Language Philosophy

Martha Barnette has spent two decades as the co-host of A Way with Words, lauded by Mary Norris in The New Yorker as “a virtual treasure house” and “‘Car Talk’ for Lexiphiles.” Over that time, she’s developed a keen sense of what fascinates people about language. They are curious about etymology and revel in slang, are surprised by regional vocabulary and celebrate linguistic diversity. Idioms both puzzle and delight word lovers, and they are eager to share family neologisms and that weird phrase Grandma always used to say.

One of the two major philosophical traditions of the twentieth century was linguistic analysis, derived largely from Wittgenstein. The other, diametrically opposed, came from Heidegger, and its fundamental question was, "What is the meaning of existence?" For Heidegger, this question could not simply be "analyzed away". It was beyond the reach of logic or reason. It was the primary "given" of every individual life. To confront it, Heidegger needed to develop an entire new form of philosophy.

In St. Augustine in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of St. Augustine's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from St. Augustine's work, a brief list of suggested readings for those who wish to delve deeper, and chronologies that place St. Augustine within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

Aristotle wrote on everything from the shape of seashells to sterility, from speculations on the nature of the soul to meteorology, poetry, art, and even the interpretation of dreams. Apart from mathematics, he transformed every field of knowledge that he touched. Above all, Aristotle is credited with the founding of logic. When he first divided human knowledge into separate categories, he enabled our understanding of the world to develop in a systematic fashion.

In an age when philosophers had scarcely glimpsed the horizons of the mind, a boy named Aristocles decided to forgo his ambitions as a wrestler. Adopting the nickname Plato, he embarked instead on a life in philosophy. In 387 B.C. he founded the Academy, the world's first university, and taught his students that all we see is not reality but merely a reproduction of the true source. And in his famous Republic he described the politics of "the highest form of state."

Confucius knew all about life and told us how to behave, but we can't find out precisely what he was up to. His well-meaning platitudes, quaint maxims, and quasi-enigmatic anecdotes combined to produce an ideal philosophy for civil servants. It would appear that his aim was to turn his pupils into good government officials, but his teachings succeeded beyond his wildest expectations, providing rules of conduct and spiritual fodder for more than two thousand years.

In Rousseau we encounter a walking ego, naked sensibility. Feeling triumphs over intellectual argument in his works, which are both deeply stirring and deeply inconsistent. Yet while his contemporaries Kant and Hume may have been superior academic philosophers, the sheer power of Rousseau's ideas was unequaled in his time. It was he who encouraged the introduction of both liberty and irrationality into the public domain.

This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to "Make China Great Again." We in the West routinely ask: "What does China want?" The answer is quite simple: the superpower status it...

The Real-World Blueprint to Critical Thinking, Logic & Decision Making is the guide you need. Backed by cognitive science and grounded in real-life examples, this hands-on workbook helps you outthink bias, avoid manipulation, and make better choices in every area of life.

Philosophy experienced its origins at the time of ancient Greece with its well-known representatives Plato and Socrates, to name just two examples. One can translate philosophy as the striving for knowledge about the meaning of life, the essence of the world, and the position of man in the world. It describes the teaching and science of the knowledge of the meaning of life and of the world and of man's position in the world.

David Hume reduced philosophy to ruins: he denied the existence of everything, except our actual perceptions themselves. I alone exist, he argued, and the world is nothing more than part of my consciousness. Yet we know that the world remains, and we go on as before. What Hume expressed was the status of our knowledge about the world, a world in which neither religion nor science is certain.

Dear reader,I hope this book feels like a warm hug to you. I wrote this book for the ones who feel everything too deeply. You’re right, I wrote this book for you.This book was meant to find you if you’ve ever loved someone who didn’t love you back, if you’ve ever over-invested in the...

How can political campaigns fight back against disinformation? A decade after The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, which Politico called "Moneyball for politics," journalist Sasha Issenberg returns to the cutting edge of political innovation to reveal how campaigns are...

يبحث هذا الكتاب أهم موضوعات العقل وأكثرها إثارة للجدل، كازدواجية العقل والجسد الشهيرة، والرد عليها من جانب السلوكيين. وتتطرق المؤلفة إلى نظريات عدة حاولت تفسير العقل، لعل أهمها: الفيزيائية، والقصدية. ويتحدث الكتاب عن الوعي واختلاف الفلاسفة حول تعريفه، عارضاً تجارب فكرية متنوعة لتوضيح معناه وأشكاله المختلفة، ومناقشاً وعي العقول الأخرى غير البشرية، والإشكالات المرتبطة بتعريف الوعي لدى الحيوانات والآلات. وتوضح المؤلفة -أيضاً- كيف تتسلل أسئلة فلسفة العقل إلى المجالات الأخرى، كعلم النفس، وعلم الأعصاب، وعلم الأحياء التطوري، واللغويات، والفيزياء.

Think Like Socrates doesn’t go into boring details and endless philosophical methodology. It provides you instead with lessons from one of the best philosophers in human history, Socrates, and keeps you hooked as you explore the fascinating techniques of the thinking genius. Socrates is often mentioned as the founder of Western philosophy. He encouraged his students to think for themselves instead of having someone provide the solution. He was an excellent communicator and questioner. He is a human worth examining.

Stymied and stumped by arguments that wrap around you like web of mystification? The Amazing Dr. Ransom's Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies is here to help! This "Field Guide for Clear Thinkers" is filled with descriptions, exercises, and analysis to help you identify and avoid fallacies you might encounter in everyday life.

Think like Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin. Great geniuses before us have uncovered certain key principles on their path to greatness. You can learn those principles now, without all of the sweat, tears, and costly mistakes. Imagine that you could tap into the minds of many great geniuses. Think how they could help you solve challenging problems, broaden your mental horizons, and avoid common pitfalls. They actually can, if we study the principles that they lived by, and incorporate them into our lives.

If you want to be on top of your game, enhance your career path, boost your confidence, and establish a better social life, then take action now and become a master at facial profiling. Discover the science behind facial profiling; the art of facial recognition; body language; advantages of facial recognition technology; common errors made when reading body language; and much more in this guide to analyzing people.

Rene Descartes spent most of his childhood in solitude, a situation that also came to characterize his adult life. Fortunately, these countless lonely hours helped Descartes produce the declaration that changed all philosophy: "I think, therefore I am." Eventually convincing himself to doubt and disregard sensory knowledge, Descartes found he could prove his existence through his thoughts. This internal information, he believed, was the true reality and external forces were hopelessly deceiving.

By explaining how the human brain works and outing its most irrational processes, this book provides the thinking tools that will help you make better decisions, ask the right questions (at the right time), know what to look for when evaluating information, and understand how your own brain subconsciously clouds your judgment. Think you're too smart to be easily misled? Harrison summarizes scientific research showing how easily even intelligent and well-educated people can be fooled.