Aquinas's Theory of Knowledge by
t luminary of modern Thomistic studies was Bernard J. Lonergan, S.J. (1904-1984). One of his brightest disciples was William Murnion. Murnion was powerfully drawn to Lonergan's interpretations of the thought of Thomas Aquinas and began to deeply immerse himself in the work and the evolution of the thought of both. After five years of research and writing, Murnion had to interrupt his studies due to professional and personal demands. Several years later he successfully completed and defended a doctoral dissertation which was published only in part. This book is the complete, unrevised, original work. As Murnion observed in his preface, "only the title is modified...the betterto clarify the topic. I suppose I could have massaged the text to incorporate some of the things I have learned about Aquinas in the meantime. But just as it is, I believe it presents a clear and cogent argument for the claim I defended in it about Aquinas's explanation of the act of understanding." Goodreads
Big Ideas in Brief by
The Access to Philosophy series offers a concise and readable introduction to key areas of philosophy for students and the general reader. The Theory of Knowledge explores the nature and extent of knowledge. It looks at the key questions: What do we know? How do we know it? and analyses our right to the beliefs we have, how we acquire them and whether we can take them to be knowledge. -- Goodreads
Conversations about the End of Time by
There is nothing special about the year 2000, yet the start of the third millennium proved a focus for many deep anxieties and expectations. Four of the world's boldest and most celebrated thinkers offer a vast range of insights into how we make sense of time: paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould on dating the Creation, evolutionary "deep time", and the need for ecological ethics on a human scale; Umberto Eco, novelist, medievalist, and Web fanatic, on the brave new world of cyberspace and its likely impact on memory, cultural continuity, and access to knowledge; screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere on "the art of slowness" and attitudes toward time in non-Western cultures; and Catholic historian Jean Delumeau on how the Western imagination has always been haunted by ideas of the Apocalypse.
Infinite Thought by
Alain Badiou is already regarded as one of the most original and powerful voices in contemporary European thought. Almost alone among his peers, his work promises a radical renewal of philosophy. Influenced by Plato, Lucretius, Heidegger, Lacan and Deleuze, Badiou is a critic of both the analytical and the postmodern schools of thought. His work spans the range of philosophy, from ethics, to mathematics to science, psychoanalysis, politics and art. His writing is rigorous and startling and takes no prisoners. Infinite Thought brings together a representative selection of the range of Alain Badiou's work, illustrating the power and diversity of his thought. The pieces, including the final interview, are chosen for their accessibility to readers new to the work of a philosopher who is doing no less than changing the way we think about the world. -- Goodreads
Man Is the Measure by
An intelligently truthful book that explores the uneven landscape of the human intellect. It is an accessible introduction to philosophy, this book narrows the gap between the general reader and intellectual inquiry. Its points are illustrated with concrete examples that should call the reader to a higher level of critical thinking and self-perception.
Misreadings by
Contains a collection of fifteen satirical essays that poke fun at the oversophisticated, the overacademic, and the overintellectual
Philosophy: Themes and thinkers by
Suitable for students studying the IB Diploma and an excellent introductory text for undergraduates. Philosophy: Themes and Thinkers covers key philosophical concepts, themes, and philosophy texts. As well as gaining a thorough grounding in these areas, students will develop the ability to analyse and assess philosophical writings, form their own judgements and contribute effectively to the process of debate. Features - learning objectives at the start of each chapter - profile of notable philosophers - stimulating activities throughout - revision questions - definitions of key terms in the margin.
Plato's Theory of Knowledge by
Presents Plato's "Theaetetus" and "Sophist", which explain his theory of knowledge, with an introduction to each work as well as detailed commentary and background information.
Art, Beauty and Creativity by 
The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by 
Nyaya theory of knowledge: a critical study of some problems of logic and metaphysics by 
The Philosophy Book by
Examines more than one hundred ideas that have had a significant impact on the history and development of philosophy.
Scepticism and the Possibility of Knowledge by 
A Brief History of Thought by
From the timeless wisdom of the Ancient Greeks to Christianity, the Enlightenment, existentialism, and postmodernism, Luc Ferry's instant classic brilliantly and accessibly explains the enduring teachings of philosophy - including its profound relevance to modern daily life and its essential role in achieving happiness and living a meaningful life. This lively journey through the great thinkers will enlighten every reader, young and old.
History of Philosophy. Volume V: Modern Philosophy. The British philosophers from Hobbes to Hume. by
Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaimas the best history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who came after him.
The theory of knowledge: an Islamic perspective by
The Theory of Knowledge: An Islamic Perspective is a translation of the Persian book Mas'aleh-ye Shinakht by the great Muslim thinker and reformer, Ayatollah Murtada Muttahari. Mutahhari authored this book as a rebuttal to a manifesto issued in the seventies by young Muslim activists who were deeply influenced by Marxist theories. With ample citations from the Qur'an and other traditional Islamic texts, Mutahhari discusses the concept of knowing from an Islamic perspective. Mutahhari does not limit himself to the Islamic source texts and continuously engages with the views of a wide range of philosophers including Ghazali, Ibn Sina, Kant, and Hegel. Mutahhari's epistemological discussion covers a range of issues, including whether it is possible to know, the nature of knowledge, stages of knowing, the unconscious mind, and truth. He also examines materialism and provides a spiritual approach to some of these questions about knowledge which are vital to the human experience. Murtada Mutahhari was a leading theoretician of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. As an accomplished scholar of Islamic sciences, he played a pivotal role in forming the modern Islamic discourse which served as the foundation of the revolution. With close to ninety works to his credit, he is considered as one of the leading thinkers of the global Islamic movement in the twentieth century.-- Goodreads.
The Virtue of Selfishness by
Sets forth the moral principles of objectivism, the philosophy that holds men's life as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature and a free society.
Epistemology by
In this concise book, one of the world's leading epistemologists provides a sophisticated, revisionist introduction to the problem of knowledge in Western philosophy. Modern and contemporary accounts of epistemology tend to focus on limited questions of knowledge and skepticism, such as how we can know the external world, other minds, the past through memory, the future through induction, or the world's depth and structure through inference. This book steps back for a better view of the more general issues posed by the ancient Greek Pyrrhonists. Returning to and illuminating this older, broader epistemological tradition, Ernest Sosa develops an original account of the subject, giving it substance not with Cartesian theology but with science and common sense.
Descartes is a part of this ancient tradition, but he goes beyond it by considering not just whether knowledge is possible at all but also how we can properly attain it. In Cartesian epistemology, Sosa finds a virtue-theoretic account, one that he extends beyond the Cartesian context. Once epistemology is viewed in this light, many of its problems can be solved or fall away.
The result is an important reevaluation of epistemology that will be essential reading for students and teachers.-- Goodreads
History of Philosophy. Volume IV: Modern Philosophy. From Descartes to Leibniz by
Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaimas the best history of philosophy in English.
Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who came after him.
Knowledge by
What is knowledge? Is it the same as opinion or truth? Do you need to be able to justify a claim in order to count as knowing it? How can we know that the outer world is real and not a dream?
Questions like these are ancient ones, and the branch of philosophy dedicated to answering them - epistemology - has been active for thousands of years. In this thought provoking Very Short Introduction, Jennifer Nagel considers the central problems and paradoxes in the theory of knowledge whilst drawing attention to the ways in which philosophers and theorists have responded to them. By exploring the relationship between knowledge and truth, and considering the problem of scepticism, Nagel introduces a series of influential historical and contemporary theories of knowledge, incorporating methods from logic, linguistics, and psychology, and using a number of everyday examples to demonstrate the key issues and debates.-- Goodreads
Scepticism and the Possibility of Knowledge by
Scepticism as a philosophical term is as old as the Greeks but has more recently been advanced by Montaigne, Descartes and Hume. To these, what little we know that seems certain is based on observation and habit as opposed to any logical or scientific necessity. Thus, sceptical views relate directly to epistemology—the theory of knowledge and what we can know—and, in the modern turbulent world, it is grayling's contention that these are issues that all contemporary people need to focus on. In seeking understanding of the human condition we need more than just a set of beliefs about it: all belief is irrational. We want to know or garner some kind of proof about the fundamental truths of human existence. This is the crux of the dilemma facing intelligent people today and is illuminated by this book.- .-- Goodreads.
Theory of Knowledge by
The Access to Philosophy series offers a concise and readable introduction to key areas of philosophy for students and the general reader. The Theory of Knowledge explores the nature and extent of knowledge. It looks at the key questions: What do we know? How do we know it? and analyses our right to the beliefs we have, how we acquire them and whether we can take them to be knowledge.-- Goodreads
Truth: a guide for the perplexed by
Explores the age-old war over truth, explaining why some people believe in plain, rock-solid truths that can be found through reason and objectivity and why others view truth as a subjective thing influenced by power, gender, class, ideology, and desire.
The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge by
In a letter of 1932, Karl Popper described Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie - The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge - as '...a child of crises, above all of ...the crisis of physics.' Finally available in English, it is a major contribution to the philosophy of science, epistemology and twentieth century philosophy generally. The two fundamental problems of knowledge that lie at the centre of the book are the problem of induction, that although we are able to observe only a limited number of particular events, science nevertheless advances unrestricted universal statements; and the problem of demarcation, which asks for a separating line between empirical science and non-science. Popper seeks to solve these two basic problems with his celebrated theory of falsifiability, arguing that the inferences made in science are not inductive but deductive; science does not start with observations and proceed to generalise them but with problems, which it attacks with bold conjectures. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge is essential reading for anyone interested in Karl Popper, in the history and philosophy.
Unpopular Essays by
In this volume of essays Russell is concerned to combat, in one way or another, the growth of dogmatism, whether of the Left or of the Right, which has hitherto characterised our tragic century.