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Books in Philosophy

Offering foundational texts and contemporary debates, this philosophy collection supports scholars, students, and educators across all philosophical disciplines. Covering logic, ethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy, it fosters critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and ethical reflection. These resources encourage nuanced inquiry into fundamental questions about human existence and societal values.

  • Investigating the Life Sciences

    An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science
    • 1st Edition
    • July 29, 2016
    • G. M. N. Verschuuren
    • English
    A unique introduction to the philosophy of science with special emphasis on the life sciences. Part I presents elementary but fundamental concepts and problems in epistemology and their relation to questions of scientific methodology. Part II deals with case studies from the history of biology which illustrate particular philosophical points while Part III progresses to more complex ideas as on the nature and methodology of science. Part IV discusses the limitations of scientific enquiry and its relations to other systems of knowledge and interpretation.

  • Foundations of the Probabilistic Mechanics of Discrete Media

    • 1st Edition
    • March 16, 2016
    • D. R. Axelrad
    • English
    This latest volume in the Foundations & Philosophy of Science & Technology series provides an account of probabilistic functional analysis and shows its applicability in the formulation of the behaviour of discrete media with the inclusion of microstructural effects. Although quantum mechanics have long been recognized as a stochastic theory, the introduction of probabilistic concepts and principles to classical mechanics has in general not been attempted. In this study the author takes the view that the significant field quantities of a discrete medium are random variables or functions of such variables. Hence the probabilistic mechanics of discrete media are based on the mathematical theory of probability and the axiomatics of measure theory.

  • A New Morality from Science

    Beyondism
    • 1st Edition
    • January 22, 2016
    • Arnold P. Goldstein
    • English
    Pergamon General Psychology Series: A New Morality from Science: Beyondism focuses on the role of science in establishing ethical values. The publication first elaborates on three gateways to the understanding of life, origins of uncertainty and confusion, and basic logic of beyondism. Discussions focus on moral laws within groups and the fallacy of universalization; planned bio-cultural diversity of groups in the great experiment; absence of institutional mechanisms specifically to create progress; social construction without positive value construction; and humanity and the ever-open gateway of religion. The manuscript then examines moral directives derivable from the beyondist goal and psychological problems in human adjustment to the new ethics. The book takes a look at the departure of beyondism from traditional and current ethical systems; impact of evolutionary values on current socio-political practices; and integration of the emotional life with progressive institutions. Topics include mutual services of beyondism and the arts, setting of the research institutes for the world federation and free enquirers, community goals in population size, class, and internal diversity, and the reconstruction needed for a scientifically rational politics. The manuscript is a dependable reference for researchers interested in the role of science in establishing ethical values.

  • Popper and After

    Four Modern Irrationalists
    • 1st Edition
    • May 20, 2014
    • D. C. Stove
    • English
    Popper and After: Four Modern Irrationalists focuses on a tendency in the philosophy of science, of which the leading representatives are Professor Sir Karl Popper, the late Professor Imre Lakatos, and Professors T. S. Kuhn and P. K. Feyerabend. Their philosophy of science is in substance irrationalist. They doubt, or deny outright, that there can be any reason to believe any scientific theory; and a fortiori they doubt or deny, for example, that there has been any accumulation of knowledge in recent centuries. The book is composed of two parts and Part One explains how these writers succeeded in making irrationalism about science acceptable to readers. Part Two explores the intellectual influence that led these writers to embrace irrationalism about science.

  • Anticipatory Systems

    Philosophical, Mathematical and Methodological Foundations
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 1
    • October 22, 2013
    • Robert Rosen
    • G. Klir
    • English
    The first detailed study of this most important class of systems which contain internal predictive models of themselves and/or of their environments and whose predictions are utilized for purposes of present control. This book develops the basic concept of a predictive model, and shows how it can be embedded into a system of feedforward control. Includes many examples and stresses analogies between wired-in anticipatory control and processes of learning and adaption, at both individual and social levels. Shows how the basic theory of such systems throws a new light both on analytic problems (understanding what is going on in an organism or a social system) and synthetic ones (developing forecasting methods for making individual or collective decisions).

  • Predictive Simplicity

    Induction Exhum'd
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • October 22, 2013
    • George J. Klir
    • English
    The book attempts to develop an account of simplicity in terms of testability, and to use this account to provide an adequate characterization of induction, one immune to the class of problems suggested by Nelson Goodman. It is then shown that the past success of induction, thus characterized, constitutes evidence for its future success. A qualitative measure of confirmation is developed, and this measure - along with the considerations of simplicity - is used to provide an account of the consilience of inductions, and also an inductivist account of the structure and progress of scientific theory. An appendix extends the treatment of simplicity to statistical distributions and provides a reasonable interpretation of the maximum entropy principle. Thus, this book is an attempt to characterize induction in terms of a well-defined notion of simplicity and to use that characterization as a basis of an account of empirical, and in particular, scientific reasoning.

  • Philosophy of Complex Systems

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 10
    • May 4, 2011
    • English
    The domain of nonlinear dynamical systems and its mathematical underpinnings has been developing exponentially for a century, the last 35 years seeing an outpouring of new ideas and applications and a concomitant confluence with ideas of complex systems and their applications from irreversible thermodynamics. A few examples are in meteorology, ecological dynamics, and social and economic dynamics. These new ideas have profound implications for our understanding and practice in domains involving complexity, predictability and determinism, equilibrium, control, planning, individuality, responsibility and so on.Our intention is to draw together in this volume, we believe for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the manifold philosophically interesting impacts of recent developments in understanding nonlinear systems and the unique aspects of their complexity. The book will focus specifically on the philosophical concepts, principles, judgments and problems distinctly raised by work in the domain of complex nonlinear dynamical systems, especially in recent years.

  • Philosophy of Information

    • 1st Edition
    • November 10, 2008
    • English
    Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information.

  • Erasmi Opera Omnia, V-6

    Christiani Matrimonii Institutio, Vidua Christiana
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 6
    • July 16, 2008
    • A.G. Weiler + 1 more
    • English
    A volume of the Opera Omnia of Erasmus series, this title is comprised of two separate treatise translated into one volume. First, The Institution of Christian Matrimony (Basel, 1526) which was dedicated to Catherine of Aragon. In this work, Erasmus deals with the religious, moral and physical aspects of marriage, also discussing Canon law. Conservative theologians challenged in particular his liberal views on divorce. The second treatise, On the Christian Widow, was published in 1529, and in it Erasmus discusses not only Christian widowhood, but also virginity and marriage, dealing also with the education of women.

  • General Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues

    • 1st Edition
    • July 18, 2007
    • English
    Scientists use concepts and principles that are partly specific for their subject matter, but they also share part of them with colleagues working in different fields. Compare the biological notion of a 'natural kind' with the general notion of 'confirmation' of a hypothesis by certain evidence. Or compare the physical principle of the 'conservation of energy' and the general principle of 'the unity of science'. Scientists agree that all such notions and principles aren't as crystal clear as one might wish. An important task of the philosophy of the special sciences, such as philosophy of physics, of biology and of economics, to mention only a few of the many flourishing examples, is the clarification of such subject specific concepts and principles. Similarly, an important task of 'general' philosophy of science is the clarification of concepts like 'confirmation' and principles like 'the unity of science'. It is evident that clarfication of concepts and principles only makes sense if one tries to do justice, as much as possible, to the actual use of these notions by scientists, without however following this use slavishly. That is, occasionally a philosopher may have good reasons for suggesting to scientists that they should deviate from a standard use. Frequently, this amounts to a plea for differentiation in order to stop debates at cross-purposes due to the conflation of different meanings. While the special volumes of the series of Handbooks of the Philosophy of Science address topics relative to a specific discipline, this general volume deals with focal issues of a general nature. After an editorial introduction about the dominant method of clarifying concepts and principles in philosophy of science, called explication, the first five chapters deal with the following subjects. Laws, theories, and research programs as units of empirical knowledge (Theo Kuipers), various past and contemporary perspectives on explanation (Stathis Psillos), the evaluation of theories in terms of their virtues (Ilkka Niiniluto), and the role of experiments in the natural sciences, notably physics and biology (Allan Franklin), and their role in the social sciences, notably economics (Wenceslao Gonzalez). In the subsequent three chapters there is even more attention to various positions and methods that philosophers of science and scientists may favor: ontological, epistemological, and methodological positions (James Ladyman), reduction, integration, and the unity of science as aims in the sciences and the humanities (William Bechtel and Andrew Hamilton), and logical, historical and computational approaches to the philosophy of science (Atocha Aliseda and Donald Gillies).The volume concludes with the much debated question of demarcating science from nonscience (Martin Mahner) and the rich European-American history of the philosophy of science in the 20th century (Friedrich Stadler).