This text is a fresh approach to the Western traditions of philosophy that includes readings of manageable length for the typical undergraduate student. Its approach encourages critical thinking about philosophical issues by offering appropriate readings and explanations, as well as straightforward demonstrations of the implications of the book's featured arguments and ideas.

Avertissement Le Moyen Âge occidental offre le spectacle, unique dans l’histoire, d’une civilisation assujettie à un double dogmatisme : un dogmatisme religieux, impliquant l’adhésion des esprits à des formules de foi qui n’ont de sens qu’en vertu d’une certaine ontologie rudimentaire ; un dogmatisme scientifique, impliquant l’adhésion des esprits à l’œuvre profane d’Aristote. Ces deux dogmatismes marchent de pair, s’épaulent et se soutiennent, réalisant une unification de toutes les...

Recent experiments have shown that certain fluid-mechanical systems, namely oil droplets bouncing on oil films, can mimic a wide range of quantum phenomena, including double-slit interference, quantization of angular momentum and Zeeman splitting. Here I investigate what can be learned from these systems concerning no-go theorems as those of Bell and Kochen-Specker. In particular, a model for the Bell experiment is proposed that includes variables describing a ‘background’ field or medium. This field mimics the surface wave that accompanies the droplets (...) in the fluid-mechanical experiments. It appears that quite generally such a model can violate the Bell inequality and reproduce the quantum statistics, even if it is based on local dynamics only. The reason is that measurement independence is not valid in such models. This opens the door for local ‘background-based’ theories, describing the interaction of particles and analyzers with a background field, to complete quantum mechanics. Experiments to test these ideas are also proposed. (shrink)

This book establishes the connection between the evolutionary scientific ideas of The Human Phenomenon and the Christian spirituality and theology of The Divine Milieu.

Capturing the inimitable enthusiasm of Louis Pojman's much acclaimed teaching, PHILOSOPHY: THE PURSUIT OF WISDOM introduces students to all the core topics in philosophy. Beginning with an inquiry into the nature and purpose of philosophy, this text moves through many traditional discussions--such as the existence of God, the problems of knowledge, the freewill/determinism debate, and the foundations of ethics--concluding with an exploration into existentialism and the meaning of life.

McMaster University acquired the Russell collection in 1968. Since that time hundreds of researchers have come from every corner of the world and have collectively revealed a treasure of the intellectual and political life of the twentieth century. Russell’s name is not on everyone’s lips today, but the archive still contains material vital to our own concerns: to our concern about what has gone wrong in the twentieth century, to the status of science as a paradigm of knowledge, to the (...) rise and fall of communism, and to the prospects of world order. The archive contains wonderful material on all these subjects. (shrink)

The paper is a Response to the article “How (Not) to Be an Aristotelian with Regard to Contemporary Physics”.

The Good Rebel is a philosophical work, the methodology of which is nonetheless literary and historical. The book provides an original but historically informed and socially relevant commentary on modern conceptions of personal autonomy. Communitarian authors provide effective critiques of a liberal preoccupation with individualistic personal autonomy. Groarke does not contest the liberal emphasis on autonomy: instead he contests the way in which contemporary liberals define the concept of autonomy.

In this paper I argue that a pervasive “religion as tyranny” view has its roots in a philosophical misunderstanding about human freedom. The established liberal view, which is a kind of “empty Protestantism,” conceives of freedom primarily in negative terms as freedom of choice or amoral autonomy. I argue that this approach, which originates in Puritan theology, leads inevitably to a wide‐ranging indifferentism and that indifferentism is incompatible with Christianity. Christians need to elaborate in response a positive definition of freedom (...) as moral autonomy or good rebellion. Insomuch as religion is an essential aspect of human flourishing, it liberates rather than enslaves the individual. (shrink)

The mechanisms for cultural transmission remain disputable and difficult to validate through observational field studies alone. If controlled experimental laboratory investigation reveals that a putative mechanism is demonstrable in the species under study, then inferences that the same mechanism is operating in the field observation are strengthened.