検索キーワード： 認識論

According to David Hume, the concept of causation and probability are to be understood in terms of the concepts of similarity and repetition. In this book, it is shown that they are to be understood in terms of the concept of continuity. One corollary is that there is no legitimate basis for skepticism concerning the legitimacy of inductive inference. Another is that anti-realism about theoretical entities is misconceived.

Observation apprises us of what is, but not of what must be. It therefore does not apprise us of logical norms or of relations of logical dependence. In addition, the transformation of sensory information (pictorial) information into propositional (conceptual, non-pictorial) information presupposes knowledge of how to convert information of one kind into information of some other kind, and it therefore presupposes knowledge of logical equivalencies.

A fast-paced dialogue in which key philosophical terms are defined and the corresponding concepts are briefly explained.

Platonism is the doctrine which says that the spatiotemporal must be understood in terms of the non-spatiotemporal.

I first encountered the mystical logic of Nicholas of Cusa when I read S.L. Frank's magnificent (and underappreciated) volume, The Unknowable. I was both mesmerized and haunted by Cusa's koan-like summation of his philosophy when he wrote, "The unattainable is attained by its unattainment." As Socrates and other mystic-philosophers before him, Nicholas of Cusa had realized through mathematics and geometry that infinity cannot be comprehended by that which is finite.

Philosophical skepticism is shown to be a broken position, and the psychological malignancies underlying it are delineated.

Scholars and laymen generally assume that emotions are not judgments - that whereas judgments are expressions of rationality, emotions are expressions of irrationality. In this concise volume, it is shown that emotions are in fact judgments, with the qualification that emotions are hewed to egocentric frame of reference, whereas garden-variety judgments are hewed to a non-egocentric frame of reference.

According to W.V.O. Quine, no observational datum supports any given hypothesis more than it supports any other given hypothesis, our belief to the contrary being nothing more than a prejudice born of our irrational preferences for certain rules of inference over others. In this very short work, it is shown that Quine's thesis is false and that his argument for it is broken. A corollary is that Kuhn's relativism ("truth is paradigm-internal") is false.

According to David Hume (1743), for an event series to be a causal series is simply for that series to instantiate a regularity. According to Carl Hempel (1945), to explain an event is simply to identify a regularity of which that event is the final component. Both analyses are wrong but philosophers have failed in their attempts to identify the flaws in those arguments and, more importantly, in their attempts to produce viable alternative analyses. Here, the flaws in those arguments are identified and viable analyses of causation and explanation are put forth.

It is made clear what knowledge is and how we acquire it. It is also explained how we can have knowledge of the future, the past, the possible, the imperceptible, and the non-existent. The Gettier problem is solved, and it is proved that we have a prior knowledge, as well as knowledge of non-trivial but purely analytic truths.

This lively yet profound exchange vividly illustrates a number of important facts about an oft-misunderstood and deeply significant form of psychopathology. The world's leading analytic philosopher and logician, Dr. Kuczynski has also established himself as a leading psychoanalytic clinician and theoretician. This work draws heavily from Kuczynski's groundbreaking treatise Empiricism and the Foundations of Psychology.

This volume contains a clear and concise analysis of the concept of natural law and of its role in the acquisition of knowledge.

It is made clear what is involved in knowing will happen, what has happened, and what might have happened (but didn't). It is also made clear why the standard skeptical objections to the presumption that we have such knowledge are misconceived.

In this work, Descartes' metaphysics and epistemology are clearly stated and assiduously analyzed. It is shown that Descartes' epistemic foundationalism is tenable, and that his mind-body dualism is correct if taken to concern the relationship of mentalistic (mind-related) data to physicalistic data, even though it is incorrect if taken to concern the relationship of mind per se to body per se. Descartes' analysis of causation is shown to be correct, notwithstanding the copious criticism to which centuries have subjected it.

In this book, we have included excerpts from the Socratic dialogues (as penned by his most famous student, Plato) and Professor Andrea Diem-Lane's brilliant treatise on the "Cerebral Mirage" which brings Plato and Socrates up to date by showing how the latest findings in quantum theory and neuroscience substantiate much of early Greek skepticism, particularly concerning how easily we can be deceived by our various forms of certainty.

This work gives clear rigorous answers to the fundamental questions of epistemology, these being: What is knowledge? How does declarative knowledge differ from procedural knowledge? How does intuitive knowledge differ from discursive knowledge? How does scientific knowledge differ from non-scientific knowledge? What is the difference between discovery and justification? And much more.

Chomsky's arguments for the existence of pre-experiential knowledge, and for the existence of sub-personal cognition, are clearly stated and shown to be cogent.

What is matter anyways? - From organisms to cells to proteins to molecules to atoms to electrons to light? The most famous equation in modern physics is Einstein's E=MC2, which, if we pause for a second, is as mysterious as anything written in our ancient religious scriptures and measurably more radical. My point is that the resistance we have to reductionists who say we are "just matter" is because we tend to think of matter as flat. It is, of course, anything but.

It is made clear what discursive knowledge is and how we acquire it, and some age-old skeptical views are shown to be incoherent. It is shown that all knowledge is to some degree inferential. At the same time, it is shown that there are three quite distinct senses in which empirical knowledge can be inferential. It is proved that we have a priori knowledge, and also that knowledge of non-empirical truths is needed to acquire empirical knowledge.

The Seeker's Guide to Harry Potter takes you on a journey and exploration into the underlying themes of J. K. Rowling’s fantastically successful Harry Potter series. Drawing from her unique background and personal experiences, the author provides original insights into the mysticism, magic and symbolism within the world of Harry Potter.