SUNY series in Philosophy - Böcker

The authors examine implications of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory of discourse for the understanding of theological language. Topics include self, desire, post-structuralism, the unconscious, the father's rule, dwelling (in Heidegger's sense), Anselm, ontological argument, alterity, utopia, signifiers/signifieds, God, reason, and text.

This book covers the first 500 years of the common era. These years witnessed the revivals of Aristotelianism, Epicureanism, Pyrrhonism, Cynicism, and Pythagoreanism; but by far the most important movement was the revival of Platonism under Plotinus. Here, the historical context of Plotinus is provided including the currents of thought that preceded him and opened the path for him. The presuppositions of the Enneads are made explicit and the thought of Plotinus is reconstructed.The author reorients the expositions of Middle Platonism and neo-Pythagoreanism. He provides a full exposition of Hermeticism and the doctrines of the Chaldean Oracles. He also defends the notion that Philo of Alexandria nourished a Jewish philosophy, not an eclectic mixture.

This book covers the first 500 years of the common era. These years witnessed the revivals of Aristotelianism, Epicureanism, Pyrrhonism, Cynicism, and Pythagoreanism; but by far the most important movement was the revival of Platonism under Plotinus. Here, the historical context of Plotinus is provided including the currents of thought that preceded him and opened the path for him. The presuppositions of the Enneads are made explicit and the thought of Plotinus is reconstructed.The author reorients the expositions of Middle Platonism and neo-Pythagoreanism. He provides a full exposition of Hermeticism and the doctrines of the Chaldean Oracles. He also defends the notion that Philo of Alexandria nourished a Jewish philosophy, not an eclectic mixture.

The question is, what constitutes truth in religion? Represented here is the whole spectrum of phenomenology-transcendental, existential, hermeneutic, ethical, and deconstructive-presented by some of the most respected names in the philosophy of religion today: Louis Dupré, Merold Westphal, and Edward Farley. Here is also engagement with a wide variety of twentieth-century thinkers such as Husserl, Scheler, and Heidegger; Ricoeur, Gadamer, and Derrida; Freud, van der Leeuw, and Eliade; and Rosenzweig, Tillich, and Schillebeeks.This volume provides unique sources for anyone interested in the philosophical, theological, or scientific study of religion.

This book both introduces the philosophy of science through examination of the occult and examines the occult rigorously enough to raise central issues in the philosophy of science. Placed in the context of the occult, philosophy of science issues become immediately understandable and forcefully compelling.Divergent views on astrology, parapsychology, and quantum mechanics mysticism emphasize topics standard to the philosophy of science. Such issues as confirmation and selection for testing, causality and time, explanation and the nature of scientific laws, the status of theoretical entities, the problem of demarcation, theory and observation, and science and values are discussed.Significantly revised, this second edition presents an entirely new section of quantum mechanics and mysticism including instructions from N. David Mermin for constructing a device which dramatically illustrates the genuinely puzzling phenomena of quantum mechanics. A more complete and current review of research on astrology has been included in this new edition, and the section on the problem of demarcation has been broadened.

This is the first book to thoroughly explore Confucian and Neo-Confucian metaphysics and ethics, building upon the creativity and temporality of human existence and human nature as well as their extension into human culture. Fundamental essays deal cogently with the relationship between Chinese language and Chinese philosophy, offering general categories which shape the matrix of ideas woven in Chinese philosophy from its very beginnings. Along with more general characterizations, there are themes placing Confucian thinkers in touch with modern communication theories, perceptions of individuals, religious themes, and scientific worldviews. Conceptual and comparative essays probe the frontiers of Chinese philosophy in its contemporary Confucian revival.

This is the first book to thoroughly explore Confucian and Neo-Confucian metaphysics and ethics, building upon the creativity and temporality of human existence and human nature as well as their extension into human culture. Fundamental essays deal cogently with the relationship between Chinese language and Chinese philosophy, offering general categories which shape the matrix of ideas woven in Chinese philosophy from its very beginnings. Along with more general characterizations, there are themes placing Confucian thinkers in touch with modern communication theories, perceptions of individuals, religious themes, and scientific worldviews. Conceptual and comparative essays probe the frontiers of Chinese philosophy in its contemporary Confucian revival.

In this book Reale presents Plato and Aristotle.At the center of Reale's interpretation of Plato is the fulcrum of the supersensible, the metaphysical discovery that Plato presented as a result of the Second Voyage. This discovery of the supersensible is, in Reale's view, not only the fundamental phase of ancient thought, but it also constitutes a milestone on the path of western philosophy.Reale presents Plato in three different dimensions: the theoretic, the mystical-religious, and the political. Each of these components takes on meaning from the Second Voyage. In addition, Reale has shown that only in the light of the Unwritten Doctrines handed down through the indirect tradition, do these three components, and the Second Voyage itself, acquire their full meaning, and only in this way is a unitary conception of Plato's thought achieved.The interpretation of Aristotle that Reale proposes depends on his interpretation of Plato. Aristotle read without preconceptions is not the antithesis of Plato. Reale points out that Aristotle was unique among thinkers close to Plato, in being the one who developed, at least in part, his Second Voyage. The systematic-unitary interpretation of Aristotle which Reale has previously supported converges with the new systematic-unitary interpretation of Plato. Certain doctrinal positions which are usually reserved to treatments in monographs will be explored, because only in this way can the two distinctive traits of Aristotle's thought emerge: the way in which he tries to overcome and confirm the Socratic-Platonic positions, and the way in which he formally creates the system of philosophical knowledge.

Knights of Faith and Resignation brings out the richness of Kierkegaard's creative invention, the contemporary relevance of his contrasts between resignation and faith, and his probing conceptual analysis of aesthetic, moral, and religious psychology and life-perspectives. And in tracing Kierkegaard's analysis of objectivity, subjectivity, virtue ethics, passion, dilemmas, commitment, and self-reflection, Mooney brings out a striking convergence between Kierkegaard and analytic philosophy — the tradition of Socrates, Kant, and Wittgenstein, and its more contemporary practitioners, writers like Charles Taylor, Thomas Nagel, Stanley Cavell, Bernard Williams, and Harry Frankfurt.

This book questions the postmodern credo that the autonomy of reason and action is a delusion, concealing our entrapment in historical convention and masking a logocentric domination. The author shows how this dogma not only assails a false vision of self-determination, but also how it ignores the way in which a critique of rational autonomy can provide no epistemology or ethics, nor any critique of modernity, without embracing the very independence of thought and conduct that it spurns. Freedom and Modernity offers a positive alternative revealing how self-determination is the very substance of legitimacy for both knowledge and conduct.

This book is a systematic and comprehensive treatment of issues involved in philosophical historiography. It deals with such topics as the relation of philosophy to its history, the role of value judgments in historical accounts, the value of the history of philosophy for philosophy, the nature and role of texts and their interpretation in the history of philosophy, historiographical method, and the stages of development of philosophical progress. The book defends two main theses. The first is that the history of philosophy must be done philosophically, that is, it must include philosophical judgments. The second is that one way to bring a rapprochement between Anglo-American and Continental philosophy is through the study of the history of philosophy and its historiography. An extensive bibliography of pertinent materials and detailed indexes close the book.

Explores the metaphysical, epistemological, and hermeneutical theories of Schelling's final system concerning the nature and meaning of religious mythology.This book explores the metaphysical, epistemological, and hermeneutical theories of Schelling's final system concerning the nature and meaning of religious mythology. This perspective is not surprising since Schelling regarded religion (not science or philosophy) as embodying the most complete manifestation of truth.Beach examines Schelling's novel attempt to account for the changing historical forms of religion in terms of a complex theory of dynamic spiritual powers, or "potencies." He shows that these are not mere representations, ideas, or projected feelings created by ancient myth-makers for the benefit of a credulous populace. Instead, Beach demonstrates that these potencies should be seen as animate powers inhabiting the unconscious strata of a people's collective mind.

Contributors to this volume include Robert Bellah, Raimundo Panikkar, Susan Griffin, Robert C. Solomon, Hubert L. Dreyfus and Stuart D. Dreyfus, Francisco J. Varela, Steven Rockefeller, Bruce Wilshire, Huston Smith, Joanne Ciulla, Michael Murphy, Tyrone Cashman, Naomi Scheman, Don Hanlon Johnson, Robert A. McDermott, Roger Walsh, and David Appelbaum.

Discussions of modernism and postmodernism in philosophy and the arts are usually based on a narrow reading of the Western tradition and are not conscious of the narrowness. The modern period, beginning with the European Renaissance, spawned many developments, not just the modernist one in terms of which the tradition has been read. From the standpoint of the highroad around modernism, both modernism and post-modernism look like nothing more than two late modern movements, perhaps too preoccupied with themselves and their historical place to engage a swiftly changing world containing more than the Western tradition. The Highroad Around Modernism develops and defends an explicitly non-modernist and non-postmodernist extension of modernity applicable to the problems of world-wide cultural interactions.

Discussions of modernism and postmodernism in philosophy and the arts are usually based on a narrow reading of the Western tradition and are not conscious of the narrowness. The modern period, beginning with the European Renaissance, spawned many developments, not just the modernist one in terms of which the tradition has been read. From the standpoint of the highroad around modernism, both modernism and post-modernism look like nothing more than two late modern movements, perhaps too preoccupied with themselves and their historical place to engage a swiftly changing world containing more than the Western tradition. The Highroad Around Modernism develops and defends an explicitly non-modernist and non-postmodernist extension of modernity applicable to the problems of world-wide cultural interactions.

Neville returns eternity to the center of consideration by analyzing the obsessive culture that attempts to get along denying it; and he analyzes the nature of time's flow itself, the nature of divine eternity, and the subtle problems of personal immortality. He argues that time and eternity constitute one topic and that, therefore, time itself is beyond understanding, beyond personal grasp, and beyond civilized orientation without a proper comprehension of eternity.

This book is a discussion of the nature and import of Richard Rorty's philosophy, particularly as it relates to his reevaluation of American pragmatism. Rorty's thinking is assessed within the context of both modern and postmodern intellectual trends, and his thought is contrasted with that of his principal contemporaries in America and Europe, including Donald Davidson, W. V. O. Quine, Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, and Jacques Derrida.

Scientific nihilism is the widespread and ascendant view that the prospects for genuine understanding in scientific knowledge are distinctly negative. This view is especially characteristic of philosophy of science, and is reflected in a number of professional and popular doctrines. In the background is the growing perception that physical science is presently encountering the inherent limits of scientific understanding.This book shows that the breakoff of narrative causal explanation in physics, although remarkable, is no basis for the negative view of scientific knowledge. It demonstrates that radiation and field phenomena, which include a wide array of enigmatic facts, are amenable to explanation even in their most puzzling details.Athearn responds fully to the assumption that narrative causal explanation in physics has suffered a permanent demise. Rejecting the dogma of a clean bifurcation of philosophy and natural science, he proposes a constructive rehabilitation of natural philosophy.

The definitive exploration of how medieval and early modern thinkers answered philosophy's most fundamental question: what makes an individual truly individual?What makes an individual this particular being rather than another? This deceptively simple question—known as the problem of individuation—stood at the heart of medieval metaphysics and shaped the trajectory of Western philosophy.Individuation in Scholasticism, edited by Jorge J. E. Gracia, offers the most comprehensive exploration available of this enduring philosophical problem. Bringing together sixteen distinguished scholars, this volume traces the evolution of theories of individuation across Latin, Islamic, and Jewish traditions, illuminating a rich intellectual dialogue that spans five centuries.From Avicenna and Averroes to Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Suárez, the contributors examine how major thinkers and schools confronted questions of identity, unity, and difference. Each chapter provides rigorous analysis grounded in historical context, revealing both the diversity of scholastic approaches and their profound influence on early modern philosophy, including Leibniz.Bridging traditions, periods, and methodologies, this volume fills a critical gap in the study of metaphysics and medieval thought. It is an indispensable resource for scholars and students seeking to understand how the concept of individuality was forged, contested, and transmitted across generations.

In an era when philosophy often fragments into competing schools and fashionable skepticism, Philosophy without Foundations returns to one of its most challenging figures to recover a powerful, unifying vision. Through a series of tightly argued and strikingly original essays, William Maker reexamines Hegel not as an abstract metaphysician of the past, but as a rigorously critical thinker whose insights remain vital for confronting the dilemmas of modernity.Rejecting conventional interpretations, Philosophy without Foundations presents Hegel as a non-foundational and non-metaphysical philosopher, one whose dialectical method opens new possibilities for understanding reason, knowledge, and philosophical method itself. From the problem of beginning philosophy without presuppositions to the role of systematic science, the discussion unfolds with clarity, precision, and intellectual force.The second part extends this reappraisal into contemporary debates, offering provocative engagements with hermeneutics, Marxism, postmodernism, and transcendental argumentation. Along the way, Maker challenges prevailing assumptions and invites readers to reconsider the place of philosophy in a fractured intellectual landscape.Written for the thoughtful general reader as well as the seasoned philosopher, Philosophy without Foundations does not demand agreement, it demands reflection. As it unsettles familiar conclusions and reveals overlooked implications, it exemplifies philosophy at its most alive: critical, demanding, and deeply relevant.

This work runs counter to the traditional interpretations of Peirce's philosophy by eliciting an inherent strand of pragmatic pluralism that is embedded in the very core of his thought and that weaves his various doctrines into a systematic pattern of pluralism.Rosenthal gives a new design to the seeming bedrock of Peirce's position: convergence toward the final ultimate opinion of the community of interpreters in the idealized long run. Focusing frequently on passages from Peirce's writings which have been virtually ignored in the more traditional interpretations of his work, this book shows the way in which Peirce's position, far from lying in opposition to the Kuhnian interpretation of science, provides strong and much needed metaphysical and epistemic underpinnings for it in a way which avoids the pitfalls of false alternatives offered by the philosophical tradition. The book examines in depth the various features of Peirce's position that enter into these underpinnings. Among the topics explored are meaning, truth, perception, world, sign relations, realism, categorical inquiry, phenomenology, temporality, and speculative metaphysics.

This work runs counter to the traditional interpretations of Peirce's philosophy by eliciting an inherent strand of pragmatic pluralism that is embedded in the very core of his thought and that weaves his various doctrines into a systematic pattern of pluralism.Rosenthal gives a new design to the seeming bedrock of Peirce's position: convergence toward the final ultimate opinion of the community of interpreters in the idealized long run. Focusing frequently on passages from Peirce's writings which have been virtually ignored in the more traditional interpretations of his work, this book shows the way in which Peirce's position, far from lying in opposition to the Kuhnian interpretation of science, provides strong and much needed metaphysical and epistemic underpinnings for it in a way which avoids the pitfalls of false alternatives offered by the philosophical tradition. The book examines in depth the various features of Peirce's position that enter into these underpinnings. Among the topics explored are meaning, truth, perception, world, sign relations, realism, categorical inquiry, phenomenology, temporality, and speculative metaphysics.

The culmination of a systematic metaphysics written by a world-class philosopher, demonstrating the need for a renewal of metaphysicsAs Plato told us long ago, the human being is neither a god nor a beast, but someone in between. Philosophy too is in between. How do we philosophize in between? W hat is the being of the between? This book answers the question in the most comprehensive terms possible. It offers an original understanding of metaphysical thinking and the fundamental senses of being, namely, the univocal, equivocal, dialectical, and metaxological senses.Part I of Being and the Between focuses on the nature of metaphysics, the question of being, in terms of the above fourfold sense. Part II develops a metaphysics of being as between, relative to our basic perplexities, concerning origin, creation, things, intelligibilities, selves, communities, being true, being good. The book calls for a generous hermeneutical rethinking of the philosophical tradition. Major figures and positions are reinterpreted. Desmond addresses the issue, common since Hegel, endemic since Heidegger, concerning the end of metaphysics. Granting a proper understanding of the between, Desmond believes that we need a resurrection of metaphysics, where the old perplexities, ever new, stand before us again.

Shows that Maimonides and St. Thomas reached strikingly similar conclusions regarding the limits of reason and that these limits, in turn, show the dimensions of philosophical understanding.Through a comparative philosophical examination of the diverse aporiae constituting the question of "providence," the author seeks to determine the degree of philosophical compatibility between Maimonides and St. Thomas Aquinas, and where disagreement is evident, its origin, nature and philosophical consequences. Dobbs-Weinstein retrieves some occluded aspects of their thought that render a better understanding of each thinker and provide a richer philosophical vocabulary for discussions of the limits of "reason," the consequent inevitable limits of language and interpretation and, above all, the relation between knowing and acting.This study also shows how and why, despite the fact that they adopt some radically different ontological principles, Maimonides and Aquinas reach strikingly similar conclusions concerning the existential dimensions of human life, especially the possibilities and modes of knowledge and the actions consequent upon them.

Shows that Maimonides and St. Thomas reached strikingly similar conclusions regarding the limits of reason and that these limits, in turn, show the dimensions of philosophical understanding.Through a comparative philosophical examination of the diverse aporiae constituting the question of "providence," the author seeks to determine the degree of philosophical compatibility between Maimonides and St. Thomas Aquinas, and where disagreement is evident, its origin, nature and philosophical consequences. Dobbs-Weinstein retrieves some occluded aspects of their thought that render a better understanding of each thinker and provide a richer philosophical vocabulary for discussions of the limits of "reason," the consequent inevitable limits of language and interpretation and, above all, the relation between knowing and acting.This study also shows how and why, despite the fact that they adopt some radically different ontological principles, Maimonides and Aquinas reach strikingly similar conclusions concerning the existential dimensions of human life, especially the possibilities and modes of knowledge and the actions consequent upon them.

Explains why anti-realism is so popular with philosophers of science by showing that many contemporary philosophers of science and language, who define themselves as empiricists, in fact have evolved into linguistic idealists.Science, Reality, and Language criticizes the anti-realist stance currently flourishing in philosophy of science and shows that many contemporary philosophers of science, although they define themselves empiricists, have evolved into "linguistic idealists." After emphasizing that most practicing scientists find the linguistically oriented philosophy of science useless, the author concludes is that a naturalistic philosophy of science is needed in which language is no longer taken to be the whole of reality, but just a human product created for practical and social purposes.