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Ancient dialectic started as an art of refutation and evolved into a science akin to our logic, grammar and linguistics. Scholars of ancient philosophy have traditionally focused on Plato's and Aristotle's dialectic without paying much attention to the diverse conceptions and uses of dialectic presented by philosophers after the classical period. To bridge this gap, this volume aims at a comprehensive understanding of the competing Hellenistic and Imperial definitions of dialectic and their connections with those of the classical period. It starts from the Megaric school of the fourth century BCE and the early Peripatetics, via Epicurus, the Stoics, the Academic sceptics and Cicero, to Sextus Empiricus and Galen in the second century CE. The philosophical foundations and various uses of dialectic are closely analysed and systematically examined together with the numerous objections that were raised against them.

Dialectic. --- Dialectic --- Philosophy, Ancient. --- History.

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Widely regarded as the founder of the Islamic philosophical tradition, and as the single greatest philosophical authority after Aristotle by his successors in the medieval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian communities, Alfarabi was a leading figure in the fields of Aristotelian logic and Platonic political science. The first complete English translation of his commentary on Aristotle's Topics, Alfarabi's Book of Dialectic, or Kitāb al-Jadal, is presented here in a deeply researched edition based on the most complete Arabic manuscript sources. David M. DiPasquale argues that Alfarabi's understanding of the Socratic art of dialectic is the key prism through which to grasp his recovery of an authentic tradition of Greek science on the verge of extinction. He also suggests that the Book of Dialectic is unique to the extent to which it unites Alfarabi's logical and political writings, opening up novel ways of interpreting Alfarabi's influence.

Dialectic --- Logic --- Islamic philosophy --- Polarity --- Polarity (Philosophy) --- Fārābī.

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Possibility is a concept central to both philosophy and social theory. But in what philosophical soil, if any, does the possibility of a better society grow? At the intersection of metaphysics and social theory, What Would Be Different looks to Theodor W. Adorno to reflect on the relationship between the possible and the actual. In repeated allusions to utopia, redemption, and reconciliation, Adorno appears to reference a future that would break decisively with the social injustices that have characterized history. To this end, and though he never explains it in any detail—let alone in the form of a full-blown theory or metaphysics—he also makes extensive technical use of the concept of possibility. Taking Adorno's critical readings of other thinkers, especially Hegel and Heidegger, as his guiding thread, Iain Macdonald reflects on possibility as it relates to Adorno's own writings and offers answers to the question of how we are to articulate such possibilities without lapsing into a vague and naïve utopianism.

Possibility. --- Critical theory. --- Adorno, Theodor W., --- Adorno. --- Benjamin. --- Hegel. --- Heidegger. --- dialectic. --- metaphysics. --- modality. --- possibility. --- social theory.

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Comment apprécier l’ambition de la science à décrire le réel ? Pour répondre à cette question, Noël Mouloud, dans son livre posthume, rappelle d’abord que la logique contemporaine, loin de développer des idéalités parfaitement pures, construit pragmatiquement ses structures en fonction des référents qu’elle vise ; la réflexion s’appuie sur la notion de monde possible, en écho aux travaux d’Hintikka. Envisageant en un second temps la logique « évolutive » de la connaissance scientifique, il prend position dans le débat ouvert par Popper, Kuhn et Lakatos, et développe, au-delà des deux options classiques représentées par le conventionnalisme et le réalisme, une analyse de la science en train de se faire, qui le conduit à l’idée d’un « réalisme de second niveau ».

Science --- Logic. --- Philosophy. --- Argumentation --- Deduction (Logic) --- Deductive logic --- Dialectic (Logic) --- Logic, Deductive --- Intellect --- Philosophy --- Psychology --- Reasoning --- Thought and thinking --- Normal science --- Philosophy of science --- Methodology --- épistémologie --- logique --- savoir --- téléonomie --- progrès

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Building on the seminal work of Kit Fine in the 1980s, Leon Horsten here develops a new theory of arbitrary entities. He connects this theory to issues and debates in metaphysics, logic, and contemporary philosophy of mathematics, investigating the relation between specific and arbitrary objects and between specific and arbitrary systems of objects. His book shows how this innovative theory is highly applicable to problems in the philosophy of arithmetic, and explores in particular how arbitrary objects can engage with the nineteenth-century concept of variable mathematical quantities, how they are relevant for debates around mathematical structuralism, and how they can help our understanding of the concept of random variables in statistics. This fully worked through theory will open up new avenues within philosophy of mathematics, bringing in the work of other philosophers such as Saul Kripke, and providing new insights into the development of the foundations of mathematics from the eighteenth century to the present day.

Mathematics --- Logic of mathematics --- Mathematics, Logic of --- Philosophy. --- Reasoning. --- Logic. --- Metaphysics. --- Philosophy --- God --- Ontology --- Philosophy of mind --- Argumentation --- Deduction (Logic) --- Deductive logic --- Dialectic (Logic) --- Logic, Deductive --- Intellect --- Psychology --- Science --- Reasoning --- Thought and thinking --- Ratiocination --- Reason --- Judgment (Logic) --- Logic --- Methodology