GENERAL INTRODUCTION This study of the concept of health is an attempt to combine central ideas in modern philosophy of medicine with certain results from analytical action theory. What emerges from the study is a concept of health based on an action-theoretic foundation. A person's health is characterized as his ability to achieve his vital goals. The general conception is not new. This study has been inspired by a number of scholars, both ancient and modern. The most important influences from the latter have been those of Georges Canguilhem, H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. , Caroline Whitbeck and Ingmar Pörn. The novel aspect of this book consists of elaborations made to the general conception. First, the action-theoretic platform is analysed in some detail. The nature of the ability involved, as well as the conditions for having that ability, are specified. Second, the vital goals of man are given considerable attention. Some previous attempts to define such vital goals are analysed and criticized. A new characterization is proposed, in which the vital goals are conceptually linked to the notion of happiness. A person's vital goals are such states of affairs as are necessary and together sufficient for his minimal happiness. Third, a number of consequences of this con ception are observed and analysed. One issue which is particularly empha sized is that ofwhether the concept ofhealth is a theoretical or a normative concept.

On the Nature of Health: An Action-Theoretic Approach (Philosophy and Medicine)

Nordenfelt, Lennart

Health, Fitness & Dieting

D. Reidel Publishing Company

Freedom in Greek Life and Thought: The History of an Ideal

History

M. Pohlenz

Ancient Civilizations

On the last day of his life, Otto Neurath had given help to a Chinese philosopher who was writing about Schlick. Only an hour before his death he said to me: "Nobody will do such a thing for me." My answer then was: "Never mind, you have Bilston, isn't that better?" There were con sultations in new housing schemes, an exhibition, and hopes for a fruitful relationship of longer duration. I did not dream at that time that I would one day work on a book like this. The idea came from Horace M. Kallen, of the New School for Social Research, New York, years later; to encourage me he sent me his selection from William James' writings. Later I met Robert S. Cohen. Carnap had sent him to me with the message: "If you want to find out what my political views were in the twenties and thirties, read Otto Neurath's books and articles of that time; his views were also mine." In this way Robert Cohen became ac quainted with Otto Neurath. Even more: he became interested; and when I asked him, would he help me as an editor of an Otto N eurath volume, he agreed at once. In previous years I had already asked a number of Otto Neurath's friends to write down for me what they especially remembered about him.

Otto Neurath: Empiricism and Sociology (Vienna Circle Collection, Volume 1)

Biographies & Memoirs

All astrophysicists are acquainted with the fundamental works ofS. Chandrasekhar [6] and M. Schwarzschild [1] concerning the internal structure of stars. Although both of these works accentuate the principal mathematical devices of the theory (and use, for this reason, notations that are rather perplexing for the non-specialist), the work of Schwarzschild is distinguished by care in demonstrating the physical meaning of the principal equations, while that of Chandrasekhar makes every effort not to skip a single step in the calculations. On the other hand, Schwarz schild , who considers his two introductory chapters as simple reviews of results which are already known, passes a bit rapidly over certain difficult arguments, and Chandrasekhar never goes far enough in the analysis of the physical mechanisms involved. From another point of view, the excellent review articles published in the Ency clopedia of Physics [5] by M. H. Wrubel, P. Ledoux, and others, and those published in Stars and Stellar Systems [4] by H. Reeves, B. Stromgren, R. L. Sears and R. R. Brownlee, and others, are principally intended for research workers who are already initiated into the theory of internal structure. These monographs are on a level that is clearly too high for the general physicist who is approaching these astrophysical questions for the first time, and more particularly for the post-graduate student.

Introduction to the Physics of Stellar Interiors (Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 34)

Science & Math

Kourganoff, V.

Mathematics

Erkenntnis und Irrtum. Skizzen zur Psychologie der Forschung. Von E. MACH Emer. Professor an der Unlversltlt Wlen. LEIPZIG Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth 1905. INTRODUCTION XIII On a number of occasions Mach expressed the sentiment, especially in his correspondence, that America was the land of intellectual freedom and opportunity, the coming frontier for a new radical empiricism that would help to wash metaphysics out of philosophy. In 1901 he sponsored the German edition of Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics (1881) 2 by J. B. Stallo, Cincinnati lawyer and philosopher. Mach warmly endorsed Stallo's book because his scientific aims so closely approximated his own, and because Stallo rejected the latent metaphysical elements and concealed ontological assumptions of the mechanical-atomistic inter pretation of the world. The second edition of Wiirmelehre was dedicated to Stallo in 1900. The fourth edition of Populiir-wissenschaftliche Vorlesungen (1910), containing seven new essays, was dedicated to Harvard Professor of physiology, philosophY, and psychology, William James. Mach had a strong intellectual affinity for James' pragmatism because, like himself, he recognized that James had come to radically empirical views from science. Both men took pure pre-conceptualized experience, from which the mental and physical predicates of experience are composed, to be neutral rather than real, unreal, objective or subjective.

Knowledge and Error: Sketches on the Psychology of Enquiry (Vienna Circle Collection, Volume 3)

Ernst, Mach

Historical Study & Educational Resources

The Symposium 'The Magnetospheres of the Earth and Jupiter' (May 28th-June 1st, 1974 in Frascati) was organized by the 'Laboratorio Plasma Spazio' of the CNR, on the occasion of its moving to the Frascati area. The main theoretical topic was to be covered by N. Brice, but he died on January 31st, in a plane crash at Pago Pago (Samoa). It seemed appropriate to all of us to honor Neil Brice by renaming the meeting: 'Neil Brice Memorial Symposium'. The Symposium covered problems of magnetospheric dynamics, of both the Earth and Jupiter, with emphasis on the comparison between the two objects. The collaboration of American scientists participating in the recent NASA plan etary missions has made it possible to have new important scientific results presented to and discussed by the scientific community. Of the many people who helped to make the meeting such a success, very special thanks goes to Prof. C. Kennel ofU.C.L.A. whose contribution to the organization of this symposium has been extremely important.

The Magnetospheres of the Earth and Jupiter: Proceedings of the Neil Brice Memorial Symposium, Held in Frascati, May 28–June 1, 1974 (Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 52)

Astronomy & Space Science

It was as a result of having known Juhos personally over many years that I became familiar with his thought. I met him and Viktor Kraft in Vienna soon after the War and through their acquaintance I first came into contact with the tradition of the Vienna Circle. To their conversation .too lowe much as regards the clarification of my own views, even if in the end these took quite a different turn in many essentials. At this point my gratitude goes first of all to Mrs. Lia J uhos for the gen erous help she has given me and the editors of the Vienna Circle collection in selecting the contents of this volume. Next, we owe a special debt to Dr. Paul Foulkes for his splendid translation of the text. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. Veit Pittioni for his constant assistance. As Juhos' last student, he was thoro).lghly familiar with his supervisor's mode of thought and has significantly furthered the assembly and execution of this book.

Selected Papers on Epistemology and Physics (Vienna Circle Collection, Volume 7)

Politics & Social Sciences

Bela Juhos

Philosophy

The Social Production of Scientific Knowledge: Yearbook 1977 (Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, 1)

This book presents a unified and systematic philosophical account of human actions and their explanation, and it does it in the spirit of scientific realism. In addition, various other related topics, such as psychological concept formation and the nature of mental events and states, are dis cussed. This is due to the fact that the key problems in the philosophy of psychology are interconnected to a high degree. This interwovenness has affected the discussion of these problems in that often the same topic is discussed in several contexts in the book. I hope the reader does not find this too frustrating. The theory of action developed in this book, especially in its latter half, is a causalist one. In a sense it can be regarded as an explication and refin~ment of a typical common sense view of actions and the mental episodes causally responsible for them. It has, of course, not been possible to discuss all the relevant philosophical problems in great detail, even if I have regarded it as necessary to give a brief treatment of relatively many problems. Rather, I have concentrated on some key issues and hope that future research will help to clarify the rest.

Human Action and Its Explanation: A Study on the Philosophical Foundations of Psychology (Synthese Library)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Raimo Tuomela,R. Tuomela

Gardening & Landscape Design

The main item in the present volume was published in 1930 under the title Das Unendliche in der Mathematik und seine Ausschaltung. It was at that time the fullest systematic account from the standpoint of Husserl's phenomenology of what is known as 'finitism' (also as 'intuitionism' and 'constructivism') in mathematics. Since then, important changes have been required in philosophies of mathematics, in part because of Kurt Godel's epoch-making paper of 1931 which established the essential in completeness of arithmetic. In the light of that finding, a number of the claims made in the book (and in the accompanying articles) are demon strably mistaken. Nevertheless, as a whole it retains much of its original interest and value. It presents the issues in the foundations of mathematics that were under debate when it was written (and in some cases still are); , and it offers one alternative to the currently dominant set-theoretical definitions of the cardinal numbers and other arithmetical concepts. While still a student at the University of Vienna, Felix Kaufmann was greatly impressed by the early philosophical writings (especially by the Logische Untersuchungen) of Edmund Husser!' He was never an uncritical disciple of Husserl, and he integrated into his mature philosophy ideas from a wide assortment of intellectual sources. But he thought of himself as a phenomenologist, and made frequent use in all his major publications of many of Husserl's logical and epistemological theses.

The Infinite in Mathematics, Logico-Mathematical Writings (Vienna Circle Collection, Volume 9)

Felix Kaufmann

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

Books by D. Reidel Publishing Company