Principles of Semiotic

Reference

Clarke, D. S.

Words, Language & Grammar

Routledge& Kegan Paul

Routledge

Pragmatism is a widely misunderstood philosophical movement, with its central theses the subject of distortions. Perhaps the most serious of them is the widely held view that pragmatism is somehow antithetical to contemporary systematic philosophy, that it offers an alternative to what is labeled "analytic philosophy." In Some Pragmatist Themes, Dr. D. S. Clarke corrects this misunderstanding by demonstrating that certain general topics of controversy in recent American philosophy are derived from two central claims of classical pragmatism, the claims that cognitive inquiry must be understood relative to action and purpose, and that relations between inquiry, action, and purpose in humans have parallels in sub-human species. Clarke shows how from these claims follow distinctive pragmatist themes that engage us in compelling controversies regarding the nature of truth, the viability of reductionist projects, reference to the past, and the structure of moral reasoning. Throughout the book Clarke sustains the pragmatists' vision of philosophy as an antidote to specialization in the contemporary world, a discipline using critical reason in order to integrate factual information derived from science with moral values. Some Pragmatist Themes is a stimulating text that will appeal to those interested in contemporary philosophical issues and comparative literature.

Some Pragmatist Themes

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Lexington Books

Defends panpsychism, the view that mentality is present in all natural bodies with unified and persisting organization. Human beings have thoughts, sensations, and feelings and think that at least some of this mental life is shared with domestic and wild animals. But, are there reduced degrees of mentality found in mosquitoes, bacteria, and even more primitive natural bodies? Panpsychists think so and have defended this belief throughout the history of philosophy, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing into the present. In this bold, challenging book, D. S. Clarke outlines reasons for accepting panpsychism and defends the doctrine against its critics. He proposes it as an alternative to the mechanistic materialism and humanism that dominate present-day philosophy.

Panpsychism and the Religious Attitude

State Univ of New York Pr

Defends panpsychism, the view that mentality is present in all natural bodies with unified and persisting organization. Human beings have thoughts, sensations, and feelings and think that at least some of this mental life is shared with domestic and wild animals. But, are there reduced degrees of mentality found in mosquitoes, bacteria, and even more primitive natural bodies? Panpsychists think so and have defended this belief throughout the history of philosophy, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing into the present. In this bold, challenging book, D. S. Clarke outlines reasons for accepting panpsychism and defends the doctrine against its critics. He proposes it as an alternative to the mechanistic materialism and humanism that dominate present-day philosophy. "Clarke doesn't make overblown claims of having proven the validity of the panpsychist position, preferring instead to have rendered it in a way that makes it a plausible alternative to humanism and mechanism. For too long, the panpsychist position has been tied to a theological mission. This book is fascinating in the ways it works to disentangle panpsychism from those problems." — Warren G. Frisina, author of The Unity of Knowledge and Action: Toward a Nonrepresentational Theory of Knowledge "While the discussion is focused on contemporary thinkers, Clarke situates the debate within the history of Western thought. This gives historical depth to the argument. Though the argument is primarily Anglo-American analytical philosophy in orientation, it takes seriously other types of philosophical approaches with sympathy and understanding." — J. Harley Chapman, coeditor of Interpreting Neville

State University of New York Press

Rational Acceptance and Purpose

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Arguments in Favor of Sharpshooting

Arts & Photography

Architecture

Timber Pr

Practical Inferences (Routledge Revivals)

Since the revolution in philosophic method that began about a century ago, the focus of philosophic attention has been on language as used both in daily conversation and in specialized institutional activities such as science, law, and the arts. But language is an extremely complex and varied means of communication, and the study of it has been increasingly incorporated into such empirical disciplines as linguistics, psycho linguistics, and cognitive psychology. It is becoming less clear what aspects of language remain as proper subjects of philosophical study, what are to be "kicked upstairs" (J. L. Austin's phrase) to the sciences. This work is a study of those logical features of language that remain central to philosophy after completion of kicking up. It conducts this study by describing similarities and differences between signs at differing levels, starting with natural events as primitive signs in the environments of their interpreters, and proceeding to pre linguistic signaling systems, elementary forms of language, and finally to the forms of specialized discourse used within social institutions. The investiga tion of comparative features requires isolating basic mental capacities that are present in the most primitive forms of organisms capable of sign interpretation. The problem then becomes one of tracing the emergence from these capacities of such categories as substance, attribute or quality, and quantity that we apply to natural languages. The study of sign levels is thus the construction of a genealogy of logical categories marking the develop ment of natural languages.

Sign Levels: Language and Its Evolutionary Antecedents (Philosophical Studies Series, 96)

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Springer

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