Scientific Nihilism
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Scientific Nihilism
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Author : Daniel Athearn
language : en
Publisher: SUNY Press
Release Date : 1994-03-08
Scientific Nihilism written by Daniel Athearn and has been published by SUNY Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994-03-08 with Science categories.
Scientific nihilism is the widespread and ascendant view that the prospects for genuine understanding in scientific knowledge are distinctly negative. This view is especially characteristic of philosophy of science, and is reflected in a number of professional and popular doctrines. In the background is the growing perception that physical science is presently encountering the inherent limits of scientific understanding. This book shows that the breakoff of narrative causal explanation in physics, although remarkable, is no basis for the negative view of scientific knowledge. It demonstrates that radiation and field phenomena, which include a wide array of enigmatic facts, are amenable to explanation even in their most puzzling details.Athearn responds fully to the assumption that narrative causal explanation in physics has suffered a permanent demise. Rejecting the dogma of a clean bifurcation of philosophy and natural science, he proposes a constructive rehabilitation of natural philosophy.
Scientific Nihilism
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Author : Daniel Athearn
language : en
Publisher: SUNY Press
Release Date : 1994-01-01
Scientific Nihilism written by Daniel Athearn and has been published by SUNY Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994-01-01 with Science categories.
Scientific nihilism is the widespread and ascendant view that the prospects for genuine understanding in scientific knowledge are distinctly negative. This view is especially characteristic of philosophy of science, and is reflected in a number of professional and popular doctrines. In the background is the growing perception that physical science is presently encountering the inherent limits of scientific understanding. This book shows that the breakoff of narrative causal explanation in physics, although remarkable, is no basis for the negative view of scientific knowledge. It demonstrates that radiation and field phenomena, which include a wide array of enigmatic facts, are amenable to explanation even in their most puzzling details.Athearn responds fully to the assumption that narrative causal explanation in physics has suffered a permanent demise. Rejecting the dogma of a clean bifurcation of philosophy and natural science, he proposes a constructive rehabilitation of natural philosophy.
The Specter Of The Absurd
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Author : Donald A. Crosby
language : en
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Release Date : 2016-03-22
The Specter Of The Absurd written by Donald A. Crosby and has been published by State University of New York Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-03-22 with Philosophy categories.
This book is our century's most comprehensive and wise treatment of nihilism in all of its guises, comparing favorably with Rosen, Cavell, and indeed with Spengler. Crosby argues that our culture is genuinely haunted by nihilism expressing itself in the fideism of fundamentalism as well as in the debilitating alienation from all orientation. This results from a one-sided development of Western culture. Unlike most writers on this topic, Crosby acknowledges many sources colluding to frame the culture of nihilism, including "the death of God," the objectification of nature, the meaninglessness of suffering in a mechanical universe, the ephemerality of time in a world where value does not accumulate, the arbitrariness of historicized reason, the reduction of value to will, and the alienation of the Cartesian ego. These sources are reviewed in the first two parts of the book with the result that the phenomenon of nihilism becomes understandable. In its third and fourth parts, Crosby provides a critical analysis of the religious and philosophical forces leading to nihilism by discussing authors from the early modern period through Dostoyevsky, Sartre, Russell, and Derrida. He shows that these forces are skewed and impoverished and should not be allowed to determine our situation. The comprehensive attention to detail and the multi-perspectival interpretation demonstrates as well as asserts the richness of the culture that puts nihilism in its place. Part Five, finally, rephrases the criticism of the sources of nihilism in positive ways. Part Four in particular is a tour de force of philosophical argument. Its richness of nuance, plurality of views examined, and adroitness of critical interpretation provide cumulatively a powerful, non-nihilistic reading of the philosophic tradition. The force of the argument derives from its comprehensive, cumulative character. Crosby distinguishes and relates five areas of nihilism: political, moral, epistemological, cosmic, and existential. Throughout the book, he illustrates and examines these as they are expressed in literature and art, in daily life and practical affairs, and in philosophy. The book is richly erudite in its marshalling of consciousness from so many domains.
Medical Nihilism
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Author : Jacob Stegenga
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2018
Medical Nihilism written by Jacob Stegenga 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 2018 with MEDICAL categories.
"Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. This book argues that medical nihilism is a compelling view of modern medicine. If we consider the frequency of failed medical interventions, the extent of misleading evidence in medical research, the thin theoretical basis of many interventions, and the malleability of empirical methods in medicine, and if we employ our best inductive framework, then our confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions ought to be low" --
Rescuing America From Nihilism
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Author : Paul Eidelberg
language : en
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date : 2014-08-13
Rescuing America From Nihilism written by Paul Eidelberg and has been published by CreateSpace this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-08-13 with Political Science categories.
The purpose of this work is replace the impoverished conception of the universe resulting from postmodernism or the philosophy of the void better known as nihilism. Nihilism has been spreading over Western Civilization for many decades and is quite prevalent in America. To rescue America from this toxic disease will not be an easy task. It will necessitate a fundamental critique of what Americans are most proud of: a college or university education. No longer do they transmit a clear and unwavering sense of national pride and purpose. Indeed, multicultural moral relativism has vitiated America's primary foundational document, the Declaration of Independence. We must revive the once revolutionary ideas and loftiness of this document; we must clarify the Declaration's never fully understood concept, “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.” This book sets forth a unique method of analyzing the Declaration, whose ideas, rendered more lucid and profound and embracing, are indispensable for inspiring a new generation of Americans.
Nihilism
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Author : Nolen Gertz
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2019-09-10
Nihilism written by Nolen Gertz and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-09-10 with Philosophy categories.
An examination of the meaning of meaninglessness: why it matters that nothing matters. When someone is labeled a nihilist, it's not usually meant as a compliment. Most of us associate nihilism with destructiveness and violence. Nihilism means, literally, “an ideology of nothing. “ Is nihilism, then, believing in nothing? Or is it the belief that life is nothing? Or the belief that the beliefs we have amount to nothing? If we can learn to recognize the many varieties of nihilism, Nolen Gertz writes, then we can learn to distinguish what is meaningful from what is meaningless. In this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Gertz traces the history of nihilism in Western philosophy from Socrates through Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although the term “nihilism” was first used by Friedrich Jacobi to criticize the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Gertz shows that the concept can illuminate the thinking of Socrates, Descartes, and others. It is Nietzsche, however, who is most associated with nihilism, and Gertz focuses on Nietzsche's thought. Gertz goes on to consider what is not nihilism—pessimism, cynicism, and apathy—and why; he explores theories of nihilism, including those associated with Existentialism and Postmodernism; he considers nihilism as a way of understanding aspects of everyday life, calling on Adorno, Arendt, Marx, and prestige television, among other sources; and he reflects on the future of nihilism. We need to understand nihilism not only from an individual perspective, Gertz tells us, but also from a political one.
Education Nihilism And Survival
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Author : Ernest Krausz
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2017-09-29
Education Nihilism And Survival written by Ernest Krausz and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017-09-29 with Philosophy categories.
Under the influence of science, modern civilization has adopted the view that only things that can be verified empirically or arrived at rationally are true. Modern people tend to regard themselves as mechanisms, without any subjective aspects to their nature. In this insightful and passionately concerned book, British educationist and man of letters David Holbrook retorts persuasively that this reductive view of human nature is profoundly false. Man's inner, subjective life is essential to his nature, what happens to his consciousness is the most important thing in his life, and his greatest need is to find meaning.Holbrook also warns that reductionism has pernicious, even lethal, cultural, social, and political consequences. The logical result is nihilism: if human beings and existence are but physical mechanisms, it necessarily follows that consciousness does not exist, life is meaningless, our concern with moral values is pointless, and so are our lives and actions. Life itself reduces to nothing but self-indulgence and self-assertion. A culture informed by this perspective is necessarily full of expressions of hate and meaninglessness, which coarsens and demoralizes the majority of the population and worsens the mental pathologies of unstable persons. "Egoistical nihilism" becomes ever more widespread, and a decent society becomes impossible.Holbrook advances a keenly insightful and eloquent critique of the radical individualism of Max Stirner's famous tract The Ego and His Own. Stirner's worldview, he argues, is grounded in psychopathology and takes the nihilist assumptions of modernity to their logical conclusion: "the unique one" totally detached from society and reducing others to mere means to his ends, fair game for exploitation unfettered by ethical considerations. Ominously, he notes, the Stirnerean attitude toward existence is becoming increasingly common. Against the reductive perspective of positivism, Holbrook argues that scientific investigations establish the reality of meaning and of values rooted in love. He calls for a reaffirmation of both.Originally published in 1977, Education, Nihilism, and Survival speaks prophetically and even more urgently to us today. The worsening coarseness, nihilism, and brutality of our culture, the partisan fanaticisms and widespread alienation and apathy of our politics, and horrors such as school shootings reveal the consequences of radical individualism.Education, Nihilism, and Survival will be of interest to well-educated general readers concerned at the state of culture and society; educators alarmed at harmful approaches in education; and psychologists and philosophers concerned about existentialism, Stirner's egoist philosophy, and the need for meaningful, philosophical anthropology.
Nihilistic Times
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Author : Wendy Brown
language : en
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Release Date : 2023-04-11
Nihilistic Times written by Wendy Brown and has been published by Harvard University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-04-11 with Political Science categories.
One of America’s leading political theorists analyzes the nihilism degrading—and confounding—political and academic life today. Through readings of Max Weber’s Vocation Lectures, she proposes ways to counter nihilism’s devaluations of both knowledge and political responsibility. How has politics become a playpen for vain demagogues? Why has the university become an ideological war zone? What has happened to Truth? Wendy Brown places nihilism at the center of these predicaments. Emerging from European modernity’s replacement of God and tradition with science and reason, nihilism removes the foundation on which values, including that of truth itself, stand. It hyperpoliticizes knowledge and reduces the political sphere to displays of narcissism and irresponsible power plays. It renders the profound trivial, the future unimportant, and corruption banal. To consider remedies for this condition, Brown turns to Weber’s famous Vocation Lectures, delivered at the end of World War I. There, Weber himself decries the effects of nihilism on both scholarly and political life. He also spells out requirements for re-securing truth in the academy and integrity in politics. Famously opposing the two spheres to each other, he sought to restrict academic life to the pursuit of facts and reserve for the political realm the pursuit and legislation of values. Without accepting Weber’s arch oppositions, Brown acknowledges the distinctions they aim to mark as she charts reparative strategies for our own times. She calls for retrieving knowledge from hyperpoliticization without expunging values from research or teaching, and reflects on ways to embed responsibility in radical political action. Above all, she challenges the left to make good on its commitment to critical thinking by submitting all values to scrutiny in the classroom and to make good on its ambition for political transformation by twinning a radical democratic vision with charismatic leadership.
A History Of Nihilism In The Nineteenth Century
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Author : Jon Stewart
language : en
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Release Date : 2023-03-31
A History Of Nihilism In The Nineteenth Century written by Jon Stewart and has been published by Cambridge University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-03-31 with Philosophy categories.
Nihilism – the belief that life is meaningless – is frequently associated with twentieth-century movements such as existentialism, postmodernism and Dadaism, and thought to result from the shocking experiences of the two World Wars and the Holocaust. In his rich and expansive new book, Jon Stewart shows that nihilism's beginnings in fact go back much further to the first half of the nineteenth century. He argues that the true origin of modern nihilism was the rapid development of Enlightenment science, which established a secular worldview. This radically diminished the importance of human beings so that, in the vastness of space and time, individuals now seemed completely insignificant within the universe. The author's panoramic exploration of how nihilism developed – not only in philosophy, but also in religion, poetry and literature – shows what an urgent topic it was for thinkers of all kinds, and how it has continued powerfully to shape intellectual debates ever since.
Ending The Science Wars
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Author : John D. Baldwin
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2015-12-03
Ending The Science Wars written by John D. Baldwin and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2015-12-03 with Social Science categories.
The "science wars" have been raging for decades, raising many questions about the power of science. Some critics claim that science, including social science, is "merely a social construction" that fallible humans have created with words and other symbols. If this is true, is science as formidable a source of knowledge as most scientists claim? Baldwin explains why the edifice of science has robust properties that make it one of the most useful forms of knowledge that humans have ever created, although it is not perfect. He trenchantly examines all sides of the debate and uses the philosophy of pragmatism to reveal the special characteristics that make science work as well as it does. Ending the Science Wars shows how science is far better grounded than its critics claim. The book not only helps resolve many current debates about science, it is a major contribution for explaining science in terms of a powerful philosophical system. This makes the book valuable to scientists in all fields of research-and intellectually challenging for science's critics.