambaugh's translation is superb."—Stanley O. Hoerr and staff, The Review of Metaphysics

Guide to Aesthetics

Benedetto Croce

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Editorial Review:

Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) was among the most important of those philosophers of the twentieth century who grappled with issues of pure aesthetics. The series of lectures written in 1912 as the inaugural address of the Rice Institute in Texas and collected under the title Breviario di estetica (Breviary of Aesthetics) is undoubtedly Croce's definitive study of the arts, and the work remains foundational in the philosophy of aesthetics to this day. It has been translated into several languages and continues to attract a wide readership.

In this edition, the Breviary of Aesthetics is presented in a brand new English translation and accompanied by informative endnotes that discuss many of the philosophers, writers, and works cited by Croce in his original text. The new translation deliberately preserves the idiosyncratic use of language for which Croce was famous, and emphasizes his writing style, which, together with that of Galileo Galilei, is considered to be among the most lucid in Italian literature. An introduction by Remo Bodei discusses the broader impact of the work and places it in historical context. In short, this edition reintroduces a seminal text on aesthetics to a new generation of English-speaking readers, and represents a significant contribution to the Lorenzo Da Ponte Italian Library series.

The Arts of the Beautiful

Etienne Gilson

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Editorial Review:

With his usual lucidity, Etienne Gilson addresses the idea that "art is the making of beauty for beauty's sake." By distinguishing between aesthetics, which promotes art as a form of knowledge, and philosophy, which focuses on the presence of the artist's own talent or genius, Gilson maintains that art belongs to a different category entirely, the category of "making." Gilson's intellectually stimulating meditation on the relation of beauty and art is indispensible to philosophers and artists alike.

Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals: Porphyry, Boethius, Abelard, Duns Scotus, Ockham

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Stunning Introduction to the Complex Medieval Theory of 'Universals' 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

"It is easy to motivate the problem of universals. Consider these two capital letters: A A. Ignore everything else about them and for now observe only that they are of the same color; they are both black.... Isn't it obvious that you see two colors here, two blacknesses: the blackness of the first A, this blackness, and then the blackness of the second A, that blackness?... But aren't they visually as distinct as the two letters themselves?... The problem of universals is in effect the problem of deciding between these answers" (pg vii).

The reason I included this long quote is to show how wonderful Paul Vincent Spade's introduction is for this quote illustrates in a nutshell the underling problem of Universals in a clear and precise way (the actual writers on the theory never manage to explain themselves this precisely). The importance of clarity and concise analysis is vital since the Medieval dialogue about the nature of Universals is complex, sometimes excruciatingly difficult, and an introduction which lays out the basic premises and questions is the first step of comprehension! Also, the introduction briefly summarizes each text EXCERPT and their author present in the volume. Portions from Porhyry's 'Isagoge,' Boethius 'Second Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge,' Peter Abelard's Glosses on Porphyry in his 'Logica 'ingredientibus,'' John Duns Scotus 'Ordinatio,' and William of Ockham's 'Ordinatio' are in the volume. These excerpts trace in chronological order the main philosophers involved with the question of Universals starting with the questions posed by Porphyry.

The introduction and Excerpts form an amazing (yet still somewhat difficult) text for a student interested in Medieval Philosophy. However, volume's wonderful index of the main terms is a great tool for easy clarification and reference. This is simply an invaluable resource and a great starting point for the study of the Medieval problem of Universals!

Editorial Review:

New translations of the central medieval texts on the problem of universals are presented here in an affordable edition suitable for use in courses in medieval philosophy, history of medieval philosophy, and universals. Includes a concise introduction, glossary of important terms, notes, and bibliography.

Material Beings

Peter Van Inwagen

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contemporary metaphysical classic 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

"Peter van Inwagen's _Material Beings_ is an excellent book. Van Inwagen defends with great skill and cogency the contention that the only real material beings are physical simples on the one hand, and living organisms on the other. There is much to be learned from this book, whether one ultimately accepts its conclusions or not. And as an example of sustained philosophical argumentation, it is exemplary: the writing is lucid; the overall dialectical state of play is kept constantly in view; and there is plenty of ongoing give-and-take with potential objectors who are never mere straw persons." -Terence Horgan, from "On What There Isn't", _Philosophy and Phenomenological Research_ LIII (1993): p. 693

My sentiments exactly. Peter van Inwagen is probably my favorite living philosopher besides Kripke, and the quality of this book is representative of the reasons why. It would be hard to overstate the respect I have for van Inwagen's clarity, logical rigor, and unwillingness to overextend one's case to contingent matters. This book should be read as a case study for how to present a philosophically important case.

In _Material Beings_, van Inwagen, with brilliantly straightforward chutzpah, simply asks what it takes for simples to compose a whole, over and above a collection of simples. He surveys various options, and finds the single answer to be: if and only if such simples are caught up in the life of an organism. The result is that there are no other ordinary objects: just aggregates of physical simples. A crucial hinge along the way is van Inwagen's contention that the Denial, as he calls it, does not contradict ordinary beliefs. To defend this idea, he appeals to a sort of contextualism: In saying "There are no chairs," one is making a metaphysical statement--partly enumerating one's ontology--that the layperson simply does not do. Hence, he argues, the Denial does not contradict a statement like "There are two valuable chairs in the next room." Van Inwagen devotes a whole chapter to defending the contention that the Denial does not contradict ordinary beliefs, but I'm inclined to intuit that it actually does in some way, though I don't at present have an argument of my own for that position.

In arguing for the thesis that there are no chairs or any other ordinary inanimate objects, van Inwagen gives compelling reasons for, given his view on the nature of composition, excepting organisms from his Denial. In doing so, he reveals a good grounding in general biology. What he does give short shrift to, and shows little to no recognition for, is the nature of chemical bonding. He passes over possible answers to his Composition Questions involving physical bonding far too quickly, in my opinion, and that's a big issue where he and I part ways.

All that said, what van Inwagen does do here, he does so well, I have no hesitation about giving this five stars. Like I said, a modern classic and an invigorating read, as with everything else by van Inwagen I've read.

Editorial Review:

According to Peter van Inwagen, visible inanimate objects do not, strictly speaking, exist. In defending this controversial thesis, he offers fresh insights on such topics as personal identity, commonsense belief, existence over time, the phenomenon of vagueness, and the relation between metaphysics and ordinary language.