Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

Product Information

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries When I was given a book called Think just before I came to Oxford, I was a little offended. Philosophy, I had figured, was one area where I could confidently claim to know the basics, and I felt that an introductory book would have been too simple and not interesting enough for me. But since Think had the advantage of being a small book with large words, I gave it a shot. Our concepts or ideas form the mental housing in which we live. We may end up proud of the structures we have built. Or we may believe that they need dismantling and starting afresh. But first, we have to know what they are.” Well, in the course of my career I have found them successively the most interesting, I suppose. As you say, I started in philosophy of science and epistemology, and moved onto philosophy of language and then ethics. At those different times I have been obsessed by the particular things I had been doing. Just at the present time I have been fascinated by the philosophy of truth and that is what I am trying to work on just now. experiences, our abilities, and our selves. In Chapter Two the non-dualistic alternative is that the mind or soul

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy eBook Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy eBook

So the middle-ground answer reminds us that reflection is continuous with practice, and our practice can go worse or better according to the value of our reflections.” So, it's written in an accessible style and you don't need anything but curiosity and an open mind, but do expect it to make you do what the title suggests.doesn’t that have to include mental events like deciding and choosing? And if my choices are caused, then aren’t the unexamined life is not worth living. It has insisted on the power of rational reflection to winnow out bad elements in our practices, and to replace them with better ones.” We must inspect each part, and we have to do so while relying on other parts. But the result of that inspection may, if we are coherent and imaginative, be perfectly seaworthy.” Finally, the chapter on reasoning will help with Logic, which all philosophers at Oxford study in their first year, and the chapter for knowledge is some fundamental stuff that will be interesting for anyone philosophically inclined. This little book is more challenging than it appears. While it's readable, it's much more cerebral and academic than I expected. Some chapters I skipped or skimmed because the topic was difficult to follow (esp. the chapter on Reasoning, which presents logic as mathematical formulae). Other chapters, like those on Free Will and God, were more accessible, although your comprehension will depend on your interest in the topic.

Think Free Summary by Simon Blackburn - getAbstract Think Free Summary by Simon Blackburn - getAbstract

Knowledge: Given the problem of scepticism, the problem that our sensory input might be faulty, how can we establish a basis for gaining true knowledge about the world and our self? The World: What is the nature of reality? Does a material world really exist outside of our own mind? Written with exemplary concision and with conviction that philosophy needn't be an ethereal subject, alienated from practical concerns."-- Booklist I've always wanted to learn more about philosophy, and gain an understanding of the value of the field. Now let’s turn to something different. In a recent talk to Philosophy For All, you said that you believed there was no such thing as ‘global warming’. Well, that is a controversial remark. Could you briefly explain what convinced you that it is the case?Timothy Havener (27 April 2012). "The Great Debate - Can Science Tell Us Right From Wrong? (FULL)". Archived from the original on 15 March 2013 . Retrieved 10 February 2018– via YouTube. My favorite part of this book has to be the chapter on God. I found it brilliant and rewarding. It has none of the faults that plague the other chapters. The flow of information seems perfect with one argument leading seamlessly into another with just the right amount of commentary in between. It also has some real gems from Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion that are sure to delight the skeptics and non-believers amongst you. This brilliant observation by Wittgenstein takes the cake, however: "A nothing works just as well as a something about which nothing could be said." Although SB tries to be objective, he is quite clearly not sold on theology and its claims, so you religious folks have been warned.

Simon Blackburn | Issue 35 | Philosophy Now Simon Blackburn | Issue 35 | Philosophy Now

Well, two things: I’d just finished my bigger book on ethics or, if you like, more professional book, Ruling Passions, and I’d also just written Think and enjoyed writing that very much. It is an attempt to make more accessible to a wider public some of the major issues of philosophy. And I thought, well if I could do it for those major issues maybe I could do it for the issues in ethics which interested me, and that’s how Being Good came about. Here at last is a coherent, unintimidating introduction to the challenging and fascinating landscape of Western philosophy. Written expressly for "anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to All in all, I think this book does a very good job of showing you what doing philosophy entails and the nature of the work required in reading philosophical works. I found this exercise painful but ultimately rewarding.Do things actually exist? Is something blue or do I only perceive it as blue? The chapter "The World" tries to point out traditional answers to questions like these. Some people say we should reduce matter to forces because forces are the only way we can study the world - our experience of matter is only deduced from forces acting upon it and therefore we don't really have any knowledge about matter. Does anything exist without somebody being conceiving it? read from Hume) the focus is on our decisions and choices. When I decide to act in a certain way, we that I continue to have the same soul. But, when we think more carefully, we realize, again, that this is no Thinking? At last I have discovered it -- thought; this alone is inseparable from me. I am, I exist -- I don’t think it is true of the vast majority of scientists actually. I think what happened is that the environmentalist issues became very, very dominant and a number of bodies were set up. The most influential is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC). They produced a mountain of excellent science, including the measurements I’ve been relying upon, but then there are the public pronouncements. And the public pronouncements have always been much much more alarmist than the measurements actually suggest they should be.