Materialism: A Historical and Philosophical Inquiry

ISBN-13: 9780367201340 / Angielski / Miękka / 2019 / 142 str.

Robin Gordon Brown; James Ladyman

Opis

Opening with materialism’s early thinkers, including Epicurus, Hobbes and Hume up to Darwin and Marx, Brown and Ladyman explain how materialism’s beginnings as imaginative vision of the true natures and properties of things faced a major challenge from modern physics, in the form of quantum theory and the general theory of relativity.

Recenzje

"Highly recommended for those interested in materialism as a perennial current in the history of philosophy and for those wondering how contemporary physicalism and naturalism connect with older materialist philosophies and politics." - William Lewis, Skidmore College, USA

"Brown and Ladyman offer a clear exposition of philosophical materialism much needed in these muddle-headed times. Particularly refreshing is their stress on the essential incompleteness of the explanations it provides, which distinguish it as a scientific world-view from its more strictly 'philosophical' rivals." - Thomas Uebel, University of Manchester, UK

Spis treści

Preface  A Preliminary Disambiguation  Part 1: An Outline of the History of Materialism  1. The Heart of Materialism  2. Materialist Thought in the Ancient World  3. The Triumphs of Materialism: The Mechanical Philosophy, The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment  4. Materialism in the Nineteenth Century  Part 2: The Evolution of Materialism into Physicalism  5. The Challenges to Materialism from post-Newtonian Physics  6. Physicalist Responses to the Problems of Materialism  7. The Heart of Physicalist Materialism  8. Physicalist Materialism in the Twenty-First Century.  Bibliography  Index