Showing titles in Epistemology

More than at any other time in human history, we live in an age defined by movement and mobility; yet, we lack a unifying theory which takes this seriously as a starting point for philosophy. The history of philosophy has systematically explained movement as derived from something else that does not move: space, eternity, force, and time.

In a refreshing challenge to the common presumption that knowing involves amassing information, this book offers an eight-step approach that begins with love and pledge and ends with communion and shalom. Everyday adventures of knowing turn on a moment of insight that transforms and connects knower and known. No matter the field - science or art, business or theology, counseling or athletics - this little manual offers a how-to for knowing ventures.

Is it science? Is it religion? What exactly is the Design Revolution? This book answers the toughest questions about Intelligent Design. As the Intelligent Design movement has gained momentum over recent years, questions have naturally arisen to challenge its provocative claims. With clarity and concision, William Dembski responds to the most vexing questions and objections raised by experts and non-experts.

Our beliefs constitute a large part of our knowledge of the world. We have beliefs about objects, about culture, about the past, and about the future. We have beliefs about other people, and we believe that they have beliefs as well. We use beliefs to predict, to explain, to create, to console, to entertain. Some of our beliefs we call theories, and we are extraordinarily creative at constructing them. Theories of quantum mechanics, evolution, and relativity are examples.

"Truth is discoverable. I'm certain of it. It's not popular to say. It's not popular to think. But I know it's true."

So begins an examination into the most fundamental questions in philosophy. Does objective truth exist? Can we know anything with certainty? Are there true logical contradictions?

Steve Patterson answers emphatically, "We can know absolute, certain, and objective truths. These truths serve as the foundation for the rest of our knowledge."

You chose breakfast this morning the same way you choose everything else. The same pattern you use to pick what to eat is the one you use to evaluate a career, assess a relationship, respond to a crisis, or judge an argument. You have one way of navigating trade-offs, and you apply it everywhere because inventing a new approach for every new situation would require resources no human mind possesses. This is not a flaw. It is the most efficient strategy available to any system operating with limited means in an unlimited world.

With his feet firmly on the ground, he challenged the speculative ideas of David Hume and George Berkeley who regarded ideas in the mind as a basis for the external world. Instead, the pugnacious but lively Reid took a much more ‘common sense’ view in basing his ideas of reality on sensus communis. Starting from a Ciceronian, stoical platform, he developed his views on more rational attitudes towards reality - ‘direct realism’. 

We appear to find ourselves in a crisis of polarization and failed communication. What can we do about it? This essay argues that part of the solution may be to aspire for more nuanced and balanced perspectives, by engaging charitably with many different viewpoints.

In We Might Be NPCs, Ray Brownlee takes you on a sharp, funny, and mind-bending tour through one of the strangest ideas in modern thought, the Simulation Hypothesis. Blending philosophy, physics, and a dash of pop culture, this book asks the unsettling question: What if reality isn’t… real?

Wonder and awe lie at the heart of life's most profound questions. Wonderstruck shows how these emotions respond to our fundamental need to make sense of ourselves and everything around us, and how they enable us to engage with the world as if we are experiencing it for the first time.

What if numbers are not the building blocks of the universe—but reflections of the human mind? For over two thousand years, the Pythagorean vision has shaped our understanding of the cosmos: a universe ruled by harmony, order, and mathematical law. From the “music of the spheres” to modern physics, the idea that reality can be perfectly described by numbers has guided both science and philosophy. Yet as quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and information theory now suggest, this vision may be an exquisite illusion.

"100 Quotes by Gaston Bachelard" is a collection of thoughts from the French philosopher whose work influenced many other philosophers including; Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Dominique Lecourt and Jacques Derrida. The quotes featured open a door into his monumental work with a selection of his most significant thoughts and ideas from witticisms to deeper reflections. "100 Quotes by Gaston Bachelard" will delight those interested in Western philosophy.

Az ember hajlamos nagy titkokat sejteni ott, ahol egyszerűen csak nagyobb erők működnek, mint amiket uralni tud. Azonnal a nagy titkot keresi, amikor kiemelkedő tehetségekkel találkozik, és akkor is, amikor a tudomány eszközeivel igyekszik mélyebben megérteni a világot.

IIIT Books-In-Brief Series is a valuable collection of the Institute’s key publications written in condensed form to give listeners a core under-standing of the main contents of the original. Our established, age-old notions of knowledge have ceased to be meaningful in postnormal times. What we define as true knowledge, and the ways in which we create it, have changed radically. The emergence of ‘Big Data’ and Artificial Intelligence, as well as ‘fake news’, ‘alternative facts’, ‘deep fake’, and ‘post-truth’ have changed the nature of knowledge production.

What if the future is not empty? We are taught that causes precede effects, that the past shapes the present, and that the future is nothing more than an open space waiting to be filled. But our deepest experiences tell a different story. We fall in love before there is evidence. We sense what is approaching before it arrives. We feel pulled toward purposes we cannot yet name. Something ahead of us is already at work.

The Architecture of Reality is the third book in the Energy & Consciousness Series,and its most uncompromising volume. This book does not ask what reality means. It explains why reality must be structured. Across thirteen tightly constructed chapters, it demonstrates that reality is not chaos shaped by belief, emotion, or intention — but an ordered system governed by law, constraint, and consequence. Meaning, freedom, morality, and even spirituality are shown not as foundations, but as outcomes that emerge only when structure is respected.

Using examples and analysis, Abramson gives an account of gaslighting and its immorality, and argues that such a discussion can help us understand other aspects of social life—from racism and sexism to the structure of interpersonal trust.

'Thinking' is what we use to navigate life. It is the lens through which we see the world. Thoughts determine the quality of our lives; they determine its problems and its achievements, Work, success, relationships, happiness, everything depends on the way we think. Yet, have we ever investigated it? Why is our life the way it is? Have we searched for the answers in our own thoughts? This book analyses thoughts through an interesting amalgamation of such diverse subjects as Indian epistemology, Vedanta and mythology: and Western psychology, logic and literature.

A menudo creemos que podemos entender el mundo que hay a nuestro alrededor: lo que vemos, lo que oímos, lo que otros nos cuentan o lo que la experiencia nos ha enseñado. Sin embargo, detrás de estas convicciones se esconden prejuicios, sesgos inconscientes y límites cognitivos que moldean silenciosamente nuestra percepción.

A landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh, Hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme skepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature, which anticipates discussions developed in the Enquiry.