Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

A new translation of the final work of French philosopher Jean CavaillEs. In this short, dense essay, Jean CavaillEs evaluates philosophical efforts to determine the origin'logical or ontological'of scientific thought, arguing that, rather than seeking to found science in original intentional acts, a priori meanings, or foundational logical relations, any adequate theory must involve a history of the concept. CavaillEs insists on a historical epistemology that is conceptual rather than phenomenological, and a logic that is dialectical rather than transcendental. His famous call (cited by Foucault) to abandon "a philosophy of consciousness" for "a philosophy of the concept" was crucial in displacing the focus of philosophical enquiry from aprioristic foundations toward structural historical shifts in the conceptual fabric. This new translation of CavaillEs's final work, written in 1942 during his imprisonment for Resistance activities, presents an opportunity to reencounter an original and lucid thinker. CavaillEs's subtle adjudication between positivistic claims that science has no need of philosophy, and philosophers' obstinate disregard for actual scientific events, speaks to a dilemma that remains pertinent for us today. His affirmation of the authority of scientific thinking combined with his commitment to conceptual creation yields a radical defense of the freedom of thought and the possibility of the new. In this short, dense essay, Jean Cavaillès evaluates philosophical efforts to determine the origin - logical or ontological - of scientific thought, arguing that, rather than seeking to found science in original intentional acts, a priori meanings, or foundational logical relations, any adequate theory must involve a history of the concept. Cavaillès insists on a historical epistemology that is conceptual rather than phenomenological, and a logic that is dialectical rather than transcendental. His famous call (cited by Foucault) to abandon "a philosophy of consciousness" for "a philosophy of the concept" was crucial in displacing the focus of philosophical enquiry from aprioristic foundations toward structural historical shifts in the conceptual fabric. This new translation of Cavaillès's final work, written in 1942 during his imprisonment for Resistance activities, presents an opportunity to reencounter an original and lucid thinker. Cavaillès's subtle adjudication between positivistic claims that science has no need of philosophy, and philosophers' obstinate disregard for actual scientific events, speaks to a dilemma that remains pertinent for us today. His affirmation of the authority of scientific thinking combined with his commitment to conceptual creation yields a radical defense of the freedom of thought and the possibility of the new. --

PHILOSOPHY / Logic. --- Philosophy. --- Science --- Logic.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. Graham Priest explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic addresses many issues.

510.6 --- 510.6 Mathematical logic --- Mathematical logic --- Logic --- Logic. --- MATHEMATICS / Logic. --- PHILOSOPHY / Logic. --- Philosophy / logic.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Not all scientific explanations work by describing causal connections between events or the world's overall causal structure. Some mathematical proofs explain why the theorems being proved hold. In this book, Marc Lange proposes philosophical accounts of many kinds of non-causal explanations in science and mathematics. These topics have been unjustly neglected in the philosophy of science and mathematics. One important kind of non-causal scientific explanation is termed explanation by constraint. These explanations work by providing information about what makes certain facts especially inevitable - more necessary than the ordinary laws of nature connecting causes to their effects. Facts explained in this way transcend the hurly-burly of cause and effect. Many physicists have regarded the laws of kinematics, the great conservation laws, the coordinate transformations, and the parallelogram of forces as having explanations by constraint. This book presents an original account of explanations by constraint, concentrating on a variety of examples from classical physics and special relativity. This book also offers original accounts of several other varieties of non-causal scientific explanation. Dimensional explanations work by showing how some law of nature arises merely from the dimensional relations among the quantities involved. Really statistical explanations include explanations that appeal to regression toward the mean and other canonical manifestations of chance. Lange provides an original account of what makes certain mathematical proofs but not others explain what they prove. Mathematical explanation connects to a host of other important mathematical ideas, including coincidences in mathematics, the significance of giving multiple proofs of the same result, and natural properties in mathematics. Introducing many examples drawn from actual science and mathematics, with extended discussions of examples from Lagrange, Desargues, Thomson, Sylvester, Maxwell, Rayleigh, Einstein, and Feynman, Because Without Cause's proposals and examples should set the agenda for future work on non-causal explanation.

Probabilities --- Conditional expectations (Mathematics) --- Science --- Mathematics --- Philosophy --- Maematics --- PHILOSOPHY / Logic. --- SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects. --- Conditional expectations (Mathematics). --- Conditional expectations (mathematics). --- Philosophy / logic. --- Science / philosophy & social aspects. --- Philosophy of science --- Philosophy. --- Probabilities - Philosophy --- Science - Philosophy --- Mathematics - Philosophy

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

“Logic”, as understood in this volume, is the set of knowledge at the basis of man’s reasoning faculties: understanding, analysing, arguing. The text presents a review of topics which are useful to strengthen the skills related to reasoning faculties through a brief introduction to the theoretical aspects and exercises intended to assess the understanding. The volume is divided into parts, which are organised in teaching units. The parts and units are presented in such a way that, following the thread in the order in which they are proposed, we move from one topic to the next, acquiring the prerequisites necessary for to what comes after. The text therefore lends itself to a “systematic” use, aimed at an extensive study. However, nothing prevents the reader from adapting the material to other needs, choosing only a few topics that they consider useful to integrate their knowledge, to do a “review” or to further practice on already known topics.

Philosophy: logic --- Occupational & industrial psychology --- Teaching of specific groups & persons with special educational needs --- Mathematical foundations --- Philosophy of science

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

“Logic”, as understood in this volume, is the set of knowledge at the basis of man’s reasoning faculties: understanding, analysing, arguing. The text presents a review of topics which are useful to strengthen the skills related to reasoning faculties through a brief introduction to the theoretical aspects and exercises intended to assess the understanding. The volume is divided into parts, which are organised in teaching units. The parts and units are presented in such a way that, following the thread in the order in which they are proposed, we move from one topic to the next, acquiring the prerequisites necessary for to what comes after. The text therefore lends itself to a “systematic” use, aimed at an extensive study. However, nothing prevents the reader from adapting the material to other needs, choosing only a few topics that they consider useful to integrate their knowledge, to do a “review” or to further practice on already known topics.

Philosophy: logic --- Occupational & industrial psychology --- Teaching of specific groups & persons with special educational needs --- Mathematical foundations --- Philosophy of science