This book provides ways of thinking about information and the new responsibilities engendered by its acquisition, processing, storing, dissemination and use. It offers a set of concepts, methods, arguments and illustrations designed to sharpen the reader's ethical focus. Organized into three sections, the first provides a conceptual background for the book as a whole. The second part focuses on fundamental concepts about ethics and includes descriptions of the process of ethical thinking and a range of theories and principles that can (...) be used in ethical situations. In the final part, the concepts of information and the need for ethics and ethical thinking are applied to the various levels of the social system to which they. (shrink)

Through the use of Bayesian probability theory and Communication theory, a formal mathematical model of a Churchmanian Dialectical Inquirer is developed. The Dialectical Inquirer is based on Professor C. West Churchman's novel interpretation and application of Hegelian dialectics to decision theory. The result is not only the empirical application of dialectical inquiry but also its empirical (i.e., scientific) investigation. The Dialectical Inquirer is seen as especially suited to problems in strategic policy formation and in decision theory. Finally, specific application of (...) the inquirer is made to Popper's notions for ‘The Test of Severity’ of a scientific theory. (shrink)

This essay explores logical and physical readings of Spinoza’s Ethics. It argues that Spinoza made logic more like physics, rather than making physics into logic. A dichotomy between the metaphysical and physical is inappropriate in thinking about his work. One way to understand his approach is through quasi-Kantian terms, of making physics possible, although his work has left the question of what exists to those pursuing research to find out.

Heraclitus wrote that human nature does not have right understanding, but divine nature does. The goddess of Parmenides tells us the Truth: that what exists is whole, single, undivided. We say that things are separably nameable and describable. That is incorrect. So ‘our’ use of language embodies error. In the Cratylus , Socrates says that the gods call things by names that are naturally right.

A study of the scope and limits of understanding.

This book is the fullest study in English for many years on the role of God in Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza has been called both a 'God-intoxicated man' and an atheist, both a pioneer of secular Judaism and a bitter critic of religion. He was born a Jew but chose to live outside any religious community. He was deeply engaged both in traditional Hebrew learning and in contemporary physical science. He identified God with nature or substance: a theme which runs through (...) his work, enabling him to naturalise religion but - equally important - to divinise nature. He emerges not as a rationalist precursor of the Enlightenment but as a thinker of the highest importance in his own right, both in philosophy and in religion. (shrink)

Approaching the central themes of Spinoza's thought from both a historical and analytical perspective, this book examines the logical-metaphysical core of Spinoza's philosophy, its epistemology and its ramifications for his much disputed attitude towards religion. Opening with a discussion of Spinoza's historical and philosophical location as the appropriate context for the interpretation of his work, the book goes on to present a non-'logical' reading of Spinoza's metaphysics, a consideration of Spinoza's radical repudiation of Cartesian subjectivism and an examination of how (...) Spinoza wanted religion to be understood in the context of his wider thinking and the influence of his non-Christian background. Mason also assesses Spinoza's significance and importance for philosophy now. (shrink)

Argues that there is an undeniable and essentially historical dimension to logic.

Niemand bezweifelt, daß nach Spinoza der Lauf der Dinge nicht auf übernatürliche Weise, d. h. durch irgend etwas außerhalb der Natur erklärt werden kann. Aber weniger klar ist, wie radikal seine Sicht der Naturgesetze zu verstehen ist und wie sein Erklärungsapparat arbeiten soll. Können wir zum Beispiel von einem göttlichen Gesetzgeber absehen und doch die Naturgesetze als herrschende Regeln akzeptieren - vielleicht in Verbindung mit den unendlichen Modi? Dieser Aufsatz legt eine andere Sicht dar. Spinoza schrieb von » Gesetzen oder (...) der Natur'. Nicht Gesetze sind es für ihn, die die Dinge geschehen lassen, sondern Ursachen; sie sollten somit bei der Erklärung, warum etwas geschieht, Berücksichtigung finden. Von Naturgesetzen können wir sprechen, sofern wir nicht der Vorstellung erliegen, sie seien getrennt vom Lauf der Dinge. Spinozas Position legt nahe, daß es auf das ankommt, was in der Natur geschieht: Fragen zum Status der Gesetze und ihrer Beziehung zu Dingen und Ereignissen sollten sich folglich nicht mehr stellen. (shrink)

The idea of an original contract is, ironically, inherently narrative in form; although tautological in essence, it nevertheless portrays events occurring in sequence. In response to Filmer's provocations that the idea of an original contract lacks historical veracity. Locke tries and repeatedly fails to establish a direct historical substantiation of his position in the early chapters of the Second Treatise. The most important of these various miscalculations concern the role of consent in his account of the origins of government, the (...) tension between logical and historical evidence in describing the development of prerogative in the English monarchy, and the inescapable conclusion that conquest and not consent was the likely origin of most states. In these places, the Locke's deductive argument is forced to slow, hesitate, and change direction. The general concept of individual transgression, as it emerges from Locke's depiction of the state of nature, war, and slavery, later transforms itself into the basis of governmental injustice and tyranny. These, in turn, work to generate a sort of secondary and “political” state of nature in which a now “historical” people, by means of concrete acts of resistance and revolution, enact the hypothesis of the consensual theory in their own actual time and place. (shrink)

The motives of philosophers tend to be personal. Philosophy has mattered politically as part of continuing political debates. Its effects on politics, religion and the development of the sciences have been evident. Philosophy has been supposed to have special educational value, from its contents or from the benefits of its methods and arguments. This is doubtful. Rather, philosophy matters because its concerns matter. How much philosophy matters, or should matter, may be a question of local taste.

This book explores and examines current topics and issues in teacher education through the lens of eight practicing teachers. Their voices add a new perspective on the effectiveness and practicality of current trends and reforms in teacher education.

This work proposes a coevolutionary theory of aesthetics that encompasses both biotic and human arts. Anthropocentric perspectives in aesthetics prevent the recognition of the ontological complexity of the aesthetics of nature, and the aesthetic agency of many non-human organisms. The process of evaluative coevolution is shared by all biotic advertisements. I propose that art consists of a form of communication that coevolves with its own evaluation. Art and art history are population phenomena. I expand Arthur Danto’s Artworld concept to any (...) aesthetic population of producers and evaluators. Current concepts of art cannot exclusively circumscribe the human arts from many forms of non-human biotic art. Without assuming an arbitrarily anthropocentric perspective, any concept of art will need to engage with biodiversity, and either recognize many instances of biotic advertisements as art, or exclude some instances of human art. Coevolutionary aesthetic theory provides a heuristic account of aesthetic change in both human and biotic artworlds, including the coevolutionary origin of aesthetic properties and aesthetic value within artworlds. Restructuring aesthetics, art criticism, and art history without human beings at the organizing centers of these disciplines stimulate new progress in our understanding of art, and the unique human contributions to aesthetics and aesthetic diversity. (shrink)

This book explores and examines current topics and issues in teacher education through the lens of eight practicing teachers. Their voices add a new perspective on the effectiveness and practicality of current trends and reforms in teacher education.

Written by leading experts in the field, Stellar Spectral Classification is the only book to comprehensively discuss both the foundations and most up-to-date techniques of MK and other spectral classification systems. Definitive and encyclopedic, the book introduces the astrophysics of spectroscopy, reviews the entire field of stellar astronomy, and shows how the well-tested methods of spectral classification are a powerful discovery tool for graduate students and researchers working in astronomy and astrophysics. The book begins with a historical survey, followed by (...) chapters discussing the entire range of stellar phenomena, from brown dwarfs to supernovae. The authors account for advances in the field, including the addition of the L and T dwarf classes; the revision of the carbon star, Wolf-Rayet, and white dwarf classification schemes; and the application of neural nets to spectral classification. Copious figures illustrate the morphology of stellar spectra, and the book incorporates recent discoveries from earth-based and satellite data. Many examples of spectra are given in the red, ultraviolet, and infrared regions, as well as in the traditional blue-violet optical region, all of which are useful for researchers identifying stellar and galactic spectra. This essential reference includes a glossary, handy appendixes and tables, an index, and a Web-based resource of spectra. In addition to the authors, the contributors are Adam J. Burgasser, Margaret M. Hanson, J. Davy Kirkpatrick, and Nolan R. Walborn. (shrink)