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Our culture entertains a schizophrenic attitude towards human nature. On the one hand, egoism is held to be our most powerful motive, playing a crucial cultural role by explaining the appeal of capitalism and providing a foundation for individualism. By contrast, much of the continental intellectual tradition speaks of wholeness and alienation, seeing human nature not as self-interested but as herd-like. Guldmann argues that this schism reflects two diverging conceptions of human agency, and that the attempt to locate human nature somewhere along a continuum between egoism and altruism presupposes a misleading picture of what it is to be a human being. The second, 'continental' tradition is more illuminating because it recognizes that human beings are necessarily committed to some conception of the ultimately significant. ... Read more

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Protagoras was an important Greek thinker of the fifth century BC, the most famous of the so called Sophists, though most of what we know of him and his thought comes to us mainly through the dialogues of his strenuous opponent Plato. In this book, Ugo Zilioli offers a sustained and philosophically sophisticated examination of what is, in philosophical terms, the most interesting feature of Protagoras' thought for modern readers: his role as the first Western thinker to argue for relativism. Zilioli relates Protagoras' relativism with modern forms of relativism, in particular the 'robust relativism' of Joseph Margolis, gives an integrated account both of the perceptual relativism examined in Plato's "Theatetus" and the ethical or social relativism presented in the first part of Plato's "Protagoras" and offers an integrated and positive analysis of Protagoras' thought, rather than focusing on ancient criticisms and responses to his thought. This is a deeply scholarly work which brings much argument to bear to the claim that Protagoras was and remains Plato's subtlest philosophical enemy. ... Read more

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Science and humanity are usually seen as very different: the sciences of nature aim at explanations whereas the sciences of man seek meaning and understanding. This book shows how these contrasting descriptions fail to fit into a modern philosophical account of the sciences and the arts. Presenting some of the major ideas within the philosophy of science on facts, explanation, interpretation, methods, laws, and theories, Jan Faye compares various approaches, including his own. Arguing that the sciences of nature and the sciences of man share a common practice of acquiring knowledge, this book offers an unusual introduction to key aspects in the philosophy of science. ... Read more

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Jaroslav Peregrin explores the relationship between meaning and structure, taking as his starting point an introduction to the aspects of the Saussurean legacy that he feels are crucial in this endeavour and can be seen as congenial to the views of language entertained by the "postanalytic" philosophers. To show the compatibility of de Saussure's structuralism to the theses of analytical philosophy, he outlines the similarities between de Saussure's account of "linguistic reality" with Gottlob Frege's account of the nature of abstract entities. Peregrin claims that, as structure is a way in which some parts are organized into a whole, we need a theory of systems of parts and wholes. He considers the theory proposed for this purpose by Stanislaw Lesniewski but concludes that this theory is not exactly what is needed, and he offers a sketch of a more suitable mathematical theory. He then tries to make a mathematical sense of the Saussurean idea of the birth of "the structural" out of oppositions. In the second part of the book, Peregrin turns his attention to the postanalytic philosophers whose views of language he wants to portray as continuous with de Saussure's teaching.He studies the views of Willard Van Orman Quine, whose widely discussed indeterminacy theses can be read as simply pointing out the structural nature of language. Peregrin finds that Quine's holism, with which he replaces the atomism of his analytic predecessors, is nothing other than a form of structuralism. He next considers Donald Davidson's insight that the opposition which is crucial from the viewpoint of meaning is that between truth and falsity. The view of language originally put forward by Wilfrid Sellars and developed by Robert Brandom is scrutinized to reveal that, according to Brandom, language is first and foremost our means of engaging in the practice of giving and asking for reasons. Hence, Peregrin interprets, language's statements are useful only in so far as they are interrelated with other statements, as they can be used as reasons for other statements or be justified by means of other statements.In the third part of the book, Peregrin summarizes the outcome of the previous considerations by claiming that the structure of language that is constitutive of its semantics is the "inferential structure", and that the meaning of an expression is most adequately identified with its inferential role. He goes on to consider the general relationship between the realm of formal structures and models (such as those dealt with by formal semantics) and that of real phenomena (such as our natural language). In the final chapter, Peregrin challenges some common wisdoms regarding "semantic structures" or "logical forms" of expression, and tries to show that from the vantage point presented in his book, both the concept of "logical form" as developed by Chomsky and his followers, and that as developed by the logicians following Russell, are problematic. ... Read more

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The rule of law neither celebrates human rights nor simply ratifies whatever happens to be on the statute books. At its core it simply guarantees that laws, however immoral or unjust, penalise people only for what they do, and never for what they are. Yet even when its moral accretions are stripped away, the rule of law offers protections that morality itself has trouble maintaining. This book draws on contemporary moral theory, philosophy of law and political theory to explore the rule of law. Offering new perspectives on contemporary moral issues, particularly those related to race relations, cultural diversity, and "political correctness", Neumann argues that the rule of law does not compete with morality, but complements it, suggesting how, if we cannot find principles suitable to our societies, perhaps we can make societies that fit our principles. ... Read more

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How can the complexities of understanding science be dealt with as a whole? Is philosophical realism still a defensible philosophical position? Exploring such fundamental questions, this work claims that science ought to be understood in terms of universal practices and that such an understanding supports an attractive version of scientific realism. Holism is attracting renewed scholarly attention but is still loosely used in a range of different contexts, from semantics to medicine. This book presents a detailed philosophical analysis of holism - cognitive and social - to investigate "holism"'s connectivity with science. Bridging the gap between analytical, historical and sociological accounts of science, Louis Caruana draws together results from research by Davidson, Dummett, Quine, Wright and others, on Wittgenstein's later philosophy. ... Read more

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The topic of vagueness re-emerged in the twentieth century from relative obscurity. It deals with the phenomenon in natural language that manifests itself in apparent semantic indeterminacy - the indeterminacy, for example, that arises when asked to draw the line between the tall and non-tall, or the drunk and the sober. An associated paradox emphasises the challenging nature of the phenomenon, presenting one of the most resilient paradoxes of logic. The apparent threat posed for orthodox theories of the semantics and logic of natural language has become the focus of intense philosophical scrutiny amongst philosophers and non-philosophers alike."Vagueness, Logic and Ontology" explores various responses to the philosophical problems generated by vagueness and its associated paradox - the sorites paradox. Hyde argues that the theoretical space in which vagueness is sometimes ontologically grounded and modelled by a truth-functional logic affords a coherent response to the problems posed by vagueness. Showing how the concept of vagueness can be applied to the world, Hyde's ontological account proposes a substantial revision of orthodox semantics, metaphysics and logic.This book will be of particular interest to readers in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science and geographic information systems. ... Read more

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This work explores the question of why there is something instead of nothing. Several responses to this question are possible, but only some of them address the question seriously, respecting its emotional aspects as well as its cognitive dimension. The author carefully distinguishes those answers that are truly satisfactory, in both respects, from those that are inadequate. It can be argued that the existence of the world has no explanation at all, or that there is a necessary being whose existence is self-explanatory, or that the world exists because it has value. Each kind of response is defensible to some degree, and it is argued that where they are defensible, they have a common content. Incorporating aspects of both the "analytical" and "continental" traditions, this book also responds to several historical philosophers concerned with these questions, including Plato, Leibniz, Kant and Nietzsche. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Survey of Answers to the Fundamental Question of Metaphysics
I had to read this book for my graduate school metaphysics course and it was quite literally one of the best books I've ever read.It is scholarly enough to be appropriate as a part of a graduate school course, but written clearly enough to be appropriate for an undergraduate course as well.Witherall discusses, in detail, the currently available answers to what he calls the fundamental question of metaphysics, why there is something rather than nothing or why does existence exist at all or what is the reason or meaning for existence, taken as a whole?

After identifying the question itself and examining some answers from probability that Witherall deems too emotionally inadequate to be sufficient answers to the fundamental question in his first chapter, in chapter two he discusses Deflationary answers which 'seek to show either that there is no answer to be found, or that the inquiry itself has no cognitive meaning, and therefore that there is no basis for the provision of an answer.'He categorizes the Logical Positivists, Paul Edwards, Wittgenstein, Derek Parfit, Kant, and Quentin Smith as all giving versions of a deflationary answer to the fundamental question, with only Smith's answer being complete enough to count as a sufficient answer because it fulfills the emotional, as well as the intellectual, requirement Witherall specifies in his first chapter.

The third chapter is devoted to Necessitarian answers, which state 'that certain propositions are necessarily true, either because they are analytic, and therefore true in virtue of their meaning, or because they are theorems of some true formal system, or because they state some truth about an object or set of objects which necessarily exist.'After dismissing the analytic truth approach as emotionally unsatisfying, Witherall considers David Lewis modal realism, Thomas Baldwin's subtraction argument, and Leibniz's necessary being as possible answers, but dismisses them after considering critiques of the Principle of Sufficient Reason.Witherall finishes this chapter by giving first a Platonic, and then a Mystical Theistic, type of answer to the fundamental question. A pretty orthodox Christian buddy of mine really didn't like this part of the book, as he believes that Witherall's conception of God is extremely incorrect, but because I love mysticism, I loved it and it's one of my favorite sections of the entire book.

Witherall then discusses Ultimate Values which he defines as 'the final word, the most general and all-inclusive principle or idea or experience, governing all of our evaluations.'Witherall continues this chapter by examining Plato's Form of the Good, John Leslie's Axiarchic approach, and Nietzsche's Aesthetic approach as answers to the fundamental question.I liked this chapter the most in the entire book, as my own answers to the fundamental question lie closest to the answers given in this chapter.And when he called Nietzsche's ontology in the Birth of Tragedy a kind of mystical monism I screamed out in joy, as this is what I have thought for a very long time.

He concludes with a chapter he calls 'The Gift of Being,' in which he defends his thesis that all satisfactory answers to the fundamental question must conform to a specific structure he has been trying to explicate throughout his book.He calls the criteria of this structure 'Features of the Gift of Being' and they include metaphysical necessity, transcendence, intelligibility, and intimate involvement.A satisfactory answer to the fundamental question must somehow address all of these ideas if it is even to be considered a satisfactory answer in the first place.

By the end of the book, Witherall seemed to be leaning toward the Mystical Theism as the correct answer to the fundamental question, but maybe I was just reading him too strongly there.Overall, this was a great book, which engaged both ancient, modern, and contemporary answers to the fundamental question and did it in such a way as to combine the best parts of analytic philosophy with the best parts of continental philosophy.Truly an Excellent piece of scholarship!My Highest Recommendation!

Intelligent study of "Why is there something rather than nothing?"
Arthur Witherall's book, THE PROBLEM OF EXISTENCE [2002], is the most comprehensive study to date of the possible responses to the question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" Witherall explains and critically evaluates several types of responses, such as Necessitarian answers, i.e., it is necessary there is somethng (David Lewis, Thomas Baldwin, Armstrong, and others; Witherall's interesting deduction from Quine's analysis of the existential quantifier shows Quine is committed to a necessitarian answer). Witherall criticially examines each theory and makes plausible points. Further, Deflationary responses, "there is no reason why there contingently is something" and John Leslie's and others Axiological approaches are examined and Witherall concludes with his own novel theory. Witherall is widely read in contemporary literature on the topic and also makes pertinent references to historical figures, such as Leibniz and Spinoza. This book shows the advances made in the study of this question since Nozick's fuzzy chapter in his 1981 book; Witherall's book is accessible, rigorous and original. Unfortunately, its price makes it inaccessible for teaching purposes (suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses) but those with $95 and an interest in this question "epistemically ought" to buy it. There needs to be a less expensive paperback version. ... Read more

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Beginning by posing the question of what it is that marks the difference between something like terrorism and something like civil society, Brassington argues that commonsense moral arguments against terrorism or political violence tend to imply that the modern democratic polis might also be morally unjustifiable. At the same time, the commonsense arguments in favour of something like a modern democratic polis could be coopted by the politically violent as exculpatory. In exploring this prima facie problem and in the course of trying to substantiate the commonsense distinction, Brassington identifies a tension between the primary values of truth and normativity in the standard accounts of moral theory which he ultimately resolves by adopting lines of thought suggested by Martin Heidegger and concluding that the problem with mainstream moral philosophy is that, in a sense, it tries too hard. ... Read more

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Contemporary continental philosophy is a widely used but in many ways problematic term, and its exact frame of reference is not always clear. In French manifestations in particular, it continues to arouse considerable controversy and create bitter divisions, with especially hostile reactions to the work of Derrida and others. Much work in the recent continental tradition can be fitted into a longer-running philosophical tradition of scepticism and scepticism has always had the power to provoke and unsettle the philosophical establishment. Presenting an overview of the philosophical landscape of the continental tradition since the 1940s, this book traces the establishment of the new, super-scepticism as an intellectual paradigm with the power to threaten and disorientate existing world-views and more traditional styles of philosophical discourse - marking the continental divide.Exploring how contemporary continental philosophy from existentialism to postmodernism can be characterized as this new, more resistant form of scepticism, Stuart Sim identifies a clutch of key themes - including "different", "the subject"; anti-foundationalism" and "dialectics" which have been obsessively worked over by key thinkers in the Existentialist-Postmodernist period and demonstrates how these have contributed to the development of a super-sceptical outlook. Presenting a theme-led approach to provide an entry into current debates in continental philosophy, Stuart Sim reintegrates the work of Sartre into the more recent continental tradition, and suggests that something qualitatively different is now occurring in French philosophy. ... Read more

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Identity politics dominates the organisation of liberation movements today. This is the case whether fighting over one's birthright to a nation, such as in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, lobbying for civil rights, such as in gay and lesbian campaigns for marriage, or struggling for citizenry recognition as currently experienced by asylum seekers.In this book Carolyn D'Cruz investigates the nexus between what David Birch describes as 'the seemingly impossible of high theory and the seemingly accessible possibilities of popular discourse', as encountered in liberation movements based on identity. D'Cruz reworks the logic of such movements through the unique combination of Derridean deconstruction, Foucauldian discourse and Levinasian ethics.Moving both within and between the domains of philosophy, politics and 'postmodern culture', this book offers both a clear explication of complex philosophical issues and an understanding of how they relate to the political practicalities of everyday life. ... Read more

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This text discusses the idea that the decline of storytelling coincides with the breakdown and fragmentation of temporal unity and "meaning of life" of the grand narratives which set the scene for the storyteller until the beginning of modern times in the 17th and 18th centuries. The art of exchanging experiences in the craft of writing then becomes in-formed by the quest for the "meaning of life" around which the narrative moves. In relation to this quest, the aim of the book is to focus upon what may be discerned as a common element in the oral tradition of storytelling and textual narratives. It aims to present a new metaphysics radically different from all traditional attempts in western philosophy to satsify the human desire for absolute knowledge of the Other. ... Read more

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The problem of the subject-predicate distinction has featured centrally in much of modern philosophy of language and philosophical logic, and the distinction is taken as basic or fundamental in modern philosophical logic. Michael Durrant, whilst explicitly not denying that the subject-predicate distinction as a distinction is ultimate, seeks to demonstrate that the distinction should not be taken as basic or fundamental and argues that the reason for it being held to be fundamental is a failure to acknowledge the category and role of the sortal. A sortal is a symbol which furnishes us with a principle for distinguishing and counting particulars (objects) and whick does so in its own right relying on no antecedent principle or method of so distinguishing or counting.This book explores sortals and their relationship to the subject-predicate distinction; arguing that the nature of sortal symbols has been misconstrued in much modern writing in the philosophy of logic by failing to distinguish sortals from names and predicates; contending that this misconstruction has led to a failure to appreciate what makes the subject-predicate distinction possible; demonstrating logical difficulties which then follow; and expounding an account of sortal symbols which seeks to be immune from the difficulties. Exploring and challenging aspects of the work of Frege, Russell, Geach, Quine, Evans and Strawson, amongst others, Durrant also provides a challenge to certain popular presuppositions employed in many areas of contemporary philosophical debate, and offers important insights for those studying across philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and metaphysics and epistemology, in particular. ... Read more

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Dieter Henrich is one of the most respected and frequently cited philosophers in Germany. His extensive and innovative studies of German Idealism and his systematic analyses of subjectivity have significantly impacted on advanced German philosophical and theological debates. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of Henrich's work on subjectivity, evaluating it in the context of contemporary debates in both continental and analytic traditions. Familiarising the non-German reader with an important development in contemporary German philosophy, this book explains the significance of subjectivity for any philosophy that attempts to offer existential orientation and contrasts competing conceptions in analytic philosophy and in the social philosophy of Juergen Habermas. Presenting Henrich's philosophy of subjectivity as a credible alternative to analytic philosophy of mind and a radical challenge to Heideggerian, Habermasian, neo-pragmatist, and postmodern positions, Freundlieb argues that a philosophy of the kind developed by Henrich can regain the cultural significance philosophical thinking once possessed. ... Read more

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Zizek has emerged as the pre-eminent European cultural theorist of the last decade and has been described as the ultimate Marxist/Lacanian cultural studies scholar. Sharpe undertakes the difficult task of drawing out an evolving argument from all of Zizek's texts from 1989 to 2001. Sharpe from the University of ... Read more

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Augenblick, meaning literally 'In the blink of an eye', describes a 'decisive moment' in time that is both fleeting yet momentously eventful, even epoch-makingly significant. In this book, Koral Ward investigates the development of the concept into one of the core ideas in Western existential philosophy alongside such concepts as anxiety and individual freedom.Ward examines the whole extent of the idea of the 'decisive moment', in which an individual's entire life-project is open to a radical reorientation. From its inception in Kierkegaard's works to the writings of Jaspers and Heidegger, she draws on a vast array of sources beyond just the standard figures of 19th and 20th century Continental philosophy, finding ideas and examples in photography, cinema, music, art, and the modern novel. ... Read more

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This work establishes Wittgenstein's early work in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus as an invaluable source for exploring current debate on analytic philosophy in its origins, history, limits and relations with European philosophy. Drawing together new work from leading researchers in the field - including Conant, Diamond, Monk and Glock - this timely reader offers a resource for exploring the Tractatus' connections to approaches other than logical positivism, mathematical logic and formal semantics. Examining links with the work of Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Frege, Russell, and others, the contributors consider key themes in 20th Century philosophy including symbolism and expression, limits of philosophical discourse, Kantian transcendental arguments, limits of sense and nonsense, showing and saying. Particularly timely in establishing the Tractatus as a source for comparable debates across continental and analytic philosophy, the reader should prove of value to scholars of 20th-century philosophy, Wittgenstein, and post-analytic philosophy. ... Read more

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Presenting a critical history of the philosophy of science in the twentieth century, focusing on the transition from logical positivism in its first half to the 'new philosophy of science' in its second, Stefano Gattei examines the influence of several key figures, but the main focus of the book are Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper.Kuhn as the central figure of the new philosophy of science, and Popper as a key philosopher of the time who stands outside both traditions. Gattei makes two important claims about the development of the philosophy of science in the twentieth century; that Kuhn is much closer to positivism than many have supposed, failing to solve the crisis of neopostivism, and that Popper, in responding to the deeper crisis of foundationalism that spans the whole of the Western philosophical tradition, ultimately shows what is untenable in Kuhn's view.Gattei has written a very detailed and fine grained, yet accessible discussion making exceptionally interesting use of archive materials. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A tribute to the stupidity of modern philosophy of science
This stupid book embodies the doctrinal idiocy of modern analytic philosophy of science. The book appears to be essentially Gattei's PhD thesis (indeed, it consists almost entirely of highly unimaginative, dissertation-style literature review); and, since Gattei is obviously intellectually spineless, the book reveals the doctrinal imprint in its purest form. The book's stupid thesis is that "the implicit presuppositions and the stated principles of Kuhn's philosophy are not very different from those of the logical positivists or logical empiricists he was determined to reject" (p. x). The notion that Kuhn was "determined to reject" logical positivism is of course utterly ridiculous. Two assumptions make such nonsense appear sensible to people like Gattei and Alexander Bird (his PhD advisor, who has written on the same topic). Firstly, that logical positivism is the alpha and the omega of philosophy of science, and that everyone must be "determined" to define his opinion in relation to it. Secondly, that the philosophy of science is a pathetic ping-pong game between philosophical isms. Because of these doctrinal assumptions, it never occurs to these people that someone might actually do philosophy of science by thinking about actual science and pursuing the interesting questions that arise, rather than by rummaging through the hottest post-positivist journals in search of some miniscule crevice that no one has exploited yet. ... Read more