The Reason of Things

The Reason of Things

PDF The Reason of Things Download

  • Author: A.C. Grayling
  • Publisher: Hachette UK
  • ISBN: 0297865668
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 189

The follow-up to THE MEANING OF THINGS which continues A.C. Grayling's philosophical journey through life The most important question we can ask ourselves is: what kind of life is the best? This is the same as asking: How does one give meaning to one's life? How can one justify one's existence and make it worthwhile? How does one make experience valuable, and keep growing and learning in the process - and through this learning acquire a degree of understanding of oneself and the world? A civilised society is one which never ceases debating with itself about what human life should best be. Some would, with justice, say that if we want ours to be such a society we must all contribute to that discussion. This book is, with appropriate diffidence, such a contribution. It consists of a collection of Grayling's regular 'Last Word' columns in the Guardian. This time topics include Suicide, Deceit, Luxury, Profit, Marriage, Meat-eating, Liberty, Slavery, Protest, Guns and War.


Doing Things for Reasons

Doing Things for Reasons

PDF Doing Things for Reasons Download

  • Author: Rüdiger Bittner
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
  • ISBN: 0195143647
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 217

People do things for reasons, but what are reasons and how are they related to the resulting actions? Bittner explores this question and proposes an answer: a reason is a response to that state of affairs.


Being Realistic about Reasons

Being Realistic about Reasons

PDF Being Realistic about Reasons Download

  • Author: T. M. Scanlon
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford
  • ISBN: 0191003158
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 160

T. M. Scanlon offers a qualified defense of normative cognitivism—the view that there are irreducibly normative truths about reasons for action. He responds to three familiar objections: that such truths would have troubling metaphysical implications; that we would have no way of knowing what they are; and that the role of reasons in motivating and explaining action could not be explained if accepting a conclusion about reasons for action were a kind of belief. Scanlon answers the first of these objections within a general account of ontological commitment, applying to mathematics as well as normative judgments. He argues that the method of reflective equilibrium, properly understood, provides an adequate account of how we come to know both normative truths and mathematical truths, and that the idea of a rational agent explains the link between an agent's normative beliefs and his or her actions. Whether every statement about reasons for action has a determinate truth value is a question to be answered by an overall account of reasons for action, in normative terms. Since it seems unlikely that there is such an account, the defense of normative cognitivism offered here is qualified: statements about reasons for action can have determinate truth values, but it is not clear that all of them do. Along the way, Scanlon offers an interpretation of the distinction between normative and non-normative claims, a new account of the supervenience of the normative on the non-normative, an interpretation of the idea of the relative strength of reasons, and a defense of the method of reflective equilibrium.


A Discourse of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion

A Discourse of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion

PDF A Discourse of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion Download

  • Author: George Rust
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Apologetics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 102


Semantics for Reasons

Semantics for Reasons

PDF Semantics for Reasons Download

  • Author: Bryan R. Weaver
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • ISBN: 0192568841
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 176

Semantics for Reasons is a book about what we mean when we talk about reasons. It not only brings together the theory of reasons and natural language semantics in original ways but also sketches out a litany of implications for metaethics and the philosophy of normativity. In their account of how the language of reasons works, Bryan R. Weaver and Kevin Scharp propose and defend a view called Question Under Discussion (QUD) Reasons Contextualism. They use this view to argue for a series of novel positions on the ontology of reasons, indexical facts, the reasons-to-be- rational debate, moral reasons, and the reasons-first approach.


The Mystery of Things

The Mystery of Things

PDF The Mystery of Things Download

  • Author: A.C. Grayling
  • Publisher: Hachette UK
  • ISBN: 0297865684
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 199

Following the huge success of THE MEANING OF THINGS and THE REASON OF THINGS, a third collection of bestselling essays from Britain's top philosopher. 'Human genius has done much, and promises much, in the way of removing the mystery from many things in our world; at the same time it recognises and honours the mystery in things too.' In this collection A.C. Grayling extends the range of his previous two books to show how much understanding people can gain about themselves and their world by reflecting on the lessons offered by science, the arts (including literature) and history. Covering subjects as diverse as Jane Austen's EMMA, the Rosetta Stone, Shakespeare, the Holocaust, quantum physics, Galileo, and even alien abductions, A..C. Grayling's latest collection is a rich source for reflection and contemplation over the mysteries of life.


Revelation and Reason

Revelation and Reason

PDF Revelation and Reason Download

  • Author: Colin E. Gunton
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
  • ISBN: 0567350460
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 248

Colin Gunton was a world renowned scholar, systematic theologian and Reformed Church minister. Revelation and Reason is an in-depth analysis, derived from the annual lecture/seminar course he gave to MA students at King's College London. Approximately one-third of the work is a direct transcript, and analysis of the three two-hour lectures Colin Gunton gave at a break-neck speed: 1. 'From Reason and Revelation to Revelation And Reason'; 2. 'The Modern Problem in an Historical Context'; 3. 'Aspects of Karl Barth on Faith And Reason'. These lectures were a history, analysis and critique of Revelation and Reason in Systematic Theology and Philosophy, culminating with Karl Barth. The remainder is a transcript of the unrehearsed, unscripted, extemporary responses Colin Gunton gave to MA student's papers on set topics in the Revelation and Reason course, seamlessly integrated, where relevant, with detail from the main three lectures. Colin was a creative lecturer and widely read theologian and philosopher. These extemporary responses show the breadth of his learning, and his genius spontaneously to bring to mind relevant ideas from a wealth of theologians and philosophers, whilst incisively and piercingly exposing the flaws as well as the strengths under consideration. From this wealth of reading, Colin gave space to the free rein of his mind particularly when fielding questions or trying to analyze a particular strand of a theologian's thought. Revelation and Reason is a complementary volume to Colin Gunton's posthumously published The Barth Lectures (Continuum 2007) and to the first volume of his unfinished Systematic Theology, also forthcoming from T&T Clark.


Truth, Faith, and Reason

Truth, Faith, and Reason

PDF Truth, Faith, and Reason Download

  • Author: Kenneth M. Sayre
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1666731536
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 201

John Paul II’s Faith and Reason was written against a background of Catholic scholarship focusing notably on the New Testament, St. Augustine’s Confessions, St. Thomas’s De Veritate, and the encyclicals of various pre-Vatican II popes. A detailed, textually based critique of these early sources reveals inconsistencies and conceptual errors that are shown to carry over into Faith and Reason. John Paul II’s treatment of reason, in particular, turns out to be aberrant to the point of incoherence. It is inconceivable how this reason could join with faith in a way that lifts the human spirit to a contemplation of truth, as stated in the Preface of the encyclical. There is another sense of reason, however, which demonstrably is capable of cooperating with faith to achieve this effect. This reason is free from the fetters of Neo-Scholasticism that keep John Paul II’s reason grounded. The present study joins forces with the encyclical with a detailed example of this other sense of reason in action. In this example, new truths come to light regarding the complex relation between the first and the second great commandments.


Self, Reason, and Freedom

Self, Reason, and Freedom

PDF Self, Reason, and Freedom Download

  • Author: Andrea Christofidou
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1136183914
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 277

Freedom and its internal relation to reason is fundamental to Descartes’ philosophy in general, and to his Meditations on First Philosophy in particular. Without freedom his entire enquiry would not get off the ground, and without understanding the rôle of freedom in his work, we could not understand what motivates key parts of his metaphysics. Yet, not only is freedom a relatively overlooked element, but its internal relation to reason has gone unnoticed by most studies of his philosophy. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes’ Metaphysics, by defending freedom’s internal relation to reason, sheds new light on Descartes’ metaphysics and restores the often dismissed Fourth Meditation to the core of his metaphysics as he conceived it. Implicit in that relation is a rejection of any authority external to reason. Andrea Christofidou shows how this lends strength and explanatory force to Descartes’ enquiry, and reveals his conception of the unity of the self and of its place in the world. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes’ Metaphysics is essential reading for students and scholars of Descartes and anyone studying seventeenth-century philosophy.


The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons

The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons

PDF The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons Download

  • Author: Hamid Vahid
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1000179028
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 204

This book is concerned with the conditions under which epistemic reasons provide justification for beliefs. The author draws on metaethical theories of reasons and normativity and then applies his theory to various contemporary debates in epistemology. In the first part of the book, the author outlines what he calls the dispositional architecture of epistemic reasons. The author offers and defends a dispositional account of how propositional and doxastic justification are related to one another. He then argues that the dispositional view has the resources to provide an acceptable account of the notion of the basing relation. In the second part of the book, the author examines how his theory of epistemic reasons bears on the issues involving perceptual reasons. He defends dogmatism about perceptual justification against conservatism and shows how his dispositional framework illuminates certain claims of dogmatism and its adherence to justification internalism. Finally, the author applies his dispositional framework to epistemological topics including the structure of defeat, self-knowledge, reasoning, emotions and motivational internalism. The Dispositional Architecture of Epistemic Reasons demonstrates the value of employing metaethical considerations for the justification of beliefs and propositions. It will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in epistemology and metaethics.