Grand Theories and Everyday Beliefs

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-0-19-981269-1
Verlag: ACADEMIC

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 526 g

After a Darwinian-type account of what beliefs are and how they arose in animals acting to cope with their environments--"low beliefs," virtually all of which are true--Wallace Matson here shows how the invention of language led to imagination and thence to beliefs formed in other ways ("high beliefs"), not true though thought to be, which could be consolidated into mythologies, the first Grand Unified Theories of Everything. Science began when Thales of Miletus produced a Grand Theory based on low ("everyday") beliefs. Matson traces the course of science and philosophy through seven centuries to their sudden and violent displacement by Christianity with its Grand Theory of the old type. Against the widespread opinion that modern philosophy has slowly but completely emancipated itself from bondage to theology, he shows how remnants from the medieval 'interlude' still lurk unnoticed in the purportedly neutral notions of logical possibility, possible worlds, and laws as commands, to the detriment of the natural harmony between science and philosophy, including ethics. Accessibly written, this is a book for all who are interested in the foundations of 21st century thought and who wonder where the cracks might be.

Zielgruppe

Readers interested in: metaphysics, philosophy of language/science/religion, logic, political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Matson

Matson, Wallace

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sozialphilosophie, Politische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sprachphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ästhetik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction.
PART ONE. BEFORE MILETUS
Chapter 2. A Brief History of Coping.
Chapter 3. Language
Chapter 4. High and Low Beliefs
Chapter 5. The 'Will to Believe'
Chapter 6. Eden
Chapter 7. Babylon
PART TWO. MILETUS TO ALEXANDRIA
Chapter 8. Miletus: the Invention of Science
Chapter 9. Anaximander and Anaximenes
Chapter 10. Science and Philosophy Come to Italy
Chapter 11. Athens I.
Chapter 12. Atomism
Chapter 13. Athens II: Plato
Chapter 14. Athens III: Aristotle
Chapter 15. Alexandria
Chapter 16. Beliefs About Believers
PART THREE. THE LEGACY OF CHRISTIANITY
Chapter 17. Jerusalem Collides with Athens
Chapter 18. Cartesianism
Chapter 19. Miletus Preserved I: Hobbes
Chapter 20. Institutions
Chapter 21. Miletus Preserved II: Spinoza
Chapter 22. The Strange Case of David Hume
Chapter 23. Ethics Without Edification.
Chapter 24. L'Envoi
Chapter 25. Conclusion?

Über Autor(innen)

Matson, Wallace
Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley. Co-author of A NEW HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, vols 1 and 2 (Wadsworth)