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Humor und Religiosität in der Moderne
by Gerald Hartung Markus KleinertDer Band enthält die Beiträge einer Tagung zum Verhältnis von Humor und Religiosität in der Moderne.Zwischen einer humorvollen Sichtweise auf die Welt, die dieser trotz Widrigkeiten eine heitere Seite abgewinnen kann, und der religiösen Vermittlung von Transzendenz und Immanenz lassen sich diverse Verbindungen erkennen. Unter diesem Aspekt werden hier kanonische und vernachlässigte Humor-Theorien und humoristische Kunstwerke betrachtet – von Jean Paul, Hegel und E.T.A Hoffmann, über Kierkegaard, Moritz Lazarus und Freud, bis zur Bewährungsprobe humoristischer Verfahrensweisen unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus. Die kontroverse Idealisierung der Realität durch Humor erscheint auf diese Weise auch als eine Ausformung der umfassenderen Fragestellung, wie Religiosität unter den Bedingungen der Moderne redlich zum Ausdruck gebracht werden kann, angesichts der Entfremdung von und Kritik an institutionalisierter Religion.
Gruppen und Institutionen: Eine Ontologie des Sozialen
by Ludger JansenWas ist das Sein des Sozialen? Was konstituiert die Existenz von Gruppen und Institutionen, ihre Identität und Dauer in der Zeit? Dieses Buch resümiert den aktuellen Diskussionsstand der Sozialontologie und argumentiert für eine Ontologie des Sozialen, die sowohl formellen als auch informellen Institutionen gerecht wird. Es schlägt dafür eine Synthese aus Positionen vor, die in der gegenwärtigen Diskussion mit den Namen von John Searle und Margaret Gilbert verbunden sind.
Berechenbarkeit der Welt?: Philosophie und Wissenschaft im Zeitalter von Big Data
by Wolfgang Pietsch Jörg Wernecke Maximilian OttDer Sammelband untersucht Entwicklungen in der Wissenschaft, die in den letzten Jahren durch moderne Informationstechnologien und die zunehmende Verfügbarkeit von Daten angestoßen wurden. Aufgrund dieser neuen Ansätze werden eine Reihe von Phänomenen zum Beispiel aus den Sozial- oder den Lebenswissenschaften berechenbar, die zuvor als zu komplex für eine wissenschaftliche Analyse galten. Der Band versammelt Texte aus einer Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Perspektiven, von der Physik über die Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften bis hin zur Informatik. Neben Beiträgen, die die aktuellen Entwicklungen direkt thematisieren, untersuchen andere Aufsätze zentrale Begriffe in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang wie Komplexität oder Information.
Religionsphilosophie als Perspektive: Eine neue Deutung von Wirklichkeit und Wahrheit (Das Bild vom Menschen und die Ordnung der Gesellschaft)
by Hans Otto SeitschekDie Religionsphilosophie bietet eine zentrale Perspektive auf die Philosophie als ganze. In dieser Perspektive werden die Religion selbst und durch sie Wirklichkeit und Wahrheit philosophisch gedeutet. Auf systematische Fragen der Religion antwortet die Philosophie mit reflexiver Anstrengung.Das Buch verfolgt insbesondere zwei Absichten: Erstens rückt es die Religionsphilosophie von einer randständigen Position ins Zentrum der Philosophie: Religionsphilosophie ist zuallererst Philosophie. Zweitens wird auf diese Weise ein Raum geschaffen, in dem eine Reflexion von Religion möglich ist, die, unabhängig von konfessionell eingeschränkter oder kulturell eingeengter Forschung, dem Wesen der Religion näher kommt. Die Religion ist sowohl für das Menschenbild als auch für die Gesellschaftsordnung eine prägende Kraft.
Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction
by Giorgio LandoParthood and composition are everywhere. The leg of a table is part of the table, the word "Christmas" is part of the sentence "I wish you a merry Christmas", the 13th century is part of the Middle Ages. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg compose Benelux, the body of a deer is composed of a huge number of cells, the Middle Ages are composed of the Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages. Is there really a general theory covering every instance of parthood and composition? Is classical mereology this general theory? Are its seemingly counter-intuitive features serious defects?Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction addresses the multifaceted and lively philosophical debates surrounding these questions, and defends the idea that classical mereology is indeed the general and exhaustive theory of parthood and composition in the domain of concrete entities.Several examples of parthood and composition, involving entities of different kinds, are scrutinised in depth. Incidentally, mereology is shown to interact in a surprising way with metaontology. Presenting a well-organized and comprehensive discussion of parthood and related notions, Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction contributes to a better understanding of a subject central to contemporary metaphysics.
Olympiodorus: On Plato First Alcibiades 10-28 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
by Michael GriffinOlympiodorus (AD c. 500–570), possibly the last non-Christian teacher of philosophy in Alexandria, delivered 28 lectures as an introduction to Plato. This volume translates lectures 10–28, following from the first nine lectures and a biography of the philosopher published in translation in a companion volume, Olympiodorus: Life of Plato and On Plato First Alcibiades 1–9 (Bloomsbury, 2014).For us, these lectures can serve as an accessible introduction to late Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus locates the First Alcibiades at the start of the curriculum on Plato, because it is about self-knowledge. His pupils are beginners, able to approach the hierarchy of philosophical virtues, like the aristocratic playboy Alcibiades. Alcibiades needs to know himself, at least as an individual with particular actions, before he can reach the virtues of mere civic interaction. As Olympiodorus addresses mainly Christian students, he tells them that the different words they use are often symbols of truths shared between their faiths.
Philoponus: On Aristotle Categories 1-5 Philoponus - A Treatise Concerning The Whole And The Parts (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
by Riin Sirkel Martin Tweedale John Harris Daniel KingPhiloponus' On Aristotle Categories 1-5 discusses the nature of universals, preserving the views of Philoponus' teacher Ammonius, as well as presenting a Neoplatonist interpretation of Aristotle's Categories. Philoponus treats universals as concepts in the human mind produced by abstracting a form or nature from the material individual in which it has its being.The work is important for its own philosophical discussion and for the insight it sheds on its sources. For considerable portions, On Aristotle Categories 1-5 resembles the wording of an earlier commentary which declares itself to be an anonymous record taken from the seminars of Ammonius. Unlike much of Philoponus' later writing, this commentary does not disagree with either Aristotle or Ammonius, and suggests the possibility that Philoponus either had access to this earlier record or wrote it himself.This edition explores these questions of provenance, alongside the context, meaning and implications of Philoponus' work. The English translation is accompanied by an introduction, comprehensive commentary notes, bibliography, glossary of translated terms and a subject index. The latest volume in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, the edition makes this philosophical work accessible to a modern readership.Philoponus was a Christian writing in Greek in 6th century CE Alexandria, where some students of philosophy were bilingual in Syriac as well as Greek. In this Greek treatise translated from the surviving Syriac version, Philoponus discusses the logic of parts and wholes, and he illustrates the spread of the pagan and Christian philosophy of 6th century CE Greeks to other cultures, in this case to Syria. Philoponus, an expert on Aristotle's philosophy, had turned to theology and was applying his knowledge of Aristotle to disputes over the human and divine nature of Christ. Were there two natures and were they parts of a whole, as the Emperor Justinian proposed, or was there only one nature, as Philoponus claimed with the rebel minority, both human and divine? If there were two natures, were they parts like the ingredients in a chemical mixture? Philoponus attacks the idea. Such ingredients are not parts, because they each inter-penetrate the whole mixture. Moreover, he abandons his ingenious earlier attempts to support Aristotle's view of mixture by identifying ways in which such ingredients might be thought of as potentially preserved in a chemical mixture. Instead, Philoponus says that the ingredients are destroyed, unlike the human and divine in Christ. This English translation of Philoponus' treatise is the latest volume in the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series and makes this philosophical work accessible to a modern readership. The translation in each volume is accompanied by an introduction, comprehensive commentary notes, bibliography, glossary of translated terms and a subject index.
Priscian: Answers to King Khosroes of Persia (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
by Pamela Huby Sten Ebbesen David Langslow Donald Russell Carlos Steel Malcolm WilsonPriscian of Lydia was one of the Athenian philosophers who took refuge in 531 AD with King Khosroes I of Persia, after the Christian Emperor Justinian stopped the teaching of the pagan Neoplatonist school in Athens. This was one of the earliest examples of the sixth-century diffusion of the philosophy of the commentators to other cultures.Tantalisingly, Priscian fully recorded in Greek the answers provided by the Athenian philosophers to the king's questions on philosophy and science. But these answers survive only in a later Latin translation which understood both the Greek and the subject matter very poorly. Our translators have often had to reconstruct from the Latin what the Greek would have been, in order to recover the original sense. The answers start with subjects close to the Athenians' hearts: the human soul, on which Priscian was an expert, and sleep and visions. But their interest may have diminished when the king sought their expertise on matters of physical science: the seasons, celestial zones, medical effects of heat and cold, the tides, displacement of the four elements, the effect of regions on living things, why only reptiles are poisonous, and winds. At any rate, in 532 AD, they moved on from the palace, but still under Khosroes' protection. This is the first translation of the record they left into English or any modern language.This English translation is accompanied by an introduction and comprehensive commentary notes, which clarify and discuss the meaning and implications of the original philosophy. Part of the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series, the edition makes this philosophical work accessible to a modern readership and includes additional scholarly apparatus such as a bibliography, glossary of translated terms and a subject index.
Education and Conversation: Exploring Oakeshott’s Legacy
by David Bakhurst Paul FairfieldSince Michael Oakeshott spoke of education as initiation into 'the conversation of mankind' more than fifty years ago, the idea has inspired a diverse array of thinkers and continues to be invoked today by those seeking to resist the influence of managerialism and narrow instrumentalism in educational policy and practice. Education and Conversation draws together papers written by scholars from both the analytic and continental philosophical traditions to offer a variety of perspectives on the implications of Oakeshott's educational ideas. The metaphor of the conversation of mankind is explored, together with the roots of Oakeshott's thinking in his early philosophical work, the relevance of his ideas to the concept of Bildung, and the significance of his political conservatism in evaluating the seemingly progressive potential of his educational ideas. In addition, concepts prominent in Oakeshott's thought are taken up and brought to bear on contemporary philosophical discussions about education, learning and development, including the nature of initiation, the phenomenology of listening, and the value of the liberal arts tradition. Education and Conversation shows how the idea of conversation illuminates both the character and the ends of education, yielding insight into the scope and limits of the philosophy of education and the character of philosophical inquiry more generally.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Epistemology (Bloomsbury Companions)
by Andrew CullisonFor anyone looking to better understand the topics at the centre of contemporary epistemology, The Bloomsbury Companion to Epistemology presents a valuable guide.This up-to-date Companion covers all the fundamental questions asked by epidemiologists today - areas that have continued to attract interest historically as well as topics that have emerged more recently as active areas of research. Fifteen specially-commissioned essays from a respected team of experts reveal where important work continues to be done in the area and the new directions the field is taking, such as: • Foundationalism by Daniel Howard-Snyder• Coherentism by Jonathan Kvanvig • Proper Functionalism by Kenneth Boyce and Alvin Plantinga• Evidentialism by Richard Feldman and Andrew Cullison • Experimental Epistemology by James R. BeebeClearly written and featuring a detailed list of resources, glossary and a fully annotated bibliography, The Bloomsbury Companion to Epistemology introduces some of the most exciting topics in contemporary analytic philosophy.
Doing Diaspora: Ethnonationale Homogenisierung im transnationalen Bildungsraum der Tamil Diaspora
by Thusinta SomalingamThusinta Somalingam bietet in der vorliegenden Studie eine neue Perspektive auf den Bereich Bildung, die sich von nationalstaatlichen Orientierungen löst und ihren Blick auf grenzüberschreitende Bildungsarbeit richtet. Auf der Grundlage eines vielfältigen empirischen Datensatzes erarbeitet die Autorin anhand des Fallbeispiels der Tamil Diaspora, dass transnationale (Bildungs-)Räume nicht zwangsläufig national(staatliche) Aspekte wie Sprach- und Nationalbewusstsein relativieren, sondern durchaus auch zur Verstärkung und Rekonstruktion bestehender nationaler Strukturen und Tendenzen beitragen können. Die Arbeit von Thusinta Somalingam gibt neue Impulse zur Erforschung von grenzüberschreitenden Bildungsräumen und bietet neue Perspektiven für die Transnationalitäts- sowie die Diasporaforschung.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Metaphysics (Bloomsbury Companions)
by Neil A. Manson Robert W. BarnardBridging the gap between the familiar figures of the history of philosophy and the technical approaches favoured by contemporary philosophers, The Bloomsbury Companion to Metaphysics introduces the key ideas and debates needed to understand analytic metaphysics. Presenting an effective syllabus for an introductory course in contemporary metaphysics, this companion brings together a team of leading metaphysicians. It begins with a comprehensive introduction to methodological problems and methods, before tackling the perennial metaphysical questions surrounding core topics such as:• Modality• Universals and Abstract Objects• Naturalism and Physicalism• Mind• Free Will• God
Research Ethics in the Digital Age: Ethics for the Social Sciences and Humanities in Times of Mediatization and Digitization
by Farina Madita Dobrick Jana Fischer Lutz M. HagenThe book discusses the multiple issues of a digital research ethic in its interdisciplinary diversity. Digitization and mediatization alter social behavior and cultural traditions, thereby generating new objects of study and new research questions for the social sciences and humanities. Furthermore, mediatization and digitization increase the data volume and accessibility of (quantitative) research and proliferate methodological opportunities for scientific analyses. Hence, they profoundly affect research practices in multiple ways. While consequences concerning the subjects, objects, and addressees of research in the social sciences and humanities have rarely been reflected upon, this reflection lies at the center of the book.
The Bloomsbury Companion to Kant (Bloomsbury Companions)
by Gary Banham Dennis Schulting Nigel HemsImmanuel Kant is widely considered to be the most important and influential thinker of modern Europe and the late Enlightenment. His philosophy is extraordinarily wide-ranging and his influence has been pervasive throughout eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-century thought, in particular in the work of the German Idealists, and also in both Analytic and Continental philosophy today.Now available as a new and expanded edition in paperback, this accessible companion to Kant features more than 100 specially commissioned entries, written by a team of experts in the field, covering every aspect of his philosophy. The Bloomsbury Companion to Kant presents a comprehensive overview of the historical and philosophical context in which Kant wrote and the various features, themes and topics apparent in his thought. It also includes extensive synopses of all his major published works and a survey of the key lines of reception and influence including a new addition on Schopenhauer's reception of Kant. It concludes with a thorough bibliography of English language secondary literature, now expanded for this edition to include all cutting-edge publications in the area. This is an essential and practical research tool for those working in the field of eighteenth-century German philosophy and Kant.
The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Ethics (Bloomsbury Research Handbooks in Asian Philosophy)
by Shyam RanganathanFeaturing leading scholars from philosophy and religious studies, The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Ethics dispels the myth that Indian thinkers and philosophers were uninterested in ethics.This comprehensive research handbook traces Indian moral philosophy through classical, scholastic Indian philosophy, pan-Indian literature including the Epics, Ayurvedic medical ethics, as well as recent, traditionalist and Neo-Hindu contributions. Contrary to the usual myths about India (that Indians were too busy being religious to care about ethics), moral theory constitutes the paradigmatic differentia of formal Indian philosophy, and is reflected richly in popular literature. Many of the papers make this clear by an analytic explication that draws critical comparisons and contrasts between classical Indian moral philosophy and contemporary contributions to ethics.By critically addressing ethics as a sub-discipline of philosophy and acknowledging the mistaken marginalization of Indian moral philosophy, this handbook reveals how Indian contributions can illuminate contemporary philosophical research on ethics.Unlike previous approaches to Indian ethics, this volume is organized in accordance with major topics in moral philosophy. The volume contains an extended introduction, exploring topics in moral semantics, the philosophy of thought, (metaethical and normative) ethical theory, and the politics of scholarship, which serve to show how the diversity of Indian moral philosophy is a contribution to the discipline of ethics. With an overview of Indian moral theory, and a glossary, this is a valuable guide to understanding the past, present and future research directions of a central component of Indian philosophy.
Olympiodorus: Life Of Plato And On Plato's First Alcibiades 1-9 (Ancient Commentators on Aristotle)
by Michael GriffinOlympiodorus (AD c. 500–570), possibly the last non-Christian teacher of philosophy in Alexandria, delivered these lectures as an introduction to Plato with a biography. For us, they can serve as an accessible introduction to late Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus locates the First Alcibiades at the start of the curriculum on Plato, because it is about self-knowledge. His pupils are beginners, able to approach the hierarchy of philosophical virtues, like the aristocratic playboy Alcibiades. Alcibiades needs to know himself, at least as an individual with particular actions, before he can reach the virtues of mere civic interaction. As Olympiodorus addresses mainly Christian students, he tells them that the different words they use are often symbols of truths shared between their faiths.
The Intelligence of Place: Topographies and Poetics
by Jeff MalpasPlace has become a widespread concept in contemporary work in the humanities, creative arts, and social sciences. Yet in spite of its centrality, place remains a concept more often deployed than interrogated, and there are relatively few works that focus directly on the concept of place as such. The Intelligence of Place fills this gap, providing an exploration of place from various perspectives, encompassing anthropology, architecture, geography, media, philosophy, and the arts, and as it stands in relation to a range of other concepts. Drawing together many of the key thinkers currently writing on the topic, The Intelligence of Place offers a unique point of entry into the contemporary thinking of place – into its topographies and poetics – providing new insights into a concept crucial to understanding our world and ourselves.
»Doch ist das Wirkliche auch vergessen, so ist es darum nicht getilgt«: Beiträge zum Werk Siegfried Kracauers (Kulturelle Figurationen: Artefakte, Praktiken, Fiktionen)
by Jörn Ahrens Paul Fleming Susanne Martin Ulrike VedderSiegfried Kracauers Werk in seiner Breite und Originalität steht im Zentrum dieses Bandes, der in internationaler und interdisziplinärer Perspektivierung eine Vielzahl der Themen, Denkfiguren und Schreibweisen des Autors analysiert. Kaum ein Intellektueller steht wohl so konsequent und facettenreich für das 20. Jahrhundert wie Siegfried Kracauer, dessen Todestag sich am 26. November 2016 zum 50. Mal jährt. Wie nur wenige andere hat Kracauer ein Spektrum an Interessen und Disziplinen abgedeckt, das für die kulturellen und intellektuellen Konstellationen seiner Zeit paradigmatische Geltung besitzt.
The Art of Gerhard Richter: Hermeneutics, Images, Meaning
by Christian LotzThe Art of Gerhard Richter: Hermeneutics, Images, Meaning presents the first philosophical investigation of, arguably, one of the most popular and important painters working today, Gerhard Richter. From monochrome painting and photo realism to conceptual art and gesture-expressive painting, Richter has transformed the spectrum of 20th-Century painting. Building upon Gadamer's notion of 'formed images', the book outlines elements of a hermeneutics and a phenomenology of images and paintings. Moreover, the hermeneutic approach to art is combined with the crucial question of how paintings and photographs are related to each other for Richter. The author suggests that paintings "open up†? the fixed relation and intentionality of photographs by idealizing and essentializing the content of the photographs. By relying upon a hermeneutical and phenomenological approach, rather than working from abstract theory, The Art of Gerhard Richter provides philosophical insights developed out of Richter's works of art. Uncovering key philosophical aspects of Richter's work, the author's reflections discuss the relation between appearance and essence, the role of faith and hope, the dialectic of distance and nearness, the issues of death and terror, and the role of beauty and landscapes in Richter's paintings.
Aristotle Transformed: The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence
by Richard SorabjiThis book brings together twenty articles giving a comprehensive view of the work of the Aristotelian commentators. First published in 1990, the collection is now brought up to date with a new introduction by Richard Sorabji. New generations of scholars will benefit from this reissuing of classic essays, including seminal works by major scholars, and the volume gives a comprehensive background to the work of the project on the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which has published over 100 volumes of translations since 1987 and has disseminated these crucial texts to scholars worldwide.The importance of the commentators is partly that they represent the thought and classroom teaching of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonist schools and partly that they provide a panorama of a thousand years of ancient Greek philosophy, revealing many original quotations from lost works. Even more significant is the profound influence – uncovered in some of the chapters of this book – that they exert on later philosophy, Islamic and Western. Not only did they preserve anti-Aristotelian material which helped inspire Medieval and Renaissance science, but they present Aristotle in a form that made him acceptable to the Christian church. It is not Aristotle, but Aristotle transformed and embedded in the philosophy of the commentators that so often lies behind the views of later thinkers.
Frank Cioffi: The Philosopher in Shirt-Sleeves
by David Ellis Nicholas BunninA high school drop-out who served in the American army and then managed to slip into Oxford on the G.I. bill, Frank Cioffi gained a considerable public reputation in Freudian and Wittgensteinian circles. Frank Cioffi: The Philosopher in Shirt-Sleeves is an account of his conversation written in a Boswellian spirit, capturing the sharp intelligence, boisterous sense of humour and wealth of illustration Cioffi was able to bring to bear on life's biggest problems when he was, as it were, off-duty. Tackling subjects such as the unruly body, the challenge of art, dealing with failure, the lure of science, the meaning of life, our understanding of others, depression, the case for suicide, and death, David Ellis describes how a philosopher who was profoundly influenced by Wittgenstein dealt with general issues and creates a vivid impression of an unusual and gifted individual. This portrait is followed by a post-script in which Nicholas Bunnin, who worked in the philosophy department at Essex when Cioffi was a professor there, situates him in a more strictly academic context and discusses his less well-known essays on literary criticism and the behavioural sciences, arguing for Cioffi's potential to inspire those seeking a role for analytic philosophy within the broader scope of humanistic philosophy. A mixture of personal portrait and academic introduction, Frank Cioffi: The Philosopher in Shirt-Sleeves provides an elegant and enjoyable tribute to Cioffi as both man and philosopher.
Rome: The First Book of Foundations
by Michel Serres Randolph BurksMichel Serres first book in his 'foundations trilogy' is all about beginnings. The beginning of Rome but also about the beginning of society, knowledge and culture. Rome is an examination of the very foundations upon which contemporary society has been built.With characteristic breadth and lyricism, Serres leads the reader on a journey from a meditation the roots of scientific knowledge to set theory and aesthetics. He explores the themes of violence, murder, sacrifice and hospitality in order to urge us to avoid the repetitive violence of founding. Rome also provides an alternative and creative reading of Livy's Ab urbe condita which sheds light on the problems of history, repetition and imitation.First published in English in 1991, re-translated and introduced in this new edition, Michel Serres' Rome is a contemporary classic which shows us how we came to live the way we do.
Introduction to New Realism
by Maurizio FerrarisIntroduction to New Realism provides an overview of the movement of contemporary thought named New Realism, by its creator and most celebrated practitioner, Maurizio Ferraris. Sharing significant concerns and features with Speculative Realism and Object Oriented Ontology, New Realism can be said to be one of the most prescient philosophical positions today. Its desire to overcome the postmodern antirealism of Kantian origin, and to reassert the importance of truth and objectivity in the name of a new Enlightenment, has had an enormous resonance both in Europe and in the US. Introduction to New Realism is the first volume dedicated to exposing this continental movement to an anglophone audience.Featuring a foreword by the eminent contemporary philosopher and leading exponent of Speculative Realism, Iain Hamilton Grant, the book begins by tracing the genesis of New Realism, and outlining its central theoretical tenets, before opening onto three distinct sections. The first, 'Negativity', is a critique of the postmodern idea that the world is constructed by our conceptual schemas, all the more so as we have entered the age of digitality and virtuality. The second thesis, 'positivity', proposes the fundamental ontological assertion of New Realism, namely that not only are there parts of reality that are independent of thought, but these parts are also able to act causally over thought and the human world. The third thesis, 'normativity,' applies New Realism to the sphere of the social world. Finally, an afterword written by two young scholars explains in more detail the relationship between New Realism and other forms of contemporary realism.
Thinking in Education Research: Applying Philosophy and Theory
by Nick PeimThinking in Education Research examines the resources available from philosophy and theory that can be practically applied to any educational research project. Nick Peim argues that the current well-established divide between theory and the empirical in research methods is unhelpful to students. Instead, Thinking in Education Research looks at major lines of thinking in modern European philosophy, from Kant to Freud and Derrida to Malabou, and how they provide a rich resource for every stage of conducting research. By getting students engaged in 'how to think' and 'how to do', Peim illustrates that thinking is in fact a vital part of how you do research and is not an aside.Essential aspects of the research endeavour are re-examined in the light of key philosophical positions to offer constructive potential, including:- defining the object; - giving an account of the field;- the relation to truth;- the process of writing and constructing a case; and- the value attributed to formal knowledge. Thinking in Education Research does not try to resolve the unresolved issues of research thinking but rather encourages readers to productively engage with them so that we can enhance the possibilities of research practice and find opportunities for its expansion and refinement. Throughout the chapters, clear and concise summaries of key philosophical positions and ideas are complemented with boxed accounts of how the philosophical debates discussed can be applied to real research projects. These features encourage the reader to consider how they can develop thinking and apply theory at every stage of their own research. This is essential reading for any educational research methods student or practicing researcher for important ways of thinking afresh about research methodology.
Dialectic of the Ladder: Wittgenstein, the 'Tractatus' and Modernism
by Ben WareLudwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) remains one of the most enigmatic works of twentieth century thought. In this bold and original new study, Ben Ware argues that Wittgenstein's early masterpiece is neither an analytic treatise on language and logic, nor a quasi-mystical work seeking to communicate 'ineffable' truths. Instead, we come to understand the Tractatus by grasping it in a twofold sense: first, as a dialectical work which invites the reader to overcome certain 'illusions of thought'; and second as a modernist work whose anti-philosophical ambition is intimately tied to its radical aesthetic character.By placing the Tractatus in the force field of modernism, Dialectic of the Ladder clears the ground for a new and challenging exploration of the work's ethical dimension. It also casts new light upon the cultural, aesthetic and political significances of Wittgenstein's writing, revealing hitherto unacknowledged affinities with a host of philosophical and literary authors, including Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Adorno, Benjamin, and Kafka.