Oxford Readings in Philosophy – serie

This latest addition to the Oxford Readings in Philosophy series covers a topic which is one of the focal points of much of the current work in moral and politicaltheory.

This volume provides a balanced set of reviews which introduce the central topics in the philosophy of time. This is the first introductory anthology on the subject to appear for many years; the contributors are distinguished, and two of the essays are specially written for this collection. In their introduction, the editors summarise the background to the debate, and show the relevance of issues in the philosophy of time for other branches of philosophy and for science.

Is `artificial intelligence' a contradiction in terms? Could computers (in principle) model every aspect of the mind, including logic, language, and emotion? What of the more brain-like, connectionist computers: could they really understand, even if digital computers cannot? This collection of classic and contemporary readings (which includes an editor's introduction and an up-to-date reading list) provides a clearly signposted pathway into hotly disputed philosophical issues at the heart of artificial intelligence.

This collection of important writings fills the need for an anthology that adequately represents recent work on the problem of evil. This is perhaps one of the most discussed topics in the philosophy of religion, and is of perennial interest to philosophers and theologians.

The philosophical elucidation of demonstratives is a task of considerable and wide-ranging significance. These words, like "I", "now", and "this", seem to represent a point of contact between thought and reality. Any account of these must therefore deal with metaphysical issues such as the nature of the "self" and the reality and significance of the present. This collection brings together for the first time an important set of previously published papers, some of which have been slightly altered to suit this volume. They seek to provide the correct semantic account of thoughts involving demonstratives, as well as giving an insight into the metaphysical concepts which lie behind. Philosophers, especially those interested in philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science will be interested in this book.

Political Philosophy

These important essays by leading thinkers center around two principal topics: the nature of moral judgement, and the part played by social utility in determining right and wrong. The contributors include R.M. Hare, John R. Searle, John Rawls, C.L. Stevenson, G.E. Moore, P.T. Geach, PhilippaFoot, J.O. Urmson, and J.J.C. Smart.

The Philosophy of Language

This book comprises a number of important readings offering a wide range of topics in the philosophy of religion.

A selection of important writings which together suggest that legal philosophy is the nerve of legal reasoning.

Locke on Human Understanding Selected Essays

Bringing together important writings not easily available elsewhere, this volume provides a convenient and stimulating overview of recent work in the philosophy of science. The contributors include Paul Feyerabend, Ian Hacking, T.S. Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Laurens Laudan, Karl Popper, Hilary Putnam, and Dudley Shapere. In addition, Hacking provides an introductory essay and a selective bibliography.

Kant on Pure Reason

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. The essays in this collection cover a range of issues of urgent practical concern in the field of ethics, including nuclear war and world famine, abortion and euthanasia, and the moral status of animals.

This volume presents papers discussing arguments on both sides of the consequentialist debate. The distinguished contributors include John Rawls, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, among others.

Distinguished philosophers outline their ideas on the subject of epistemology and the theory of perception, introducing readers to the various problems that face a successful theory of perceptual knowledge.

Recently, philosophers have revived interest in the traditional topic of the nature of a priori knowledge (knowledge that does not depend on sensory experience). This collection brings together ten of the most important recent essays on the subject. The book is intended for first-degree and graduate students of philosophy.

This volume presents a selection of the most influential recent discussions of the crucial metaphysical questions: what is it for one event to cause another? The subject of causation bears on many topics, such as time, explanation, mental states, the laws of nature, and the philosphy of science.

This volume brings together some of the most important and influential recent writings on knowledge of oneself and of one's own thoughts, sensations, and experiences. The essays give valuable insights into such fundamental philosophical issues as personal identity, the nature of consciousness, the relation between mind and body, and knowledge of other minds.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading.This volume offers a selection of the most interesting and important work from recent years in the philosophy of mathematics, which has always been closely linked to, and has exerted a significant influence upon, the main stream of analytical philosophy. The issues discussed are of interest throughout philosophy, and no mathematical expertise is required of the reader.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a wide variety of souces, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the question which which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be convenienty available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. This volume presents a selection of the most important recent writings on the nature of explanation. It covers a broad range of topics from the philosophy of science to the central philosophical terrain of the theory of knowledge. This volume is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of philosophy taking courses on the theory of knowledge, and academics and students in the natural and social sciences who are investigating the philosophical foundations of their disciplines.

This volume offers a selection of some of the best and most interesting articles that have been written on ethics and the environment in the past two decades. It constitutes an ideal introduction to the main debates in the area, dealing with issues such as duties to future people, resource conservatism, species and wilderness preservation, the relevance of ecology to ethics, ecofeminism, and the tension between political liberalism and environmentalism. This book will be of interest not just to professional philosophers and students of philosophy, but to anyone who wishes to learn about the beliefs and principles which underlie environmentalism.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading.This volume offers a selection of the most important philosophical work in the new and fast-growing interdisciplinary area of artificial life; it will set the agenda for future study and research. Artificial life (A-Life) research aims to synthesize the characteristics of life by artificial means, particularly employing computer technology. The essays chosen explore such fascinating themes as the nature of life, the relation between life and mind, and the limits of technology.The first two papers, one of which is the classic A-Life manifesto by Christopher Langton, provide a general overview of the subject and compare it with artificial intelligence (AI); in Part II, the contributors describe examples of A-Life research. Part III discusses various explanatory strategies in A-Life, and relates them to approaches in AI and cognitive science, while Part IV focuses on the concept of life in general. Finally, Part V explores A-Life's relation to functionalism and the feasibility of `strong' A-Life.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading.The newest addition to the successful Oxford Readings in Philosophy series, The Philosophy of Science contains the most important contributions to the recent philosophical debate on the authority of scientific theory.The contributors ask whether we are justified in believing scientific theories and what attitude we should take to them if we are not. Although few philosophers seriously question the existence of everyday objects like trees and tables, many have real doubts about viruses, electrons, and gravitational waves. The last two decades have seen important new work in the philosophy of science, stimulated by sceptical attitudes towards scientific theories. Scientific realist have in turn countered with arguments of their own, resulting in a wide-ranging debate drawing from many different philosophical disciplines.The Philosophy of Science bridges the gap between both sides of the argument, including articles on different species of realism and anti-realism, the underdetermination of theory by evidence, the lessons of the history of science, naturalized epistemology of science, and Bayesian methodology.

About the seriesThe aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading.About this volumeThe Philosophy of Action offers a selection of some of the best, most influential, and most accessible essays on the major contemporary issues in the philosophy of action. Topics addressed include intention, reasons for action, and the nature and explanation of intentional action. The contributors are all major figures in this area.

About the Series: The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editors of each volume contribute an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. About this volume:When we say a certain rose is red, we seem to be attributing a property, redness, to it. But are there really such properties? If so, what are they like, how do we know about them, and how are they related to the objects which have them and the linguistic devices which we use to talk about them? This collection presents these ancient problems in a modern light. In particular, it makes accessible for the first time the most important contributions to the contemporary controversy about the nature of properties. Those new to the subject will find the clearly-written introduction, by two experts in the field, an invaluable guide to the intricacies of this debate. The volume illustrates very well the aims and methods of modern metaphysics and shows how a thorough understanding of the metaphysics of properties is crucial to most of analytic philosophy.

This latest volume in the Oxford Readings in Philosophy series brings together some of the most influential and stimulating essays on Descartes' philosophy to have appeared in the last fifty years, edited by the renowned Descartes specialist Professor John Cottingham. A lucid introduction by the editor outlines the principle features of Descartes' philosophy and summarizes the main arguments of each chapter. Covering the full range of Descartes' thought, the volume opens with a cluster of central issues in Descartes' metaphysics: systematic doubt, the Cogito, clarity and distinctness, and the Cartesian Circle; followed by chapters on Descartes' theory of the will, and his account of necessity and possibility. Two notorious and interrelated problems in Descartes' system are then dealt with: the distinction between mind and body, and the unity of the human being. There follow chapters on Descartes' account of human nature and the passions, and his treatment of animals; and the volume closes with three chapters on Cartesian science, covering Descartes' views on the relationship between experiment and deduction, his account of scientific explanation, and the notion of causal agency or force in his physics. These broad-ranging and accessible perspectives on Descartes' work will be essential reading for students and specialists.

The aim of this series is to bring together important recent writings in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editor of each volume contributes an introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. Ethical Theory 2: Theories about How We Should Live deals with philosophical theories about how we ought to live, including utilitarianism, social contract theory, rights theory, virtue theory, and the New Kantianism. It includes a clearly written, substantial, and critical introduction guiding the beginner through the intricacies of the subject. Ethical Theory Volumes 1 and 2 together provide an overview of contemporary moral philosophy, reprinting classic and contemporary articles, many of which are not otherwise readily available.