Alexander George - Böcker

Those inquiring into the nature of mind have long been interested in the foundations of mathematics and vice versa. A better understanding of mathematical thought should clarify the conceptual foundations of mathematics, and a deeper grasp of the latter should in turn illuminate the powers of mind through which mathematics is made available to us. This volume's contributors have taken the link between conceptions of mind and mathematics as their topic, exploring and probing it from different perspectives.

Is it ever OK to be dishonest? Is it wrong to enjoy violent video games, or to cheat on one's tax returns? Should we be vegetarians? When is war justified? Are there any moral facts, or is morality relative?Life throws ethical questions at us every day. Some are momentous and difficult, while others are relatively trivial and easily worked out; still others lodge themselves in our heads and bother us for years. We regularly encounter controversial issues (such as prostitution, abortion, or racial profiling), tricky conundrums (Would I be wrong to take advantage of my teacher's forgetfulness? When should I allow my teenage daughter to have a boyfriend? Are we responsible for our emotions?), and classic problems (What is the relation between religion and morality? Is suicide wrong? Why should we be moral?)Philosophers have engaged with these questions for as long as there have been philosophers, but most people have had no exposure to the wide variety of arguments and positions that they have offered. The website AskPhilosophers.org has sought to fill this void, bringing together a panel of distinguished philosophers who use their knowledge of the history of philosophy, as well as their own skills and ingenuity, to respond to questions sent in from all over the world. What Should I Do? is a collection of some of the most interesting questions about ethics to have appeared on the website during its first five years. It is a delightfully fresh book that will encourage readers to think a bit more deeply about the moral questions they frequently encounter, and will provide them with the tools to do so.

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A touchstone of the Enlightenment dispute between rationality and religious belief, David Hume’s essay “Of Miracles” has elicited much commentary from proponents and critics ever since it was published over 250 years ago. Alexander George’s lucid and sustained interpretation of Hume’s essay provides fresh insights into this provocative, occasionally elusive, and always subtle text. The Everlasting Check will be read with interest by both students new to Hume and seasoned scholars.George does justice to the letter and spirit of Hume’s essay, explaining the concepts and claims involved, making intelligible the essay’s structure, and clarifying remarks that have long puzzled readers. Properly interpreted, the essay’s central philosophical argument proves to be much hardier than Hume’s detractors suggest. George considers a range of objections to Hume—some recent, some perennial—and shows why most fail, either because they are based on misinterpretations or because the larger body of Hume’s philosophy answers them.Beyond an analysis and defense of Hume’s essay, George also offers a critique of his own, appealing to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thoughts on magic and ritual to demonstrate that Hume misconstrues the character of religious belief and its relationship to evidence and confirmation. Raising a host of important questions about the connection between religious and empirically verified beliefs, George discusses why Hume’s master argument can fail to engage with committed religious thought and why philosophical argumentation in general often proves ineffective in shaking people’s deeply held beliefs.

At last, the thinking person's answer to the life of the mind in today's increasingly mindless, anti-intellectual age. SENSE AND NONSENSIBILITY pokes fun at everyone from self-important scholars to pompous professors; from anally-retentive authors to plagiarising poets; from snake-oil therapists to the cyber-speaking cognoscenti. This singular collection by professors Lawrence Douglas and Alexander George brings together some of their most popular pieces, along with several all-new-ones, including: - The Academy Awards for novels - with categories for 'Best Female Protagonist, Doomed', 'Best Narrator, Unreliable', and 'Best Novel, Unfinishable by a Reader' - Home Shopping University - offering the greatest ideas in western history at rock-bottom prices - The best in 'Self-helplessness' books - I'M OKAY, I'M OKAY: ACCEPTING NARCISSISM - THE PENIS ORATIONS - literature's answer to THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES From pay-per-call phone lines that cater to cerebral fetishes to behind-the-scenes reports on what happens when Hollywood takes on Kant, SENSE AND NONSENSIBILITY is for anyone looking for a good read, a good laugh and life beyond Harry Potter.