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Philosophy of Physical Magnitudes (Elements in the Philosophy of Physics)
by null Niels C. MartensDimensional quantities such as length, mass and charge, i.e., numbers combined with a conventional unit, are essential components of theories in the sciences, especially physics, chemistry and biology. Do they represent a world with absolute physical magnitudes, or are they merely magnitude ratios in disguise? Would we notice a difference if all the distances or charges in the world suddenly doubled? These central questions of this Element are illustrated by imagining how one would convey the meaning of a kilogram to aliens if one were only allowed to communicate via Morse code.
The Philosophy of Pleasure: An Introduction
by Katarzyna de Lazari-RadekThe experience of pleasure, alongside pain, is a primary element of human life. It rules our instincts and desires for food, sex and avoiding various forms of harm. Crucial to psychological and social well-being, it has preoccupied philosophers from Aristotle to John Stuart Mill and plays a fundamental role in moral and ethical theory, especially utilitarianism. More recently, it has become a central subject for psychologists, biologists and neuroscientists.Yet it remains an elusive and deceptively difficult concept. What is pleasure? How does it differ from happiness? Should we value pleasure? Should we value only pleasure? Which theories of pleasure are most plausible? In this rigorous and comprehensive introduction to the topic, Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek unpacks and assesses these questions and many more, including: The history of pleasure from ancient China, India and Greece to modern times Pleasure, sensation, feeling and consciousness What scientific research reveals about the nature of pleasure – can pleasure be measured scientifically? "Higher" and "lower" pleasures The relation between happiness and pleasure Pleasure and pain Pleasure and animals Pleasure as an ultimate good and the relation between pleasure and rationality. The Philosophy of Pleasure: An Introduction is essential reading for students of ethics and political philosophy, and also suitable for those studying related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.
The Philosophy of Symmetry (Elements in the Philosophy of Physics)
by null Nicholas Joshua Yii Wye TehThis Element is a concise, high-level introduction to the philosophy of physical symmetry. It begins with the notion of 'physical representation' (the kind of empirical representation of nature that we effect in doing physics), and then lays out the historically and conceptually central case of physical symmetry that frequently falls under the rubric of 'the Relativity Principle,' or 'Galileo's Ship.' This material is then used as a point of departure to explore the key hermeneutic challenge concerning physical symmetry in the past century, namely understanding the physical significance of the notion of 'local' gauge symmetry. The approach taken stresses both the continuity with historically important themes such as the Relativity Principle, as well as novel insights earned by working with contemporary representational media such as the covariant phase space formalism.
Philosophy of Time: The Basics (The Basics)
by Graeme ForbesWhat is time? Does it pass? Is the future open? Why do we care? Philosophy of Time: The Basics doesn’t answer these questions. It does give you an opinionated introduction to thinking a bit more deeply about them. Written in a way that assumes no philosophical background from its readers, this book looks at central topics in philosophy of time and shows how they relate to other time-related topics – from theoretical physics (without the maths!) to your own mortality. Additional questions include: In what way is time different to space? How long is the present? Does the Theory of Relativity show time doesn’t pass? What makes time have a direction or ‘arrow’? Can you be harmed by your own death? Allowing the reader to think more deeply about time, this book begins to untangle some of the most difficult knots in all of philosophy. It also provides practical advice to prospective time-travelers.
Philosophy of Violence: A Multidisciplinary Perspective
by John Sodiq Sanni Charles Mathurin VilletThis volume explores the role of violence generally but with specific reference to African concepts and themes, and the significance they have for social redress. The contributors interpret African concepts and themes to include accounts of violence, explicitly or implicitly construed from indigenous axiological resources like Ubuntu or personhood and from those works that are not African in origin but have become central in African moral, political and legal thought, such as Hannah Arendt’s On Violence and Walter Benjamin’s Critique of Violence. The volume contributes to moral philosophy, social philosophy, African philosophy, and political philosophy/theory. It situates itself within the Global South, specifically the African perspective, to explore, articulate, and defend (or even critique) African conceptions of violence. This volume also takes seriously the need to tap into the intellectual resource of the African and diasporic African episteme thruthinkers such as Steve Biko, Frantz Fanon and Reiland Rabaka. It appeals to students and researchers working in philosophy and related disciplines on violence in Africa and the postcolonial context.
Physics and the Nature of Reality: Essays in Memory of Detlef Dürr (Fundamental Theories of Physics #215)
by Angelo Bassi Sheldon Goldstein Roderich Tumulka Nino ZanghìThis volume commemorates the scientific contributions of Detlef Dürr (1951–2021) to foundational questions of physics. It presents new contributions from his former students, collaborators, and colleagues about their current research on topics inspired or influenced by Dürr. These topics are drawn from physics, mathematics, and philosophy of nature, and concern interpretations of quantum theory, new developments of Bohmian mechanics, the role of typicality, quantum physics in relativistic space-time, classical and quantum electrodynamics, and statistical mechanics. The volume thus also gives a snapshot of present research in the foundations of physics.
The Physics. Writings on Natural Philosophy (Foundations)
by AristotleAristotle's great work that laid the foundations for Galileo, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein's much later discoveries about the natural laws of life and the universe.In the philosophical language of Aristotle and the Greeks of Antiquity, 'Physics' roughly translates as 'the order of nature', covering what we would now differentiate as philosophy, science, politics, humanities and religion. One of Aristotle's great works, of which we here present an abridged edition, The Physics is an investigation into the nature of being, of the world and its place in the universe. Although philosophically much broader, it provides the foundation for the later work of Galileo and Isaac Newton, and prefigures Albert Einstein's breakthrough theories on time, space and the motion of stars.The FLAME TREE Foundations series features core publications which together have shaped the cultural landscape of the modern world, with cutting-edge research distilled into pocket guides designed to be both accessible and informative.
Physis, Biopower, and Biothermodynamics: The Fire of Life (ISSN)
by Enrique LeffBuilding upon the idea that our current "environmental question" arises from the history of metaphysics—which privileged thought about Being (or ontology) over the conditions of life—this book reinterprets Heraclitus’s notion of physis as the fundamental, emergent potency of life, as the category to-be-thought by thinkers. In so doing, it deconstructs the interpretation offered by Heidegger and so stresses the struggle between the creative force of life and its subjection to the human Logos or "meaning". Physis, understood as the pre-ontological potentiality of life itself, thus becomes the cornerstone of a materialist philosophy of life.Following engagements with the work of Nietzsche, Foucault, and Janicaud to explore the significance of human intervention into the realm of life via the "will to power", "biopower" and the "power of rationality" respectively, the author explores twentieth-century rearticulations of the concept of physis through a range of developments in biothermodynamics, thus grounding a new philosophy of life and a new bioeconomics in a revisited biothermodynamics centered on the concept of negentropy.An extensive engagement with the history and development of thought about the generative force of life on Earth, Physis, Biopower, Biothermodynamics, and Bioeconomics: The Fire of Life will appeal to scholars of philosophy, social theory, and political theory with interests in environmental thought, political ecology, and questions of sustainability.
Piaget’s Genetic Epistemology for Mathematics Education Research (Research in Mathematics Education)
by Paul Christian Dawkins Amy J. Hackenberg Anderson NortonThe book provides an entry point for graduate students and other scholars interested in using the constructs of Piaget’s genetic epistemology in mathematics education research. Constructs comprising genetic epistemology form the basis for some of the most well-developed theoretical frameworks available for characterizing learning, particularly in mathematics. The depth and complexity of Piaget’s work can make it challenging to find adequate entry points for learners, not least because it requires a reorientation regarding the nature of mathematical knowledge itself. This volume gathers leading scholars to help address that challenge. The main section of the book presents key Piagetian constructs for mathematics education research such as schemes and operations, figurative and operative thought, images and meanings, and decentering. The chapters that discuss these constructs include examples from research and address how these constructs can be used in research. There are two chapters on various types of reflective abstraction, because this construct is Piaget’s primary tool for characterizing the advancement of knowledge. The later sections of the book contain commentaries reflecting on the contributions of the body of theory developed in the first section. They connect genetic epistemology to current research domains such as equity and the latest in educational psychology. Finally, the book closes with short chapters portraying how scholars are using these tools in specific arenas of mathematics education research, including in special education, early childhood education, and statistics education.
Place Experience of the Sacred: Silence and the Pilgrimage Topography of Mount Athos
by Christos KakalisThis book explores the topography of Mount Athos, emphasizing the significance of silence and communal ritual in its understanding. Mount Athos, a mountainous peninsula in northern Greece, is a valuable case study of sacred topography, as it is one of the world’s largest monastic communities and an important pilgrimage destination. Its phenomenological examination highlights the importance of embodiment in the experience of religious places. Combining interdisciplinary insights from architectural theory, philosophy, theology and anthropology with archival and ethnographic materials, the book brings a fresh contribution to both Athonite studies and scholarship on sacred space. By focusing on the interrelation between silence and communal ritual, it offers an alternative to the traditional art historical, objectifying approaches. It reintroduces the phenomenological understanding of place, investigating also how this is expressed through a number of narratives, such as travel literature, maps and diaries.
Plants in Place: A Phenomenology of the Vegetal (Critical Life Studies)
by Edward S. Casey Michael MarderPlants are commonly considered immobile, in contrast to humans and other animals. But vegetal existence involves many place-based forms of change: stems growing upward, roots spreading outward, fronds unfurling in response to sunlight, seeds traveling across wide distances, and other intricate relationships with the surrounding world. How do plants as sessile, growing, decaying, and metamorphosing beings shape the places they inhabit, and how are they shaped by them? How do human places interact with those of plants—in lived experience; in landscape painting; in cultivation and contemplation; in forests, fields, gardens, and cities?Examining these questions and many more, Plants in Place is a collaborative study of vegetal phenomenology at the intersection of Edward S. Casey’s phenomenology of place and Michael Marder’s plant-thinking. It focuses on both the microlevel of the dynamic constitution of plant edges or a child’s engagement with moss and the macrolevel of habitats that include the sociality of trees. This compelling portrait of plants and their places provides readers with new ways to appreciate the complexity and vitality of vegetal life. Eloquent, descriptively rich, and insightful, the book also shows how the worlds of plants can enhance our understanding and experience of place more broadly.
Plato's Gorgias: A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides)
by J. Clerk ShawPlato's Gorgias depicts a conversation between Socrates and a number of guests, which centers on the question of how one should live. This "choice of lives" is presented both as a choice between philosophy and ordinary political rhetoric, and as a choice between justice and injustice. The essays in this Critical Guide offer detailed analyses of each of the main candidates in the choice of lives, and of how the advocates for these ways of life understand and argue with each other. Several essays also relate the Gorgias to the philosophical and political context of its time and place. Together, these features of the volume illuminate the interpretive issues in the Gorgias and enable readers to achieve a thorough understanding of the philosophical issues which the work raises.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Plínio Salgado: A Brazilian Fascist (1895–1975) (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)
by João Fábio BertonhaPlínio Salgado covers the life trajectory of the far-right Brazilian political leader between 1895 and 1975. The book initially follows his life from his birth, including political and cultural training and political activities between 1895 and 1930. The focus then shifts to his period as leader of the Brazilian fascist movement between 1932 and 1938, with attention to his performance as a leader, his role within the movement, and in the rise and fall of the Integralist Action. His period of exile in Portugal between 1939 and 1947 is also emphasized, with a special focus on his contacts with the Portuguese radical right and German and Italian agents. The final part addresses his return to Brazil, his efforts to reposition himself politically and his performance as a parliamentarian and supporter of the military coup of 1964. This book will be of interest to researchers of Latin American history, Brazilian history and politics, the transnational far right, and comparative fascism studies.
Plotin-Handbuch: Leben – Werk – Wirkung
by Christian TornauPlotin ist der Begründer des Neuplatonismus. Seine Interpretation des Platonismus als eines konsequenten Denkens der Transzendenz findet seit der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts reges philosophisches und philosophiehistorisches Interesse und wird als eigenständiger Beitrag zur Wahrheitssuche und als dem klassischen Platonismus, dem Aristotelismus und der hellenistischen Philosophie gleichrangige philosophische Tradition anerkannt. Das Handbuch verortet Plotin zunächst biographisch-historisch, beschreibt dann sowohl den Exegeten als auch den systematischen Denker und führt über eine interpretierende Inhaltsübersicht seiner Schriften in Plotins Werk ein. Der Hauptteil erläutert zunächst die philosophiehistorischen Traditionen und Kontexte von Plotins Denken und stellt dann in systematischer Form zentrale Themen seiner Philosophie dar. Abgeschlossen wird das Handbuch durch eine Gesamtdarstellung der Wirkungsgeschichte Plotins. Ein Personen- und Sachregister ermöglicht eine zusätzliche spezifische Erschließung des Inhalts.
Plug-and-Play Education: Knowledge and Learning in the Age of Platforms and Artificial Intelligence
by Carlo PerrottaPlug-and-Play Education: Knowledge and Learning in the Age of Platforms and Artificial Intelligence documents and critiques how the education sector is changing with the advancement of ubiquitous edtech platforms and automation. As programmability and computation reengineer institutions towards efficiency and prediction, the perpetual collection of and access to digital data is creating complex opportunities and concerns. Drawing from research into secondary and higher education settings, this book examines the influence of digital “infrastructuring”, the automation of teaching and learning, and the very purpose of education in a context of growing platformisation and artificial intelligence integration. These theoretical, practical, and policy-oriented insights will offer educational technologists, designers, researchers, and policymakers a more inclusive, diverse, and open-ended perspective on the design and implementation of learning technologies.
Podcasting (Digital Media and Society)
by Jeremy Wade MorrisPodcasting burst onto the media landscape in the early 2000s. At the time, there were hopes it might usher in a new wave of amateur and professional cultural production and represent an alternate model for how to produce, share, circulate and experience new voices and perspectives. Twenty years later, podcasting is at a critical juncture in its young history: a moment where the early ideals of open standards and platform-neutral distribution are giving way to services that prioritize lean-back listening and monetizable media experiences. This book provides an accessible and comprehensive account of one of digital media’s most vibrant formats. Focusing on the historical changes shaping podcasts as a media format, the book explores the industrial, technological and cultural components of podcasting alongside case studies of various podcasts, industry publications, and streaming audio platforms (e.g. Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts). Jeremy Morris argues that as streaming platforms push to make podcasting more industrialized, accessible, user-friendly and similar to other audio media like music or audiobooks, they threaten podcasting’s early, though always unrealized, promises. This is the go-to introduction for students and researchers of media, communication and cultural studies, as well as readers who enjoy making and listening to podcasts.
Polis: A New History of the Ancient Greek City-State from the Early Iron Age to the End of Antiquity
by John MaA definitive new history of the origins, evolution, and scope of the ancient Greek city-stateThe Greek polis, or city-state, was a resilient and adaptable political institution founded on the principles of citizenship, freedom, and equality. Emerging around 650 BCE and enduring to 350 CE, it offered a means for collaboration among fellow city-states and social bargaining between a community and its elites—but at what cost? Polis proposes a panoramic account of the ancient Greek city-state, its diverse forms, and enduring characteristics over the span of a millennium.In this landmark book, John Ma provides a new history of the polis, charting its spread and development into a common denominator for hundreds of communities from the Black Sea to North Africa and from the Near East to Italy. He explores its remarkable achievements as a political form offering community, autonomy, prosperity, public goods, and spaces of social justice for its members. He also reminds us that behind the successes of civic ideology and institutions lie entanglements with domination, empire, and enslavement. Ma&’s sweeping and multifaceted narrative draws widely on a rich store of historical evidence while weighing in on lively scholarly debates and offering new readings of Aristotle as the great theoretician of the polis.A monumental work of scholarship, Polis transforms our understanding of antiquity while challenging us to grapple with the moral legacy of an idea whose very success centered on the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others.
Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction
by Oliver TraldiAnyone who’s had an argument about politics with a friend may walk away wondering how this friend could possibly hold the beliefs they do. A few self-reflective people might even wonder about their own political beliefs after such an argument. This book is about the reasons that people have, and could have, for political beliefs: the evidence they might draw on, the psychological sources of their views, and the question of how we ought to form our political beliefs if we want to be rational.The book’s twenty-four chapters are divided into four larger parts, which cover the following: (1) the differences between political and other types of beliefs, (2) theories of political belief formation, (3) sources of our political beliefs and how we might evaluate them, and (4) contemporary phenomena – like polarization, fake news, and conspiracy theories – related to political beliefs. Along the way, the book addresses questions that will arise naturally for many readers, like: Does the news you choose to watch and your own social media leave you stuck in an “information bubble”? Are you committed to a certain ideology because of the history of your society? Are people who believe “fake news“ always acting irrationally? Does democracy do a good job of figuring out what’s true? Are some political beliefs good and some evil? As the book investigates these and other questions, it delves into technical, philosophical topics like epistemic normativity, the connection between belief and action, pragmatic encroachment, debunking arguments, and ideology critique. Chapter summaries and discussion questions will help students and all interested readers better grasp this new, important area on the border of politics and philosophy.Key Features Systematically covers the political turn in contemporary epistemology and integrates it with important work in other fields (like psychology and political science) In addition to deep coverage of the nature of political belief, includes material on the ethics of political belief and how we ought to form our beliefs Approaches topics that naturally interest students like political disagreement, fake news, conspiracy theories, and the morality of belief Provides a Conclusion and Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter, prompting student readers to think more clearly and deeply about the material they’ve read The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.
Political Bodies: Writings on Adriana Cavarero's Political Thought (SUNY series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy)
by Paula Landerreche Cardillo; Rachel SilverbloomAdriana Cavarero has been, and continues to be, one of the most innovative and influential voices in Italian political and feminist thought of the last forty years. Known widely for her challenges to the male-dominated canon of political philosophy (and philosophy more broadly construed), Cavarero has offered provocative accounts of what constitutes the political, with an emphasis on embodiment, singularity, and relationality. Political Bodies gathers some of today’s most prominent and well-established theorists, along with emerging scholars, to contribute their insights, questions, and concerns about Cavarero's political philosophy and to put her work in conversation with other feminist thinkers, political theorists, queer theorists, and thinkers of race and coloniality. A new essay by Adriana Cavarero herself closes out the volume. Political Bodies ventures beyond the familiar boundaries of Cavarero's own writing and is a testament to the generative encounters that her philosophy makes possible.
Political Economy: Comparative, International, and Historical Perspectives (Springer Texts in Political Science and International Relations)
by Christian May Daniel Mertens Andreas Nölke Michael SchedelikThis textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to Political Economy. It combines comparative,international and historical perspectives into a holistic framework of analysis. Drawing on the workof Karl Polanyi, the book shows how capitalist economies differ around the globe and how they areembedded in the international economic order. Through a critical-institutionalist lens, it helps toaccount for the evolution of contemporary capitalism and addresses current topics at the intersection of political science and economics.Students and instructors can draw on supplementary material, such as Power Point slides withall figures and tables as well as the Springer Nature Flashcards app with exercises.
Political Economy as Theodicy: Progress, Suffering and Denial (ISSN)
by David L. BlaneyPolitical Economy as Theodicy: Progress, Suffering and Denial proposes that political economics operates within a theological symbolic order that dictates modern sociopolitical and economic life as a whole.This book revisits the work of key figures in the history of political economy and economic thought – primarily Adam Smith, Bernard Mandeville, David Hume, Thomas Malthus, W. Stanley Jevons, Alfred Marshall and John Bates Clark. Theodicy is a constitutive element of an international political economy (IPE) that often disavows moral evil, while it conversely redefines such evil as an actual good within economic life. Beginning with the Enlightenment thinkers and continuing through to the modern neoclasscial economists, this book traces the initial emergence of a natural theological basis for political economic thinking and concludes with a discussion of its application in modern IPE. Relying upon a postcolonial framework, the author seeks to provincialize economics, creating space for alternative modes of being and doing.This book will appeal to scholars and advanced students of IPE, political theology, international relations and postcolonial studies.
Political Friendship: Liberal Notables, Networks, and the Pursuit of the German Nation State, 1848-1866 (Studies in German History #29)
by Michael WeaverBetween periods of revolution, state repression, and war across Central and Western Europe from the 1840s through the 1860s, German liberals practiced politics beyond the more well-defined realms of voluntary associations, state legislatures, and burgeoning political parties. Political Friendship approaches 19th century German history’s trajectory to unification through the lens of academics, journalists, and artists who formed close personal relationships with one another and with powerful state leaders. Michael Weaver argues that German liberals thought with their friends by demonstrating the previously neglected aspects of political friendship were central to German political culture.
A Political History of Sport in Sweden (Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics)
by Jens LjunggrenThis book presents a history of Swedish sport, highlighting in particular the relationship between sport politics and people’s changing attitudes towards sport from the eighteenth century until today. It scrutinizes the interaction between sport politics and people’s different approaches to sport in everyday life. By investigating how different ways of pursuing and conceptualizing sport have progressed and interacted, and how they have influenced as well been influenced by sport politics, this book discerns the role of both governmental and municipal politics in the development of sport in Sweden.
Political Humility: The Limits of Knowledge in Our Partisan Political Climate
by Blake RoeberThis book aims to change the way we think about politics, talk about politics, and vote.It does this in two ways. First, it shows it’s impossible for a Republican, Democrat, or voter in any political party to possess a significant level of knowledge of facts that would help their party secure or maintain political power. It calls this knowledge “political knowledge” and shows how unfeasible it is for anyone to have it. Second, it explains how we might best be politically engaged, given that we have virtually no political knowledge.To argue that it is impossible for any person to possess a significant amount of political knowledge, the book depends on two empirically verified facts. The first is that we have virtually no means of acquiring political information except by believing what other people say. The second is that, when people start talking about politics, they become highly unreliable. They’re very likely to say false things when voicing political opinions because they employ a belief‑forming process that psychologists call “identity protective cognition.” This is a type of reasoning aimed, not at truth, but at preserving one’s membership in some identity‑defining group. In combination, these two observations cast serious doubt on all of our political beliefs.As the book explains, however, the proper response to this doubt is not to simply avoid politics. Rather the best response is a kind of humble but real engagement with politics that constantly manifests one’s awareness that one is, at best, making educated guesses rather than speaking and acting from knowledge.