You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The aim of the book is to encourage an in-depth discussion of problems of fundamental importance that are common to the two cultures, but that are traditionally seen from different perspectives. The forum will bring together scientists, philosophers, humanists, musicians with the aim of fostering comprehension of problems that have traditionally troubled humankind, and establish more fertile grounds for the communication between the two cultures. The themes of the contributions are the followings: the concept of time, infinity, the concept and meaning of nothingness, numbers, intelligence and the human mind, basic mechanisms in the production of thought and of artistic creation, the relationship between artistic and scientific creativity.
Biological and Neuroscientific Foundations of Philosophy is an authoritative text addressing both academicians and students, and it proposes an integrated and holistic view of scientific study and presents a new paradigm by which to study philosophy. It highlights, in a systematic and sufficiently simple manner, the fundamental role of neuroscience, neuropsychology and biology within philosophical reflection. Written by an expert in neuroscience, the book draws together different strands of study to explore how scientific and neuropsychological discoveries are integral to the study of philosophy and our understanding of mind. It argues to move away from a philosophical paradigm that is based...
Throughout history mankind has struggled to reconcile itself with the inescapability of its own mortality. This book explores the themes of immortality and survivalism in contemporary culture, shedding light on the varied and ingenious ways in which humans and human societies aspire to confront and deal with death, or even seek to outlive it, as it were. Bringing together theoretical and empirical work from internationally acclaimed scholars across a range of disciplines, Postmortal Society offers studies of the strategies adopted and means available in modern society for trying to ‘cheat’ death or prolong life, the status of the dead in the modern Western world, the effects of beliefs t...
Not only scientific research, but also modern-day social life, is demonstrating a strongly renewed interest in 'chance' - a theme that has accompanied the whole history of human thought. This volume brings together many of the topics in which chance, or randomness, plays a significant role. The interest in randomness has been accentuated by the emergence of theories and concrete phenomena, which appear to be homing in upon the complex, many-sided, multidimensional and uncertain aspects of reality, such as the dynamics of living or economic systems, or of technological and political trends. Furthermore, in scientific and technological fields, there is a growing need for 'good' random sequences of numbers or symbols for use in simulation or testing activities, cryptographic methods, and so on.
This edited volume explores the interplay between philosophies in a wide-ranging analysis of how technological applications in science inform our systems of thought. Beginning with a historical background, the volume moves on to explore a host of topics, such as the uses of technology in scientific observations and experiments, the salient relationship between technology and mechanistic notions in science and the ways in which today’s vast and increasing computing power helps scientists achieve results that were previously unattainable. Technology allows today’s researchers to gather, in a matter of hours, data that would previously have taken weeks or months to assemble. It also acts as...
Using a communicological perspective, Recovering the Voice in our Techno-Social World: On the Phone identifies voice (phone in Greek) as the essential medium for a re-enchantment of human communication in our highly impersonal techno-social environment. This book is a response to the growing concern by social critics that we are becoming a de-voiced society because of our preferences for hyper-textual, image-based forms of electronic connectivity. Ironically, while we are increasingly “on the phone,” we are sacrificing our vocality within immediate ear-to-ear relations. Framed by the trope of enchantment, Deborah Eicher-Catt argues that the immediacy of the sounding voice calls us and enchants us to make possible productive moments of resonance in which we might cultivate an interpersonal resilience in today’s fast-paced, media-saturated environment. Scholars of media studies, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.
The ever-increasing integration of technology and the human body is attracting attention from religious, business, and political leaders around the world, and the topic promises to be a significant social issue in the 21st century. In Mediating the Human Body: Technology, Communication, and Fashion, editors Leopoldina Fortunati, James E. Katz, and Raimonda Riccini bring together a thoughtful group of leading international scholars and analysts to explore the effects of new technologies on human beings. They focus specifically on the intersection of new communication technologies and the body, and offer novel insights based on recent theoretical progress and current research on new interperso...
This book offers new perspectives and paradigms in science, specifically to point out novel characteristics in natural processes. The issues are discussed by outstanding scientists from among the most advanced fields of science, who bring with them various points of the scientific horizon and widely different new experimental evidence.
This volume presents essays by pioneering thinkers including Tyler Burge, Gregory Chaitin, Daniel Dennett, Barry Mazur, Nicholas Humphrey, John Searle and Ian Stewart. Together they illuminate the Map/Territory Distinction that underlies at the foundation of the scientific method, thought and the very reality itself. It is imperative to distinguish Map from the Territory while analyzing any subject but we often mistake map for the territory. Meaning for the Reference. Computational tool for what it computes. Representations are handy and tempting that we often end up committing the category error of over-marrying the representation with what is represented, so much so that the distinction be...
We all are users of technology and services, but the way we use them strongly depends on who our 'interlocutor' is: a machine, a software application or a person. The contributions of this volume look at the concept of the user from various perspectives and continue to discuss the theme started in volume three on the user of the artificial. Topics include: man-machine relations such as the user and the virtual world of the internet or users in various cultural contexts of the artificial. The second part of the book focuses on man-nature relations and introduces the Japanese concept of Kyosei (symbiosis) in the context of technology and the environment.