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The author of the highly popular book Think, which Time magazine hailed as "the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy," Simon Blackburn is that rara avis-an eminent thinker who is able to explain philosophy to the general reader. Now Blackburn offers a tour de force exploration of what he calls "the most exciting and engaging issue in the whole of philosophy"-the age-old war over truth. The front lines of this war are well defined. On one side are those who believe in plain, unvarnished facts, rock-solid truths that can be found through reason and objectivity-that science leads to truth, for instance. Their opponents mock this idea. They see the dark forces of language, culture, power, gender, class, ideology and desire-all subverting our perceptions of the world, and clouding our judgement with false notions of absolute truth. Beginning with an early skirmish in the war-when Socrates confronted the sophists in ancient Athens-Blackburn offers a penetrating look at the longstanding battle these two groups have waged, examining the philosophical battles fought by Plato, Protagoras, William James, David Hume, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and many others, with a particularly fascinating look at Nietzsche. Among the questions Blackburn considers are: is science mere opinion, can historians understand another historical period, and indeed can one culture ever truly understand another. Blackburn concludes that both sides have merit, and that neither has exclusive ownership of truth. What is important is that, whichever side we embrace, we should know where we stand and what is to be said for our opponents.
Truth --- Epistemology
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Publié initialement dans la collection "Que sais-je ?", L'épistémologie génétique pose les linéaments d'une méthode pour appréhender la genèse de la connaissance et suivre les conditions de son développement. Réédité à six reprises, l'ouvrage de Jean Piaget demeure un grand classique de la théorie de la connaissance.
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La philosophie des sciences définit les critères de scientificité qui permettent d'évaluer la validité et la pertinence des théories scientifiques. Elle a donc une vocation critique. Cet ouvrage propose une analyse de la pratique scientifique aussi bien dans les sciences exactes que dans les sciences sociales et humaines, et ce, à partir d'une perspective constructiviste qui donne un accès direct à la logique interne de l'entreprise scientifique. Après avoir fait la génèse du savoir scientifique contemporain, l'auteur examine plus particulièrement les deux grandes théories du XXe siècle, soit la théorie de la relativité et la mécanique quantique. Il ouvre ensuite une voie singulière vers les sciences humaines qui débouchera sur un tour d'horizon éclairé du structuralisme et des thématiques du langage dans les sciences sociales et humaines. De Hegel à Gadamer et de Lévi-Strauss à Foucault, la rétrospective critique qui se déploie apparaît ici comme un complément nécessaire à la discussion du constructivisme contemporain. Cette introduction à la philosophie des sciences s'adresse tout aussi bien aux philosophes et aux scientifiques intéressés au problème des fondements qu'aux étudiants en philosophie.
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La philosophie des sciences définit les critères de scientificité qui permettent d'évaluer la validité et la pertinence des théories scientifiques. Elle a donc une vocation critique. Cet ouvrage propose une analyse de la pratique scientifique aussi bien dans les sciences exactes que dans les sciences sociales et humaines, et ce, à partir d'une perspective constructiviste qui donne un accès direct à la logique interne de l'entreprise scientifique. Après avoir fait la génèse du savoir scientifique contemporain, l'auteur examine plus particulièrement les deux grandes théories du XXe siècle, soit la théorie de la relativité et la mécanique quantique. Il ouvre ensuite une voie singulière vers les sciences humaines qui débouchera sur un tour d'horizon éclairé du structuralisme et des thématiques du langage dans les sciences sociales et humaines. De Hegel à Gadamer et de Lévi-Strauss à Foucault, la rétrospective critique qui se déploie apparaît ici comme un complément nécessaire à la discussion du constructivisme contemporain. Cette introduction à la philosophie des sciences s'adresse tout aussi bien aux philosophes et aux scientifiques intéressés au problème des fondements qu'aux étudiants en philosophie.
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medecine --- philosophy --- epistemology
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Social Studies of the sciences have long analyzed and exposed the constructed nature of knowledge. Pioneering studies of knowledge production in laboratories (e.g., Latour/Woolgar 1979; Knorr-Cetina 1981) have identified factors that affect processes that lead to the generation of scientific data and their subsequent interpretation, such as money, training and curriculum, location and infrastructure, biography-based knowledge and talent, and chance. More recent theories of knowledge construction have further identified different forms of knowledge, such as tacit, intuitive, explicit, personal, and social knowledge. These theoretical frameworks and critical terms can help reveal and clarify the processes that led to ancient data gathering, information and knowledge production. The contributors use late-antique hermeneutical associations as means to explore intuitive or even tacit knowledge; they appreciate mistakes as a platform to study the value of personal knowledge and its premises; they think about rows and tables, letter exchanges, and schools as platforms of distributed cognition; they consider walls as venues for social knowledge production; and rethink the value of social knowledge in scholarly genealogies—then and now.
Cognition. --- Education. --- Epistemology. --- Materiality.
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The book “Epistemic Logic: An Introduction for Students of Humanities” is intended to anyone who wants to learn about epistemic logic (i.e., logic dealing with formal analysis of notions of knowledge and belief) and problems that this quickly growing discipline on the thresholds of philosophy, logic and computer science brings along. Main focus will be on the so called Standard Epistemic Logic (SEL), whose foundations were laid down by finish logician and philosopher Jaakko Hintikka in his pioneering book “Knowledge and Belief: An Introduction to the Logic of the Two Notions” (1962).
Epistemology --- Logic --- Contemporary Philosophy
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"Conspiracy theories are a popular topic of conversation in everyday life but are often frowned upon when it comes to academic discussions. Looking at the recent spate of philosophical interest in conspiracy theories, The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories asks whether the assumption that belief in conspiracy theories is typically irrational is well founded. The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories is aimed at both the philosopher and the non-philosopher. It is a qualified defence of belief in conspiracy theories: belief in conspiracy theories can be rational in some circumstances. It covers such issues as: who might be consider a qualified conspiracy theorist; how do we analyse claims of disinformation; is our reliance on official theories a good reason to be suspicious of rival conspiracy theories; and what we should do when official theories and conspiracy theories are in conflict? "--