Roger M. White - Böcker

Wittgenstein's Tractatus - the only book he actually published within his lifetime - was an immensely important work which changed the direction of philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. Higlighting the importance of the nature of language in philosophy and the problematic nature of metaphysics, it strongly influenced on the work of Russell, the Vienna Circle an A. J. Ayer. The posthumous publication of the Philosophical Investigations initially led many people to think that Wittgenstein had turned his back on the ideas expressed in the Tractatus and for a time the earlier work was neglected in favour of the later ideas. However, more recently many scholars have begun to argue for a continuity between the early and the later Wittgenstein and it is increasingly felt that an understanding of the ideas in the Tractatus is essential to fully grasp remarkable later work.

Wittgenstein's Tractatus - the only book he actually published within his lifetime - was an immensely important work which changed the direction of philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. Higlighting the importance of the nature of language in philosophy and the problematic nature of metaphysics, it strongly influenced on the work of Russell, the Vienna Circle an A. J. Ayer. The posthumous publication of the Philosophical Investigations initially led many people to think that Wittgenstein had turned his back on the ideas expressed in the Tractatus and for a time the earlier work was neglected in favour of the later ideas. However, more recently many scholars have begun to argue for a continuity between the early and the later Wittgenstein and it is increasingly felt that an understanding of the ideas in the Tractatus is essential to fully grasp remarkable later work.

In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin put forward his theory of natural selection. Conventionally, Darwin's argument for this theory has been understood as based on an analogy with artificial selection. But there has been no consensus on how, exactly, this analogical argument is supposed to work - and some suspicion too that analogical arguments on the whole are embarrassingly weak. Drawing on new insights into the history of analogical argumentation from the ancient Greeks onward, as well as on in-depth studies of Darwin's public and private writings, this book offers an original perspective on Darwin's argument, restoring to view the intellectual traditions which Darwin took for granted in arguing as he did. From this perspective come new appreciations not only of Darwin's argument but of the metaphors based on it, the range of wider traditions the argument touched upon, and its legacies for science after the Origin.

In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin put forward his theory of natural selection. Conventionally, Darwin's argument for this theory has been understood as based on an analogy with artificial selection. But there has been no consensus on how, exactly, this analogical argument is supposed to work - and some suspicion too that analogical arguments on the whole are embarrassingly weak. Drawing on new insights into the history of analogical argumentation from the ancient Greeks onward, as well as on in-depth studies of Darwin's public and private writings, this book offers an original perspective on Darwin's argument, restoring to view the intellectual traditions which Darwin took for granted in arguing as he did. From this perspective come new appreciations not only of Darwin's argument but of the metaphors based on it, the range of wider traditions the argument touched upon, and its legacies for science after the Origin.

A fundamental question for theology is the question how we are to understand the claims that we make about God. The only language we can understand is the language we use to talk about human beings and their environment. How can we use that language to talk about God while respecting the infinite difference between God and humanity? The traditional answer has been to appeal to the concept of analogy. However, that appeal has been interpreted in widely different ways. This book aims to clarify the question and this answer by an analysis of the concept. It begins with an exploration of the way the concept was evolved by Aristotle out of Greek mathematics as a technique for comparing "things that were remote"; followed by a critical examination of three very different classical accounts of the way religious language works: those of Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant and Karl Barth. The book finally investigates the way in which analogy could be applied to answer the question initially posed - how is it possible to use human language to talk about God. This is a question of fundamental significance for the whole of religion and theology, concerning as it does our whole understanding of what we mean when we talk about God.