Taking scientific practice as its starting point, this book charts the complex territory of models used in science. It examines what scientific models are and what their function is. Reliance on models is pervasive in science, and scientists often need to construct models in order to explain or predict anything of interest at all. The diversity of kinds of models one finds in science - ranging from toy models and scale models to theoretical and mathematical models - has attracted attention not only from scientists, but also from philosophers, sociologists, and historians of science. This has...
Taking scientific practice as its starting point, this book charts the complex territory of models used in science. It examines what scientific models...
This book showcases the history and theory of pragmatism and its alignment to the sensibilities of contemporary analytic philosophy. It does this not only by describing its mode of operation and explaining its legitimating rationale, but also by substantiating its claims by a series of instructive case studies. The unifying insight of this approach is that the natural criterion of merit within any goal-oriented enterprise--be its orientation practical or cognitive--pivots on its contribution to the effective and efficient realization of the aims at issue. The aim of this volume is to...
This book showcases the history and theory of pragmatism and its alignment to the sensibilities of contemporary analytic philosophy. It does this not ...
This work explains how different theories of causation confront causal overdetermination. Chapters clarify the problem of overdetermination and explore its fundamental aspects. It is argued that a theory of causation can account for our intuitions in overdetermination cases only by accepting that the adequacy of our claims about causation depends on the context in which they are evaluated.The author proposes arguments for causal contextualism and provides insight which is valuable for resolution of the problem. These chapters enable readers to quickly absorb different perspectives on...
This work explains how different theories of causation confront causal overdetermination. Chapters clarify the problem of overdetermination and explor...
This book presents an overview of postmodernism and its social indicators, and of the postmodern condition in consciousness as an indicator of its modification and development. The book brings together philosophical, sociological and cultural approaches towards contemporary societal issues, such as multiculturalism, culture of dialogue, philosophy of dialogue, tolerance, and gender. In doing so, it suggests a framing approach to cross-disciplinary research. The book also discusses various forms of multiculturalism, including multiculturalism as multiple modernities and plural modernities, and...
This book presents an overview of postmodernism and its social indicators, and of the postmodern condition in consciousness as an indicator of its mod...
This book discusses the relationship between the philosophy of science and philosophy of engineering, and demonstrates how philosophers of engineering design as well as design researchers can benefit from the conceptual toolkit that the philosophy of science has to offer.
This book discusses the relationship between the philosophy of science and philosophy of engineering, and demonstrates how philosophers of engineering...
This book is a critical survey of and guidebook to the literature on biological functions. It ties in with current debates and developments, and at the same time, it looks back on the state of discourse in naturalized teleology prior to the 1970s. It also presents three significant new proposals. First, it describes the generalized selected effects theory, which is one version of the selected effects theory, maintaining that the function of a trait consists in the activity that led to its differential persistence or reproduction in a population, and not merely its differential...
This book is a critical survey of and guidebook to the literature on biological functions. It ties in with current debates and developments, and at...
This book studies Hume's scepticism and its roots, context, and role in the philosopher's life. It relates how Hume wrote his philosophy in a time of tumult, as the millennia-old metaphysical tradition that placed humans and their cognitive abilities in an ontological framework collapsed and gave way to one that placed the autonomy of the individual in its center. It then discusses the birth of modernity that Descartes inaugurated and Kant completed with his Copernican revolution that moved philosophy from Being to the Self. It shows how modernity gave rise to a new kind of scepticism,...
This book studies Hume's scepticism and its roots, context, and role in the philosopher's life. It relates how Hume wrote his philosophy in a time of ...
The aim of this work is to provide a preliminary analysis of a much more far-reaching investigation into the relationship between technology and philosophy. In the context of the contemporary German thought, the author compares the different positions of Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Ernst and Friedrich Junger, Arnold Gehlen and Gunther Anders. The term "machine" is used precisely to mean that complex material device assembled in the last quarter of the 18th century as a result of the definitive modern refinement of certain fundamental technologies, i.e. metallurgy, precision mechanics and...
The aim of this work is to provide a preliminary analysis of a much more far-reaching investigation into the relationship between technology and philo...
This book deals with the possibility of an ontological and epistemological account of the psychological category 'neurosis'. Intertwining thoughts from German idealism, Continental philosophy and psychology, the book shows how neurosis precedes and exists independently from human experience and lays the foundations for a non-essentialist, non-rational theory of neurosis; in cognition, in perception, in linguistics and in theories of object-relations and vitalism. The personal essays collected in this volume examine such issues as assimilation, the philosophy of neurosis, aneurysmal...
This book deals with the possibility of an ontological and epistemological account of the psychological category 'neurosis'. Intertwining thoughts ...
