Product Description
A survey of the philosophy of science from positivism to social constructivism, this book focuses on the ontological implications of science. An innovative feature is the author's use of immunology as a source of descriptive examples, thus providing lively illustrations from a life science with universal appeal and allowing continuity throughout this volume. The coverage of Quinean holism and supervenience clarify concepts which have been often misunderstood, while the discussion of the Kuhnian model of science rectifies the distortions it underwent due to misuse in the past. Feminist and nonfeminist concepts of science, as well as social constructivist models are thoroughly investigated by Klee. The book is lavishly illustrated and includes a glossary defining over eighty key terms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

book review
The book was in great condition, better than I had expected and the price was excellent.

modern apologetics for realism, not general intro.
Klee is a prof. of philosophy at Ithaca College. He states somewhere near the end of the book that his perspective is that of holist realism.

Throughout this book he deals with the debate between realismand anti-realism,giving answers (a real apologetics) against anti-realistarguments (in particular against philosophers of nature such as Kuhn, VanFraassen, Laudan.., and against postmoderns and feminists) In theconclusion of the book the author ends by stating his optistism for naturalscience which he by far sees as the highest achievement and hope.

I findthis book valuable when taken as a book about the debate betweenrealism/antirealism, or as a defense of realism. But I do not find itvaluable as a introduction to the philosophy of "science". Theauthor does not define what he means by "science" (this word usedto mean something like "organized knowledge" and used to includetheology, history, philosophy - it is only since about a century or morethat the influence of positivism/kantianism in the anglo-Saxon world hasreduced it to the modeling of natural or social patterns). Besides, hestarts right away with positivism, , skipping thousands of years of scienceand philosophical debate (although he sometimes mentions some less recentauthors), and continues with the 20th century debate about realism, lettingmany current issues aside.

I have nothing against the fact that theauthor defends realism so much, but then I expect him to be honest andclear. I think this book should have been called something like "AnIntroduction to the Philosophical Debate about the Objectivity of theNatural and Social Sciences: a Realist Perspective."

BTW, Isometimes had the impression the author is committed to materialism or evento scientism, but I may be wrong about this.

an excellent and objective overview
I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to get up to speed on what has happened in the philosophy of science during the past three centuries.The author speaks in his own voice, which keeps the book interesting andengaging from start to finish.This is not a dry textbook.At the sametime, the author clearly identifies where his own sympathies lie, and isvery objective in his treatment of opposing views.

A couple of areas forimprovement:The author mentions Kant's idea of noumena and phenomena on afew occasions in the book, but does not really discuss the Kantian idea ofthe "external world" any further.I wish he did.Also, theauthor seems to imply that we shouldn't be too hasty to let ourphilosophies be influenced by the results we find in quantum physics(presumably because they tend to be so bizarre and atypical).I would haveliked the author to elaborate a bit more on this view.I think many peopleinterested in the philosophy of science would argue the opposite:A goodphilosophy of science must necessarily accommodate the most perplexing andparadoxical scientific findings.

In summary, the book is definitelyworthwhile, and I hope many scientists and non-scientists read it.

A clear introduction to the Philosophy of Science
Robert Klee's introductory text to the Philosophy of Science is a concise and well-written introduction to the Philosophy of Science.It gives a great framework (and suggested further readings) for the person interestedin this topic. The contributions of Hempel, Popper, Quine, Kuhn, et al arepresented in a thought provoking manner.

If you enjoy philosophy and havenot ventured into the philosophy of science, this is a great place tobegin.

An exceedingly useful book that frames the issues well.
For newcomers and old hands engaged in the philosophy of science, Klee's book serves to frame the subject in a clear and coherent way. Klee uses immunology as his jumping-off point, rather than physics in order to framethe general areas of inquiry and disputes within the subject. This worksquite well, even for those of us uninitiated in any serious way intoesoteric immunological studies and its attendant lexicon. Klee touches onall the basics and revists elementary concepts in logic and philosophy thatwill be useful for the non-philosopher and general reader. There is a luciddiscussion of the debates and disputes within the subject, such as betweenKuhn and Popper, and Klee pays ample attention to other of the majorfigures, particularly those weighing in the realism/antirealism debate.Further,Introduction to Philosophy of Science will serve as one of thoserare texts that can be called upon to fill in knowledge gaps and memorylapses in other areas in philosophy generally. While the subject matter canbe arid and difficult to wade through, Klee's book is brilliantly writtenand fun to read. He makes no bones about his own realism, but is reasonablyfair to anti-realist critics. Yet at times his loss of patience with thosewho take an anti-realist position bleeds through his prose, often in quitehumorous ways. This books will be read and re-read by serious students ofthe subject and may become a standard text in the philosophy of scienceused in undergraduate and graduate pedagogy, as well it should. ... Read more

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Unmatched in the quality of its world-renowned contributors, this companion serves as both a course text and a reference book across the broad spectrum of issues of concern to the philosophy of science. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A useful resource, but not for beginners
This book consists of 81 chapters, organized alphabetically, covering various topics in the philosophy of science.Some of the topics are core topics (eg, causation, experiment, laws of nature, measurement, probability, reductionism, and theories), whereas other topics are fairly esoteric (eg, Craig's theorem, Ramsey sentences, and verisimilitude).There are also quite a few chapters covering philosophers and scientists who have been particularly influential in the philosophy of science (eg, Bohr, Darwin, Descartes, Einstein, Feyerabend, Galileo, Hume, etc.).

While the chapters are short (typically 2 to 10 pages), they're written fairly densely, so significant concentration and time are required to read them.Related to this, the level of the writing is fairly high, so a prerequisite for this book is a background at least roughly equal to a one-semester university course in philosophy of science.Indeed, I would venture that even most professional philosophers of science could learn a lot from this book.

I recommend this book if you want to delve into various topics in the philosophy of science at an intermediate to advanced level, and accordingly have adequate prior background.

Good collection for overview
This is a good collection of articles on a wide variety of major topics in the philosophy of science. Esp. good for undergraduates to get an overview of key arguments about various schools of thought, concepts, and thinkers. Given the relatively low price, the large number of pages, and the quality of (most) of the articles, it is well worth purchasing. ... Read more

Product Description
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Neuroscience is a state-of-the-art collection of interdisciplinary research spanning philosophy (of science, mind, and ethics) and current neuroscience. Containing chapters written by some of the most prominent philosophers working in this area, and in some cases co-authored with neuroscientists, this volume reflects both the breadth and depth of current work in this exciting field. Topics include the nature of explanation in neuroscience; whether and how current neuroscience is reductionistic; consequences of current research on the neurobiology of learning and memory, perception and sensation, neurocomputational modeling, and neuroanatomy; the burgeoning field of neuroethics and the neurobiology of motivation that increasingly informs it; implications from neurology and clinical neuropsychology, especially in light of some bizarre symptoms involving misrepresentations of self; the extent and consequences of multiple realization in actual neuroscience; the new field of neuroeudamonia; and the neurophilosophy of subjectivity.

This volume will interest philosophers working in numerous fields who wish to see how current neuroscience is being brought to bear directly on philosophical issues. It will also be of interest to neuroscientists who wish to learn how the research programs of some of their colleagues are being enriched by interaction with philosophers, and finally to those working in any interdisciplinary field who wish to see how two seemingly disparate disciplines--one traditional and humanistic, the other new and scientific--are being brought together to both disciplines' mutual benefit. ... Read more

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Stimulating, thought-provoking text by one of the 20th century’s most creative philosophers clearly and discerningly makes accessible such topics as probability, measurement and quantitative language, structure of space, causality and determinism, theoretical laws and concepts and much more. "...the best book available for the intelligent reader who wants to gain some insight into the nature of contemporary philosophy of science."—Choice.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Review by LP
A cultural cornerstone. Must be read by those who are interested in science and its history.

Not only for specialists
The value of this book is that it contains a summary of the views of Carnap in his last years, but it is readable not only for specialists. The "introduction" really menas that it is not so technical. You may read this book if you are interested in special relativity and some philosophy, or if you are curious about the scientific method and like to think abot it.

Carnapian survivals and computerized successes
Positivism is dead.Most of the philosophy in this book is now obsolete, but it has relevance today following the passing of the brief but popular anti-analytical Kuhnian fad.

Carnap rejected the idea of a machine for creating theories, which reference unobservables.And in his Logical foundations of probability (1950) he concluded that there cannot be an "inductive machine", i.e. a computer system, into which the scientist can input all the relevant observation sentences, and then get an output consisting of a system of empirical laws that explain the observed phenomena. He only believed that given observation e and hypothesis h, there can be an inductive machine which will mechanically determine the logical probability or degree of confirmation of h on the basis of e.

It is regrettable that the computer age had not begun thirty years earlier, because Carnap's linguistic-analysis constructionalist approach and his idea of semantical systems could have found evident application in contemporary computational philosophy of science - of course with large and important modifications to accommodate both contemporary pragmatism and modern systems design.

There have been many computerized discovery systems, sometimes called "artificial intelligence systems", as found in Herbert Simon's book Scientific Discovery: Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes.I created a discovery system for social science, and found similarities between Carnap's ideas and the pragmatic concepts in my system design.

Perhaps the reader of this review interested in computational philosophy of science will permit me to share some personal experience in the linguistic-analysis approach.A summary of my modifications and similarities to Carnap's approach, which are discussed in my books titled Introduction to Metascience and History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science, is as follows:

1. Unlike Carnap scientists never use the Russellian symbolic logic for the expression of their theories.The object-language theories constructed by my discovery system are expressed as mathematical equations of the type actually used in the relevant science.

2. The computer language constituting the discovery system is the metalanguage expressing a mechanized generative grammar in the program.

3. The semantical rules that describe the semantical interpretation of the object-language statements are sentences that are both analytic and synthetic like Quine's analytical hypotheses or discursive postulates.They might also be viewed as similar to Carnap's reduction sentences, which he says determine only "part" of the meaning of theoretical terms.

4. The state descriptions are the computer system input and output expressed in the object language, and they reveal the semantical changes produced by the discovery system.

5. The theory of information is similar to Yu Shreider's semantical metatheory, and the state descriptions are identified with Shreider's concept of a thesaurus.Thus the amount of information communicated depends on the degree of transformation between his initial thesaurus and the outputted theory that must transform his thesaurus for the user to understand the new theory, and the psychological resistance to a new theory is large if the amount of information communicated is large.

Had history been kinder to Carnap, I believe that notwithstanding his positivist pessimism about a theory-making "inductive machine", he would have contributed to computational philosophy of science, perhaps anticipating Herbert Simon's Stahl and Dalton systems.

Even more significantly computational philosophy of science might have taken the linguistic-analysis turn, which I prefer, instead of its now popular psychologistic turn, which I think is misconceived.I believe that today's computational philosophy of science would be better served were discovery systems construed as language-processing constructionalist systems producing new semantical state descriptions, and that the legacy of Carnap can contribute some needed perspective for twenty-first century philosophy of science.

Readers are invited to Google my book at my com web site philsci, which offers free downloads.

Thomas J. Hickey

A unique product of a unique collaberation
Is this book still relevant, despite being a bit old?The answer is
an unqualified YES.Why is this book the best introduction to the
philosophy of science ever written?Because it is the result of a
collaberation between Rudolf Carnap (a philosophical giant) and Martin
Gardner--the celebrated columnest who gave us so many years of
"Mathematical games," during Scientific American's golden years.

Because it was co-written by a professional writer of popular
mathematics, it is probably the only philosophy of science book which
can be read and understood by the interested lay person.But because
it is based on a series of lecture notes from one of the worlds
all-time great philosophers of science, it doesn't "wimp out" on the
technical level.If you read it you will be brought to the forefront
of philosophy of science, at least as understood by the later logical
positivists.

In short, a remarkable collaberation by two men who were at the top of
their game.Thank God for Dover.For ten bucks you can buy a priceless
book.

a great introduction to the philosophy of science
This is perhaps the only book in which Carnap is almost invariably informal. It is a remarkably clear introduction to some important topics in the philosophy of science: the nature of scientific laws, probability, scientific measurement, the structure of space, causality and determinism, theoretical concepts and laws, and a last chapter called "beyond determinism". The point where Carnap gets a bit formal, sections 26-28, is boring and absolutely out of date; his approach to analyticity is certainly not the best available. As for the rest, Carnap's conceptions are generally reliable (although it should be observed that his "logical conception" programme for probability was a complete failure). The sections I enjoyed most are those which deal with the structure of space. Carnap is highly proficient there (Carnap's doctoral dissertation was called "Der Raum") and his philosophical observations are always lucid and precise. ... Read more

Product Description
With authoritative and original insights, "Philosophy of Science: The Fundamentals" explores some of the fundamental questions relating to metaphysics and the philosophy of science. This work: integrates metaphysics with the philosophy of science; provides a unique philosophical viewpoint; covers areas including classical particle mechanics, scientific physical modalities and the laws of nature, the scientific and manifest images, scientific explanations, and the nature of time; and, offers an accessible introduction to a challenging topic. ... Read more

Product Description
Philosophical understandings of Nature and Human Nature.Classical Greek and modern West, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, by 14authors, including Robert Neville, Stanley Rosen, David Eckel, LiviaKohn, Tienyu Cao, Abner Shimoney, Alfred Tauber, Krzysztof Michalski,Lawrence Cahoone, Stephen Scully, Alan Olson and Alfred Ferrarin.Dedicated to the phenomenological ecology of Erazim Kohák, with10 of his essays and a full bibliography. Overall theme: on thequestion of the moral sense of nature. ... Read more

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This volume explores the logic and methodology of scientific inquiry rather than its substantive results.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Okay
It was okay. I didn't think the author explained anything though. He just seemed to be ranting for most of it.

A Classic
Carl Hempel's "Philosophy of Natural Science" is an introduction to the philosophy of science by one of the twentieth century's finest philosophers of science. This book is one of the best in the popular "Foundations of Philosophy Series", and a classic in the philosophy of science.
The book is slim but quite comprehensive. It covers the structure of scientific hypotheses and their justification, the role of laws in scientific explanations, and the nature of scientific concepts and theoretical reduction, among many other topics.
Hempel is an excellent guide to a very difficult subject. He writes lucidly and argues carefully. Many of his claims are illustrated with examples from the history of science. The book also includes suggestions for further reading.
Some familiarity with analytic philosophy and the history of science will be helpful for readers of this book. But I don't think that this background is required. While those without this background may find some sections of this book difficult, I think that they'll understand a lot.
This book was published in 1966. Therefore, it does not cover some of the latest work in the philosophy of science. Needless to say, as a work of analytic philosophy, many of its claims are controversial. Nevertheless, it remains an excellent introduction to the philosophy of science.
For more recent, and sometimes easier, introductions to the philosophy of science, with some different coverage, I recommend Chalmer's "What Is This Thing Called Science?" or Hung's "The Nature of Science: Problems and Perspectives", though I have more gripes with these books than with Hempel's. I recommend these books not in place of Hempel's but in addition to it.

modus tollens
PHILOSOPHY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, by Carl G. Hempel is a classic exposition of the scientific method and should be considered required reading for all scientists as well as informed lay persons. Do not let the title of this book mislead you, among its most ardent supporters are the practitioners of the social sciences in addition to the expected audience of "hard" scientists (Though PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE is another volume in this "Foundations of Philosophy" series, it is nowhere near the classic that this volume is).

Far from just a theoretical work, Hempel skillfully injects easily understandable case studies and examples into his writing. Proceeding from the basic logical construction of the scientific method to more complex ideas challenging some of the classically held views, Hempel is always accessible, always clearly understandable.

This is a surprisingly enjoyable book to read and short enough that it shouldn't intimidate anyone. There are far too few people today who understand scientific explanation and I would recommend this indispensable book for anyone's library.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

Worth every page.
In this little book Carl Hempel lays out the basics of a philosophy of science, or in other words what a scientific theory must be in order to be science. This is an oversimplification in that not only does Hempel follow the well trodden track of such people as Karl Popper, but he goes much further in the way he looks at various `theories' proposed through the ages. He is not afraid to look at seemingly ludicrous theories such as vitalism but analyses them to locate what is and is not science within them. He never pre-judges anything but is willing ot give it a look no matter how strange or ridiculous. Hempel is a philosopher of science to be admired in his open views. Throughout the text he surprises the reader as he elucidates aspects of the philosophy of science which don't usually occur to a practising scientist or to many other philosophers who take much for granted.

Worth every page.

An excellent introduction to a complex subject
Hempel's little book _Philosophy of Natural Science_ is a concise, lucid introduction to a complex subject. In just over a hundred pages, he discusses a wide range of problems in the philosophy of science, with an emphasis on epistemological issues. Like other books in the "Foundations of Philosophy" series (and like other good philosophy texts in general), the book not only discusses the positions of other philosophers, it also makes a case for the author's own point of view. Chapter 5, where he lays out his deductive-nomological model of scientific explanation, is worth the cover price alone. Hempel is a clear writer, and he illustrates his points with many examples from the history of science. These are both illuminating and interesting in their own right. This book is a great place to start to learn about the history and philosophy of science. ... Read more

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This new anthology, which integrates explanatory text, primary source readings, and case studies, provides students of any major (philosophy, science, or other) with an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of science.

The anthology is organized around a unique “three-pronged” approach: the metaphysical (what), the epistemological (how), and the axiological (why).  The coverage of issues builds coherently and logically: from issues of scientific method to ethical issues, to the most current social and political implications of science — demonstrating how philosophy of science is relevant in a modern day context.  The anthology carefully examines the theoretical apparatus of the philosophy of science and applies it to rich case studies from the history of science.

Customer Reviews (1)

Philosophy of Science
This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn about the philosophy of science. It can be used in any discipline that has a connection to philosophy and/ or science. I am using it in a PhD in Nursing program and I have found ita wonderful resource.It is easy to read and well organized. There are some wonderful examples of some of the philosophers' perspectives on various subjects. I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

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In the fiftieth anniversary of this book’s first release, Winch’s argument remains as crucial as ever. Originally published in 1958, The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy was a landmark exploration of the social sciences, written at a time when that field was still young and had not yet joined the Humanities and the Natural Sciences as the third great domain of the Academy. 

A passionate defender of the importance of philosophy to a full understanding of 'society' against those who would deem it an irrelevant 'ivory towers' pursuit, Winch draws from the works of such thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.S. Mill and Max Weber to make his case. In so doing he addresses the possibility and practice of a comprehensive 'science of society'.

Customer Reviews (1)

Persuasive and amusing
I must declare a bias; as a scientist and an analytic philosopher by training, and now a teacher in those two areas by profession, I have always been skeptical about the "social sciences." I have no doubt that they perform a necessary role and can provide great insights into human situations; but using the word 'science' raises certain misplaced expectations. Winch's monograph argues precisely this position with style and verve, holding that social concerns are properly related more to philosophy than the Natural Sciences. (Of course they may use scientific methods, but that is a different matter.) There are many historical examples, and a thoughtful introduction slightly modifying some of the polemical excesses. A thoroughly entertaining afternoon's reading! ... Read more

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The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of the Social Sciences collects newly commissioned essays that examine fundamental issues in the social sciences. ... Read more

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Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy cuts to the heart of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and of today's science wars. At the start of the 21st Century, Deleuze is now regarded as the most radical and influential of contemporary philosophers. Yet his work is widely misunderstood and misinterpreted. In this already classic work Manuel DeLanda does what the growing host of Deleuzians have falled to do - he makes sense of Deleuze for both analytic and continental thought, for both science and philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Helpful so far as it goes...
De Landa's Deleuze, as presented in this and other works, has its own unique "niche" among the various ways of reading this important figure. His approach tends to take as its principal text Deleuze/Guattari's *A Thousand Plateaus* and emphasizes that difficult "subtext" surfacing throughout Deleuze's broader corpus that involves what DeLanda refers to as an "ontology" derived from chaos and complexity theory and the non-linear mathematics underlying them. "Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy" is certainly the best available elucidation of this often perplexing strand of Deleuze's work and any serious student of Deleuze will benefit from it. The problem, addressed by the author in an "appendix" to the work, is that Deleuze quite deliberately alters his basic terminology from one work to the next, making a good deal of forcing necessary to fit other Deleuzian texts into DeLanda's "ontological schema." It is, in fact, not at all clear that Deleuze would have accepted DeLanda's claim about him operating with a fixed "ontology."And since DeLanda is convinced that the "key" to Deleuze is to be found in modern non-linear mathematical theory and its scientific applications, he tends almost completely to ignore that which constitutes another major aspect of Deleuze's work, namely, his intense and extensive engagement with the history of philosophy. As a helpful introduction to one very difficult aspect of Deleuze's work, this book excels; as a broader account of Deleuze's philosophy and its influence, it is quite limited and somewhat contrived.

Good Good Stuff
Delanda is certainly not the least controversial of Deleuzeans, so I imagine some folks will dislike the (sort of) analytic flavor of this work.Nonetheless it gives--or makes a painfully valient attempt to give--what a lot of 'clarificationary' work on Deleuze ultimately fails to provide.A solid, relevant reconstruction of Deleuze's world without all the cumbersome jargon that bogs down the more continental reconstructions (e.g., Badiou's "Clamor of Being"...really an excellent book, but rough-going in the prose department).
Delanda takes his by now standard fascination with complexity theory and other cool stuff and mines Deleuze's works for its scientific & mathematic underpinnings.John Protevi's "Political Physics," another book in this series, could be seen as an intro. to this book--not to downplay the significance of Protevi's work.Where Protevi explored the possibilities for Deleuzean applications to complexity, Delanda actually applies it, fearlessly, using the analytic style, I imagine, as a way to not cower in the face of some of Deleuze's absurdities.This work should be hotly debated, but it should be deeply appreciated as well, for the age of freeplay is waning, and now that the fog is clearing it really is time to figure out what the hell Deleuze was talking about.
This is first on my list of Deleuze commentaries, and it stands as a powerful independent work in its own right.Read it.Delanda rules. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

I didn't find it that interesting
Hermann Weyl was certainly an excellent mathematician, and the work he did on gauge theories (although they proved useless for uniting gravitational and electromagnetic forces) paid off much later.

However, I didn't get much insight from this book (I read the original version, from a library). He doesn't give a lot of detail about the mathematical or physical ideas, the book is really about the philosophy of these topics, with no discussion of the scientific or mathematical content at all. It's just not as inspiring as I would have expected.

Please put this back in print!
Herman Weyl (1885-1955) has been described by Roger Penrose as the most influential mathematician who worked entirely in the 20th century. Many of his books are in print but not this one; Atheneum did a very small font reprint in the 1960's and even that is not available. Yet this book, which I have to read in a library copy, is a treasure. Weyl wrote it for a German-language encyclopedia in the 1920's and revised it in the late '40's for an English translation. It gives brief and clear accounts of Weyl's unique approaches to general relativity and quantum mechanics. He was way ahead of his time in recognizing the importance of symmetries and in taking a sophisticated geometric approach. He was particularly astute in noting important features that unified the different branches of physics (notably in the case of gauge invariance which he doesn't mention much here). His analysis of the problem of the ether is particularly lucid and stimulating as his discussion of the relationship between kinematics and dynamics. He also gives an account of the foundations of mathematics up to the discoveries of Godel. Weyl regarded physics and mathematics as essentially one, both being parts of the study of nature and thought that the same philosophical principles underlay both. He was an unusually openminded scholar who was quick to abandon an innovative but less successful approach for a better one. I don't think he would have fit in with a popular late 20th century style of doing physics that scorned philosophy, and insisted that the current generation was saying the last word on basic physical theory. Maybe that's why this beautiful, intelligent and very readable book was allowed to fall out of print. Its time to bring it back! ... Read more

Product Description

The Phenomenological Mind is the first book to properly introduce fundamental questions about the mind from the perspective of phenomenology. Key questions and topics covered include:

• What is phenomenology?
• naturalizing phenomenology and the empirical cognitive sciences
• phenomenology and consciousness
• consciousness and self-consciousness, including perception and action
• time and consciousness, including William James
• intentionality
• the embodied mind
• action
• knowledge of other minds
• situated and extended minds
• phenomenology and personal identity

Interesting and important examples are used throughout, including phantom limb syndrome, blindsight and self-disorders in schizophrenia, making The Phenomenological Mind an ideal introduction to key concepts in phenomenology, cognitive science and philosophy of mind.

Customer Reviews (1)

A good introduction
Although the language is a little advanced for anyone unfamiliar with analytic philosophy, this book is an accessible introduction to phenomenology from the perspective of analytic philosophy of mind.It presents new issues by reformatting valuable phenomenological ideas in terms that are easy for an analytical philosopher to understand and work with.I am working on a thesis project on phenomenology and I am an analytical philosopher, I found this book extremely helpful. ... Read more

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The revised edition of this highly successful text provides a clear and accessible introduction to some of the most important questions of political philosophy. Organized around major issues, Wolff provides the structure that beginners need, while also introducing some distinctive ideas of his own. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent Intro to a tough subject
This is an excellent introduction to a very tough subject.Jonathan Wolff takes the reader through the very beginnings of political thought and philosophies on what is the State, why do we need the State, and all the way through all of the different questions that have concerned political philosophers since Ancient Greece.The author does a very good job of keeping the material engaging and explaining the various theories and methods at arriving at said theories without ever specifically endorsing one single theory.

The perfect introduction
This is probably the best introduction available, being lucid and succinct, it also takes just the right approach to the subject for the beginner. Instead of a chapter by chapter guide to the main thinkers or theories, Wolff cleverly structures the book in such a way that the student is gently coaxed into exploring the fundamental questions of political philosophy for himself.

The author notes at the beginning that it is sometimes said that 'who gets what?' and 'who says so?' are the only two questions of importance in the subject. Whilst denying this to be entirely the case, Wolff puts these questions firmly into intial context by asking why we need the state at all and then proceeds to ask if we do need the state, who indeed should govern it? He then explores the issue of the distribution of goods before returning to the 'who says who gets what?' and by the end of the book the reader should be able to explore that question through the lenses of the competing theories of today, such as feminism or communitarianism.

I was lucky enough to have the author as one of my lecturers at university and, indeed, to take my tutorials in political philosophy in my final year. As a working class student with zero self-esteem and who was failing abjectly to mix within the rarefied air of an elite university, Mr Wolff (unlike certain snobs and marxist posers) admirably strived to boost my confidence and every student found his tutorials and lectures to be models of patience and clarity. This book is imbubed with those qualities throughout and thus can't be recommended highly enough. Whether you are a high school student or a 1st year undergraduate, this book will have you asking the right questions and should put you in the perfect position to look in closer detail at the major issues.

Do you need an Introduction????? This is it!!!
This is a very good introduction...I mean VERY good. I have not finished it yet but I can tell you that it is written in such a way that you really get all the substance without sweat...and also..you simply do not want to put the book down...really a page turner. They way Mr Wolff presents the differents views on each issue is excellent!!!
Interested in Political Philosophy??? This should be your book of choice.

Excellent Introduction
I found this to be a great introduction to political philosophy. In an unbiased manner, Jonathan Wolff reviews the central ideas that are fundamental to the field: the state of nature, how one justifies the formation of the state, how to pick rulers, liberty, distribution of property, individualism, justice, rights, democracy, utilitarianism, and social contracts. He also reviews ideas of the major thinkers -- Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, etc.The book is organized by TOPIC, not by thinker, which is a format that I find was best suited for learning & for tying different thinker's ideas together. The writing is clear, simple, and chatty; it seems to have been written for college freshman. The only minor fault is that the book does not cover some major figures in political theory that I would have included: Aristotle & Machiavelli were not mentioned, for example.However, overall, I'd recommend this book. I'm keeping it on my bookself for reference.

Excellent book!
This was required reading for my philosophy class.It is very thorough, but still understandable. This book is at the base of my entire understanding of political philosophy, and I still rely on it from time to time. For anyone in philosophy, Lincoln-Douglas debate, or just are interested, READ THIS! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Continental Philosophy of Science provides an expert guide to the major twentieth-century French and German philosophical thinking on science.

• A comprehensive introduction by the editor provides a unified interpretative survey of continental work on philosophy of science.

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In the evolution of the nursing profession, the phrases nursing care, therapeutic care, caring for others, and related expressions are used by nurses to describe their professional service to others. Members of our society have different thoughts and role expectations about these phrases in relation to the kind of care they receive from nurses. Furthermore, these expressions hold different meanings for nurses in their various care-giving roles, such as to individual clients, families, and community groups they serve. Care-giving and care-receiving roles of nurses have different sets of expectations and behaviors. It is well, there, that members of the nursing profession begin systematically to clarify the diverse functions and cultural values related to the concepts of care, caring, and nursing care.

The concept of care is probably one of the least understood ideas used by professional and nonprofessional people, yet it is probably one of the most important concepts to be understood by human groups. It is a word with multiple social usages in the American culture, and has other meanings in other world cultures. The terms care, caring, and nursing care have both symbolic and functional meanings as they are used by caregivers and care-recipients. Nursing care also has a general, special meaning to nurses, and is often taken for granted in nurses’ thoughts and action patterns. It is time that we study the implicit and explicit meanings associated with the concepts of care and caring so that we can reduce their ambiguities. Furthermore, the humanistic, scientific, and linguistic meanings related to nursing care and caring behaviors in any culture remain a most fascinating area of study for nurses. ... Read more

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This book seeks to rectify misrepresentations of Popperian thought with a historical approach to Popper's philosophy, an approach which applies his own mature view, that we gain knowledge through conjectures and refutations, to his own development, by portraying him in his intellectual growth as just such a series. Gattei seeks to reconstruct the logic of Popper's development, in order to show how one problem and its tentative solution led to a new problem. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

GIVE ME THE REAL, GENUINE THING; NOT THE WANT-TO0-BE.

No disrespect to Mr. Gottei, but if I want to know what Karl Popper said or thinks, I'll read Popper and I recommend the same to others. Besides, reading Popper, by Popper himself, is by far cheaper than reading Gottei. And, if Popper can't expresses himself properly, how can Gottei? ... Read more

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The Science & Philosophy of Teaching Yoga & Yoga Therapy by Jacqueline Koay and Theodora Barenholtz follows the American Yoga Alliance standards. The renaissance of yoga has created Western-style yoga schools, professional organizations offering accreditation and the blending of yoga into modern medicine. This is the first ever comprehensive yoga textbook that meets the American Yoga Alliance standard for yoga teachers. The book includes the required major components 1) Anatomy and Physiology, 2) Technique 3) Teaching Method, 4) Philosophy, Ethics and Lifestyle, 5) Practical Application. In addition the use of yoga as alternative medicine is included. Orthopedic, neurological and medical diseases are presented with corresponding yoga to promote healing. Connecting the mind body and spirit, this book bridges yoga as an ancient science for healthy living with modern world living. The book is suitable as part of a western medical training curriculum and as a guide for yoga teachers and therapists to deepen their yoga practice. The easy to follow format makes this book good both for professionals and for laymen searching to improve their overall health and well being. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wow, a must for All yoga teachers
I wish amazon allowed you to preview the book, but you can get a Pdf of a chapter if you go to: [..]
It is the most amazing and complete chapter on the brain and how the brain is influenced by yoga in a practical and user friendly way. If it is to complex, it becomes to "in the head" but you can actually use this info in the classroom. I am ordering the book after viewing the chapter on the brain. Excellent, excellent work. The author, Theodora Barenhlotz, is a PT, 500 RYT and holds a MA in A&P. She knows her stuff.
All teachers should check it out. Wonderful!
Tina Ramsden, ERYT, BSE (Bachelors in Science of Education), CPT ... Read more