A leading German philosopher offers his most ambitious work yet on the nature of knowledge, arguing that being wrong about things defines the human condition. For millennia, philosophers have dedicated themselves to advancing understanding of the nature of truth and reality. In the process they have amassed a great deal of epistemological theory--knowledge about knowledge. But negative epistemological phenomena, such as ignorance, falsity, illusion, and delusion, are persistently overlooked. This is surprising given that we all know how fallible humans are. Sense, Nonsense, and Subjectivity replies with a theory of false thought, demonstrating that being wrong about things is part and parcel of subjectivity itself. For this reason, knowledge can never be secured without our making claims that can always, in principle, be wrong. Even in successful cases, where we get something right and thereby gain knowledge, the possibility of failure lingers with us. Markus Gabriel grounds this argument in a novel account of the relationship between sense, nonsense, and subjectivity--phenomena that hang together in the temporal unfolding of our cognitive lives. While most philosophers continue to theorize subjectivity in terms of conscious self-representation and the supposedly infallible grip we have on ourselves as thinkers, Sense, Nonsense, and Subjectivity addresses the age-old Platonic challenge to understand situations in which we do not get reality right. Adding a stimulating perspective on epistemic failures to the work of New Realism, Gabriel addresses long-standing ontological questions in an age where the line between the real and the fake is increasingly blurred.

Sense, Nonsense, and Subjectivity

Politics & Social Sciences

GABRIEL, MARKUS

Philosophy

Harvard University Press

Why the World Does Not Exist

Where do we come from? Are we merely a cluster of elementary particles in a gigantic world receptacle? And what does it all mean? In this highly original new book, the philosopher Markus Gabriel challenges our notion of what exists and what it means to exist. He questions the idea that there is a world that encompasses everything like a container life, the universe, and everything else. This all-inclusive being does not exist and cannot exist. For the world itself is not found in the world. And even when we think about the world, the world about which we think is obviously not identical with the world in which we think. For, as we are thinking about the world, this is only a very small event in the world. Besides this, there are still innumerable other objects and events: rain showers, toothaches and the World Cup. Drawing on the recent history of philosophy, Gabriel asserts that the world cannot exist at all, because it is not found in the world. Yet with the exception of the world, everything else exists; even unicorns on the far side of the moon wearing police uniforms. Revelling in witty thought experiments, word play, and the courage of provocation, Markus Gabriel demonstrates the necessity of a questioning mind and the role that humour can play in coming to terms with the abyss of human existence.

Polity

Fields of Sense: A New Realist Ontology (Speculative Realism)

A new realist ontology based on the concept of fields of senseMarkus Gabriel presents us with an innovative answer to one of the central questions of philosophy: What is the meaning of 'being' - or, rather, 'existence' - and how does that concept relate to the totality of what there is? Gabriel argues that there is no all-encompassing totality: that the world, in the traditional sense of a domain of all domains, cannot exist. Yet, he convincingly shows that this does not entail ontological nihilism. Rather, he argues that the non-existence of the world entails an infinity of domains and shows that this motivates a general realism - we can know things in themselves because our knowledge of things in themselves is itself part of these things. This ontology hinges on Gabriel's concept of fields of sense, which shows that, fundamentally, he opposes the idea that mathematics or the natural sciences could ever replace a richer philosophical understanding of what there is and how we know about it.

Edinburgh University Press

A new realist ontology based on the concept of fields of sense Markus Gabriel presents us with an innovative answer to one of the central questions of philosophy: What is the meaning of 'being' - or, rather, 'existence' - and how does that concept relate to the totality of what there is? Gabriel argues that there is no all-encompassing totality: that the world, in the traditional sense of a domain of all domains, cannot exist. Yet, he convincingly shows that this does not entail ontological nihilism. Rather, he argues that the non-existence of the world entails an infinity of domains and shows that this motivates a general realism - we can know things in themselves because our knowledge of things in themselves is itself part of these things. This ontology hinges on Gabriel's concept of fields of sense, which shows that, fundamentally, he opposes the idea that mathematics or the natural sciences could ever replace a richer philosophical understanding of what there is and how we know about it.

Transcendental Ontology in German Idealism: Schelling and Hegel sheds remarkable light on a question central to post-Kantian philosophy: after the Copernican Revolution in philosophy, what can philosophy say about the world or reality as such? What remains of ontology's task after Kant? This is a question often overlooked in contemporary scholarship on German Idealism. Markus Gabriel offers a refreshing reinvigoration of a range of questions concerning scepticism, corporeality, freedom, the question of being, the absolute and the modal status of our determinations and judgments, all crucial to our understanding of the truly radical nature of post-Kantian philosophy. Gabriel's assessment of the experiments undertaken in post-Kantian ontology reaffirms Schelling's and Hegel's place at the heart of contemporary metaphysics. The book shows how far we still have to go in mining the thought of Hegel and Schelling and how exciting, as a result, we can expect twenty-first century philosophy to be.

Transcendental Ontology: Essays in German Idealism (Continuum Studies in Philosophy)

Continuum

Mythology, Madness and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism explores some long neglected but crucial themes in German idealism. Markus Gabriel, one of the most exciting young voices in contemporary philosophy, and Slavoj Žižek, the celebrated contemporary philosopher and cultural critic, show how these themes impact on the problematic relations between being and appearance, reflection and the absolute, insight and ideology, contingency and necessity, subjectivity, truth, habit and freedom. Engaging with three central figures of the German idealist movement, Hegel, Schelling, and Fichte, Gabriel, and Žižek, who here shows himself to be one of the most erudite and important scholars of German idealism, ask how is it possible for Being to appear in reflection without falling back into traditional metaphysics. By applying idealistic theories of reflection and concrete subjectivity, including the problem of madness and everydayness in Hegel, this hugely important book aims to reinvigorate a philosophy of finitude and contingency, topics at the forefront of contemporary European philosophy.
MARKUS GABRIEL is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, NY. He has published a number of books and journal articles in German, including Der Mensch im Mythos (De Gruyter, 2006), and Das Absolute und die Welt in Schellings Freiheitsschrift (Bonn University Press, 2006).

Mythology, Madness, and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism

Žižek, Slavoj

I am Not a Brain: Philosophy of Mind for the 21st Century

Many consider the nature of human consciousness to be one of the last great unsolved mysteries. Why should the light turn on, so to speak, in human beings at all? And how is the electrical storm of neurons under our skull connected with our consciousness? Is the self only our brain’s user interface, a kind of stage on which a show is performed that we cannot freely direct? In this book, philosopher Markus Gabriel challenges an increasing trend in the sciences towards neurocentrism, a notion which rests on the assumption that the self is identical to the brain. Gabriel raises serious doubts as to whether we can know ourselves in this way. In a sharp critique of this approach, he presents a new defense of the free will and provides a timely introduction to philosophical thought about the self – all with verve, humor, and surprising insights. Gabriel criticizes the scientific image of the world and takes us on an eclectic journey of self-reflection by way of such concepts as self, consciousness, and freedom, with the aid of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nagel but also Dr. Who, The Walking Dead, and Fargo.

The Limits of Epistemology

At the centre of modern epistemology lurks the problem of scepticism: how can we know that the forms of our cognition are compatible with the world? How can we state success conditions for knowledge claims without somehow transcending our discursive and fallible nature as knowers? By distinguishing different forms of scepticism, Markus Gabriel shows how all objective knowledge relies on shared discourses and how the essential corrigibility of knowledge claims is a crucial condition of their objectivity. We should understand scepticism not so much as posing a threat, but as offering a vital lesson about the fallibility of discursive thinking. By heeding this lesson, we can begin to reintegrate the solipsistic subject of modern epistemology back into the community of actual knowers. Taking his cue from Hegel, Wittgenstein and Brandom, Gabriel shows how intentionality as such is a public rather than a private phenomenon. He concedes that the sceptic can prove the necessary finitude of objective knowledge, but denies that this has to lead us into an aporia. Instead, it shows us the limits of the modern project of epistemology. Through an examination of different kinds of sceptical paradoxes, Gabriel not only demonstrates their indispensable role within epistemological theorising, but also argues for the necessary failure of all totalizing knowledge claims. In this way, epistemology, as the discipline that claims knowledge about knowledge, begins to grasp its own fallibility and, as a result, the true nature of its objectivity. The Limits of Epistemology will be of great value to students and scholars of philosophy.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GABRIEL, MARKUS. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by GABRIEL, MARKUS

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by GABRIEL, MARKUS. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Sense, Nonsense, and Subjectivity

Why the World Does Not Exist

Why the World Does Not Exist

Fields of Sense: A New Realist Ontology (Speculative Realism)

Fields of Sense: A New Realist Ontology (Speculative Realism)

Transcendental Ontology: Essays in German Idealism (Continuum Studies in Philosophy)

Mythology, Madness, and Laughter: Subjectivity in German Idealism

I am Not a Brain: Philosophy of Mind for the 21st Century

The Limits of Epistemology

The Limits of Epistemology