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The Labyrinth of the Continuum: Writings on the Continuum Problem 1672-86 by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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A Way of Life: An Address to Yale Students, Sunday Evening, April 20,1913
William Osler - 1921
With a Foreword by John P. McGovern. "Ours is a world that has multiplied in complexity beyond anything dreamed in Osler's day. Tension and anxiety, uncertainty and stress are the inevitable result of our civilizations' rapid advance, mental and emotional ills its hallmarks . . . contemporary man desperately needs to learn the lesson of 'sufficient unto the day.' A Way of Life offers an antidote, in the form of a life style. But is the goal attainable? Osler's own life, marked by brilliant achievement in many spheres, testifies to the efficacy of sound habits of work and discipline, established early and followed strictly within 'daytight compartments�."�From the Foreword by John P. McGovern.
Religion and Science
Albert Einstein - 2010
It has been reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, Crown Publishers, Inc. 1954, pp 36 - 40. It also appears in Einstein's book The World as I See It, Philosophical Library, New York, 1949, pp. 24 - 28.Everything that the human race has done and thought is concerned with the satisfaction of deeply felt needs and the assuagement of pain. One has to keep this constantly in mind if one wishes to understand spiritual movements and their development. Feeling and longing are the motive force behind all human endeavor and human creation, in however exalted a guise the latter may present themselves to us. Now what are the feelings and needs that have led men to religious thought and belief in the widest sense of the words? A little consideration will suffice to show us that the most varying emotions preside over the birth of religious thought and experience. With primitive man it is above all fear that evokes religious notions - fear of hunger, wild beasts, sickness, death. Since at this stage of existence understanding of causal connections is usually poorly developed, the human mind creates illusory beings more or less analogous to itself on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. Thus one tries to secure the favor of these beings by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed toward a mortal. In this sense I am speaking of a religion of fear. This, though not created, is in an important degree stabilized by the formation of a special priestly caste which sets itself up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects a hegemony on this basis. In many cases a leader or ruler or a privileged class whose position rests on other factors combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.
On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917)
Edmund Husserl - 1928
I Volume X was published in 1966. Its editor, Rudolf Boehm, provided the title: Zur Phiinomen%gie des inneren Zeitbewusst- seins (1893-1917). Some of the texts included in Volume X were published during HusserI's lifetime, but the majority were not. Given the fact that the materials assembled in Volume X do not constitute a single and previously published Husserlian work, some acquaintance with their history and chronology is indis- pensable to understanding them. These introductory remarks are intended to provide the outlines of such an acquaintance, together with a brief account of the main themes that appear in the texts. The Status of the Texts In 1928, HusserI's "Vorlesungen zur Phanomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins" appeared in the Jahrbuch fur Philoso- I Edmund Husserl, Zur Phiinomen%gie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins (1893 1917) [On the phenomenology of the consciousness of internal time (l893 1917)I, herausgegeben von Rudolf Boehm, Husserliana X (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1966). The references in Roman numerals that occur in parentheses in this Introduction are to Rudolf Boehm's "Editor's Introduction" to Husserliana X. References in Arabic numerals, unless otherwise noted, will be to this translation. Corresponding page numbers of Husserliana X will be found in the margins of the translation. The translation includes Parts A and B of Husserliana X, with Boehm's notes.
Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice
Robert Lawlor - 1982
Robert Lawlor sets out the system that determines the dimension and the form of both man-made and natural structures, from Gothic cathedrals to flowers, from music to the human body. By also involving the reader in practical experiments, he leads with ease from simple principles to a grasp of the logarithmic spiral, the Golden Proportion, the squaring of the circle and other ubiquitous ratios and proportions.Art and Imagination: These large-format, gloriously-illustrated paperbacks cover Eastern and Western religion and philosophy, including myth and magic, alchemy and astrology. The distinguished authors bring a wealth of knowledge, visionary thinking and accessible writing to each intriguing subject.
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy
Bertrand Russell - 1918
In it, Russell offers a nontechnical, undogmatic account of his philosophical criticism as it relates to arithmetic and logic. Rather than an exhaustive treatment, however, the influential philosopher and mathematician focuses on certain issues of mathematical logic that, to his mind, invalidated much traditional and contemporary philosophy.In dealing with such topics as number, order, relations, limits and continuity, propositional functions, descriptions, and classes, Russell writes in a clear, accessible manner, requiring neither a knowledge of mathematics nor an aptitude for mathematical symbolism. The result is a thought-provoking excursion into the fascinating realm where mathematics and philosophy meet — a philosophical classic that will be welcomed by any thinking person interested in this crucial area of modern thought.
Plato: Complete Works
PlatoJ.M. Edmonds
In his introductory essay, John Cooper explains the presentation of these works, discusses questions concerning the chronology of their composition, comments on the dialogue form in which Plato wrote, and offers guidance on approaching the reading and study of Plato's works.Also included are concise introductions by Cooper and Hutchinson to each translation, meticulous annotation designed to serve both scholar and general reader, and a comprehensive index. This handsome volume offers fine paper and a high-quality Smyth-sewn cloth binding in a sturdy, elegant edition.
Practical Stoicism: Exercises for Doing the Right Thing Right Now
Grey Freeman - 2017
Practical Stoicism is a collection of short readings written to help bridge the gap between the essential teachings of the great Stoic philosophers and the things we must do, in the here and now, to achieve the fulfillment they promised. Pick a starting point anywhere within its pages whenever you need a quick reminder of how to move your philosophy out of your head and into your life. Version 2.3.1
Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway
Dan Gardner - 2010
In 1967, they said the USSR would have one of the fastest-growing economies in the year 2000; in 2000, the USSR did not exist. In 1911, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it, experts are about as accurate as dart-throwing monkeys. And yet every day we ask them to predict the future — everything from the weather to the likelihood of a catastrophic terrorist attack. Future Babble is the first book to examine this phenomenon, showing why our brains yearn for certainty about the future, why we are attracted to those who predict it confidently, and why it’s so easy for us to ignore the trail of outrageously wrong forecasts.In this fast-paced, example-packed, sometimes darkly hilarious book, journalist Dan Gardner shows how seminal research by UC Berkeley professor Philip Tetlock proved that pundits who are more famous are less accurate — and the average expert is no more accurate than a flipped coin. Gardner also draws on current research in cognitive psychology, political science, and behavioral economics to discover something quite reassuring: The future is always uncertain, but the end is not always near.
Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
Martin Heidegger - 1931
Within the context of Heidegger's project of reinterpreting Western thought through its central figures, Heidegger takes up a fundamental concern of Being and Time, "a dismantling of the history of ontology with the problematic of temporality as a clue." He shows that temporality is centrally involved in the movement of thinking called phenomenology of spirit.
Yugoslavia: Peace, War, and Dissolution
Noam Chomsky - 2018
Through his articles, public talks, and correspondence, he has been addressing some of the crucial political and social issues (such as the relevancy of international law in today’s politics, media manipulations, and economic crisis as a means of political control) that affect both the region and the international community. This volume provides a comprehensive survey of virtually all of Chomsky’s texts and public talks that focus on the region of the former Yugoslavia, from the 1970s to the present. With numerous articles and interviews, this collection presents a wealth of materials appearing in book form for the first time along with reflections on events 25 years after the official end of communist Yugoslavia and the beginning of the war in Bosnia.
Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story
Jim Holt - 2011
Following in the footsteps of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose, and even Stephen Hawking, Jim Holt now enters this fractious debate with his lively and deeply informed narrative that traces the latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. The slyly humorous Holt takes on the role of cosmological detective, suggesting that we might have been too narrow in limiting our suspects to Yahweh vs. the Big Bang. Tracking down an eccentric Oxford philosopher, a Physics Nobel Laureate, a French Buddhist monk who lived with the Dalai Lama, and John Updike just before he died, Holt pursues unexplored angles to this cosmic puzzle. As he pieces together a solution--one that sheds new light on the question of God and the meaning of existence--he offers brisk philosophical asides on time and eternity, consciousness, and the arithmetic of nothingness.“The pleasure of this book is watching the match: the staggeringly inventive human mind slamming its fantastic conjectures over the net, the universe coolly returning every serve.... Holt traffics in wonder, a word whose dual meanings—the absence of answers; the experience of awe—strike me as profoundly related. His book is not utilitarian. You can’t profit from it, at least not in the narrow sense.... And yet it does what real science writing should: It helps us feel the fullness of the problem.” (Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine)" Jim Holt leaves us with the question Stephen Hawking once asked but couldn't answer, ‘Why does the universe go through all the bother of existing?’” (Ron Rosenbaum, Slate )
Methods of Logic
Willard Van Orman Quine - 1950
Incorporating updated notations, selective answers to exercises, expanded treatment of natural deduction, and new discussions of predicate-functor logic and the affinities between higher set theory and the elementary logic of terms, W. V. Quine's new edition will serve admirably for both classroom and independent use.
Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery
Imre Lakatos - 1976
Much of the book takes the form of a discussion between a teacher and his students. They propose various solutions to some mathematical problems and investigate the strengths and weaknesses of these solutions. Their discussion (which mirrors certain real developments in the history of mathematics) raises some philosophical problems and some problems about the nature of mathematical discovery or creativity. Imre Lakatos is concerned throughout to combat the classical picture of mathematical development as a steady accumulation of established truths. He shows that mathematics grows instead through a richer, more dramatic process of the successive improvement of creative hypotheses by attempts to 'prove' them and by criticism of these attempts: the logic of proofs and refutations.
Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything (or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance)
Robert Anton Wilson - 2001
A once-in-a-lifetime audio meeting with The Illuminatus! Trilogy author Robert Anton Wilson- bringing you face-to-face with this unconventional and brilliant novelist, visionary, and "standup comic for the mystically inclined." Features Wilson on futurist psychology, the paranormal, God, political conspiracies (real and imagined), life extension and space migration, the origins of language, guerrilla ontology, and much more.
The Complete Works: The Revised Oxford Translation, Vol. 1
Aristotle
It is universally recognized as the standard English version of Aristotle. This revised edition contains the substance of the original translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship; three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations; and a new and enlarged selection of Fragments has been added. The aim of the translation remains the same: to make the surviving works of Aristotle readily accessible to English speaking readers.