Exuberant Skepticism
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Download Exuberant Skepticism PDF/ePub or read online books in Mobi eBooks. Click Download or Read Online button to get Exuberant Skepticism book now. This website allows unlimited access to, at the time of writing, more than 1.5 million titles, including hundreds of thousands of titles in various foreign languages. If the content not found or just blank you must refresh this page
Exuberant Skepticism
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Paul Kurtz
language : en
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Release Date : 2010-10-29
Exuberant Skepticism written by Paul Kurtz and has been published by Prometheus Books this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-10-29 with Philosophy categories.
For more than three decades, philosopher Paul Kurtz has been a strong advocate of skepticism, not only as a philosophical position, but also as a fulfilling way of life. Contrary to the view that skepticism is merely a negative, nay saying, or debunking stance toward commonly held beliefs, skepticism as defined by Kurtz emerges reborn as "skeptical inquiry"—a decidedly positive philosophy ready and able to change the world. In this definitive collection, editor John R. Shook has gathered together seventeen of Paul Kurtz’s most penetrating and insightful writings. Altogether these essays build an affirmative case for what can be known based on sound common sense, reason, and scientific method. And as each essay cogently and convincingly explains, so much can be known, from the natural world around us to the moral responsibilities among us. The work is organized in four topical sections. In the first, "Reasons to Be Skeptical," Kurtz presents compelling reasons why the methods of inquiry used by the sciences deserve respect. In short, science provides reliable knowledge, without which humanity would never have emerged from the age of myth and widespread ignorance. In the second section, "Skepticism and the Non-Natural," Kurtz shows how skeptical inquiry can be fruitfully used to critique both paranormal claims and religious worldviews. He also investigates whether science and religion can be compatible. In the third section, "Skepticism in the Human World," he considers how skeptical inquiry can be applied to politics, ethics, and pursuit of the good life. Realizing the essential connections between scientific knowledge, technological power, and social progress, Kurtz has understood, as few philosophers ever have, how the methods of intelligence can be applied to all areas of human endeavor. The book concludes with Kurtz’s authoritative reflections on the skeptical movement that he founded and has led. As he explains, the forces of blind faith and stubborn unreason still fight for control of the mind, so the skeptic can never rest. If there is a brighter future for humanity, a future in which every person enjoys a realistic opportunity for the pursuit of excellence, Kurtz’s ‘exuberant skepticism’ can show us the way.
Freedom From Religion In 30 Days A Real Wellness Approach To Critical Thinking Exuberance And Personal Freedoms
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Contributors include Annie Laurie Gaylor, Dan Barker, Gerrie Paino, Carol Ardell and 109 luminaries whose work is briefly cited to support or inform the material in the book
language : en
Publisher: Donald B. Ardell
Release Date :
Freedom From Religion In 30 Days A Real Wellness Approach To Critical Thinking Exuberance And Personal Freedoms written by Contributors include Annie Laurie Gaylor, Dan Barker, Gerrie Paino, Carol Ardell and 109 luminaries whose work is briefly cited to support or inform the material in the book and has been published by Donald B. Ardell this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on with Biography & Autobiography categories.
This book is a 30 Day plan for gaining more freedom from religion. "Freedom From Religion in 30 Days" (FFR) is an antidote for anti-democratic tendencies, irrationality, tribalism and intolerance. It also offers relief from the mental constraints of dogmas, creeds, and superstitions. Religion, as promoted by Christian Nationalists, obstructs and threatens our wellbeing and freedoms. Christopher Hitchens best-seller, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," seems increasingly apt. In FFR, a case is made that religions poison not quite everything, but more than enough to make it a mental health and quality of life hazard. Whether you're a believer, a devout freethinker, or someone in-between, you will find each of the 30 days meets three standards: 1) engaging; 2) entertaining; and 3) informative. My goal is that FFR will hold your attention for a solid month, and benefit you even longer. WHY IT MATTERS FFR is about breaking away from the false claims and destructive effects of religion. It's also about the positive nature of a REAL wellness way to think more critically, live more exuberantly and enjoy more personal liberties. A large number of freedoms are available for the taking, once mental constraints of creeds and dogmas are eliminated. This book promotes: 1. Science-based critical thinking, using reason to guide important decisions. Few decisions are as important as what you believe about religions, especially the one in which you were indoctrinated. 2. Happiness, joy, fun, adventure, meaning and purpose in life. These are the key elements in the REAL wellness dimension of exuberance. 3. Freedom to live the kind of life you desire. This is the liberty dimension of REAL wellness. THE 30 DAY FORMAT All 30 essays address some aspect of religion as it affects mental freedoms that shape values, commitments, beliefs, behaviors and ultimately quality of life and wellbeing. The format is inspired by Wilfred Funk's, "30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary." Within the 30 essays are four self-evaluations focused upon reason, exuberance, personal liberties and management of stress. Over 30 topics are covered in the essays, though religion is a theme throughout. The topics, besides religion in general and Christianity in particular, include politics, heroic freethinkers, mountebanks, dubious and needed holidays, ethics, prayers, play, commandments, parenting, happiness, sexuality, doubt, aging and death. In addition to informing and entertaining, FFR advances skills and awareness needed to slow the frightful trends that threaten our national interests. THE PRISON OF BELIEF Although Christianity no longer has the power it wielded in the Middle Ages, and thus no longer engages in atrocities, such as the Inquisition's auto de fé carnival-like public executions of heretics, it has another insidious liability--it imprisons the brains of adherents, thereby diminishing our democracy and crippling our personal freedoms and opportunities for exuberant lives. James Haught put it this way: When people accept supernatural claims of a religion, their lives are altered. They commit themselves to belief in miracles, prophecies and similar magic, which orients their view of reality. It confines them—hindering their ability to consider other possibilities. This narrowed lifestyle can be called 'the prison of belief.' This book will delight you if you're no longer willing to go along with pablum babble in ritual blather, such as In God we trust, so help me God or God bless America. ================== TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION PRAISE FOR FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOREWORD INTRODUCTION THE 30 DAYS FOR FREEDOM FROM RELIGION Day 1 Questions To Guide A REAL Wellness Philosophy and Lifestyle Day 2 Religion and Wellbeing Day 3 Perspectives on Radical Islam and Christian Nationalism Day 4 Doubt: A Vital Quality for Effective Decision-Making Day 5 Why Catholics Should Consider Leaving the Church Day 6 An Upgrade from 10 Commandments to 10 REAL Commitments Day 7 Use Your Mind and You Will Find Nothing Fails Like Prayer Day 8 The National Day of Prayer Or a National Day of Reason Day 9 Exceptional People, the Winter Solstice and Christmas Day 10 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Your Experience of Reason Day 11 It's Difficult to be Well but, w/a Little Bit of Luck, You Might... Day 12 A REAL Wellness Take on Ethics Day 13 Robert G. Ingersoll Day 14 Play: An Under-Utilized Element in Education and Adult Life Day 15 Self-Evaluation of Stress Awareness and Management Day 16 Exuberant Skepticism: A Safeguard Against Pleasant Illusions Day 17 Dysfunctional Belief Systems and Anxieties, Magical Thinking Day 18 Life Is Meaningless: A Liberating REAL Wellness Perspective Day 19 Nothing Is Sacred Day 20 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Your Experience of Exuberance Day 21 Sexuality From a REAL Wellness Perspective Day 22 A REAL Perspective on the Satanic Temple Day 23 Real Wellness Or Religion: Choose Freedom, Not Dogma Day 24 Guiding Children Toward Critical Thinking and Mental Freedom Day 25 Happiness: REAL Wellness Perspectives on Enjoying Life Day 26 Reason-Based Alternatives To Alcoholics Anonymous Day 27 Which Will Come First: The Rapture Or the Demise of Religion Day 28 Celebrate Those Who Promote Reason & Science, Not Superstition Day 29 How to Die Healthy Day 30 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Experience of Personal Freedoms RECOMMENDED READING ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO EVERYONE, LIVING AND DEAD, WHOSE WORDS ARE QUOTED IN "FREEDOM FROM RELIGION IN 30 DAYS"
The Plain Truth
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Thomas M. Lennon
language : en
Publisher: BRILL
Release Date : 2008
The Plain Truth written by Thomas M. Lennon and has been published by BRILL this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008 with History categories.
This historical study of Pierre-Daniel Hueta (TM)s "Censura philosophiae cartesiana" (1689) and the controversy surrounding it, shows that there are good answers to the perennial standard criticisms of Descartesa (TM)s philosophy: the method of doubt, the cogito, proofs of Goda (TM)s existence, etc.
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia Of Philosophers In America
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : John R. Shook
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date : 2016-02-11
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia Of Philosophers In America written by John R. Shook and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-02-11 with Philosophy categories.
For scholars working on almost any aspect of American thought, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia to Philosophers in America presents an indispensable reference work. Selecting over 700 figures from the Dictionary of Early American Philosophers and the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, this condensed edition includes key contributors to philosophical thought. From 1600 to the present day, entries cover psychology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, education, theology and political science, before these disciplines came to be considered distinct from philosophy. Clear and accessible, each entry contains a short biography of the writer, an exposition and analysis of his or her doctrines and ideas, a bibliography of writings and suggestions for further reading. Featuring a new preface by the editor and a comprehensive introduction, The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia to Philosophers in America includes 30 new entries on twenty-first century thinkers including Martha Nussbaum and Patricia Churchland. With in-depth overviews of Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Noah Porter, Frederick Rauch, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, this is an invaluable one-stop research volume to understanding leading figures in American thought and the development of American intellectual history.
Shadows Of Science
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Kendrick Frazier
language : en
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Release Date : 2023-11-07
Shadows Of Science written by Kendrick Frazier and has been published by Rowman & Littlefield this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-11-07 with Science categories.
In this enlightening and entertaining book, author and Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier takes readers on a journey to the contentious boundary zone between science and its antagonists: pseudoscience (pretend science) and anti-science (open hostility to science). Pseudoscience romps in the shadows of science but takes on the guise of science to excite, sell, mislead, and deceive the public. Anti-science denigrates, even denies, findings of science for ideological ends. In this dangerous age of misinformation (and dis-information), we need science’s remarkable truth-seeking tools more than ever to help counter society’s crazier impulses in which opinion, beliefs, and lies trump facts, evidence, and truth. In one sense, Shadows of Science is Frazier’s love letter to science, one of humanity’s greatest inventions, one we should exalt for its unique ability to find provisional truths about nature. In congenial prose he reports on recent discoveries and describes how science works and how its error-correcting mechanisms lead eventually to new knowledge. He tells the stories of some of our champions of science and reason. He describes the little-appreciated values of science, how it embraces uncertainty and humility, and its emphasis on fact-based observation and experiment. Pseudoscience adopts some of science’s language and has a beguiling appeal, but there the similarities end. Frazier has professionally reported on frontier scientific discoveries and observed and exposed the pretensions and dangers of pseudoscience and anti-science his entire career. Here he shares his experiences, his knowledge and insights, and his love and passion for our ability to learn what’s real about the natural world—and to identify and expose fake science, pretend science, and anti-science in all their multifarious forms.
Pyrrhonian Skepticism
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2004-07-22
Pyrrhonian Skepticism written by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2004-07-22 with Philosophy categories.
Throughout the history of philosophy, skepticism has posed one of the central challenges of epistemology. Opponents of skepticism--including externalists, contextualists, foundationalists, and coherentists--have focussed largely on one particular variety of skepticism, often called Cartesian or Academic skepticism, which makes the radical claim that nobody can know anything. However, this version of skepticism is something of a straw man, since virtually no philosopher endorses this radical skeptical claim. The only skeptical view that has been truly held--by Sextus, Montaigne, Hume, Wittgenstein, and, most recently, Robert Fogelin--has been Pyrrohnian skepticism. Pyrrhonian skeptics do not assert Cartesian skepticism, but neither do they deny it. The Pyrrhonian skeptics' doubts run so deep that they suspend belief even about Cartesian skepticism and its denial. Nonetheless, some Pyrrhonians argue that they can still hold "common beliefs of everyday life" and can even claim to know some truths in an everyday way. This edited volume presents previously unpublished articles on this subject by a strikingly impressive group of philosophers, who engage with both historical and contemporary versions of Pyrrhonian skepticism. Among them are Gisela Striker, Janet Broughton, Don Garrett, Ken Winkler, Hans Sluga, Ernest Sosa, Michael Williams, Barry Stroud, Robert Fogelin, and Roy Sorensen. This volume is thematically unified and will interest a broad spectrum of scholars in epistemology and the history of philosophy.
The New Skepticism
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Paul Kurtz
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1992
The New Skepticism written by Paul Kurtz and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1992 with Body, Mind & Spirit categories.
Kurtz argues that there are objective standards for judging truth claims in science, ethics, and philosophy. Of special interest is the application of the new skepticism to paranormal claims such as reincarnation and faith healing, and to religious beliefs, ethics and politics.
Contemporary Debates In Epistemology
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Matthias Steup
language : en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date : 2024-04-02
Contemporary Debates In Epistemology written by Matthias Steup and has been published by John Wiley & Sons this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2024-04-02 with Philosophy categories.
The perfect introduction to contemporary epistemology, completely overhauled for its third edition In Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, pairs of specially commissioned essays defend opposing views on some of today’s most compelling epistemological issues and problems. Offering a unique blend of accessibility and originality, this timely volume brings together fresh debates on hotly contested issues to provide readers with the opportunity to engage in comparative analysis of constantly changing and developing epistemological concepts. Now in its third edition, Contemporary Debates in Epistemology features up-to-date coverage of the latest developments in the field. Entirely new essays examine questions of epistemic normativity and knowledge, the relationship between belief and credence, the possibility of internalist epistemology, epistemic instrumentalism, norms of assertion, the use of thought experiments in epistemology, and more. Presents a rigorous yet accessible introduction to the major topics in contemporary epistemology Contains head-to-head chapters offering forceful advocacy of opposing philosophical stances Focuses on core areas of epistemology Uses a lively debate format that sharply defines the issues and encourages further discussion All-new chapters provide fully updated coverage of new and emerging topics in epistemology Part of the Wiley-Blackwell Contemporary Debates in Philosophy series, Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, Third Edition, remains an essential resource for advanced undergraduate philosophy majors, graduate students in philosophy, and epistemologists who want to keep current with contemporary epistemological debates.
Nietzsche And The Philology Of The Future
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : James I. Porter
language : en
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Release Date : 2000
Nietzsche And The Philology Of The Future written by James I. Porter and has been published by Stanford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2000 with Philosophy categories.
Drawing on Nietzsche's prolific early notebooks and correspondence, this book challenges the polarized picture of Nietzsche as a philosopher who abandoned classical philology. By showing how frequently the "later" Nietzsche appears in the early writings, the author hopes to provoke reflection on the adequacy of the developmental logic that has been a controlling factor in Nietzsche's reception.
Skepticism Ideology
DOWNLOAD eBooks
Author : Terence Allan Hoagwood
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1988
Skepticism Ideology written by Terence Allan Hoagwood and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1988 with Literary Criticism categories.