Pluralism and the Mind

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Author :
Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
ISBN 13 : 1845403290
Total Pages : 395 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism and the Mind by : Matthew Colborn

Download or read book Pluralism and the Mind written by Matthew Colborn and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2011-11-03 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Feyerabend noted that ‘… the world which we want to explore is a largely unknown entity. We must, therefore, keep our options open and … not restrict ourselves in advance.' (1975, p. 20). Given that consciousness is poorly understood and vaguely defined, such advice seems sound, but is frequently ignored in favour of an insistence that a scientific theory of consciousness must be reducible to current monist physics and biology. This book argues that such an insistence is historically unsupportable, theoretically incoherent and unnecessary. The author instead makes the case for emergent property pluralism. New concepts of emergent mental properties are needed in part because of the failure of mainstream approaches (like computationalism or dynamical systems) satisfactorily to address issues like subjective volition, autonomy and creativity. The author sees personal consciousness as active and classifiable as a subset of the wider problem of biological causation. (‘Biological causation' is my term for issues like downwards causation, ‘final causes,’ purposive behaviour and autonomy that are poorly handled by conventional evolutionary, computational or dynamical systems models (See Rosen, 1991, Ho, 2008). Rosen’s approach is especially useful from a pluralistic perspective because of his insistence that ‘no one mode of causal entailment suffices to understand anything’ (Rosen, 1991, p. 13.)) The book is split into three sections. Part one builds an historical case for pluralism. Part two deconstructs insistent monism and mainstream models before addressing biological causation. Part three explores the consequences of such an alternative approach by examining specific phenomena like free will, the self and evolutionary emergence.

A Pluralist Theory of the Mind

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319227386
Total Pages : 201 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (192 download)

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Book Synopsis A Pluralist Theory of the Mind by : David Ludwig

Download or read book A Pluralist Theory of the Mind written by David Ludwig and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges common debates in philosophy of mind by questioning the framework of placement problems in contemporary metaphysics. The author argues that placement problems arise when exactly one fundamental ontology serves as the base for all entities, and will propose a pluralist alternative that takes the diversity of our conceptual resources and ontologies seriously. This general pluralist account is applied to issues in philosophy of mind to argue that contemporary debates about the mind-body problem are built on this problematic framework of placement problems. The starting point is the plurality of ontologies in scientific practice. Not only can we describe the world in terms of physical, biological, or psychological ontologies, but any serious engagement with scientific ontologies will identify more specific ontologies in each domain. For example, there is not one unified ontology for biology, but rather a diversity of scientific specializations with different ontological needs. Based on this account of scientific practice the author argues that there is no reason to assume that ontological unification must be possible everywhere. Without this ideal, the scope of ontological unification turns out to be an open empirical question and there is no need to present unification failures as philosophically puzzling “placement problems”.

Cognitive Pluralism

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262552612
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis Cognitive Pluralism by : Steven Horst

Download or read book Cognitive Pluralism written by Steven Horst and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-07-02 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that we understand the world through many special-purpose mental models of different content domains, and an exploration of the philosophical implications. Philosophers have traditionally assumed that the basic units of knowledge and understanding are concepts, beliefs, and argumentative inferences. In Cognitive Pluralism, Steven Horst proposes that another sort of unit—a mental model of a content domain—is the fundamental unit of understanding. He argues that understanding comes not in word-sized concepts, sentence-sized beliefs, or argument-sized reasoning but in the form of idealized models and in domain-sized chunks. He argues further that this idea of “cognitive pluralism”—the claim that we understand the world through many such models of a variety of content domains—sheds light on a number of problems in philosophy. Horst first presents the “standard view” of cognitive architecture assumed in mainstream epistemology, semantics, truth theory, and theory of reasoning. He then explains the notion of a mental model as an internal surrogate that mirrors features of its target domain, and puts it in the context of ideas in psychology, philosophy of science, artificial intelligence, and theoretical cognitive science. Finally, he argues that the cognitive pluralist view not only helps to explain puzzling disunities of knowledge but also raises doubts about the feasibility of attempts to “unify” the sciences; presents a model-based account of intuitive judgments; and contends that cognitive pluralism favors a reliabilist epistemology and a “molecularist” semantics. Horst suggests that cognitive pluralism allows us to view rival epistemological and semantic theories not as direct competitors but as complementary accounts, each an idealized model of different dimensions of evaluation.

Pluralism and the Mind

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Author :
Publisher : Andrews UK Limited
ISBN 13 : 1845403282
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (454 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism and the Mind by : Matthew Colborn

Download or read book Pluralism and the Mind written by Matthew Colborn and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2011-11-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Feyerabend noted that ‘… the world which we want to explore is a largely unknown entity. We must, therefore, keep our options open and … not restrict ourselves in advance.' (1975, p. 20). Given that consciousness is poorly understood and vaguely defined, such advice seems sound, but is frequently ignored in favour of an insistence that a scientific theory of consciousness must be reducible to current monist physics and biology. This book argues that such an insistence is historically unsupportable, theoretically incoherent and unnecessary. The author instead makes the case for emergent property pluralism. New concepts of emergent mental properties are needed in part because of the failure of mainstream approaches (like computationalism or dynamical systems) satisfactorily to address issues like subjective volition, autonomy and creativity. The author sees personal consciousness as active and classifiable as a subset of the wider problem of biological causation. (‘Biological causation' is my term for issues like downwards causation, ‘final causes,’ purposive behaviour and autonomy that are poorly handled by conventional evolutionary, computational or dynamical systems models (See Rosen, 1991, Ho, 2008). Rosen’s approach is especially useful from a pluralistic perspective because of his insistence that ‘no one mode of causal entailment suffices to understand anything’ (Rosen, 1991, p. 13.)) The book is split into three sections. Part one builds an historical case for pluralism. Part two deconstructs insistent monism and mainstream models before addressing biological causation. Part three explores the consequences of such an alternative approach by examining specific phenomena like free will, the self and evolutionary emergence.

Pluralism and the Mind

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism and the Mind by : Matthew Colborn

Download or read book Pluralism and the Mind written by Matthew Colborn and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Pluralism in Philosophy

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Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 1501721895
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism in Philosophy by : John Kekes

Download or read book Pluralism in Philosophy written by John Kekes and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This original and ambitious book aims to change how we think about good lives. The perennial debates about good lives—the disagreements caused by conflicts between scientific, religious, moral, historical, aesthetic, and subjective modes of reflection—typically end in an impasse. This leaves the underlying problems of the meaning of life, the possibility of free action, the place of morality in good lives, the art of life, and human self-understanding as intractable as they have ever been.The way out of this impasse, argues Kekes, is to abandon the assumption shared by the contending parties that the solutions of these problems can be rational only if they apply universally to all lives in all contexts. He believes that solutions may vary with lives and contexts and still be rational. Kekes defends a pluralistic alternative to absolutism and relativism that will, he holds, take philosophy in a new and more productive direction.

The Quest for Meaning

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Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141919574
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis The Quest for Meaning by : Tariq Ramadan

Download or read book The Quest for Meaning written by Tariq Ramadan and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2010-08-05 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Quest for Meaning, Tariq Ramadan, philosopher and Islamic scholar, invites the reader to join him on a journey to the deep ocean of religious, secular, and indigenous spiritual traditions to explore the most pressing contemporary issues. Along the way, Ramadan interrogates the concepts that frame current debates including: faith and reason, emotions and spirituality, tradition and modernity, freedom, equality, universality, and civilization. He acknowledges the greatest flashpoints and attempts to bridge divergent paths to a common ground between these religious and intellectual traditions. He calls urgently for a deep and meaningful dialogue that leads us to go beyond tolerant co-existence to mutual respect and enrichment. Written in a both direct and meditative style this is an important, timely and intelligent book that aims to direct and shape debate around the most important questions of our time.

The Concepts of Psychiatry

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Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 0801881374
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis The Concepts of Psychiatry by : S. Nassir Ghaemi

Download or read book The Concepts of Psychiatry written by S. Nassir Ghaemi and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because most psychiatric illnesses are complex phenomena, no single method or approach is sufficient to explain them or the experiences of persons who suffer from them. In The Concepts of Psychiatry S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D. argues that the discipline of psychiatry can therefore be understood best from a pluralistic perspective. Grounding his approach in the works of Paul McHugh, Phillip Slavney, Leston Havens, and others, Ghaemi incorporates a more explicitly philosophical discussion of the strengths of a pluralistic model and the weaknesses of other approaches, such as biological or psychoanalytic theories, the biopsychosocial model, or eclecticism. Ghaemi's methodology is twofold: on the one hand, he applies philosophical ideas, such as utilitarian versus duty-based ethical models, to psychiatric practice. On the other hand, he subjects clinical psychiatric phenomena, such as psychosis or the Kraepelin nosology, to a conceptual analysis that is philosophically informed. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in psychiatry, as well as psychologists, social workers, philosophers, and general readers who are interested in understanding the field of psychiatry and its practices at a conceptual level.

Encountering Religious Pluralism

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Author :
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 9780830815524
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (155 download)

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Book Synopsis Encountering Religious Pluralism by : Harold Netland

Download or read book Encountering Religious Pluralism written by Harold Netland and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2001-08-14 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harold Netland traces the emergence of the pluralistic ethos that challenges Christian faith and mission, interacting heavily with philosopher John Hick and providing a framework for developing a comprehensive evangelical theology of religions.

Confident Pluralism

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022659243X
Total Pages : 187 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

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Book Synopsis Confident Pluralism by : John D. Inazu

Download or read book Confident Pluralism written by John D. Inazu and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the three years since Donald Trump first announced his plans to run for president, the United States seems to become more dramatically polarized and divided with each passing month. There are seemingly irresolvable differences in the beliefs, values, and identities of citizens across the country that too often play out in our legal system in clashes on a range of topics such as the tensions between law enforcement and minority communities. How can we possibly argue for civic aspirations like tolerance, humility, and patience in our current moment? In Confident Pluralism, John D. Inazu analyzes the current state of the country, orients the contemporary United States within its broader history, and explores the ways that Americans can—and must—strive to live together peaceably despite our deeply engrained differences. Pluralism is one of the founding creeds of the United States—yet America’s society and legal system continues to face deep, unsolved structural problems in dealing with differing cultural anxieties and differing viewpoints. Inazu not only argues that it is possible to cohabitate peacefully in this country, but also lays out realistic guidelines for our society and legal system to achieve the new American dream through civic practices that value toleration over protest, humility over defensiveness, and persuasion over coercion. With a new preface that addresses the election of Donald Trump, the decline in civic discourse after the election, the Nazi march in Charlottesville, and more, this new edition of Confident Pluralism is an essential clarion call during one of the most troubled times in US history. Inazu argues for institutions that can work to bring people together as well as political institutions that will defend the unprotected. Confident Pluralism offers a refreshing argument for how the legal system can protect peoples’ personal beliefs and differences and provides a path forward to a healthier future of tolerance, humility, and patience.

Reduction in Philosophy of Mind

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 3110332132
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Reduction in Philosophy of Mind by : Markus I. Eronen

Download or read book Reduction in Philosophy of Mind written by Markus I. Eronen and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion of reduction continues to play a key role in philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science. Supporters of reductionism claim that psychological properties or explanations reduce to neural properties or explanations, while antireductionists claim that such reductions are not possible. In this book, I apply recent developments in philosophy of science, particularly the mechanistic explanation paradigm and the interventionist theory of causation, to reassess the traditional approaches to reduction in philosophy of mind. I then elaborate and defend a pluralistic framework for philosophy of mind, and show how reductionist ideas can be incorporated into it. This leads to a novel synthesis of pluralism and reductionism that I call pluralistic physicalism.

Explaining the Computational Mind

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262313928
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (623 download)

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Book Synopsis Explaining the Computational Mind by : Marcin Milkowski

Download or read book Explaining the Computational Mind written by Marcin Milkowski and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-03-29 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A defense of the computational explanation of cognition that relies on mechanistic philosophy of science and advocates for explanatory pluralism. In this book, Marcin Milkowski argues that the mind can be explained computationally because it is itself computational—whether it engages in mental arithmetic, parses natural language, or processes the auditory signals that allow us to experience music. Defending the computational explanation against objections to it—from John Searle and Hilary Putnam in particular—Milkowski writes that computationalism is here to stay but is not what many have taken it to be. It does not, for example, rely on a Cartesian gulf between software and hardware, or mind and brain. Milkowski's mechanistic construal of computation allows him to show that no purely computational explanation of a physical process will ever be complete. Computationalism is only plausible, he argues, if you also accept explanatory pluralism. Milkowski sketches a mechanistic theory of implementation of computation against a background of extant conceptions, describing four dissimilar computational models of cognition. He reviews other philosophical accounts of implementation and computational explanation and defends a notion of representation that is compatible with his mechanistic account and adequate vis à vis the four models discussed earlier. Instead of arguing that there is no computation without representation, he inverts the slogan and shows that there is no representation without computation—but explains that representation goes beyond purely computational considerations. Milkowski's arguments succeed in vindicating computational explanation in a novel way by relying on mechanistic theory of science and interventionist theory of causation.

Pluralism

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Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822387085
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (223 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism by : William E. Connolly

Download or read book Pluralism written by William E. Connolly and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-16 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past two decades, the renowned political theorist William E. Connolly has developed a powerful theory of pluralism as the basis of a territorial politics. In this concise volume, Connolly launches a new defense of pluralism, contending that it has a renewed relevance in light of pressing global and national concerns, including the war in Iraq, the movement for a Palestinian state, and the fight for gay and lesbian rights. Connolly contends that deep, multidimensional pluralism is the best way to promote justice and inclusion without violence. He advocates a deep pluralism—in contrast to shallow, secular pluralism—that helps to create space for different groups to bring their religious faiths into the public realm. This form of deep pluralism extends far beyond faith, encompassing multiple dimensions of social and personal lives, including household organization and sexuality. Connolly looks at pluralism not only in light of faith but also in relation to evil, ethics, relativism, globalization, and sovereignty. In the process, he engages many writers and theorists—among them, Spinoza, William James, Henri Bergson, Marcel Proust, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Talal Asad, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri. Pluralism is the first book in which Connolly explains the relationship between pluralism and the experience of time, and he offers readings of several films that address how time is understood, including Time Code, Far from Heaven, Waking Life, and The Maltese Falcon. In this necessary book Connolly brings a compelling, accessible philosophical critique together with his personal commitment to an inclusive political agenda to suggest how we might—and why we must—cultivate pluralism within both society and ourselves.

Empty the Pews

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781946093073
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Empty the Pews by : Chrissy Stroop

Download or read book Empty the Pews written by Chrissy Stroop and published by . This book was released on 2019-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Beyond Reduction

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190295589
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Reduction by : Steven Horst

Download or read book Beyond Reduction written by Steven Horst and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosophers of mind tend to assume that the world of nature can be reduced to basic physics. Yet there are features of the mind consciousness, intentionality, normativity that do not seem to be reducible to physics or neuroscience. This explanatory gap between mind and brain has thus been a major cause of concern in recent philosophy of mind. Reductionists hold that, despite all appearances, the mind can be reduced to the brain. Eliminativists hold that it cannot, and that this implies that there is something illegitimate about the mentalistic vocabulary. Dualists hold that the mental is irreducible, and that this implies either a substance or a property dualism. Mysterian non-reductive physicalists hold that the mind is uniquely irreducible, perhaps due to some limitation of our self-understanding. In this book, Steven Horst argues that this whole conversation is based on assumptions left over from an outdated philosophy of science. While reductionism was part of the philosophical orthodoxy fifty years ago, it has been decisively rejected by philosophers of science over the past thirty years, and for good reason. True reductions are in fact exceedingly rare in the sciences, and the conviction that they were there to be found was an artifact of armchair assumptions of 17th century Rationalists and 20th century Logical Empiricists. The explanatory gaps between mind and brain are far from unique. In fact, in the sciences it is gaps all the way down.And if reductions are rare in even the physical sciences, there is little reason to expect them in the case of psychology. Horst argues that this calls for a complete re-thinking of the contemporary problematic in philosophy of mind. Reductionism, dualism, eliminativism and non-reductive materialism are each severely compromised by post-reductionist philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind is in need of a new paradigm. Horst suggests that such a paradigm might be found in Cognitive Pluralism: the view that human cognitive architecture constrains us to understand the world through a plurality of partial, idealized, and pragmatically-constrained models, each employing a particular representational system optimized for its own problem domain. Such an architecture can explain the disunities of knowledge, and is plausible on evolutionary grounds.

The Gagging of God

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Publisher : Zondervan Academic
ISBN 13 : 0310830680
Total Pages : 641 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gagging of God by : D. A. Carson

Download or read book The Gagging of God written by D. A. Carson and published by Zondervan Academic. This book was released on 2009-09-01 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Gold Medallion Award-winning book that presents a persuasive case for Christ as the only way to God in light of contemporary religious pluralism. A great majority of social commentators attempting to define modern Western culture land on a common characteristic: pluralism. This isn't unique to secular culture. Many modern approaches to Christian hermeneutics, or biblical interpretation, have given credence to contemporary pluralism. What began as a refreshing restraint and humility in modern theology has fallen more and more into irresoluteness. It's no secret that the contemporary challenges to Christianity are complex and serious. Yet, far from simple fear-mongering, or cultural warmongering, The Gagging of God takes a hard look at the background and intricacy—of pluralism, postmodernity, and hermeneutics—and equips thoughtful Christians to have intelligent, culturally sensitive, and passionate fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In his contemplative, even-handed approach, Carson provides a structure of Christian thought capable of facing the philosophies of today and piercing their surface. It invites Christians to grapple responsibly with urgent questions of biblically-grounded theology, spirituality, and the defining lines of Christianity, along with its range of challenges from without and within. The Gagging of God offers an in-depth look at the big picture, shows how the many ramifications of pluralism are all parts of a whole, and provides a systematic Christian response.

Pluralism and Liberal Democracy

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Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780801882159
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis Pluralism and Liberal Democracy by : Richard E. Flathman

Download or read book Pluralism and Liberal Democracy written by Richard E. Flathman and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2005-09-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turns to the task of how to explain, justify, and encourage the concept, practice, and institutionalization of pluralism. By examining and analyzing the accounts and explanations of four philosophers, the author augments the theories of pluralism familiar to students and scholars of politics and political theory.