Escape Philosophy

The physical body has often been seen as a prison, as something to be escaped by any means necessary: technology, mechanization, drugs and sensory deprivation, alien abduction, Rapture, or even death and extinction. Taking in horror movies from David Cronenberg and UFO encounters, metal bands such as Godflesh, ketamine experiments, AI, and cybernetics, Escape Philosophy is an exploration of the ways that human beings have sought to make this escape, to transcend the limits of the human body, to find a way out. As the physical world continues to crumble at an ever-accelerating rate, and we are faced with a particularly 21st-century kind of dread and dehumanization in the face of climate collapse and a global pandemic, Escape Philosophy asks what this escape from our bodies might look like, and if it is even possible.

Dimensional quantities such as length, mass and charge, i.e., numbers combined with a conventional unit, are essential components of theories in the sciences, especially physics, chemistry and biology. Do they represent a world with absolute physical magnitudes, or are they merely magnitude ratios in disguise? Would we notice a difference if all the distances or charges in the world suddenly doubled? These central questions of this Element are illustrated by imagining how one would convey the meaning of a kilogram to aliens if one were only allowed to communicate via Morse code.

From Pythagoreans to Hegel, and beyond, this book gives a brief overview of the history of the notion of graphs and introduces the main concepts of graph theory in order to apply them to philosophy. In addition, this book presents how philosophers can use various mathematical notions of order. Throughout the book, philosophical operations and concepts are defined through examining questions relating the two kinds of known infinities – discrete and continuous – and how Woodin’s approach can influence elements of philosophy. We also examine how mathematics can help a philosopher to discover the elements of stability which will help to build an image of the world, even if various approaches (for example, negative theology) generally cannot be valid. Finally, we briefly consider the possibilities of weakening formal thought represented by fuzziness and neutrosophic graphs. In a nutshell, this book expresses the importance of graphs when representing ideas and communicating them clearly with others.

In this insightful book, two leading scholars in Christian education trace the history of the discipline from the Old Testament to the present. Presented against the backdrop of wider philosophical thought and historical events, Anthony and Benson show how each successive era shaped the practice of Christian education today. The result is a book brimming with insights that reveal the historical roots and philosophical underpinnings of issues relevant to current practice in Christian education ministries."The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with more than just valuable insights regarding the past. . . . The future is the emphasis of this history book." From the Introduction

Explores the place and meaning of philosophy of religion in our current poststructuralist, postsecular, postcolonialist context. This collection addresses, as it exemplifies, an identity crisis in contemporary philosophy of religion. It represents a unique two-way dialogue between philosophers of religion and scholars of religion and broaches issues pertaining to the philosophy of religion and the philosophical tradition, on the one hand, and religious studies, theology, and the modern academy on the other. While each author manages the current challenges in philosophy of religion differently, one can nonetheless discern a polyphony of interests surrounding a postcritical, postsecular appreciation of religion. In part 1, contributors ask how philosophy of religion can accommodate both the strengths and weaknesses of Western analytic and continental traditions; incorporate developments in ideology critique, gender studies, and Asian philosophies; and negotiate the perceived stalemate in philosophy of religion. Part 2 addresses these questions in terms of a philosophy of religion that is postcolonial in intention and multidisciplinary in orientation and features scholarship from the fields of both religion and theology. An underlying theme is the importance of ushering philosophy of religion into a postphenomenological era of religious studies and theology. This is a neglected dimension in many laudable discussions about philosophy of religion that this volume hopes to emend. Jim Kanaris is CAS Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Religion at McGill University. He is the author of Bernard Lonergan’s Philosophy of Religion: From Philosophy of God to Philosophy of Religious Studies and the coeditor (with Mark J. Doorley) of In Deference to the Other: Lonergan and Contemporary Continental Thought, both also published by SUNY Press.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1861.

Philosophy has its origins in the city, and in the context of our own highly urbanised modes of living, the relationship between philosophy and the city is more important than ever. The city is the place in which most humans now play out their lives, and the place that determines much of the cultural, social, economic, and political life of the contemporary world. Towards a Philosophy of the City explores a wide range of approaches and perspectives in a way that is true to the city’s complex and dynamic character. The volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that identifies the key themes and then moves through four parts, examining the concept of the city itself, its varying histories and experiences, the character of the landscapes that belong to the city, and finally the impact of new technologies for the future of city spaces. Each section takes up aspects of the thinking of the city as it develops in relation to particular problems, contexts, and sometimes as exemplified in particular cities. This volume provides an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Philosophy, Geography, Sociology and Urban Studies.

This book contains selected papers from symposia and contributed sessions presented at the third biennial meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, held in Lansing, Michigan, on October 27-29, 1972. We are grateful to Michigan State University, and especially to Professor Peter Asquith and his students and colleagues, for their friendly and efficient hospitality in organizing the circumstances of the sessions and of the 'intersessions', the unscheduled free time which is so important to any scholarly gathering. Several of the symposium papers have unhappily not been made available: those of Alasdair MacIntyre and Sidney Morgenbesser in the session on the social sciences, that of Ian Hacking in the session on randomness and that of Imre Lakatos in the session on discovery and rationality in science. Department of History and KENNETH F. SCHAFFNER Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy and ROBERT S. COHEN History of Science, Boston University TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE v PART I/SYMPOSIUM: SPACE, TIME AND MATTER: THE FOUNDATIONS OF GEOMETRODYNAMICS ADOLF GRUNBAUM / Space, Time, and Matter: The Foundations of Geometrodynamics. Introductory Remarks 3 CHARLES W. MISNER / Some Topics for Philosophical Inquiry Concerning the Theories of Mathematical Geometrodynamics and of Physical Geometrodynamics 7 JOHN STACHEL / The Rise and Fall of Geometrodynamics 31 PART II / PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF BIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY STUART KAUFFMAN / Elsasser, Generalized Complementarity, and Finite Classes: A Critique of His Anti-Reductionism 57 WILLIAM C.