First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

We show that four central aspects of Hume's account of cause were contained and available to him in the translation of Sextus Empiricus' "Outlines of Pyrrhonism" contained in Thomas Stanley's 1687 _History of Philosophy.

This is a book on business ethics for managers. It is structured around three themes: 1) the idea that how we perceive and think about organizations we work for is a major factor in the framing and atmosphere of those organizations; 2) the idea of the corporation as a community rather than the formalistic, legal and mystical characterizations that currently abound in management books; 3) the various business virtues and vices and their role in the daily practice of business.

In the second edition of this groundbreaking text in non-Western philosophy, fifteen experts introduce some of the great philosophical traditions in the world. The dozen essays collected here unveil exciting, sophisticated philosophical traditions that are too often neglected in the western world. The contributors include the leading scholars in their fields, but they write for students coming to these concepts for the first time. Building on revisions and updates to the original essays on China, India, Japan, and the Americas, this (...) new edition also considers three philosophical traditions for the first time--Jewish, Buddhist, and South Pacific (M ori) philosophy. (shrink)

There are parallels between Gigerenzer et al.'s emphasis on the rationality of adults' reasoning in terms of simple heuristics and developmental researchers' emphasis on the rationality of children's reasoning in terms of intuitive theories. Indeed, just as children become better at using their theories, so might some people, experts, become better at using simple heuristics.

We provide and interpret a new measure independent characterization of the Gödel speed-up phenomenon. In particular, we prove a theorem that demonstrates the indifference of the concept of a measure independent Gödel speed-up to an apparent weakening of its definition that is obtained by requiring only those measures appearing in some fixed Blum complexity measure to participate in the speed-up, and by deleting the “for all r” condition from the definition so as to relax the required amount of speed-up. We (...) interpret our results as correlating the relative difficulty of mechanically recognizing theories with the relative power and the relative abstractness of the theories. We conclude by providing two open problems concerning possible similarities and relationships between the Blum speedability and Gödel speed-up phenomena. MSC: 03D15, 03F20. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Nietzsche on Freedom and Fatalism Fatalism, Determinism, Destiny Nietzsche's Classical Fatalism Nietzsche's Watchword, “Become Who You Are” Nietzsche on “Free Will” Nietzsche on Responsibility.

In the twentieth century, in both China and the West, ritual became marginalized in the face of the growth of secularism and individualism. In China, Confucianism and its essentially ritualistic comportment to the world were vigorously suppressed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) under Mao Zedong. But de-ritualization already took place as a result of the Chinese Revolution of 1911 under Sun Yat-Sen. In the West, while the process of de-ritualization has been generally more gradual, it has been nonetheless drastic. In (...) contrast to this situation, this volume investigates the crucial role ritual plays in constituting the human understanding of their place in the cosmos, the purpose of their lives, and imbues human existence with a more complete sense of meaningfulness. This volume presents the work of philosophers from both China and the West as they reflect upon the constitutive role that ritual plays in human life. They reflect not only on ritual in general but also on specific Confucian and Christian appreciations of ritual. This provocative volume is a beacon of warning to Western philosophers, who think they have graduated from the trappings of ritual, and a beacon of hope for Eastern thinkers, who wish to avoid cultural fragmentation. The Editors, both Eastern and Western, have together created a seamless work that not only introduces ritual, but advances an argument for the contribution that ritual makes to cultural renewal. This volume is a work of philosophical thinking about ritual doing, but challenges those who think to realize that the salvation of philosophical thinking rests in the particularity and contingency of ritual doing. Let us hope this volume is widely read, for it points to that which might renew the West. - Jeffrey P. Bishop, Saint Louis University. (shrink)

In this essay, I want to reconsider sympathy as a “natural” emotion or sentiment. Adam Smith famously defended it as such (as did his friend David Hume) but both used the term ambiguously and in a different sense than we use it today. Nevertheless, it seems to me that Smith got it quite right, that the basis of morality and justice is to be found in the realm of affect rather than in theory and principles alone, and that sympathy is (...) a “natural” or should we say a “basic” emotion. But that means that morality may not be an exclusively human characteristic, as many philosophers (including Smith and Hume) have assumed. But some contemporary thinking in psychology and philosophy makes that extension plausible. (shrink)

Edmund Pellegrino was a huge figure who leaves a huge legacy. Since his death on June 13, 2013, much has been written to honor his prodigious accomplishments in scholarship, public policy, and institution‐building and to express gratitude for his kindness, humility, and sense of humor. I want to honor his commitment to living a life in which ideas mattered. For him, ideas were not just the stuff by which to build an academic career or rocks to hurl at opposing scholars (...) and policy‐makers. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on education and the courses it considers cultural entities. Using three different evolutionary analogies, it explains how education can emerge, evolve or change in response to external factors. The emphasis is on the emergence of Science, Technology and Society (STS) courses in tertiary and secondary education in Britain. The discussion begins by focusing on education as a cultural artefact and how educational change is influenced by culture. The chapter then examines the phases of development of the STS (...) curriculum in British education and the application of evolutionary thinking to the major trends in educational reform that have affected Britain and other countries during the last century, citing some of the later writings by Donald Campbell. It also highlights the importance of identifying both the organisms whose evolution was being tampered with, and the ‘habitat’ in which they had to exist, in order to understand the extreme and damaging educational changes of the 1990s in Britain. Finally, it considers trends in STS education in the post-Thatcher era. (shrink)

'Daring, learned and humane... A revelatory restoration of wonder' Stephen Greenblatt. We no longer think, like the ancient Chinese did, that the world was hatched from an egg, or, like the Maori, that it came from the tearing-apart of a love embrace. The Greeks told of a tempestuous Hera and a cunning Zeus, but we now use genes and natural selection to explain fear and desire, and physics to demystify the workings of the universe. Science is an astounding achievement, but (...) are we really any wiser than the ancients? Has science revealed the secrets of fate and immortality? Has it provided protection from jealousy or love? There are those who believe that science has replaced faith, but must it also be a death knell for mythology? Evolutions brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, the journey from a single cell all the way to our human minds. Reawakening our sense of wonder and terror at the world around us and within us, Oren Harman uses modern science to create new and original mythologies. Here are the Earth and the Moon presenting a cosmological view of motherhood, a panicking Mitochondrion introducing sex and death to the world, the loneliness of consciousness emerging from the memory of an octopus, and the birth of language in evolution summoning humankind's struggle with truth. Science may not solve our existential puzzles, but like the age-old legends, its magical discoveries can help us continue the never-ending search. (shrink)