The Scientist as Philosopher - Philosophical Consequences of Great Scientific Discoveries
Clearly written and well illustrated, the book first places the scientist-philosophers in the limelight as we learn how their great scientific discoveries forced them to reconsider the time-honored notions with which science had described the natural world. Then, the book explains that what we understand by nature and science have undergone fundamental conceptual changes as a result of the discoveries of electromagnetism, thermodynamics and atomic structure. The author concludes that the dance between science and philosophy is an evolutionary process, which will keep them forever entwined.
In Emile Durkheim: Sociologist and Philosopher, Dominick LaCapra, a leading theoretical historian, offers an important revised critical analysis of Durkheim's methodological and philosophical pursuits, with an emphasis on the metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical problems inherent in forming constructs of the cultural and social spheres.
Aristotle as Poet - The Song for Hermias and Its Contexts
Aristotle is known as a philosopher and as a theorist of poetry, but he was also a composer of songs and verse. This is the first comprehensive study of Aristotle's poetic activity, interpreting his remaining fragments in relation to the earlier poetic tradition and to the literary culture of his time. Its centerpiece is a study of the single complete ode to survive, a song commemorating Hermias of Atarneus, Aristotle's father-in-law and patron in the 340's BCE. This remarkable text is said to have embroiled the philosopher in charges of impiety and so is studied both from a literary perspective and in its political and religious contexts.
The Great Ocean of Knowledge: The Influence of Travel Literature on the Work of John Locke
The philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) owned one of the most extensive collections of travel literature held in any private scholarly library of his day. It is an interest which seems very much at odds with Locke's reputation as an empirical philosopher because travellers' reports have acquired a reputation for unreliability.
The first volume of the Library of Living Philosophers (LLP) appeared in 1939, the brainchild of the late Professor Paul A. Schilpp. Schilpp saw that it would help to eliminate confusion and endless sterile disputes over interpretation if great philosophers could be confronted by their capable philosophical peers and asked to reply. As well as a number of critical essays with the chosen philosopher's replies to each essay, each volume would include an intellectual autobiography and an up-to-date bibliography
