Books in the Philosophy series

An exploration of the role that culture can play in the protection of our world.

The critical narrative of this interdisciplinary book offers a first-time look at the interrelationship between biology, mythology and philosophy in human development. Its daring premise follows the trajectory of human thought, starting with the biological roots of fear and the original need for religion, truth-seeking, and myth-making. The narrative then innovatively links a number of maverick philosophical teachings over the centuries, from pre-Buddhist times to the Buddha, from Epicurus and Pyrrho to Lucretius, and eventually to the seminal poetry of Omar Khayyam. These emergent philosophies exemplified liberation from the grasp of mythical and religious thinking and instead espoused an empirical and joyful mind. The narrative concludes with a look at the emancipating philosophical movement that resulted in the European Enlightenment, and it suggests that the philosophical teachings explored in the book may offer the potential for a second, broader Enlightenment.

The 1948 Declaration of Human Rights demanded a collaboration among exponents from around the world. Embodying many different cultural perspectives, it was driven by a like-minded belief in the importance of finding common principles that would be essential for the very survival of civilization. Although an arduous and extensive process, the result was a much sought-after and collective endeavor that would be referenced for decades to come.Motivated by the seventieth anniversary of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enriched by the contributions of eminent scholars, this volume aims to be a reflection on human rights and their universality. The underlying question is whether or not, after seventy years, this document can be considered universal, or better yet, how to define the concept of "universality." We live in an age in which this notion seems to be guided not so much by the values that the subject intrinsically perceives as good, but rather by the demands of the subject. Universality is thus no longer deduced by something that is objectively given, within the shared praxis. Conversely, what seems to have to be universal is what we want to be valid for everyone. This volume will be of interest to those currently engaged in research or studying in a variety of fields including Philosophy, Politics and Law.

Technology, in all its forms, has had and continues to have an indisputable impact on society and culture. Philosophy of technology seeks to understand this impact and the meaning of technology for society and culture. Although its origins can be traced back to the Greeks, it wasn't until the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century that it gained ground as a philosophical discipline. Now more than ever it is considered an essential philosophical enterprise. 'The Budapest Workshop on Philosophy of Technology' was a lively and successful event that sort to discuss, reflect on and apply this branch of philosophical inquiry to both historical and contemporary examples. Importantly, the contributors' methodological approaches were influenced by, although not limited to, Michael Polanyi's term 'post-critical'. Moving beyond the rigidity of past approaches, the selected essays were driven by two lines of inquiry, what has been the historical role of technology in social and scientific change? And, how can a 'post-critical' approach enhance and extend our understanding of philosophy of technology?This edited volume begins by exploring the role of technology in social and scientific developments from a historical perspective, before moving towards a discussion of philosophy of technology from a 'Post-Critical' epistemic stance. Free from the constraints of previous methodologies, the third part of this work engages with the term 'Post-Critical' in its broadest sense. The contributors to this section consider the phenomenology of the body and the influence of technology on our lives. Finally, the four concluding chapters of this book apply this philosophical approach to a wide range of contemporary problems from Decision Support Systems to Crisis Communication.

Is the creative act like a volcano: an outburst that lights up the universe? This volume connects reason with desire and the arts in ways that enable us to imagine how creativity can bring us closer to the truth. The artistic quest for freedom stands in stark contrast to philosophy's call to subordinate art to reason and tradition. The struggle between them has culminated in artistic attempts to subsume philosophical matters within the domain of art. One central question in this study is what the consequences will be of a final dissolution of the boundary between the two domains: will all that remains of the artwork be an abstract howl of the rock - our rock, the planet - itself?

Philosophy of mathematics is moving in a new direction: awayfrom a foundationalism in terms of formal logic and traditionalontology, and towards a broader range of approaches thatare united by a focus on mathematical practice.The scientific research network PhiMSAMP (Philosophy ofMathematics: Sociological Aspects and MathematicalPractice) consisted of researchers from a variety ofbackgrounds and fields, brought together by their commoninterest in the shift of philosophy of mathematics towardsmathematical practice. Hosted by the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and funded by the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from 2006-2010, thenetwork organized and contributed to a number of workshopsand conferences on the topic of mathematical practice.The refereed contributions in this volume represent theresearch results of the network and consists of contributionsof the network members as well as selected paper versions ofpresentations at the network's mid-term conference, "Ismathematics special?" (PhiMSAMP-3) held in Vienna 2008.

It has been observed many times before that, as yet, there are no encompassing, integrated theories of mathematical practice available.To witness, as we currently do, a variety of schools in this field elaborating their philosophical frameworks, and trying to sort out their differences in the course of doing so, is also to be constantly reminded of the fact that a lot of epistemic aspects, extremely relevant to this task, remain dramatically underexamined. This volume wants to contribute to the stock of studies filling this perceived lacuna. It contains papers by established, upcoming, as well as beginning scholars, covering general, metaphilosophical themes such as naturalism, semiotics, pragmaticism, or empiricism, next to more specific topics including the unity of mathematical theories, thruth-flow in mathematics, diagrammatic reasoning, erroneous argumentation, or numerical analysis.

Man by nature desires to know, and the most natural way ofsatisfying this desire is to find answers to the questions thatarise from wonder and perplexity. Questioning is our default viewof method. I was turned into a cornerstone of western thoughtin the Socratic elenchus and Aristotle¿s doctrine of explanationand inquiry. Aristotle¿s dialogical games, especially as they findexpression in Topics, survived medieval dialectical games and hada profound impact on practices in academic life. And even whenAristotelianism came under fire during the renaissance and theScientific Revolution, questioning as method was not jettisonedbut rather transformed into a new form in which the questionswere to be addressed to Nature herself.Questioning is not just a method but also a philosophy in itsown right. Man not only desires to know, but wonder andperplexity are at the very heart of man¿s essence. As Karl-Otto Apel persuasively argues, Gadamer¿s Truth and Methodwas not just, or perhaps even mainly, a methodologicalinsight into how knowledge was to be obtained. Rather, inphilosophical hermeneutics questioning has a more profoundstanding, marking, as Apel puts it, "logos-reflection" andhence dialogue in the full sense.This collection of essays by leading philosophers probesquestioning as philosophy and as method both from ahistorical and a systematic perspective. The authors includeJ. Hintikka, P. Aubenque, R. Smith, M.-L. Kakkuri-Knuuttila,E. Moutsopoulos, T. Calvo Martínez, M. Yrjönsuuri, J.-F.Courtine, K.-O. Appel, V. A. Lektorsky, G. Schurz, M.Sintonen, and W. Rabinowicz & L. Bovens

This volume sheds new light on the multifarious personality of Bruno de Finetti and his outstanding contributions not only to probability and statistics, but also to economics and philosophy. Rather than focusing on de Finetti¿s technical work on probability, the essays collected here address the philosophy underpinning all of de Finetti¿s writings, a view Richard Jeffrey labelled ¿radical probabilism¿. Special attention is devoted to de Finetti¿s ideas on economics, which are inspired by the same philosophical approach, while an effort is made to highlight some lesser known aspects of de Finetti¿s production. The volume ends with an Appendix on de Finetti¿s book L¿invenzione della verità (The invention of truth), written in 1934 and published in 2006, which contains an extensive presentation of de Finetti¿s philosophical viewpoint, revolving around the idea that our knowledge is the product of human thought, which in such enterprise is guided by considerations of utility, rather than metaphysical principles.

The key-terms "language", "knowledge" and "metaphysics" arguably shapemost of the recent researches in analytic philosophy. This volume aim toaddress some of the currently debated issues revolving around thesethree fundamental areas and, in particular: can the notion of"descriptive name" be extended to names of natural kinds? What does itmean for a belief to be justified? Is there a principled way to draw thedistinction between causal and non causal relations? Do futurecontingent claims require us to employ a notion of relative truth? Inwhat sense analytic sentences could be taken to be known a posteriori?The twelve papers collected in this volume arise from a selection ofthose presented during the First Graduate Conference of the ItalianSociety for Analytic Philosophy (SIFA) held at the University of Paduain September 2007. The authors are all young and brilliant scholarscoming from some of the most prestigious universities in the world:University College (London), Nottingham, Princeton, Kentucky, Stanford,Eastern Piedmont, St. Andrews, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Duhram,Catholic University of Leuven, London School of Economics.

What does the development of a truly robust contemporary theory of domination require? Ashley J. Bohrer argues that it is only by considering all of the dimensions of race, gender, sexuality, and class within the structures of capitalism and imperialism that we can understand power relations as we find them nowadays. Bohrer explains how many of the purported incompatibilities between Marxism and intersectionality arise more from miscommunication rather than a fundamental conceptual antagonism. As the first monograph entirely devoted to this issue, »Marxism and Intersectionality« serves as a tool to activists and academics working against multiple systems of domination, exploitation, and oppression.

Unlike the vast majority of existing literature on Plato, this book seeks to argue that liberty constitutes the central notion and preoccupation of Platonic thought and that his theory of ideas is indeed a theory of liberty. Moreover, this book contends that Plato's thought can be understood to be both one of liberty and a theory of liberation. Bound up in its efforts to reveal both the ideal liberty and the conditions and possibility of its existence in the so-called 'real world,' the thought of liberty tends to be all-encompassing. Consequently, this book seeks to expose how liberty can be understood to influence Plato's ontological form of analysis in relation to politics, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as its influence on the structural unity of all three. Understood from such a perspective, this book frames Platonic philosophy as primarily an investigation, an articulation and as a way of establishing the relationship between the individual and the collective. Importantly, this relationship is acknowledged to be the natural and original framework for any conception and exercise of human liberty, especially within democratic theory and politics. By treating Plato's philosophy as a continuous effort to find modes and dimensions of liberation in and through different forms of this relationship, this book hopes to not only engage in the discussion about the meaning of Platonic ontological-political insights on different grounds, but also to provide a different perspective for the evaluation of its relevance to the main contemporary issues and problems regarding liberty, liberation, democracy and politics. This book will be of interest to both undergraduate students, experienced scholars and researchers, as well as to the general public who have an interest in philosophy, classics, and political theory.

Bioethics urges us to question and debate fundamental moral issues that arise in health-related sciences. However, as a result of Western dominance and globalization, bioethical thinking and practice has inevitably been shaped and defined by Western theories. With recent discussions centering on the relationship between culture and bioethics, it is important to consider how and to what extent can bioethics reflect and accommodate non-Western values and beliefs? Debatably, many scholars working in the field of 'African bioethics' seek to construct a bioethical practice that is grounded in indigenous African values. Yet, how relevant are ancient African cultural norms to the lives and realities of the 21st century Sub-Saharan-Africans? This edited volume explores bioethics in Africa from pluralistic and inter-cultural perspectives. The selected papers offer diverse theoretical and practical perspectives on the bioethical challenges that are common and specific to the lives of Sub-Sahara Africans. The contributors define bioethics broadly (beyond ethical issues relating to biomedical and biotechnological science) to include applied ethics that concern all aspects of life. Multidisciplinary in approach, the contributions to this book consider bioethics in relation to philosophy, social work, psychiatry, African studies, religious studies, psychology, and medicine. The broad scope of this volume means it will be of interest to those studying and working in bioethics as well as the fields mentioned above.