Existence
Title | Existence PDF eBook |
Author | Rollo May |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 445 |
Release | 1958 |
Genre | Psychiatry |
ISBN |
The Meaning of Human Existence
Title | The Meaning of Human Existence PDF eBook |
Author | Edward O. Wilson |
Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
Total Pages | 192 |
Release | 2014-10-06 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 087140480X |
National Book Award Finalist. How did humanity originate and why does a species like ours exist on this planet? Do we have a special place, even a destiny in the universe? Where are we going, and perhaps, the most difficult question of all, "Why?" In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with these and other existential questions, examining what makes human beings supremely different from all other species. Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Wilson takes his readers on a journey, in the process bridging science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence—from our earliest inception to a provocative look at what the future of mankind portends. Continuing his groundbreaking examination of our "Anthropocene Epoch," which he began with The Social Conquest of Earth, described by the New York Times as "a sweeping account of the human rise to domination of the biosphere," here Wilson posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way. Once criticized for a purely mechanistic view of human life and an overreliance on genetic predetermination, Wilson presents in The Meaning of Human Existence his most expansive and advanced theories on the sovereignty of human life, recognizing that, even though the human and the spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different from the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "The Riddle of the Human Species," "Free Will," or "Religion"; warning of "The Collapse of Biodiversity"; or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.," Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe. The human epoch that began in biological evolution and passed into pre-, then recorded, history is now more than ever before in our hands. Yet alarmed that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson soberly concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham.
A Paradigm Theory of Existence
Title | A Paradigm Theory of Existence PDF eBook |
Author | W.F. Vallicella |
Publisher | Springer Science & Business Media |
Total Pages | 308 |
Release | 2013-04-17 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9401705887 |
The heart of philosophy is metaphysics, and at the heart of the heart lie two questions about existence. What is it for any contingent thing to exist? Why does any contingent thing exist? Call these the nature question and the ground question, respectively. The first concerns the nature of the existence of the contingent existent; the second concerns the ground of the contingent existent. Both questions are ancient, and yet perennial in their appeal; both have presided over the burial of so many of their would-be undertakers that it is a good induction that they will continue to do so. For some time now, the preferred style in addressing such questions has been deflationary when it has not been eliminativist. Ask Willard Quine what existence is, and you will hear that "Existence is what existential quantification expresses. "! Ask Bertrand Russell what it is for an individual to exist, and he will tell you that an individual can no more exist than it can be numerous: there 2 just is no such thing as the existence of individuals. And of course Russell's eliminativist answer implies that one cannot even ask, on pain of succumbing to the fallacy of complex question, why any contingent individual exists: if no individual exists, there can be no question why any individual exists. Not to mention Russell's modal corollary: 'contingent' and 'necessary' can only be said de dicto (of propositions) and not de re (of things).
Existence
Title | Existence PDF eBook |
Author | Abbi Glines |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 161 |
Release | 2012-04-01 |
Genre | Juvenile Fiction |
ISBN | 9781617980213 |
Seventeen year old Pagan Moore can see souls, so when she spots one lounging on a picnic table on the first day of school, she knows he is dead. Then he does something none of the others have ever done before, he speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all. He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.
Existence
Title | Existence PDF eBook |
Author | Peter van Inwagen |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | 271 |
Release | 2014-04-10 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1139868047 |
The problem of the nature of being was central to ancient and medieval philosophy, and continues to be relevant today. In this collection of thirteen recent essays, Peter van Inwagen applies the techniques of analytical philosophy to a wide variety of problems in ontology and meta-ontology. Topics discussed include the nature of being, the meaning of the existential quantifier, ontological commitment, recent attacks on metaphysics and ontology, the concept of ontological structure, fictional entities, mereological sums, and the ontology of mental states. Van Inwagen adopts a generally 'Quinean' position in meta-ontology, yet reaches ontological conclusions very different from Quine's. The volume includes two previously unpublished essays, one of which is an introductory essay where van Inwagen explains his conception of the relation between the language of 'the ordinary business of life' and that of 'the ontology room'. The volume will be an important collection for students and scholars of metaphysics.
The Metaphysics of Modern Existence
Title | The Metaphysics of Modern Existence PDF eBook |
Author | Vine Deloria, Jr. |
Publisher | Fulcrum Publishing |
Total Pages | 328 |
Release | 2012-09-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1555917666 |
Vine Deloria Jr., named one of the most influential religious thinkers in the world by Time, shares a framework for a new vision of reality. Bridging science and religion to form an integrated idea of the world, while recognizing the importance of tribal wisdom, The Metaphysics of Modern Existence delivers a revolutionary view of our future and our world.
Why Does the World Exist
Title | Why Does the World Exist PDF eBook |
Author | Jim Holt |
Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
Total Pages | 321 |
Release | 2012-07-17 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0871404095 |
In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.