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Powers, Parts and Wholes: Essays on the Mereology of Powers (Routledge Studies in Metaphysics)
by Andrea Roselli Christopher J. Austin Anna MarmodoroThis volume offers a fresh exploration of the parts–whole relations within a power and among powers. While the metaphysics of powers has been extensively examined in the literature, powers have yet to be studied from the perspective of their mereology. Powers are often assumed to be atomic, and yet what they can do—and what can happen to them—is complex. But if powers are simple, how can they have complex manifestations? Can powers have parts? According to which rules of composition do powers compose into powers? Given the centrality of powers in current scientific as well as philosophical thought, recognizing and understanding the ontological differences between atomic and mereologically complex powers is important, for both philosophy and science. The first part of this book explores how powers divide; the second part, how powers compose. The final part showcases some specific study cases in the domains of quantum mechanics and psychology. Powers, Parts and Wholes will be of interest to professional philosophers and graduate students working in metaphysics, philosophy of science and logic.
Powers, Possessions and Freedom: Essays in Honour of C.B. Macpherson
by Alkis KontosCrawford Brough Macpherson has been teaching at the University of Toronto for some forty years, building an international reputation through his identification and critique of possessive individualism as a core concept in Western liberal democratic theory. The essays brought together here from eminent scholars all over the English-speaking world are independent statements on the issues that preoccupy Macpherson - powers, possessions, and freedom, the central problems in political theory. They are arranged in a historical sequence, touching on the thought of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, and Macpherson himself, and facing with vigour and originality the dilemmas of liberal-democratic and Marxian theory of social and political life. It concludes with an explication by the editor of the inner parable of Durrenmatt's play, The Visit, as a profound critique of capitalism, and with a bibliography of Macpherson's published work.
Powers, Time and Free Will (Synthese Library #451)
by Christopher J. Austin Anna Marmodoro Andrea RoselliThis book brings together twelve original contributions by leading scholars on the much-debated issues of what is free will and how can we exercise it in a world governed by laws of nature. Which conception of laws of nature best fits with how we conceive of free will? And which constraints does our conception of the laws of nature place on how we think of free will? The metaphysics of causation and the metaphysics of dispositions are also explored in this edited volume, in relation to whether they may or may not be game-changers in how we think about both free will and the laws of nature. The volume presents the views of a range of international experts on these issues, and aims at providing the reader with novel approaches to a core problem in philosophy. The target audience is composed by academics and scholars who are interested in an original and contemporary approach to these long-debated issues.Chapters [2] and [4] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
The Practical Anarchist: Writings of Josiah Warren (American Philosophy)
by Crispin SartwellThe Practical Anarchist brings to light the work of Josiah Warren, eccentric American genius. Devoting his life to showing the practicality of an astonishing ideal, Warren devoted equal industry to the question of how to make a pair of shoes and how to remake the social world into an individualist paradise.This will be the first chance for many readers to encounter Warren’s writings, and in many cases their first publication since their original appearance in obscure, self-published periodicals, including The Peaceful Revolutionist (1833), the first American anarchist periodical. Moreover, they often appeared in a bizarre experimental typography.This volume presents, out of the welter of bewildering writings left by Warren, a reading text designed for today’ readers and students. It seeks to convey the practical value of many of Warren’s ideas, their continuing relevance.
Practical Applications of the Philosophy of Science: Thinking about Research
by Peter TruranExplores the practical applicability of the philosophy of science to scientific research, but also considers its relevance to practice within the realms of technology, design, crafts, and even within the world of arts and the humanities. The attempt to engage working scientists with the issues raised by the philosophy of science may profitably be extended to examine its applicability to any other fields of knowledge that encompass a problem-solving dimension. Drawing on his experience as a research and development scientist in the biomedical device industry, the author shows how the principles of the philosophy of science illuminate the research process. The book is structured on the concept of the inspirational text; it consists of short chapters, each of which provides an accessible discussion of an aspect of the philosophy of science. Each chapter concludes with a list of practical pointers towards the development of attitudes and skills which will benefit the student researcher.
Practical Approaches to Causal Relationship Exploration
by Jiuyong Li Lin Liu Thuc Duy LeThis brief presents four practical methods to effectively explore causal relationships, which are often used for explanation, prediction and decision making in medicine, epidemiology, biology, economics, physics and social sciences. The first two methods apply conditional independence tests for causal discovery. The last two methods employ association rule mining for efficient causal hypothesis generation, and a partial association test and retrospective cohort study for validating the hypotheses. All four methods are innovative and effective in identifying potential causal relationships around a given target, and each has its own strength and weakness. For each method, a software tool is provided along with examples demonstrating its use. Practical Approaches to Causal Relationship Exploration is designed for researchers and practitioners working in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, and biomedical research. The material also benefits advanced students interested in causal relationship discovery.
Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (Routledge Annals of Bioethics)
by James Stacey TaylorThis is the first volume in which an account of personal autonomy is developed that both captures the contours of this concept as it is used in social philosophy and bioethics, and is theoretically grounded in, and a part of, contemporary autonomy theory. James Stacey Taylor’s account is unique as it is explicitly a political one, recognizing that the attribution of autonomy to agents is dependent in part on their relationships with others and not merely upon their own mental states. The volume is distinctive in its examples, which touch on the ethics of using inducements to encourage persons to participate in medical research, the ethical issues associated with the use of antibiotics, and the ethical basis for both patient confidentiality and informed consent.
A Practical Companion to Ethics
by Anthony WestonA Practical Companion to Ethics, Fourth Edition, is a concise and accessible introduction to the basic attitudes and skills that make ethics work, like thinking for oneself, creative and integrative problem-solving, and keeping an open mind. This unique volume illuminates the broad kinds of practical intelligence required in moral judgment, complementing the narrower theoretical considerations that often dominate ethics courses. It offers practical instruction in problem-solving by demonstrating how to frame an ethical problem and deal effectively with ethical disagreements. The book also presents ethics as an ongoing learning experience, helping students to engage constructively with both the complexities of their individual lives and with the larger issues that exist in the world around them. <p><p> The fourth edition retains the most popular features of the previous edition, including challenging and relevant end-of-chapter exercises and brief text boxes that define key terms and review core strategies. The optimistic tone and brisk pace of the narrative provide an entertaining and intelligent guide to "everyday" morality. Ideal for introductory courses in ethics and applied ethics, A Practical Companion to Ethics, Fourth Edition, can also be used in any course related to critical thinking.
Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgment
by I. A. RichardsLinguist, critic, poet, psychologist, I. A. Richards (1893-1979) was one of the great polymaths of the twentieth century. He is best known, however, as one of the founders of modern literary critical theory. Richards revolutionized criticism by turning away from biographical and historical readings as well as from the aesthetic impressionism. Seeking a more exacting approach, he analyzed literary texts as syntactical structures that could be broken down into smaller interacting verbal units of meaning. Practical Criticism, fi rst published in 1929, is a landmark volume in demonstrating this method.
The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents, Inventions
by József Illy2012 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice MagazineAlbert Einstein may be best known as the wire-haired whacky physicist who gave us the theory of relativity, but that’s just one facet of this genius’s contribution to human knowledge and modern science. As József Illy expertly shows in this book, Einstein had an eminently practical side as well.As a youth, Einstein was an inveterate tinkerer in the electrical supply factory his father and uncle owned and operated. His first paid job was as a patent examiner. Later in life, Einstein contributed to many inventions, including refrigerators, microphones, and instruments for aviation. In published papers, Einstein often provided ways to test his theories and fundamental problems of the scientific community of his times. He delved deeply into a variety of technological innovations, most notably the gyrocompass, and consulted for industry in patent cases and on other legal matters. Einstein also provided explanations for common and mundane phenomena, such as the meandering of rivers. In these and other hands-on examples culled from the Einstein Papers, Illy demonstrates how Einstein enjoyed leaving the abstract world of theories to wrestle with the problems of everyday life.While we may like the idea of Einstein as a genius besotted by extra dimensions and too out-of-this-world to wear socks, The Practical Einstein gives ample evidence that this characterization is both incomplete and an unfair representation of a man who sought to explore the intricacies of nature, whether in theory or in practice.
Practical Ethics
by Peter SingerFor thirty years, Peter Singer's Practical Ethics has been the classic introduction to applied ethics. <p><p>For this third edition, the author has revised and updated all the chapters, and added a new chapter addressing climate change, one of the most important ethical challenges of our generation. Some of the questions discussed in this book concern our daily lives. Is it ethical to buy luxuries when others do not have enough to eat? Should we buy meat from intensively reared animals? Am I doing something wrong if my carbon footprint is above the global average? Other questions confront us as concerned citizens: equality and discrimination on the grounds of race or sex; abortion, the use of embryos for research, and euthanasia; political violence and terrorism; and the preservation of our planet's environment. This book's lucid style and provocative arguments make it an ideal text for university courses and for anyone willing to think about how she or he ought to live.
Practical Ethics: A Sketch of the Moral Structure of Society
by Mary Sturt Margaret HoblingOriginally published in 1949, this book covers both psychological and sociological aspects of moral life in Western society in the first half of the 20th Century and the historical influences on its thinking and way of behaviour. It discusses education, art, social structure, law and religion and ethical failure.
Practical Ethics for Our Time
by Eiji Uehiro Carl BeckerA scathing critique of the global consumer culture that's bound to cause controversy among Western readers, Practical Ethics for Our Time argues that Japan's future success as a nation depends upon the ability of its citizens to uphold traditional family values and to fashion new, environmentally sustainable patterns in their daily lives.Mr. Uehiro's argument is not unfamiliar. He posits that Japan's rapid industrialization and Westernization since the Meiji Restoration has created a nation of people with an insatiable appet ite for designer clothing, luxury cars, and high-tech gadgets but with a profound sense of spiritual emptiness. Uehiro suggests that as human be ings move farther and farther away from the process of producing goods themselves,they begin to take their abundance for granted, and thus lose a sense of thankfulness for what they have. This leads to a world in which human interactions become superficial and commodified, and ethics take a back seat to other, more quantifiable concerns. While Japan has gained tremendous international respect for its rapid industrialization since World War II , Uehiro believes that Japan has a greater role to play on the international stage as a model of proper ethical behavior- but only if it can reverse Western-influenced trends.
Practical Form: Abstraction, Technique, and Beauty in Eighteenth-Century Aesthetics (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)
by Abigail ZitinA groundbreaking study of the development of form in eighteenth-century aesthetics In this original work, Abigail Zitin proposes a new history of the development of form as a concept in and for aesthetics. Her account substitutes women and artisans for the proverbial man of taste, asserting them as central figures in the rise of aesthetics as a field of philosophical inquiry in eighteenth-century Europe. She shows how the idea of formal abstraction so central to conceptions of beauty in this period emerges from the way practitioners think about craft and skill across the domestic, industrial, and so-called high arts. Zitin elegantly maps the complex connections among aesthetics, form, and formalism, drawing out the understated presence of practice in the writings of major eighteenth-century thinkers including Locke, Addison, Burke, and Kant. This new take on an old story ultimately challenges readers to reconsider form and why it matters.
A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking: Deciding What to Do and Believe
by David HunterA practical introduction to critical thinking across various disciplinesKnowing how to think critically about what to believe and what to do is essential for success in both academic and professional environments. A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking introduces readers to the concepts, methods, and standards for thinking critically about reasons and arguments in virtually any area of practice. While most literature on critical thinking focuses on its formal applications within philosophy, this book offers a broad conception of critical thinking and explores its practical relevance to conducting research across a wide variety of disciplines, including business, education, and the biological sciences.While the book pursues an interdisciplinary approach to critical thinking, providing examples and illustrations from diverse subjects and fields of research, it also provides strategies to help readers identify the methods and standards that are characteristic of critical thinking in their chosen branches of learning, in their workplace, and in their own lives. The concept of an argument is extended beyond its philosophical roots to include experimentation, testing, measurement, policy development and assessment, and aesthetic appreciation as activities that require critical thinking. The logical, core concepts of critical thinking are presented in a rigorous yet informal way, with creative and practical strategies for defining, analyzing, and evaluating reasons and arguments wherever they are found. Each chapter ends with a "Mistakes to Avoid" section as well as a variety of exercises designed to help readers integrate and extend the chapter's lessons.A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking is an excellent book for courses on critical thinking and logic at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also an appropriate reference for anyone with a general interest in critical thinking skills.
A Practical Guide to Drug Development in Academia: The SPARK Approach (SpringerBriefs in Pharmaceutical Science & Drug Development)
by Daria Mochly-Rosen Kevin Grimes"A lot of hard-won knowledge is laid out here in a brief but informative way. Every topic is well referenced, with citations from both the primary literature and relevant resources from the internet. " Review from Nature Chemical Biology Written by the founders of the SPARK program at Stanford University, this book is a practical guide designed for professors, students and clinicians at academic research institutions who are interested in learning more about the drug development process and how to help their discoveries become the novel drugs of the future. Often many potentially transformative basic science discoveries are not pursued because they are deemed 'too early' to attract industry interest. There are simple, relatively cost-effective things that academic researchers can do to advance their findings to the point that they can be tested in the clinic or attract more industry interest. Each chapter broadly discusses an important topic in drug development, from preclinical work in assay design through clinical trial design, regulatory issues and marketing assessments. After the practical overview provided here, the reader is encouraged to consult more detailed texts on specific topics of interest. "I would actually welcome it if this book's intended audience were broadened even more. Younger scientists starting out in the drug industry would benefit from reading it and getting some early exposure to parts of the process that they'll eventually have to understand. Journalists covering the industry (especially the small startup companies) will find this book a good reality check for many an over-hopeful press release. Even advanced investors who might want to know what really happens in the labs will find information here that might otherwise be difficult to track down in such a concentrated form. "
A Practical Guide to Ethics: Living and Leading with Integrity
by Rita ManningThis essential new text is designed for courses in contemporary moral issues, applied ethics, and leadership. Emphasizing personal choice in the study of ethics, the authors take the reader on a journey of self-discovery rather than a mere academic survey of the field of ethics. A Practical Guide to Ethics: Living and Leading with Integrity helps students develop their skills in ethical decision-making and put those decisions into effective practice. Its unique focus on leadership, especially the moral dimensions of understanding one's own values, teaches students to understand and, through dialog and negotiation, communicate their own beliefs as a step to building coalitions with those who may hold different views. It is also distinctive in combining ethical theory with both multicultural ethics (Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, feminism) and a practical orientation to moral decision-making and leadership.
A Practical Guide to Ethics: Living and Leading with Integrity
by Scott R. Stroud Rita C. ManningThis essential new text is designed for courses in contemporary moral issues, applied ethics, and leadership. Emphasizing personal choice in the study of ethics, the authors take the reader on a journ
A Practical Handbook of Corpus Linguistics
by Magali Paquot Stefan Th. GriesThis handbook is a comprehensive practical resource on corpus linguistics. It features a range of basic and advanced approaches, methods and techniques in corpus linguistics, from corpus compilation principles to quantitative data analyses. The Handbook is organized in six Parts. Parts I to III feature chapters that discuss key issues and the know-how related to various topics around corpus design, methods and corpus types. Parts IV-V aim to offer a user-friendly introduction to the quantitative analysis of corpus data: for each statistical technique discussed, chapters provide a practical guide with R and come with supplementary online material. Part VI focuses on how to write a corpus linguistic paper and how to meta-analyze corpus linguistic research. The volume can serve as a course book as well as for individual study. It will be an essential reading for students of corpus linguistics as well as experienced researchers who want to expand their knowledge of the field.
Practical Identity and Narrative Agency (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Kim Atkins Catriona MackenzieThe essays collected in this volume address a range of issues that arise when the focus of philosophical reflection on identity is shifted from metaphysical to practical and evaluative concerns. They also explore the usefulness of the notion of narrative for articulating and responding to these issues. The chapters, written by an outstanding roster of international scholars, address a range of complex philosophical issues concerning the relationship between practical and metaphysical identity, the embodied dimensions of the first-personal perspective, the kind of reflexive agency involved in the self-constitution of one’s practical identity, the relationship between practical identity and normativity, and the temporal dimensions of identity and selfhood. In addressing these issues, contributors engage with debates in the literatures on personal identity, phenomenology, moral psychology, action theory, normative ethical theory, and feminist philosophy.
Practical Inferences (Routledge Revivals)
by D S ClarkeFirst published in 1985, Practical Inferences describes how practical inferences are used. Starting with relatively simple inference patterns exhibited in everyday prudential decisions, the author extends a basic structural framework to the more complex inferences used in assessing probabilities, and finally to moral inferences. In this way what have been regarded as disparate activities are shown to exhibit fundamental similarities. The author argues that at all levels of decision-making the practical inferences used contain at least one premise expressing the desires or preferences of the agent. This is in opposition to the dominant view in Western philosophy that desires must be regulated or evaluated by means of principles of conduct discovered by rational procedures. By examining the premises implied by holders of this view, the author shows that they are inadequate bases for justifying practical decisions. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy, logic and mathematics.
Practical Inferences (New Studies in Practical Philosophy)
by R.M. HareThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1971.
A Practical Introduction to Fuzzy Logic using LISP (Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing #327)
by Luis Argüelles MendezThis book makes use of the LISP programming language to provide readers with the necessary background to understand and use fuzzy logic to solve simple to medium-complexity real-world problems. It introduces the basics of LISP required to use a Fuzzy LISP programming toolbox, which was specifically implemented by the author to "teach" the theory behind fuzzy logic and at the same time equip readers to use their newly-acquired knowledge to build fuzzy models of increasing complexity. The book fills an important gap in the literature, providing readers with a practice-oriented reference guide to fuzzy logic that offers more complexity than popular books yet is more accessible than other mathematical treatises on the topic. As such, students in first-year university courses with a basic tertiary mathematical background and no previous experience with programming should be able to easily follow the content. The book is intended for students and professionals in the fields of computer science and engineering, as well as disciplines including astronomy, biology, medicine and earth sciences. Software developers may also benefit from this book, which is intended as both an introductory textbook and self-study reference guide to fuzzy logic and its applications. The complete set of functions that make up the Fuzzy LISP programming toolbox can be downloaded from a companion book's website.
A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Extensions (Elements in Quantitative and Computational Methods for the Social Sciences)
by null Matias D. Cattaneo null Nicolas Idrobo null Rocío TitiunikIn this Element, which continues our discussion in Foundations, the authors provide an accessible and practical guide for the analysis and interpretation of Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs that encourages the use of a common set of practices and facilitates the accumulation of RD-based empirical evidence. The focus is on extensions to the canonical sharp RD setup that we discussed in Foundations. The discussion covers (i) the local randomization framework for RD analysis, (ii) the fuzzy RD design where compliance with treatment is imperfect, (iii) RD designs with discrete scores, and (iv) and multi-dimensional RD designs.
Practical Judgement in International Political Theory: Selected Essays
by Chris BrownChris Brown is a prominent international political theorist who has contributed to debates on pluralism, justice and human rights. This book draws together seventeen of his most important and influential articles from the last twenty years. These essays include influential statements on the role of normative theory and international ethics, the so-called ‘cosmopolitan-communitarian debate’ and anti-foundationalist thought in international relations, as well as important contributions to Rawlsian and Post-Rawlsian theories of international and global justice. The most recent papers address subjects such as the notion of global civil society, and controversies over the ethics of pre-emptive warfare, and the inevitably selective nature of humanitarian interventions. The book includes a framing introduction written for this volume, in which Brown discusses his own influences, and the evolution of his thinking throughout his career. Although this evolution has involved a progressively less critical viewpoint towards liberal thought and liberal internationalism, and a greater commitment to universal values, some things have remained constant – in particular a focus on the importance of political judgement and scepticism directed towards the idea that there are simple solutions to complex problems. The collection ends fittingly with a critique of the popular cosmopolitanism of figures such as Bono and Bob Geldof. This collection will be essential reading for all scholars and graduates with an interest in international political theory.