John W. Carroll undertakes a careful philosophical examination of laws of nature, causation, and other related topics. He argues that laws of nature are not susceptible to the sort of philosophical treatment preferred by empiricists. Indeed, he shows that empirically pure matters of fact need not even determine what the laws are. Similar, and even stronger, conclusions are drawn about causation. Replacing the traditional view of laws and causation as requiring some kind of foundational legitimacy, the author argues that these phenomena are inextricably intertwined with everything else. This distinctively clear and detailed discussion of what it is to be a law will be valuable to a broad swathe of philosophers in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science.
This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind - in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. Kim construes the mind-body problem as that of finding a place for the mind in a world that is fundamentally physical. Among other points, he redefines the roles of supervenience and emergence in the discussion of the mind-body problem. Arguing that various contemporary accounts of mental causation are inadequate, he offers his own partially reductionist solution on the basis of a novel model of reduction.
This book points the reader toward a renewed sense of wonder and oneness with nature. With balance and beauty Wosmek delivers profound insights combining science, nature, art, philosophy, conscience, and a loving concern for all that lives.
What does the presence of law say of the beliefs of individuals in a society - their actual beliefs, about language, themselves, the world around them? In this strikingly original work, Joseph Vining invites us to utterly reconsider what we think we know about law. For a century now, certainly since 1897 when Oliver Wendell Holmes insisted that law must finally be reducible to a phenomenon in quantitative relations to its causes and effects, the conception of law as consisting essentially of rules or processes has dominated analysis in the Anglo-American world. Vining takes vigorous issue with this and all other forms of mechanical reductionism, particularly in the sciences, where he opposes the materialist attempt to see life as mere physical process, expressible by a single mathematical description of forces. But he is equally concerned to combat the post-structuralist contention, in the humanities, that valid truth claims are illusory, and that legal behavior is to be explained as a function of power relationships. Law, Vining argues, constitutes an autonomous form of thought. It does not derive its authority, as many authors have supposed, from some logically prior discipline, whether physics, economics, or philosophy, these ultimately depend on law itself, in its fundamental expression of human intellect and purpose. Law, he holds, is inseparably connected to everything in the world that goes to make up personal identity and meaning. . The fragmentary form of the book mirrors its subject. Arranged in eight sections, it consists of brief commentaries, aphorisms, vignettes, poems, and dialogues - what Vining calls "amplifications" of an implied text arising from the most basic facts of human activity; keeping faith, reasoning, intending, promising and forgiving, the giving of life and the taking of it. This "living text" supports the way we know ourselves and other persons, all speaking in their turn through law as law connects language to person, and person to action. It is the close reading of the individual texts legal method generates, across centuries and across cultures, that makes transcendental experience possible in a secular age, owing to law's unique status as the sole technique of interpretation rooted in the most particular facts and, at the same time the universal facts of social knowledge. From Newton's Sleep poses ultimate questions for a century that now approaches its end, looks forward to the one that will follow, casts doubt on certainties both ancient and modern, and creates new grounds for skepticism and conviction. It is intended to be read in pieces, as time and occasion allow, especially at evening, by lawyers and all their fellow nonlawyers.
"Modern legal theory contains a wide range of approaches and topics from economic analysis to feminist legal theory to traditional analytical theories about justice. This variety of jurisprudential work has created a problem: students and theorists working in one tradition may have difficulty understanding the concepts and terminology of a different tradition. This book works to make terminology and ways of thinking accessible." "This dictionary covers topics from the 'autonomy of law' to the 'zero sum game', from 'autopoiesis' to 'wealth maximization', and from 'John Austin' to 'Ludwig Wittgenstein'. The most important concepts and ideas are presented in a simple dictionary format. There are also many longer entries, in which the initial definition gives an accessible explanation, but the entry goes on to give more detailed information about the history of an idea and the debates currently surrounding it."--Jacket.
Laws of nature by John W. Carroll | Literally Just Books
