Philosophy Books

Truth and Faith in Ethics

Hayden Ramsay — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:07:55 PDT

This addition to the St Andrews Studies series contains a wide-ranging collection of essays on all aspects of moral philosophy and its impact upon public life in the twent-first century. The book brings together ethicists from a variety of traditions interested in moral truth and its relation to religious faith. A key theme is interaction between major Catholic thinkers with philosophers from non-religious traditions. Topics include reason and religion, natural law, God and morality, anti-consequentialism, rights and virtues.

Strategies for a Thinking Classroom

Sandra Lynch et al. — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:06:43 PDT

Albert Camus' The plague: study notes for VCE English

Sandra Lynch — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:49:37 PDT

ISBN: 9781741303049

Philosophy and Friendship

Sandra Lynch — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:56:32 PDT

A philosophical exploration of the meaning and significance of friendship.

This book explains the persistence of friendship today in the light of the history of philosophical approaches to the subject. It considers ideals of intimacy and fusion in the context of claims that such ideals are unrealistic and even dangerous. Cicero's scepticism about friendship in the public realm is compared with the Aristotelian view of friendship as a genuine political bond, and with Derrida's development of that view via an exploration of Aristotle's alleged and provocative announcement 'O my friends, there is no friend'. Tensions between love and respect, identity and difference, a focus on the self and a focus on the other are closely examined.

From Aristotle to contemporary theorists, the book explores the conditions that enable the development of self-understanding in friendship, the delicate and unstable pairing of concepts like inclination and duty and distinctions between self-love, self esteem and self-concern in relations between friends.

ISBN: 978-0-7486-1727-2

The Primacy of Consciousness: A Triple Aspect Ontology

Joseph Naimo — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:18:15 PST

Consciousness – What is it? How does it arise? These are perhaps the two most perplexing questions on the minds of researchers extending across a broad spectrum of disciplinary enquiry. Consider the interested disciplines of cognitive science notably psychology, philosophy, linguistics, quantum mechanics, artificial intelligence and the neurosciences. Cognitive science is the study of intelligence and intelligent systems. Cognitive science attempts to organize and unify views of thought as developed within these distinct disciplines (Sheedy & Chapman, 1995:ix). The concept of consciousness is in one sense readily recognized, putatively held to be that which makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom. Consciousness is thought to be what makes us what we are, that enables us to feel and sense things - those attributes of phenomenal experience collectively termed qualia. The concept of qualia derive their meaning from the sensory qualities representative of human phenomenal experience at least on the one hand from non-materialist perspectives, due to this thing called consciousness. The sense of pain, for instance, is a quale thought to be a property of consciousness. Although, on the other hand from a purely reductive materialist perspective, in what sense can the neurochemical activity equally be responsible for producing pain in the body? In other words, how does consciousness arise from a network of interconnected neurons and glial cells of the brain? This sort of question leads one to wonder whether every individual neuron is conscious. If not, what then, is the critical threshold of neurochemical activity for consciousness to arise? No one has a definitive answer or one even close enough to make sense out of the question. (From Author's Introduction)

ISBN: 978-3838322377

A Phenomenology of Religion: An ontological interpretation of being human

Angus Brook — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:32:02 PST

This book explores the possibility of a phenomenology of religion that is ontological; founded on Martin Heidegger's philosophical thought. The book attempts to utilise Heidegger's formulation of phenomenology as ontology while also engaging in a critical relation with his path of thinking; as a barrier to the phenomenological interpretation of the meaning of Religion. This book formulates Religion as an ontological problem wherein the primary question becomes: how are humans, in our being, able to be religious and thus also able to understand the meaning of 'religion' or something like 'religion'? This book provides two interrelated arguments: the provision of an interpretation of Religion as an existential phenomenon, and an interpretation of Religion in its ground of being-human. With regard to the former, I argue that Religion signifies a potential relation with the 'originary ground' of life as meaningful. Accordingly, the second interpretation discloses the meaning of Religion as grounded in being-human; that for humans in our being, the meaning of life is an intrinsic question/dilemma for us. This being-characteristic, I argue, can be called belief.

ISBN-10: 3639207610

ISBN-13: 978-3639207613

The Early Heidegger and Ethics: The notion of ethos in Martin Heidegger's early career

Angus Brook — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:24:07 PST

Martin Heidegger is infamous for his rejection of the validity of Ethics as a philosophical endeavour ('Letter on Humanism') and moreover, for his aesthetic formulation of ethos (Holderlin's Hymn 'The Ister'). This short work will trace the path of Heidegger's thought in his early academic career; from his earliest lectures on Aristotle, Plato, and Religion through to the period in which he published Being and Time. I will argue, along the way, that Heidegger's rejection of the discipline of ethics is founded upon his early work on the notion of 'ethos'. The book will argue that for Heidegger, the notion of ethos is intrinsically tied to the question of grounding; of grounding philosophy on the truth of Dasein's being and as a authentic way of life.

ISBN-10: 3639107691

ISBN-13: 978-3639107692

Moral Complexity and the Holocaust

Marc L. Fellman — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:26:46 PDT

This book introduces the first sustained analysis of the idea that the Holocaust constitutes a tension between moral complexity and moral enormity. A great deal has been written in regard to the Holocaust as a powerful symbol, perhaps as the quintessential symbol of moral enormity in the modern era. Less has been said about the human experiences and events of the Holocaust as embodying moral complexity. The author examines those tensions, in part by exploring the categories of victims, bystanders and perpetrators, and suggests novel ways for how we may come to better understand the moral landscape of the Holocaust.

ISBN: 9780761844433