Confusion

Author: Joseph L. Camp Jr.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674029178
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Everyone has mistaken one thing for another, such as a stranger for an acquaintance. A person who has mistaken two things, Joseph L. Camp argues, even on a massive scale, is still capable of logical thought. In order to make that idea precise, one needs a logic of confused thought that is blind to the distinction between the objects that have been confused. Confused thought and language cannot be characterized as true or false even though reasoning conducted in such language can be classified as valid or invalid. To the extent that philosophers have addressed this issue at all, they take it for granted that confusion is a kind of ambiguity. Camp rejects this notion; his fundamental claim is that confusion is not a mental state. To attribute confusion to someone is to take up a paternalistic stance in evaluating his reasoning. Camp proposes a novel characterization of confusion, and then demonstrates its fruitfulness with several applications in the history of philosophy and the history of science.

A Confusion of the Spheres

Author: Genia Sch?nbaumsfeld
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191614831
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 700

Book Description
Cursory allusions to the relation between Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein are common in philosophical literature, but there has been little in the way of serious and comprehensive commentary on the relationship of their ideas. Genia Sch?nbaumsfeld closes this gap and offers new readings of Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's conceptions of philosophy and religious belief. Chapter one documents Kierkegaard's influence on Wittgenstein, while chapters two and three provide trenchant criticisms of two prominent attempts to compare the two thinkers, those by D. Z. Phillips and James Conant. In chapter four, Sch?nbaumsfeld develops Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's concerted criticisms of certain standard conceptions of religious belief, and defends their own positive conception against the common charges of 'irrationalism' and 'fideism'. As well as contributing to contemporary debate about how to read Kierkegaard's and Wittgenstein's work, A Confusion of the Spheres addresses issues which not only concern scholars of Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard, but anyone interested in the philosophy of religion, or the ethical aspects of philosophical practice as such.

Descartes' Dualism

Author: Gordon Baker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134854242
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Book Description
Was Descartes a Cartesian Dualist? In this controversial study, Gordon Baker and Katherine J. Morris argue that, despite the general consensus within philosophy, Descartes was neither a proponent of dualism nor guilty of the many crimes of which he has been accused by twentieth century philosophers. In lively and engaging prose, Baker and Morris present a radical revision of the ways in which Descartes' work has been interpreted. Descartes emerges with both his historical importance assured and his philosophical importance redeemed.

Talking About

Author: Elmar Unnsteinsson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192865137
Category : Intentionality (Philosophy)
Languages : en
Pages : 218

Book Description
Combining new insights from cognitive science and speech art theory, Unnsteinsson develops a compelling theory of singular reference which avoids well-known puzzles and objections. The theory, called Edenic intentionalism, is grounded in a mechanistic perspective on explanation in cognitive science and a new Gricean account of speaker meaning and speaker reference. Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference develops an account of the mental state of identity confusion and separates questions about the nature of representational acts and representational states. Unnsteinsson proposes a division of labour, but Edenic intentionalism is strictly a theory of intentional, mind-directed representational acts, taking speech acts as its paradigm case. Talking About: An Intentionalist Theory of Reference argues that mental mechanisms ought to be postulated to explain human cognitive capacities. Pragmatic competence is the capacity to successfully produce utterances with a communicative intention. By examining the characteristic function and malfunction of the mechanism for referential competence, the study shows that confused reference should be understood as a type of malfunction. This is the core thesis of Edenic intentionalism: that the identity confusion disrupts the normal function of the speech art of reference.

From Conception to Confusion

Author: Julie Davidson
Publisher: Momosa Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 9780997080827
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
From Conception to Confusion imparts wit and wisdom from a mom and radio personality.Between bribing her kids with the giant Starbucks cookies to being ridiculously overwhelmed by third grade math homework, Julie Davidson created a series of essays relating to the journey of motherhood. Julie has found that her words resonate with countless other parents in their quest to navigate parenthood-even before the baby is born. Some might say Julie's lowering the bar of motherhood, but Julie prefers to say she's just holding the bar down so others can join her..

Development of Economic Analysis 7th Edition

Author:
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135979391
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 619

Book Description

Religion and Wittgenstein's Legacy

Author: Mario von der Ruhr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351905023
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 615

Book Description
Wittgenstein was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In this collection, distinguished Wittgenstein scholars examine his legacy for the philosophy of religion by examining key areas of his work: Wittgenstein's Tractatus; Frazer's 'Golden Bough'; and the implications of his later philosophy for the understanding of religion. Assessments are also provided of the philosophical and theological reception of his work. The collection provides an invaluable resource for graduate and undergraduate teaching of Wittgenstein in relation to religion.

Commemorating Trauma

Author: Peter Starr
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823226034
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
The bloody events of the Paris Commune in 1871 traumatized France. In this study of cultural memory, the author draws on a range of sources to understand the resonating questions about the terrible year.

Ideas and Mechanism

Author: Margaret Dauler Wilson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691004716
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 550

Book Description
For more than three decades, Margaret Wilson's essays on early modern philosophy have influenced scholarly debate. Many are considered classics in the field and remain as important today as they were when they were first published. Until now, however, they have never been available in book form and some have been particularly difficult to find. This collection not only provides access to nearly all of Wilson's most significant work, but also demonstrates the continuity of her thought over time. These essays show that Wilson possesses a keen intelligence, coupled with a fearlessness in tackling the work of early modern philosophers as well as the writing of modern commentators. Many of the pieces collected here respond to philosophical issues of continuing importance. The thirty-one essays gathered here deal with some of the best known early philosophers, including Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Spinoza, and Berkeley. As this collection shows, Wilson is a demanding critic. She repeatedly asks whether the philosophers' arguments were adequate to the problems they were trying to solve and whether these arguments remain compelling today. She is not afraid to engage in complex argument but, at the same time, her own writing remains clear and fresh. Ideas and Mechanism is an essential collection of work by one of the leading scholars of our era. Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Fake Science

Author: Austin Ruse
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1621576140
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

Book Description
If you listen to any political argument, you're eventually bound to hear something like: "The science is settled on this." Or: "Just look at the statistics!" Or: "There have been studies that say..." You'd think we were living in the golden age of science and reason. But the truth is far more sinister, says Austin Ruse. We're actually living in the age of the low information voter, easily mislead by all-too-convincing false statistics and studies. In Fake Science, Ruse debunks so-called "facts" used to advance political causes one after the other, revealing how poorly they stand up to actual science.