Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy remains one of the most widely studied works of Western philosophy. This volume is a refreshed and updated edition of John Cottingham's bestselling 1996 edition, based on his translation in the acclaimed three-volume Cambridge edition of The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. It presents the complete text of Descartes's central metaphysical masterpiece, the Meditations, in clear, readable modern English, and it offers the reader additional material in a thematic abridgement of the Objections and Replies, providing a deeper understanding of how Descartes developed and clarified his arguments in response to critics. Cottingham also provides an updated introduction, together with a substantially revised bibliography, taking into account recent literature and developments in Descartes studies. The volume will be a vital resource for students reading the Meditations, as well as those studying Descartes and early modern philosophy.
Zamiarem moim jest przedstawienie książki, która byłaby pracą koncepcyjną, pogłębioną analizą wchodzącą w środek niektórych ważnych problemów ontologicznych oraz względnie całościową interpretacją bytu realnego, a jednocześnie – mogłaby służyć jako swoisty przewodnik wprowadzający w podstawowe zagadnienia ontologii. Podejmowane tu problemy nie wyczerpują – rzecz jasna – wszystkich ważnych zagadnień ontologicznych (chociaż większości chyba „dotykają”); z pewnością jednak są to problemy – jak na filozofię pierwszą przystało – fundamentalne.
Podjęte tu rozważania są próbami zarysowania w miarę spójnej koncepcji rzeczywistości. I chociaż wiele tez stawiam w tej książce kategorycznie, to celem moim nie jest podanie gotowych rozwiązań, lecz zainicjowanie filozoficznej dyskusji.
W obliczu naukowych niepewności związanych ze współczesnym pojęciem materii, a także – granic pojmowalności świata materialnego, do jakich dotarliśmy w tej książce, może nasunąć się myśl, że jednak „światłość w ciemności świeci”.
[Autor]
„(…) jest to praca na wskroś autorska; przedstawia wypracowany przez lata i opracowany w szczegółowych zakresach w wielu wcześniejszych publikacjach własny pogląd Autora na ontologię – zarówno w sensie koncepcji, jak i w sensie metodologii”.
„Zwarty autorski wykład ontologii jest we współczesnej filozofii zjawiskiem rzadkim i cennym”.
[Z recenzji prof. dra hab. Roberta Piłata]
„Samodzielność poszukiwań ontologicznych stanowi też miarę dojrzałości naukowej, talentu i osobistej odwagi. Niewiele jest książek współczesnych o podobnym rozmachu tematycznym, spełniających zarazem warunki literatury akademickiej, a zawierających oryginalne przesłanie i zmysł syntetyczny”.
„Wydaje się pewne, że (...) książka spotka się z zainteresowaniem i zapewne z rozmaitymi ocenami zarówno w środowisku filozoficznym, jak i w szerszym gronie czytelniczym. O tym decyduje materia sporów ontologicznych właśnie”.
[Z recenzji prof. dra hab. Józefa Lipca]
Profesor Marek Łagosz pracuje w Instytucie Filozofii Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, gdzie kieruje Zakładem Ontologii i Filozofii Przyrody. Dotychczas opublikował pięć książek: Znaczenie i prawda. Rozważania o Fregowskiej semantyce zdań (Wrocław 2000), Brzytwa Ockhama a wykazywanie nieistnienia (Wrocław 2002), Realność czasu (2007), Marks. Praca i czas. Wartość czasu w ekonomii i moralności (Warszawa 2012), O świadomości. Fenomenologia zjawisk umysłowych (Kęty 2016). Autor licznych publikacji m. in. w „Filozofii Nauki”, „Kwartalniku Filozoficznym”, „Przeglądzie Filozoficznym – Nowej Serii”, „Ruchu Filozoficznym”, „Principiach”, „Filozofii i nauce. Studiach filozoficznych i interdyscyplinarnych” oraz „Studia Philosophica Wratislaviensia”. Interesuje się ontologią, epistemologią, filozofią nauki, filozofią analityczną, filozofią Karola Marksa oraz fenomenologią. Jest przewodniczącym Okręgowego Komitetu Olimpiady Filozoficznej we Wrocławiu.
Kształcenie osób związanych z szeroko rozumianym zarządzaniem, w tym dowódców, w zakresie logiki jest szczególnie uzasadnione. Procesy te (tj. zarządzanie i dowodzenie) wymagają bowiem precyzyjnego, zwięzłego języka, nie dopuszczającego luzów semantycznych. Umiejętność prawidłowej analizy sytuacji, jednoznacznego formułowania zarządzeń czy rozkazów oraz poprawnego ich uzasadniania wymaga znajomości logiki zarówno w aspekcie formalnym, jak i w zakresie jej zastosowania do języka naturalnego. Jest to tym bardziej istotne, że poziom edukacji w tym zakresie wyraźnie się obniżył, zaś wymagania rosną. Powstająca luka jest coraz większa, co rzutuje na jakość życia społecznego w wielu dziedzinach. Wystarczy bliżej przyjrzeć się tworzonym dokumentom lub też prześledzić uważnie dyskurs społeczny na dowolny temat, by natychmiast zauważyć niepoprawne rozumowania, wadliwe argumentacje i brak merytorycznej polemiki. Stan ten ma oczywiście rozmaite przyczyny, ale jest niewłaściwy, a czasem nawet szkodliwy dla funkcjonowania państwa czy też jego podsystemów – takich jak np. wojsko.
Decyzje podejmowane bez uwzględnienia zasad logicznego rozumowania są zazwyczaj gorsze niż mogłyby być, a zatem najczęściej oznaczają stratę (w sensie braku odpowiedniej korzyści) ze społecznego punktu widzenia. W obszarze zarządzania ma to głównie skutki finansowe, choć np. nieprzemyślane zamknięcie fabryki ma również oczywisty wymiar społeczny. Z kolei w warunkach działań zbrojnych błędna decyzja przynosi zbyteczne straty również w ludziach, a więc ma zupełnie dosłownie wymiar życia lub śmierci. Zatem optymalizacja takich decyzji jest zasadniczym wyzwaniem stającym przed dowódcą. Wybór właściwej, wspomagany przez odpowiednie narzędzia, staje się jednym z istotnych wyznaczników sprawnego dowodzenia.
Dodatkowym czynnikiem wpływającym w istotny sposób na procesy dowodzenia jest masowe wprowadzenie zautomatyzowanych systemów wspomagania decyzji. Systemy te dają dowódcy nowe możliwości, ale jednocześnie wymagają zrozumienia sposobu ich działania, u podstaw którego leży klasyczna logika formalna. Znajomość tej ostatniej jest zatem niezbędna dla umiejętności jak najlepszego wykorzystania informacji przekazywanych przez taki system. Wchodzenie w szczegóły logicznej struktury odpowiednich programów wymagałoby wykładu wykraczającego poza zamiar autorski, natomiast poznanie zamieszczonych tu praw logiki i reguł wnioskowania pozwoli na zrozumienie podstaw działania tych systemów, co może mieć wpływ na lepsze ich wykorzystanie w praktyce.
Praca ta ma również na celu przybliżenie czytelnikom zastosowań logiki w kwestii tworzenia aktów prawnych. Krytyczna analiza tego aspektu w odniesieniu do wybranych dokumentów z tego obszaru może pozwolić osobom takie dokumenty tworzącym na uniknięcie błędów w zakresie legislacji. Wreszcie pewne uwagi dotyczące definicji w nauce pokażą je z logicznej perspektywy, co może przyczynić się do uniknięcia tworzenia nieuzasadnionych hipostaz i bytów naruszających regułę Ockhamowskiej brzytwy.
When one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology in The Order of Things, possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century. Eclipsed by his later work on power and discourse, nonetheless it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant. Pirouetting around the outer edge of language, Foucault unsettles the surface of literary writing. In describing the limitations of our usual taxonomies, he opens the door onto a whole new system of thought, one ripe with what he calls "exotic charm". Intellectual pyrotechnics from the master of critical thinking, this book is crucial reading for those who wish to gain insight into that odd beast called Postmodernism, and a must for any fan of Foucault.
Gravity and Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker and activist, Simone Weil. In it Gustave Thibon, the farmer to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death, compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance and wisdom for countless individuals. On the fiftieth anniversary of the first English edition - by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1952 - this Routledge Classics edition offers English readers the complete text of this landmark work for the first time ever, by incorporating a specially commissioned translation of the controversial chapter on Israel. Also previously untranslated is Gustave Thibon's postscript of 1990, which reminds us how privileged we are to be able to read a work which offers each reader such 'light for the spirit and nourishment for the soul'. This is a book that no one with a serious interest in the spiritual life can afford to be without.
Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme brilliance, it captured the imagination of a generation of philosophers. For Wittgenstein, logic was something we use to conquer a reality which is in itself both elusive and unobtainable. He famously summarized the book in the following words: 'What can be said at all can be said clearly; and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.' David Pears and Brian McGuinness received the highest praise for their meticulous translation. The work is prefaced by Bertrand Russell's original introduction to the first English edition.
While its tone is playful and frivolous, this book poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.
Religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave? Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy.
Intolerance and bigotry lie at the heart of all human suffering. So claims Bertrand Russell at the outset of In Praise of Idleness, a collection of essays in which he espouses the virtues of cool reflection and free enquiry; a voice of calm in a world of maddening unreason. From a devastating critique of the ancestry of fascism to a vehement defence of 'useless' knowledge, with consideration given to everything from insect pests to the human soul, this is a tour de force that only Bertrand Russell could perform.
A Short History of Ethics has over the past thirty years become a key philosophical contribution to studies on morality and ethics. Alasdair MacIntyre writes a new preface for this second edition which looks at the book 'thirty years on' and considers its impact. A Short History of Ethics guides the reader through the history of moral philosophy from the Greeks to contemporary times. MacIntyre emphasises the importance of a historical context to moral concepts and ideas showing the relevance of philosophical queries on moral concepts and the importance of a historical account of ethics.
A Short History of Ethics is an important contribution written by one of the most important living philosophers. Ideal for all philosophy students interested in ethics and morality.
Few philosophers have had more influence on the shape of western philosophy after 1900 than Martin Heidegger. Basic Writings offers a full range of this profound and controversial thinker’s writings in one volume, including:
The Origin of the Work of Art
The introduction to Being and Time
What Is Metaphysics?
Letter on Humanism
The Question Concerning Technology
The Way to Language
The End of Philosophy
Featuring a foreword by Heidegger scholar Taylor Carman, this essential collection provides readers with a concise introduction to the groundbreaking philosophy of this brilliant and essential thinker.
In Bodies That Matter, renowned theorist and philosopher Judith Butler argues that theories of gender need to return to the most material dimension of sex and sexuality: the body. Butler offers a brilliant reworking of the body, examining how the power of heterosexual hegemony forms the "matter" of bodies, sex, and gender. Butler argues that power operates to constrain sex from the start, delimiting what counts as a viable sex. She clarifies the notion of "performativity" introduced in Gender Trouble and via bold readings of Plato, Irigaray, Lacan, and Freud explores the meaning of a citational politics. She also draws on documentary and literature with compelling interpretations of the film Paris is Burning, Nella Larsen's Passing, and short stories by Willa Cather.
One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial.
Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, 'essential' notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category 'woman' and continues in this vein with examinations of 'the masculine' and 'the feminine'. Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality.
Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent.
Working after the war, Hayek's writing was very much against the tide of mainstream Keynesian economic thought. But in the 1970s and 1980s - the eras of Thatcherism and Reaganomics - he was championed as a prophet of neo-liberalism by those who were seeking to revolutionize the post-war social consensus. The Constitution of Liberty is crucial reading for all those seeking to understand ideas that have become the orthodoxy in the age of the globalized economy.
With a new foreword by Paul Kelly
'I regard Hayek's work as a new opening of the most fundamental debate in the field of political philosophy' – Sir Karl Popper
'This promises to be the crowning work of a scholar who has devoted a lifetime to thinking about society and its values. The entire work must surely amount to an immense contribution to social and legal philosophy' - Philosophical Studies
Law, Legislation and Liberty is Hayek's major statement of political philosophy and one of the most ambitious yet subtle defences of a free market society ever written. A robust defence of individual liberty, it is also crucial for understanding Hayek’s influential views concerning the role of the state: far from being an innocent bystander, he argues that the state has an important role to play in defending the norms and practices of an ordered and free society. His arguments had a profound influence on the policies of Thatcher in the 1980s and resonate today in visions of the ‘Big Society’.
First published in three separate volumes, this Routledge Classics edition makes one of his most important books available in a single volume. Essential reading for understanding the background to the recent world economic turmoil and financial crisis, it also foreshadows the subsequent heated debate about regulation and political governance if such disasters are to be avoided in the future.
What do walking, weaving, observing, storytelling, singing, drawing and writing have in common? The answer is that they all proceed along lines. In this extraordinary book Tim Ingold imagines a world in which everyone and everything consists of interwoven or interconnected lines and lays the foundations for a completely new discipline: the anthropological archaeology of the line.
Ingold’s argument leads us through the music of Ancient Greece and contemporary Japan, Siberian labyrinths and Roman roads, Chinese calligraphy and the printed alphabet, weaving a path between antiquity and the present. Drawing on a multitude of disciplines including archaeology, classical studies, art history, linguistics, psychology, musicology, philosophy and many others, and including more than seventy illustrations, this book takes us on an exhilarating intellectual journey that will change the way we look at the world and how we go about in it.
This Routledge Classics edition includes a new preface by the author.
Jacques Derrida’s Structure, Sign, and Play is one of the most controversial and influential philosophical texts of the 20th century. Delivered at a conference on structuralism at Johns Hopkins, the lecture took aim at the critical and philosophical fashions of the time and radically proposing a world in which meaning cannot be pinned down or traced to an origin, but instead is continuously shifting, fleeting, and open to play. Hailed by many as a watershed in philosophy and literary theory, Derrida’s lecture has shaped both disciplines. At once dense, brilliant, and humorous, it is a crucial read for anyone interested in questioning our natural assumptions about meaning in the world.
Debt is one of the great subjects of our day, and understanding the way that it not only fuels economic growth, but can also be used as a means of generating profit and exerting control, is central to grasping the way in which our society really works.
David Graeber's contribution to this debate is to apply his anthropologists' training to the understanding of a phenomenon often considered purely from an economic point of view. In this respect, the book can be considered a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving. Graeber's main aim is to undermine the dominant narrative, which sees debt as the natural – and broadly healthy – outcome of the development of a modern economic system. He marshals evidence that supports alternative possibilities, and suggests that the phenomenon of debt emerged not as a result of the introduction of money, but at precisely the same time.
This in turn allows Graeber to argue against the prevailing notion that economy and state are fundamentally separate entities. Rather, he says, "the two were born together and have always been intertwined" – with debt being a means of enforcing elite and state power. For Graeber, this evaluation of the evidence points to a strong potential solution: there should be more readiness to write off debt, and more public involvement in the debate over debt and its moral implications.
The history of anthropology is, to a large extent, the history of differing modes of interpretation.
As anthropologists have long known, examining, analyzing and recording cultures in the quest to understand humankind as a whole is a vastly complex task, in which nothing can be achieved without careful and incisive interpretative work. Edward Evans-Pritchard’s seminal 1937 Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande is a model contribution to anthropology’s grand interpretative project, and one whose success is based largely on its author’s thinking skills. A major issue in anthropology at the time was the common assumption that the faiths and customs of other cultures appeared irrational or illogical when compared to the “civilized” and scientific beliefs of the western world.
Evans-Pritchard sought to challenge such definitions by embedding himself within a tribal culture in Africa – that of the Azande – and attempting to understand their beliefs in their proper contexts. By doing so, Evans-Pritchard proved just how vital context is to interpretation. Seen within their context, he was able to show, the beliefs of the Azande were far from irrational – and magic actually formed a coherent system that helped mould a functional community and society for the tribe. Evans-Pritchard’s efforts to clarify meaning in this way have proved hugely influential, and have played a major part in guiding later generations of anthropologists from his day to ours.
In Outline of a Theory of Practice, Bourdieu questions the preeminent ideas of social anthropologists such as Levi-Strauss who stressed the structural principles governing human action rather than the actions themselves and, Bourdieu asserts, doesn’t account for all observable nuances of behaviour. Drawing on his fieldwork in Algeria, he expresses the need for a theory of practice focusing on the dynamic flow of human actions in the social world. Bourdieu coins the term ‘habitus’- a relational concept linking structures to the practice of agents. Outline is a significant and original contribution, providing an account of many of the issues Bourdieu continued to develop through his career.
This completely new edition of The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky surveys Chomsky's contributions to the science of language, to socioeconomic-political analysis and criticism, and to the study of the human mind. The first section focuses on the aims of Chomsky's recent 'biological-minimalist' turn in the science of language, and shows how Chomsky's view of the nature of language and its introduction to the human species has recently developed. The second section focuses on Chomsky's view of the mind and its parts - and how to study them. Finally, the third section examines some of Chomsky's many contributions to socio-political history and critique. This new edition examines Chomsky's views on a wide range of issues, from his views of the lexicon, language's evolution, and the study of mind to the status of capitalism and the Palestine-Israel conflict. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in Chomsky's ideas.
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