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Metaphysics From A Biological Point Of View
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Book Synopsis Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View by : S. Boulter
Download or read book Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View written by S. Boulter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many philosophers in the analytic tradition are now convinced that metaphysical questions are worth pursuing, but we still lack a convincing meta-metaphysics and methodology. This essay offers an account of how we should conduct our business qua metaphysicians.
Book Synopsis The Metaphysics of Biology by : John Dupré
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Biology written by John Dupré and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-03 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element is an introduction to the metaphysics of biology, a very general account of the nature of the living world. The first part of the Element addresses more traditionally philosophical questions - whether biological systems are reducible to the properties of their physical parts, causation and laws of nature, substantialist and processualist accounts of life, and the nature of biological kinds. The second half will offer an understanding of important biological entities, drawing on the earlier discussions. This division should not be taken too seriously, however: the topics in both parts are deeply interconnected. Although this does not claim to be a scientific work, it does aim to be firmly grounded in our best scientific knowledge; it is an exercise in naturalistic metaphysics. Its most distinctive feature is that argues throughout for a view of living systems as processes rather than things or, in the technical philosophical sense, substances.
Book Synopsis Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View by : S. Boulter
Download or read book Metaphysics from a Biological Point of View written by S. Boulter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many philosophers in the analytic tradition are now convinced that metaphysical questions are worth pursuing, but we still lack a convincing meta-metaphysics and methodology. This essay offers an account of how we should conduct our business qua metaphysicians.
Book Synopsis Biological Identity by : Anne Sophie Meincke
Download or read book Biological Identity written by Anne Sophie Meincke and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analytic metaphysics has recently discovered biology as a means of grounding metaphysical theories. This has resulted in long-standing metaphysical puzzles, such as the problems of personal identity and material constitution, being increasingly addressed by appeal to a biological understanding of identity. This development within metaphysics is in significant tension with the growing tendency amongst philosophers of biology to regard biological identity as a deep puzzle in its own right, especially following recent advances in our understanding of symbiosis, the evolution of multi-cellular organisms and the inherently dynamical character of living systems. Moreover, and building on these biological insights, the broadly substance ontological framework of metaphysical theories of biological identity appears problematic to a growing number of philosophers of biology who invoke process ontology instead. This volume addresses this tension, exploring to what extent it can be dissolved. For this purpose, the volume presents the first selection of essays exclusively focused on biological identity and written by experts in metaphysics, the philosophy of biology and biology. The resulting cross-disciplinary dialogue paves the way for a convincing account of biological identity that is both metaphysically constructive and scientifically informed, and will be of interest to metaphysicians, philosophers of biology and theoretical biologists.
Book Synopsis From a Biological Point of View by : Elliott Sober
Download or read book From a Biological Point of View written by Elliott Sober and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-09-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elliott Sober is one of the leading philosophers of science and is a former winner of the Lakatos Prize, the major award in the field. This new collection of essays will appeal to a readership that extends well beyond the frontiers of the philosophy of science. Sober shows how ideas in evolutionary biology bear in significant ways on traditional problems in philosophy of mind and language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Amongst the topics addressed are psychological egoism, solipsism, and the interpretation of belief and utterance, empiricism, Ockham's razor, causality, essentialism, and scientific laws. The collection will prove invaluable to a wide range of philosophers, primarily those working in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, and epistemology.
Book Synopsis Everything Flows by : Daniel J. Nicholson
Download or read book Everything Flows written by Daniel J. Nicholson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The majority of the papers herein originated at the workshop 'Process Philosophy of Biology' ... held in Exeter in November 2014."--Page vii.
Book Synopsis The Species Problem by : David N. Stamos
Download or read book The Species Problem written by David N. Stamos and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2003-03-17 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stamos squarely confronts the problem of determining what a biological species is, whether species are real, and the nature of their reality. He critically considers the evolution of the major contemporary views of species and also offers his own solution to the species problem.
Book Synopsis Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology by : Spyridon A. Koutroufinis
Download or read book Process-Philosophical Perspectives on Biology written by Spyridon A. Koutroufinis and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2023-06-28 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many life scientists implicitly assume a materialistic metaphysics that is based on the worldview of the 19th century. This sort of reductionistic metaphysics does not do justice to the complexity of biological phenomena, leaving many features of living processes unexplained. The authors of this book explore the viability of process metaphysics to advance our understanding of fundamental biological concepts such as organism, ontogeny, agency, teleology, environment, and normativity. Based on the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and other process thinkers, the authors ascribe subjective interiority to all living beings, from unicellular organisms to the most complex animals. This book highlights the uniqueness and intrinsic value of living beings. It presents a new approach to essential dimensions of the phenomenon of life with the aim of opening up new horizons in the thinking of philosophers, philosophers of biology, life scientists, and environmentalists.
Book Synopsis Aristotle's Revenge by : Edward Feser
Download or read book Aristotle's Revenge written by Edward Feser and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Actuality and potentiality, substantial form and prime matter, efficient causality and teleology are among the fundamental concepts of Aristotelian philosophy of nature. Aristotle's Revenge argues that these concepts are not only compatible with modern science, but are implicitly presupposed by modern science. Among the many topics covered are: The metaphysical presuppositions of scientific method. The status of scientific realism The metaphysics of space and time. The metaphysics of quantum mechanics. Reductionism in chemistry and biology. The metaphysics of evolution. Neuroscientific reductionism. The book interacts heavily with the literature on these issues in contemporary analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science, so as to bring contemporary philosophy and science into dialogue with the Aristotelian tradition.
Book Synopsis Metaphysics and the Origin of Species by : Michael T. Ghiselin
Download or read book Metaphysics and the Origin of Species written by Michael T. Ghiselin and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In explaining his individuality thesis, Michael T. Ghiselin provides extended discussions of such philosophical topics as definition, the reality of various kinds of groups, and how we classify traits and processes. He develops and applies the implications for general biology and other sciences and makes the case that a better understanding of species and of classification in general puts biologists and paleontologists in a much better position to understand nature in general, and such processes as extinction in particular.
Book Synopsis The Metaphysics of Evolution by : David L. Hull
Download or read book The Metaphysics of Evolution written by David L. Hull and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1989-11-14 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical collection of essays represents the best of the best when it comes to philosophy of biology. Many chapters treat evolution as a biological phenomenon, but the author is more generally concerned with science itself. Present-day science, particularly current views on systematics and biological evolution are investigated. The aspects of these sciences that are relevant to the general analysis of selection processes are presented, and they also serve to exemplify the general characteristics exhibited by science since its inception.
Book Synopsis Process Metaphysics and Mutative Life by : Wahida Khandker
Download or read book Process Metaphysics and Mutative Life written by Wahida Khandker and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a survey of key process-philosophical approaches that, in conversation with selected concepts across the biological and physical sciences, help us to think about living processes, or ‘lived time,’ at different scales of functioning. The first part is written from an opening perspective on the question of the differing scales of analysis provided by Alfred North Whitehead. In particular, his interest in questions arising from the quantum mechanical reconciliation with classical mechanics informs the first two chapters that address problematic categorizations of life as variously ‘despotic,’ ‘invasive,’ or as primitive (in the radically more-than-human case of micro-organisms), whose potential recategorization relies on our willingness to acknowledge changes in value depending on the scale at which we view them. The second part of the book concerns methodologies, in the light of works by Henri Bergson, whose intertwining concerns with epistemology and ontology in his theories of mind and life serve as a model for a process philosophy of biology. The chapters focus on techniques used across philosophy and the sciences to visualize processes that are otherwise unavailable to us due to the limitations of our perceptual faculties, no matter how sophisticated the tools for analysis, from microscopes to telescopes, have become. This book concludes with a consideration of the relations between parts and wholes in process, panpsychist, and ecological terms. It revisits the question of ecological balance and the place of human activities in relation to it, with reference to works of Charles Hartshorne and William James.
Book Synopsis Natural Born Monads by : Andrea Altobrando
Download or read book Natural Born Monads written by Andrea Altobrando and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-10-12 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are still looking for a satisfactory definition of what makes an individual being a human individual. The understanding of human beings in terms of organism does not seem to be satisfactory, because of its reductionistic flavor. It satisfies our need for autonomy and benefits our lives thanks to its medical applications, but it disappoints our needs for conscious and free, self-determination. For similar reasons, i.e. because of its anti-libertarian tone, an organicistic understanding of the relationship between individual and society has also been rejected, although no truly satisfactory alternative for harmonizing individual and social wellness has been put forth. Thus, a reassessment of the very concepts of individual and organism is needed. In this book, the authors present a specific line of thought which started with Leibniz' concept of monad in 17th century, continued through Kant and Hegel, and as a result reached the first Eastern country to attempt to assimilate, as well as confront, with Western philosophy and sciences, i.e. Japan. The line of thought we are tracing has gone on to become one the main voices in current debates in the philosophy of biology, as well as philosophical anthropology, and social philosophy. As a whole, the volume offers a both historical, and systematic account of one specific understanding of individuals and their environment, which tries to put together its natural embedding, as well as its dialectical nature. Such a historical, systematic map will also allow to better evaluate how life sciences impact our view of our individual lives, of human activities, of institutions, politics, and, finally, of humankind in general.
Book Synopsis Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction by : Stephen Mumford
Download or read book Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction written by Stephen Mumford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to metaphysics offers questions and answers covering such issues as properties, changes, time, personal identity, nothingness, and consciousness.
Book Synopsis The Metaphysical Mind by : Andrew B. Newberg
Download or read book The Metaphysical Mind written by Andrew B. Newberg and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-12 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are philosophical and theological concepts conceived in the mind? Why are certain topics of greater importance to philosophers and theologians? Why do people think about these issues in the first place? These are the questions that are explored in the ground breaking book, "The Metaphysical Mind". Philosophy and theology usually considers various fundamental concepts such as those related to being, reality, causality, logic, or phenomenology. But the philosophical approach to these topics often leaves out one of the most important things - the human brain. After all, it is the brain that is actually thinking about these ideas in the first place. "The Metaphysical Mind" explores the relationship between the brain and philosophical thought and helps us to understand how the brain enables and restricts our ability to think about these metaphysical concepts. One of the major developments of contemporary thought has been the field of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics considers the environmental, linguistic, and cultural factors that influence a given philosopher in order to determine how particular ideas or texts may have been shaped. However, no one has ever examined philosophical and theological thought specifically from the hermeneutical perspective of the neurobiological and genetic substrate that underlies such thinking. This "neuroscientific hermeneutic" or "neurohermeneutic" refers specifically to the functions of the brain and how they are related to various thought processes which have been at the cornerstone of philosophical and theological thought throughout history. Additionally, this neurohermeneutic helps to better interpret how and why such thoughts develop. Neurohermeneutics is based upon a synthesis of information from multiple fields including anthropology, neurophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, genetics, theology, and philosophy. Many of the major milestones in the history of philosophical and theological thought from pre-Socratic thinkers to the present day can be considered from the perspective of the functioning of the human mind and its multimodal interaction with the social, cultural, intellectual, and physical environment. In particular, the development of some of the most dramatic concepts in philosophy and theology can be considered in relation to certain brain functions and how those functions enable human beings to interpret meaning in the world. Similarly, contemplative/meditative traditions can be considered to be associated with certain brain functions in order to explore how such experiences are perceived and interpreted. This book will also consider the issue of the experience of reality from a neurophysiological perspective. This leads to fascinating conclusions regarding the nature and degrees of reality and how the brain experiences that reality. Although not all philosophical and theological concepts will be examined, many of the major movements will be considered in order to extrapolate to the notion that a neurobiological hermeneutic may provide a basis and fundamental bias for all philosophical thinking - a "metaphilosophy" (or "metatheology" in the specific context of religion). Ultimately, this approach might even lead to a "megaphilosophy" containing universal concepts that could be conceived of from any philosophical or theological perspective. The result of this analysis leads to a description of the "metaphysical mind" which is necessarily driven to pursue philosophical and theological questions, but also shapes how the answers to such questions arise. Thus, the brain itself is "designed" to function in a philosophical or metaphysical manner. This revolutionary approach to philosophical and theological thought will provide readers something to think about for the millennium to come.
Book Synopsis The Disorder of Things by : John Dupré
Download or read book The Disorder of Things written by John Dupré and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great dream of philosophers and scientists for millennia has been to give us a complete account of the order of things. A powerful articulation of such a dream in this century has been found in the idea of a unity of science. With this manifesto, John Dupre systematically attacks the ideal of scientific unity by showing how its underlying assumptions are at odds with the central conclusions of science itself. In its stead, the author gives us a metaphysics much more in keeping with what science tells us about the world. The order presupposed by scientific unity is expressed in the classical philosophical doctrines of essentialism, materialist reductionism, and determinism. Employing examples from biology, that most "disordered" of sciences, Dupre subjects each of these doctrines to detailed and devastating criticism. He also identifies the shortcomings of contemporary approaches to scientific disunity, such as constructivism and extreme empiricism. He argues that we should adopt a "moderate realism" consistent with pluralistic science. Dupre's proposal for a "promiscuous realism" acknowledges the existence of a fundamentally disordered world, in which different projects or perspectives may reveal distinct, somewhat isolated, but nevertheless perfectly real domains of partial order. This argument makes connections with recent discussions of science and value, especially in the work of feminist scholars. In Dupre's view, we have a great deal of choice about which scientific projects to pursue, a choice that can be informed only by value judgments. Such choices determine not only what kinds of order we observe in nature but also what kinds of order we impose on the world we observe.Elegantly written and compellingly argued, this provocative book should be of crucial interest to all philosophers and scholars of science.
Book Synopsis The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds by : Helen Beebee
Download or read book The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds written by Helen Beebee and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-05-05 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essentialism--roughly, the view that natural kinds have discrete essences, generating truths that are necessary but knowable only a posteriori--is an increasingly popular view in the metaphysics of science. At the same time, philosophers of language have been subjecting Kripke’s views about the existence and scope of the necessary a posteriori to rigorous analysis and criticism. Essentialists typically appeal to Kripkean semantics to motivate their radical extension of the realm of the necessary a posteriori; but they rarely attempt to provide any semantic arguments for this extension, or engage with the critical work being done by philosophers of language. This collection brings authors on both sides together in one volume, thus helping the reader to see the connections between views in philosophy of language on the one hand and the metaphysics of science on the other. The result is a book that will have a significant impact on the debate about essentialism, encouraging essentialists to engage with debates about the semantic presuppositions that underpin their position, and, encouraging philosophers of language to engage with the metaphysical presuppositions enshrined in Kripkean semantics.
