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| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Think Simon Blackburn, 1999-08-05 This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important. Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein have approached its central themes. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that philosophers have studied. The large scope of topics covered range from scepticism, the self, mond and body, and freedom to ethics and the arguments surrounding the existence of God. Lively and approachable, this book is ideal for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our existence. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Passions and Projections Robert Neal Johnson, Michael Smith, 2015 This volume presents fourteen original essays which explore the philosophy of Simon Blackburn, and his lifetime pursuit of a distinctive projectivist and anti-realist research program. The essays document the range and influence of Blackburn's work and reveal, among other things, the resourcefulness of his brand of philosophical pragmatism. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Truth Simon Blackburn, 2005-07 The author of the highly popular book Think illuminates the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy--the age-old war over truth. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Being Good Simon Blackburn, 2002-03-14 It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity, or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or be paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. Simon Blackburn, author of the best-selling Think, structures this short introduction around these and other threats to ethics. Confronting seven different objections to our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures, he charts a course through the philosophical quicksands that often engulf us. Then, turning to problems of life and death, he shows how we should think about the meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the sound-bite sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. Finally he offers a critical tour of the ways the philosophical tradition has tried to provide foundations for ethics, from Plato and Aristotle through to contemporary debates. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Summary of Simon Blackburn's Think Everest Media,, 2022-04-09T22:59:00Z Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 We all have the fear that the world we live in is a dream, and that the things we take for granted are actually fantasies. But how do we know that the world as we take it to be, is the world as it is. #2 The problems of the self, mortality, knowledge, and the nature of the world are all raised in the oldest philosophical texts. The generation before Descartes included the French essayist Montaigne, whose motto was the title of one of his great essays: Que sais-je. #3 There are six Meditations in the first part of the book. In the first, Descartes introduces the method of doubt. He resolves that if he is to establish anything in the sciences that is stable and likely to last, he must demolish all his ordinary opinions and start from the foundations. #4 Descartes realized that his understanding of himself was not based on knowledge of his embodied existence. He realized that a conception of oneself as an embodied thing living in an extended spatial world of physical objects will inevitably come back. The I he is left with is pretty thin: this puzzling I that cannot be pictured in the imagination. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: How To Read Hume Simon Blackburn, 2014-10-02 'Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.' David Hume David Hume is generally recognized as the United Kingdom's greatest philosopher, as well as a notable historian and essayist and a central figure of the Enlightenment. Yet his work is delicately poised between scepticism and naturalism, between despair at the limited powers of the mind and optimism at the progress we can make by understanding it. This difficult balancing act has given rise to a multitude of different interpretations: reading Hume has never been free of controversy. In this new approach to his writings, Simon Blackburn describes how Hume can be considered one of the earliest, and most successful, evolutionary psychologists, weaving plausible natural accounts of the way we should think of ourselves and of how we have come to be what we are. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Spreading the Word Simon Blackburn, 1984 |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: On Truth Simon Blackburn, 2018 The classic approaches -- Correspondence -- Coherence -- Pragmatism -- Deflationism -- Tarski and the semantic theory of truth -- Summary of part I -- Varieties of enquiry -- Truths of taste; truth in art -- Truth in ethics -- Reason -- Religion and truth -- Interpretations. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: On What Matters Derek Parfit, 2016-12-22 Derek Parfit presents the third volume of On What Matters, his landmark work of moral philosophy. Parfit develops further his influential treatment of reasons, normativity, the meaning of moral discourse, and the status of morality. He engages with his critics, and shows the way to resolution of their differences. This volume is partly about what it is for things to matter, in the sense that we all have reasons to care about these things. Much of the book discusses three of the main kinds of meta-ethical theory: Normative Naturalism, Quasi-Realist Expressivism, and Non-Metaphysical Non-Naturalism, which Derek Parfit now calls Non-Realist Cognitivism. This third theory claims that, if we use the word 'reality' in an ontologically weighty sense, irreducibly normative truths have no mysterious or incredible ontological implications. If instead we use 'reality' in a wide sense, according to which all truths are truths about reality, this theory claims that some non-empirically discoverable truths-such as logical, mathematical, modal, and some normative truths-raise no difficult ontological questions. Parfit discusses these theories partly by commenting on the views of some of the contributors to Peter Singer's collection Does Anything Really Matter? Parfit on Objectivity. Though Peter Railton is a Naturalist, he has widened his view by accepting some further claims, and he has suggested that this wider version of Naturalism could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Railton is right, since these theories no longer deeply disagree. Though Allan Gibbard is a Quasi-Realist Expressivist, he has suggested that the best version of his view could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Gibbard is right, since Gibbard and he now accept the other's main meta-ethical claim. It is rare for three such different philosophical theories to be able to be widened in ways that resolve their deepest disagreements. This happy convergence supports the view that these meta-ethical theories are true. Parfit also discusses the views of several other philosophers, and some other meta-ethical and normative questions. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Necessary Beings Bob Hale, 2013-09-19 Bob Hale presents a broadly Fregean approach to metaphysics, according to which ontology and modality are mutually dependent upon one another. He argues that facts about what kinds of things exist depend on facts about what is possible. Modal facts are fundamental, and have their basis in the essences of things—not in meanings or concepts. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: What We Owe to Each Other T. M. Scanlon, 2000-11-15 “This magnificent book...opens up a novel, arresting position on matters that have been debated for thousands of years.” —Times Literary Supplement How do we judge whether an action is morally right or wrong? If an action is wrong, what reason does that give us not to do it? Why should we give such reasons priority over our other concerns and values? In this book, T. M. Scanlon offers new answers to these questions, as they apply to the central part of morality that concerns what we owe to each other. According to his contractualist view, thinking about right and wrong is thinking about what we do in terms that could be justified to others and that they could not reasonably reject. He shows how the special authority of conclusions about right and wrong arises from the value of being related to others in this way, and he shows how familiar moral ideas such as fairness and responsibility can be understood through their role in this process of mutual justification and criticism. Scanlon bases his contractualism on a broader account of reasons, value, and individual well-being that challenges standard views about these crucial notions. He argues that desires do not provide us with reasons, that states of affairs are not the primary bearers of value, and that well-being is not as important for rational decision-making as it is commonly held to be. Scanlon is a pluralist about both moral and non-moral values. He argues that, taking this plurality of values into account, contractualism allows for most of the variability in moral requirements that relativists have claimed, while still accounting for the full force of our judgments of right and wrong. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Introduction to Philosophy John Perry, Michael Bratman, 1993 Introduction to Philosophy, 3/e is the most comprehensive topically organized collection of classical and contemporary philosophy available. Ideal for introductory philosophy courses, the third edition of this classic text now includes a general introduction and features eighteen selections new to this volume and an expanded glossary of philosophical terms. A serious and challenging work, it includes sections on the meaning of life, God and evil, epistemology, philosophy of science, the mind/body problem, freedom of will, consciousness, ethics, and philosophical puzzles. This exceptionally successful anthology presents a large number of substantial--and in some cases complete--selections from major works, offering a unique balance between classical and contemporary readings.This third edition adds selections by Plato, Nelson Pike, J.L. Mackie, Elizabeth Anderson, David Lewis, Hilary Putnam, Frank Jackson, John Perry, Peter Strawson, Rosalind Hursthouse, G.A. Cohen, Samuel Scheffler, Debra Satz, and Kwame Anthony Appiah as well as Kavka's Toxin Puzzle and Quinn's Puzzle of the Self-Torturer. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Dialogue on Good, Evil, and the Existence of God John Perry, 1999-09-15 John Perry--author of the acclaimed Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (Hackett Publishing Co., 1978)--revisits Gretchen Weirob in this lively and absorbing dialogue on good, evil, and the existence of God. In the early part of the work, Gretchen and her friends consider whether evil provides a problem for those who believe in the perfection of God. As the discussion continues they consider the nature of human evil—whether, for example, fully rational actions can be intentionally evil. Recurring themes are the distinction between natural evil and evil done by free agents, and the problems the Holocaust and other cases of genocide pose for conceptions of the universe as a basically good place, or humans as basically good beings. Once again, Perry’s ability to get at the heart of matters combines with his exemplary skill at writing the dialogue form. An ideal volume for introducing students to the subtleties and intricacies of philosophical discussion. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Lust Simon Blackburn, 2004-02-12 Lust, says Simon Blackburn, is furtive, headlong, always sizing up opportunities. It is a trail of clothing in the hallway, the trashy cousin of love. But be that as it may, the aim of this delightful book is to rescue lust from the denunciations of old men of the deserts, to deliver it from the pallid and envious confessor and the stocks and pillories of the Puritans, to drag it from the category of sin to that of virtue. Blackburn, author of such popular philosophy books as Think and Being Good, here offers a sharp-edged probe into the heart of lust, blending together insight from some of the world's greatest thinkers on sex, human nature, and our common cultural foibles. Blackburn takes a wide ranging, historical approach, discussing lust as viewed by Aristophanes and Plato, lust in the light of the Stoic mistrust of emotion, and the Christian fear of the flesh that catapulted lust to the level of deadly sin. He describes how philosophical pessimists like Schopenhauer and Sartre contributed to our thinking about lust and explores the false starts in understanding lust represented by Freud, Kinsey, and modern evolutionary psychology. But most important, Blackburn reminds us that lust is also life-affirming, invigorating, fun. He points to the work of David Hume (Blackburn's favorite philosopher) who saw lust not only as a sensual delight but also a joy of the mind. Written by one of the most eminent living philosophers, attractively illustrated and colorfully packaged, Lust is a book that anyone would lust over. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Norms and Necessity Amie L. Thomasson, 2020-05-01 Claims about what is metaphysically necessary or possible have long played a central role in metaphysics and other areas of philosophy. Such claims are traditionally thought of as aiming to describe a special kind of modal fact or property, or perhaps facts about other possible worlds. But that assumption leads to difficult ontological, epistemological, and methodological puzzles. Should we accept that there are modal facts or properties, or other possible worlds? If so, what could these things be? How could we come to know what the modal facts or properties are? How can we resolve philosophical debates about what is metaphysically necessary or possible? Norms and Necessity develops a new approach to understanding our claims about metaphysical possibility and necessity: Modal Normativism. The Normativist rejects the assumption that modal claims aim to describe modal features or possible worlds, arguing instead that they serve as useful ways of conveying, reasoning with, and renegotiating semantic rules and their consequences. By dropping the descriptivist assumption, the Normativist is able to unravel the notorious ontological problems of modality, and provide a clear and plausible story about how we can come to know what is metaphysically necessary or possible. Most importantly, this approach helps demystify philosophical methodology. It reveals that resolving metaphysical modal questions does not require a special form of philosophical insight or intuition. Instead, it requires nothing more mysterious than empirical knowledge, conceptual mastery, and an ability to explicitly convey and renegotiate semantic rules. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Summary of Simon Blackburn's Ethics Everest Media,, 2022-06-04T22:59:00Z Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 There are seven threats to the moral environment, and they are all related to the idea of standards of choice and conduct. When we think about these big words, we see only bids for power and clashes of power, or we see only hypocrisy. #2 The Old Testament God is partial to some people above others, and jealous of his own pre-eminence. He seems to have no problem with a slave-owning society, believes that birth control is a capital crime, and approves of child abuse. #3 The Bible can be read as giving us a carte blanche for harsh attitudes to children, the mentally handicapped, animals, the environment, the divorced, unbelievers, people with various sexual habits, and elderly women. It encourages harsh attitudes to ourselves. #4 The classic challenge to the idea that ethics can have a religious foundation is provided by Plato in the dialogue Euthyphro. In this dialogue, Socrates, who is on the point of being tried for impiety, encounters one Euthyphro, who sets himself up as knowing what piety or justice is. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Philosophical Provocations Colin McGinn, 2017-08-18 Pithy, direct, and bold: essays that propose new ways to think about old problems, spanning a range of philosophical topics. In Philosophical Provocations, Colin McGinn offers a series of short, sharp essays that take on philosophical problems ranging from the concept of mind to paradox, altruism, and the relation between God and the Devil. Avoiding the usual scholarly apparatus and embracing a blunt pithiness, McGinn aims to achieve as much as possible in as short a space as possible while covering as many topics as possible. Much academic philosophical writing today is long, leaden, citation heavy, dense with qualifications, and painful to read. The essays in Philosophical Provocations are short, direct, and engaging, often challenging philosophical orthodoxy as they consider issues in mind, language, knowledge, metaphysics, biology, ethics, and religion. McGinn is looking for new ways to think about old problems. Thus he writes, about consciousness, “I think we have been all wrong,” and goes on to suggest that both consciousness and the unconscious are mysteries. Summing up his proposal on altruism, he remarks, “My suggestion can now be stated, somewhat brutally, as follows: human altruism is the result of parasitic manipulation.” He takes a moment to reflect: “I really don't know why it is good to be alive, though I am convinced that the standard suggestions don't work.” McGinn gets straight to the point and states his position with maximum clarity. These essays offer provocative invitations to think again. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: God and Cosmos David Baggett, Jerry L. Walls, 2016 God and Cosmos provides a four-fold moral argument for God's existence that is cumulative, abductive, and teleological. The four relevant moral realities that theism and Christianity best explain are: intrinsic human value and moral duties; moral knowledge; radical moral transformation of human persons; and a rapprochement between morality and rationality. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Moral Landscape Sam Harris, 2010-10-05 New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris’s first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people—from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists—agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith. In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our “culture wars,” Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Big Questions: Philosophy Simon Blackburn, 2013-11-05 Bestselling author Simon Blackburn tackles the key questions in philosophy--and provides easy-to-understand and enlightening answers. In Big Questions: Philosophy, bestselling author Simon Blackburn addresses the 20 essential questions: What is the meaning of life? Am I free? Why is there something and not nothing? What do we really know? Is there such a thing as society? Can machines think? What is time? How can I deceive myself? Why be good? What fills up space? Can we truly understand each other? Why do things keep on keeping on? Are we rational? What am I? What are my rights? Is truth relative? Do we need God? What is human nature? What is beauty? Is death to be feared? |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Ruling Passions Simon Blackburn, 2023 Written in a trenchant style, Ruling Passions propounds an original philosophy of human motivation and morality. It uses game theory and cognitive science to illuminate ethics and exposes the pretensions of rival theories. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Point of View of the Universe Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, Peter Singer, 2014-05-23 What does the idea of taking 'the point of view of the universe' tell us about ethics? The great nineteenth-century utilitarian Henry Sidgwick used this metaphor to present what he took to be a self-evident moral truth: the good of one individual is of no more importance than the good of any other. Ethical judgments, he held, are objective truths that we can know by reason. The ethical axioms he took to be self-evident provide a foundation for utilitarianism. He supplements this foundation with an argument that nothing except states of consciousness have ultimate value, which led him to hold that pleasure is the only thing that is intrinsically good. Are these claims defensible? Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer test them against a variety of views held by contemporary writers in ethics, and conclude that they are. This book is therefore a defence of objectivism in ethics, and of hedonistic utilitarianism. The authors also explore, and in most cases support, Sidgwick's views on many other key questions in ethics: how to justify an ethical theory, the significance of an evolutionary explanation of our moral judgments, the choice between preference-utilitarianism and hedonistic utilitarianism, the conflict between self-interest and universal benevolence, whether something that it would be wrong to do openly can be right if kept secret, how demanding utilitarianism is, whether we should discount the future, or favor those who are worse off, the moral status of animals, and what is an optimum population. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Reading Philosophy Samuel Guttenplan, 2002-11-01 This flexible introductory textbook explores several key themes in philosophy, and helps the reader learn to engage with the key arguments by introducing and analysing a selection of classic readings. Fully integrated introductory text with readings for beginning students of philosophy. Each chapter focusses on a core philosophical topic, and contains an introduction to the topic, 2 classic readings and interactive commentaries on the readings. An introductory book which doesn't merely tell the reader about the subject, but requires them to engage philosophically with the text. A pedagogical resource developed in the classroom by the authors at the University of London. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: How the World Thinks Julian Baggini, 2018-10-04 *SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* 'There to fill the Sapiens-size hole in your life' Observer In this groundbreaking global overview of philosophy, Julian Baggini travels the world to provide a wide-ranging map of human thought. One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These early philosophies have had a profound impact on the development of distinctive cultures in different parts of the world. What we call 'philosophy' in the West is not even half the story. Julian Baggini sets out to expand our horizons in How the World Thinks, exploring the philosophies of Japan, India, China and the Muslim world, as well as the lesser-known oral traditions of Africa and Australia's first peoples. Interviewing thinkers from around the globe, Baggini asks questions such as: why is the West is more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom? Offering deep insights into how different regions operate, and paying as much attention to commonalities as to differences, Baggini shows that by gaining greater knowledge of how others think we take the first step to a greater understanding of ourselves. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Blank Slate Steven Pinker, 2003-08-26 A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive. --Time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Updated with a new afterword One of the world's leading experts on language and the mind explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts. Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Enlightenment Philosophy in a Nutshell Jane O'Grady, 2018 ...there is nothing elementary about O'Grady's primer. She pulls off the feat of writing a reliable and accessible introduction to modern philosophy that is also a meaningful contribution to the subject. - London Times Literary Supplement From Descartes' famous line 'I think therefore I am' to Kant's fascinating discussions of morality, the thinkers of the Enlightenment have helped to shape the modern world. Addressing such important subjects as the foundations of knowledge and the role of ethics, the theories of these philosophers continue to have great relevance to our lives. Ranging across Enlightenment thinking from Berkeley to Rousseau, Enlightenment Philosophy in a Nutshell explains important ideas such as Locke's ideas of primary and secondary qualities, Kant's moral rationalism, and Hume's inductive reasoning. Filled with helpful diagrams and simple summaries of complex theories, this essential introduction brings the great ideas of the past to everyone. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy Simon Blackburn, 2005-10-27 Comprehensive and authoritative, this dictionary provides wide-ranging and lively coverage of not only Western philosophical traditions, but also themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Thinking Things Through, second edition Clark Glymour, 2015-04-10 The second edition of a unique introductory text, offering an account of the logical tradition in philosophy and its influence on contemporary scientific disciplines. Thinking Things Through offers a broad, historical, and rigorous introduction to the logical tradition in philosophy and its contemporary significance. It is unique among introductory philosophy texts in that it considers both the historical development and modern fruition of a few central questions. It traces the influence of philosophical ideas and arguments on modern logic, statistics, decision theory, computer science, cognitive science, and public policy. The text offers an account of the history of speculation and argument, and the development of theories of deductive and probabilistic reasoning. It considers whether and how new knowledge of the world is possible at all, investigates rational decision making and causality, explores the nature of mind, and considers ethical theories. Suggestions for reading, both historical and contemporary, accompany most chapters. This second edition includes four new chapters, on decision theory and causal relations, moral and political theories, “moral tools” such as game theory and voting theory, and ethical theories and their relation to real-world issues. Examples have been updated throughout, and some new material has been added. It is suitable for use in advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate classes in philosophy, and as an ancillary text for students in computer science and the natural sciences. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Idea of a Social Science and Its Relation to Philosophy Peter Winch, 2008 Here Winch addresses the possibility and practice of a comprehensive 'science of society', drawing from the works of such thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.S. Mill and Max Weber to make his case. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Doing Philosophy Timothy Williamson, 2018-06-13 What are philosophers trying to achieve? How can they succeed? Does philosophy make progress? Is it in competition with science, or doing something completely different, or neither? Timothy Williamson tackles some of the key questions surrounding philosophy in new and provocative ways, showing how philosophy begins in common sense curiosity, and develops through our capacity to dispute rationally with each other. Discussing philosophy's ability to clarify our thoughts, he explains why such clarification depends on the development of philosophical theories, and how those theories can be tested by imaginative thought experiments, and compared against each other by standards similar to those used in the natural and social sciences. He also shows how logical rigour can be understood as a way of enhancing the explanatory power of philosophical theories. Drawing on the history of philosophy to provide a track record of philosophical thinking's successes and failures, Williamson overturns widely held dogmas about the distinctive nature of philosophy in comparison to the sciences, demystifies its methods, and considers the future of the discipline. From thought experiments, to deduction, to theories, this little book will cause you to totally rethink what philosophy is. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Congressional Record United States. Congress, 1977 The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873) |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Well of Lost Plots Jasper Fforde, 2004-08-03 The third novel in the New York Times bestselling Thursday Next series is “great fun—especially for those with a literary turn of mind and a taste for offbeat comedy” (The Washington Post Book World). “Delightful . . . the well of Fforde’s imagination is bottomless.”—People “Fforde creates a literary reality that is somewhere amid a triangulation of Douglas Adams, Monty Python, and Miss Marple.”—The Denver Post With the 923rd Annual Bookworld Awards just around the corner and an unknown villain wreaking havoc in Jurisfiction, what could possibly be next for Detective Thursday Next? Protecting the world’s greatest literature—not to mention keeping up with Miss Havisham—is tiring work for an expectant mother. And Thursday can definitely use a respite. So what better hideaway than inside the unread and unreadable Caversham Heights, a cliché-ridden pulp mystery in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well itself is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books—like Caversham Heights—are scrapped for salvage. To top it off, a murderer is stalking Jurisfiction personnel and nobody is safe—least of all Thursday. Don’t miss any of Jasper Fforde’s delightfully entertaining Thursday Next novels: THE EYRE AFFAIR • LOST IN A GOOD BOOK • THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS • SOMETHING ROTTEN • FIRST AMONG SEQUELS • ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING • THE WOMAN WHO DIED A LOT |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Hume's Theory of Causation Angela M. Coventry, 2006-06-08 Causation has always been a central topic in the history of philosophy. Many theories causation have been advanced, but not one has approached anything like general acceptance. Yet the concept of causation is prevalent in many areas of contemporary philosophy: there are the causal theories of language, of action, of personal identity, of knowledge, of perception, of scientific explanation, and of reference. If causation is doing all this philosophical work, it seems essential to strive for an intelligible account of what a 'cause' actually is. One obvious place to start is Hume's analysis of causation, which is generally thought to be the most significant and influential single contribution to the topic. But despite the widely recognized importance of his analysis, many opposing interpretations surround his causal theory. There are some commentators who believe that his theory is a version of realism and many others who argue that it is a version of anti-realism. There is considerable textual evidence for, and also against, each interpretation. Angela Coventry develops a more conciliatory approach. She argues that Hume's causal theory is best understood as 'quasi-realist' - an intermediate position between realism and anti-realism. This makes sense of some seemingly contradictory passages in Hume's work and also provides an answer to a major objection which is commonly thought to devastate his causal theory. Coventry then goes on to outline a general, topic-independent, conception of quasi-realism as distinct from realistm and anti-realism that allows it to stand as a consistent third alternative. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Reading Philosophy Samuel Guttenplan, Jennifer Hornsby, Christopher Janaway, John Schwenkler, 2021-03-03 A key introductory philosophy textbook, making use of an innovative, interactive technique for reading philosophical texts Reading Philosophy: Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners, Second Edition, provides a unique approach to reading philosophy, requiring students to engage with material as they read. It contains carefully selected texts, commentaries on those texts, and questions for the reader to think about as they read. It serves as starting points for both classroom discussion and independent study. The texts cover a wide range of topics drawn from diverse areas of philosophical investigation, ranging over ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and political philosophy. This edition has been updated and expanded. New chapters discuss the moral significance of friendship and love, the subjective nature of consciousness and the ways that science might explore conscious experience. And there are new texts and commentary in chapters on doubt, self and moral dilemmas. Guides readers through the experience of active, engaged philosophical reading Presents significant texts, contextualized for newcomers to philosophy Includes writings by philosophers from antiquity to the late 20th-century Contains commentary that provides the context and background necessary for discussion and argument Prompts readers to think through specific questions and to reach their own conclusions This book is an ideal resource for beginning students in philosophy, as well as for anyone wishing to engage with the subject on their own. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Truth Simon Blackburn, Keith Simmons, 1999 The aim of the series is to bring together important recent writing in major areas of philosophical inquiry, selected from a variety of sources, mostly periodicals, which may not be conveniently available to the university student or the general reader. The editors of each volume contributean introductory essay on the items chosen and on the questions with which they deal. A selective bibliography is appended as a guide to further reading. This volume is designed to set out some of the central issues in the theory of truth. It begins with writings by F. H. Bradley, William James, Gottlob Frege, and Bertrand Russell, and continues wih the classical discussions from the middle of the century (including Wittgenstein, Quine, and Austin),ending with a selection of contemporary contributions, including essays from Donald Davidson and Richard Rorty. The collection draws together, for the first time, the debates between philosophers who favour 'robust' or 'substantive' theories of truth, and those other, 'deflationist' or minimalists,who deny that such theories can be given. The editors provide a substantial introduction, in which they map out this terrain and locate writers from Frege to Wittgenstein and Davidson within it. They also describe how these debates relate to more technical issues, such as work on the Liar paradox and formal truth theories. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy Eva Feder Kittay, Linda Martín Alcoff, 2008-04-30 The Blackwell Guide to Feminist Philosophy is a definitive introduction to the field, consisting of 15 newly-contributed essays that apply philosophical methods and approaches to feminist concerns. Offers a key view of the project of centering women’s experience. Includes topics such as feminism and pragmatism, lesbian philosophy, feminist epistemology, and women in the history of philosophy. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction Edward Craig, 2002-02-21 How ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This book introduces important themes in ethics, knowledge, and the self, via readings from Plato, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. It emphasizes throughout the point of doing philosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in which philosophy was and is done. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: Philosophy of Mind David John Chalmers, 2002 This is a comprehensive collection of readings in the philosophy of mind, ranging from Descartes to the leading edge of the discipline. Extensive selections cover foundations, the nature of consciousness, and the nature of mental content. |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: LooseLeaf Does the Center Hold? An Introduction to Western Philosophy Donald Palmer, 2016-10-10 Does the Center Hold? is an entertaining, topically-organized introductory program with more than 500 original illustrations. The ideas and issues typically covered in introductory philosophy courses are presented here in a remarkably accessible and enjoyable manner. Donald Palmer demonstrates that serious philosophical inquiry may be perplexing, but is ultimately liberating, and students will come away from the book with a comprehensive, and often delighted, understanding of philosophy. The Connect course for this offering includes SmartBook, an adaptive reading and study experience which guides students to master, recall, and apply key concepts while providing automatically-graded assessments. McGraw-Hill Connect® is a subscription-based learning service accessible online through your personal computer or tablet. Choose this option if your instructor will require Connect to be used in the course. Your subscription to Connect includes the following: • SmartBook® - an adaptive digital version of the course textbook that personalizes your reading experience based on how well you are learning the content. • Access to your instructor’s homework assignments, quizzes, syllabus, notes, reminders, and other important files for the course. • Progress dashboards that quickly show how you are performing on your assignments and tips for improvement. • The option to purchase (for a small fee) a print version of the book. This binder-ready, loose-leaf version includes free shipping. Complete system requirements to use Connect can be found here: http://www.mheducation.com/highered/platforms/connect/training-support-students.html |
| think simon blackburn chapter summaries: The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten Julian Baggini, 2010 The Granta backlist classic: a collection of short, accessible philosophical quandaries to stimulate, challenge and entertain! |
THINK Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of THINK is to form or have in the mind. How to use think in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Think.
THINK Synonyms: 36 Similar and Opposite Words - Merriam-Webster
Some common synonyms of think are conceive, envisage, envision, fancy, imagine, and realize. While all these words mean "to form an idea of," think implies the entrance of an idea into one's …
THINK | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
THINK definition: 1. to believe something or have an opinion or idea: 2. to have a low opinion of someone or…. Learn more.
THINK definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
If you say that you think that something is true or will happen, you mean that you have the impression that it is true or will happen, although you are not certain of the facts.
Think - definition of think by The Free Dictionary
Define think. think synonyms, think pronunciation, think translation, English dictionary definition of think. v. thought , think·ing , thinks v. tr. 1. To have or formulate in the mind: Think the happiest …
THINK - Definition & Translations | Collins English Dictionary
Discover everything about the word "THINK" in English: meanings, translations, synonyms, pronunciations, examples, and grammar insights - all in one comprehensive guide.
think - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
to have a conscious mind that can reason, remember, and make decisions: [not: be + ~-ing; no object] Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am,'' meaning that the capacity to think was central to …
THINK | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
THINK meaning: 1. to believe something or have an opinion or idea: 2. to have a low opinion of someone or…. Learn more.
Think - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
To think is to have an idea, belief, or thought about something. If you think that your parents are unusually strict, it means that you believe that to be true. The verb think means to reason, …
THINK Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
Think definition: to have a conscious mind, to some extent of reasoning, remembering experiences, making rational decisions, etc.. See examples of THINK used in a sentence.
THINK Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of THINK is to form or have in the mind. How to use think in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Think.
THINK Synonyms: 36 Similar and Opposite Words - Merriam-Webster
Some common synonyms of think are conceive, envisage, envision, fancy, imagine, and realize. While all these words mean "to form an idea of," think implies the entrance of an idea into one's …
THINK | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
THINK definition: 1. to believe something or have an opinion or idea: 2. to have a low opinion of someone or…. Learn more.
THINK definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
If you say that you think that something is true or will happen, you mean that you have the impression that it is true or will happen, although you are not certain of the facts.
Think - definition of think by The Free Dictionary
Define think. think synonyms, think pronunciation, think translation, English dictionary definition of think. v. thought , think·ing , thinks v. tr. 1. To have or formulate in the mind: Think the happiest …
THINK - Definition & Translations | Collins English Dictionary
Discover everything about the word "THINK" in English: meanings, translations, synonyms, pronunciations, examples, and grammar insights - all in one comprehensive guide.
think - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
to have a conscious mind that can reason, remember, and make decisions: [not: be + ~-ing; no object] Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am,'' meaning that the capacity to think was central to …
THINK | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
THINK meaning: 1. to believe something or have an opinion or idea: 2. to have a low opinion of someone or…. Learn more.
Think - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com
To think is to have an idea, belief, or thought about something. If you think that your parents are unusually strict, it means that you believe that to be true. The verb think means to reason, …
THINK Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
Think definition: to have a conscious mind, to some extent of reasoning, remembering experiences, making rational decisions, etc.. See examples of THINK used in a sentence.
