philosophy book. questions and answers on thought

The Enduring Questions: Main Problems of Philosophy

Politics & Social Sciences

Gill, Jerry H.

Rader, Melvin Miller

Philosophy

Holt; Rinehart; Winston

In 1956, Melvin M. Rader started a tradition of exploring life's "enduring questions" via classic and contemporary philosophical readings. Jerry Gill upholds this tradition in the sixth edition of this respected introductory text that addresses such fundamental concepts of philosophy as rationalism, idealism, and the social contract. Features: * Each chapter begins with an appropriate question, as well as a summary of the key issues and ideas involved, and concludes with a bibliogrphy for further reading.

The Enduring Questions: Traditional and Contemporary Voices

Harcourt College Pub.

The 7th edition of ENDURING QUESTIONS continues to explore and examine virtually all of the classical and contemporary questions posed by the major philosophers of western civilization. From the philosophical traditions of ancient Greece to the present day, the ways of understanding our own knowledge, the nature of reality, the basis of morality, and social ideals are presented in the philosophers "own writings", a panoramic collection for introductory students. This text has endured since Melvin Rader originated it in 1956, and it continues to stand the test of time as a valuable core book of readings for introductory courses in philosophy.

Enduring Questions: Traditional and Contemporary Voices

Religion & Spirituality

Cengage Learning'

Christian Empiricism: Studies in Philosophy and Religion

Ramsey, Ian

James Clarke & Co.

Stressing the pivotal nature of both language and metaphor in Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, Gill first offers a detailed identification and examination of all the major metaphorical expressions used by Merleau-Ponty in his main works, including Phenomenology of Perception, his major essays; and in his final unfinished volume, The Visible and the Invisible. Gill then provides a summary of Merleau-Ponty's perspective on the nature of language and thought, the role of metaphor, and the function of philosophy. At a time when the nature and function of metaphorical thought and expression has become a crucial intersection for philosophical and scientific thought on the one hand, and artistic and religious thought on the other, such a study is especially significant. Moreover, since the topic of metaphor has been taken up extensively by both analytic and continental philosophers, Mcrlcau-Ponty's work offers an excellent opportunity for establishing lines of connection between phenomenological and analytic philosophy. 'A valuable contribution to the study of Merleau-Ponty's use of language.'.

Merleau-Ponty and Metaphor

Humanities Pr

Learning to Learn: Toward a Philosophy of Education

Addressing specific questions of what should be learned, the nature of the learner, and the learning process, Learning to Learn offers a fresh perspective on basic issues in philosophy of education. The special thrust of this book is to establish a theory of cognitive activity before taking up issues of curriculum and human nature. The author's approach, which is grounded in the insights of Michael Polanyi, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the later Ludwig Wittgenstein, focuses on learning as mediated through tacit and participatory processes in relational contexts. Jerry Gill first discusses the nature of cognitive activity (the knowing) from an epistemological perspective, and then moves on to a consideration of human nature (the knower) and of curriculum (the known). The book's three parts each begin with a survey of the ideas of four major educational theorists, A. N. Whitehead, John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Carl Rogers. Professor Gill then presents his own angle of approach and concludes with a discussion of practical classroom principles and practices, especially at the college and university level.

Education & Teaching

Schools & Teaching

Prometheus+books

Jerry H Gill provides a fresh angle of interpretation for the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein by exploring his use of metaphor, as well as the implications of this use for new insights into his view of language in particular and philosophy in general. The first part of the work catalogues the major metaphors in the Tractatus, the Philosophical Investigations, and On Certainty. The second part explores what these metaphors mean in the context of a broader interpretation of Wittgenstein - an approach that has not been developed by other interpreters.

Wittgenstein and Metaphor

On Knowing God

Westminster John Knox Pr

Explores the thought of twentieth-century philosopher Michael Polanyi. The Tacit Mode exposes and explores the central insights in Michael Polanyi’s major works. It focuses on his epistemological insights concerning tacit knowing, and explores their ramifications for philosophy, science, art, language, political theory, and religion. The notion of tacit knowledge reconstructs the modern concept of objectivity while avoiding the self-stultifying effects of “deconstructivist” postmodernism and puts Polanyi on the cutting edge of contemporary philosophy.

The Tacit Mode: Michael Polanyi's Postmodern Philosophy (Suny Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought)

State Univ of New York Pr

How is it that chimpanzees can learn to "speak" at a higher level than some so-called wolf children? What happened that day in the pumphouse, when Helen Keller suddenly grasped the meaning of words? And picture this: a father and mother who shun the advice of professionals, who doggedly force their way into the closed world of their autistic son, and who reverse his grim prognosis, revealing him to be gifted. How to explain?In this book, a philosopher combines these famous cases with a lifetime of study to examine the threshold of language--that point "between speech and not quite speech." He provides fascinating accounts of the deaf and blind Helen Keller, of chimpanzees like Washoe, and of feral children such as Victor, the "wild boy of Aveyron," putting a new spin on their stories. When does it start, he asks, that miracle most of us take for granted? Where does it come from, that uniquely human power to transform perception and action into thought and the singular activity we call speech?Here is evidence that, for chimp or child, the crucial factors in acquiring language have less to do with intellect and everything to do with social interaction. Here is confirmation that the "give-and-take, push-and-pull" of daily life forces virtually all of us to acquire language simply to live and work together. Author Jerry Gill offers no pat answers. Rather, he emphasizes imitation and reciprocity--for example, playing pat-a-cake with a baby--as essential to becoming part of a speaking community "and thereby becoming a human being."In addition, Gill gives dozens of examples to show how gesture and facial expression both create and change the meaning of language. In compelling fashion, he underscores the point that language acquisition can be fully understood only in terms of such physical and social activity. The author exposes the flaws of research focused mainly on mental processes and gives little credit to findings based upon artificially contrived experiments.With vigor, compassion, and a broad-minded humanism, these pages invite the reader to think again about how we say what we mean, how we mean what we say, and where it all starts in the first place. Valuable to students of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and anthropology, the book will also appeal to general readers who welcome an opportunity to explore familiar things in a new and entirely enjoyable way.

If a Chimpanzee Could Talk and Other Reflections on Language Acquisition

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

University of Arizona Press

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Books by Gill, Jerry H.