Ernest Barnes was invited to Aberdeen as Gifford Lecturer (1927-1929) to deliver lectures under the title of 'Scientific Theory and Religion'. The lectures were originally published in 1933 and sought to bring Christian doctrines together with the possibility of life on other planets. The magnitude of the universe, accompanied with some basic observations on biological development within it, makes speculation about the possibility of intelligent life in distant galaxies reasonable. Barnes believed that the Creation was made precisely (...) for the higher forms of' consciousness. The scope of the background to scientific theory and religious ideas of creation presented here is extensive and covers topics including Jewish cosmology as the basis for later Christian thought to early quantum mechanics and evolutionary biology. However, as Barnes himself noted of this scope in his lectures, 'Wide as is their range, they have an inner coherence. I trust that they express the attitude of the modern man of science who, as he hopefully makes theories, is aware of the limitations of his knowledge and also, in part because of his loyalty to truth, bears in mind the reality and the claims of the spiritual world.'. (shrink)

William Barnes' reputation as one of the pre-eminent British "dialect" poets, the equal of Robert Burns and John Clare, is being increasingly recognized. The range of his writings is extraordinary as evidenced by the contents of this collection, which includes works on etymology, philology, topography, mathematics, ancient history and economics. This collection displays the full diversity of Barnes' considerable intellect. Included are major and lesser-known works, biographical pieces by Thomas Hardy, and the biography by his daughter, Lucy (...) Baxter. (shrink)

Leading Harvard philosophy professor William Ernest Hocking (1873-1966), author of 17 books and in his day second only to John Dewey in the breadth of his thinking, is now largely forgotten, and his once-influential writings are out of print. This volume, which combines a rich selection of Hocking’s work with incisive essays by distinguished scholars, seeks to recover Hocking’s valuable contributions to philosophical thought.

If the world itself is metaphysically indeterminate in a specified respect, what follows? In this paper, we develop a theory of metaphysical indeterminacy answering this question.

We discuss arguments against the thesis that the world itself can be vague. The first section of the paper distinguishes dialectically effective from ineffective arguments against metaphysical vagueness. The second section constructs an argument against metaphysical vagueness that promises to be of the dialectically effective sort: an argument against objects with vague parts. Firstly, cases of vague parthood commit one to cases of vague identity. But we argue that Evans' famous argument against will not on its own enable one to (...) complete the reductio in the present context. We provide a metaphysical premise that would complete the reductio, but note that it seems deniable. We conclude by drawing general morals from our case study. (shrink)

This chapter defends the account of metaphysical indeterminacy of Barnes and Williams against Eklund's objections.

Most simply stated, the business of Metaphysics is to understand the world, that is to say, the given world which, as given, is one stupendous Fact. This is something more than describing the world. Description, accurate and adequate, is the business of science: understanding the world is making sense of it--a quite different matter. That there is such a task implies that the world does not wear its sense on its sleeve: it presents much that seems nonsense, much that seems (...) anti-sense or what some of our French comrades call absurdity. It is precisely this refusal to make sense that is embodied in the concept of Fact. (shrink)

_An edited transcript of the great Harvard philosopher Josiah Royce's last year-long course in metaphysics, given at Harvard in 1915-1916._.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in (...) the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in (...) the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)