Keeping watch in Babylon : the astronomical diaries in context /
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This volume of collected essays, the first of its kind in any language, investigates the Astronomical Diaries from ancient Babylon, a collection of almost 1000 clay tablets which, over a period of some five hundred years (6th century to 1st century BCE), record observations of selected astronomical phenomena as well as the economy and history of Mesopotamia and surrounding regions. The volume asks who the scholars were, what motivated them to 'keep watch in Babylon' and how their approach changed in the course of the collection's long history. Contributors come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, including Assyriology, Classics, ancient history, the history of science and the history of religion.
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1 online resource. :
9789004397767
Arguments and analysis in bioethics /
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Is there any justification for the common practice of allocating expensive medical resources to rescue a few from rare diseases, when those resources could be used to treat devastating diseases that affect the many? Does the use of Prozac and other anti-depressants make us inauthentic beings? Is it immoral and irrational to have children? What is the force of examples and counterexamples in bioethics? What are the relevance of moral intuition and the role of empirical evidence in bioethical argument? What notion of "function" underlies accounts of the distinction between normality and disease and between therapy and enhancement? Is there an inherent conflict between research aimed at therapy and research aimed at gaining knowledge, such that the very notion of "therapeutic research" is an oxymoron? The twenty-one chapters in this volume strive, through the use of high quality argument and analysis, to get a good deal clearer concerning a range of issues in bioethics, and a range of issues about bioethics. The essays are provocative, indeed, some quite radical and disturbing, as they call into question many common methodological and substantive assumptions in bioethics.
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1 online resource (xiv, 304 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789042028036 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Scientific realism and democratic society : the philosophy of Philip Kitcher /
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Philip Kitcher is among the key philosophers of science of our times. This volume offers an up to date analysis of his philosophical perspective taking into account his views on scientific realism and democratic society. The contributors to the volume focus on four different aspects of Kitcher's thought: the evolution of his philosophy, his present views on scientific realism, the epistemological analysis of his modest ("real" or "piecemeal") realism, and his conception of scientific practice. In the final chapter, the philosopher replies to his critics. The volume will be of interest to philosophers as well as anyone interested in the relation between science and society.
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Papers presented at a conference held in Spain, at the University of A Coruña, Ferrol campus.
Includes a contribution by Philip Kitcher, entitled Second thoughts (p. [353]-389). :
1 online resource (432 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789401207355 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Science in Culture : Translated from the Polish by Hugh McDonald.
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This book tries to uncover science's discoverer and explain why the conception of science has been changing during the centuries, and why science can be beneficial and dangerous for humanity. Far from being hermetic, this research can be interesting for all who want to understand deeper what really conditions the place of science in culture.
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1 online resource (351 pages) :
9789401203852 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Brill's companion to the philosophy of biology : entities, processes, implications /
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"In this volume, Andrea Borghini and Elena Casetta introduce a wide spectrum of key philosophical problems related to life sciences in a neat framework and an accessible style, with a special emphasis on metaphysical issues. The volume is divided into three parts. The first addresses the two main questions stemming from life sciences: what is life, and what is the correct understanding of the theory of evolution? The second part looks at metaphysical questions concerning biological entities: environments, species, organisms, and biological individuals. The third part focuses on theoretical questions of particular ethical and political significance: sex and gender, the biotechnological revolution, and the evolution of behavior and culture. Each chapter is followed by a list of further readings".
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004400160
Naturalized epistemology and philosophy of science /
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Much has happened in the field of contemporary epistemology since Quine's "Epistemology Naturalized" was published in 1969. Even before Ronald Giere published his article "Philosophy of Science Naturalized," naturalized philosophy of science had been influenced by the so-called historical approach. Kuhm, Lakatos, Feyerabend and Laudan all contributed importantly to this trend. In this light it has emerged, without a doubt, that philosophy of science is closely related to epistemology. This volume explores some of the relevant relations and will be of interest to epistemologists and philosophers of science.
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"The 2006 Soochow international philosophy conference and workshop 'Naturalized Epistemology and Philosophy of Science', held in Taipei, Taiwan ..."--Preface. :
1 online resource (196 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789401204361 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Cutting through the surface : philosophical approaches to bioethics /
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This book examines the role of philosophy and philosophers in bioethics. Academics often see bioethical studies as too practical while decision makers tend to see them as too theoretical. The purpose of this collection of new essays by an international group of distinguished scholars is to explore the troubled relationship between theory and practice in the ethical assessment of medicine, health care, and new medical and genetic technologies. The book is divided into six parts. In the first part, philosophers consider the definition of bioethics, the nature of applied ethics more generally, and the possibility of combining utilitarian and liberal strands of thinking in moral and political studies. In the second part, authors discuss the place and justification of principles in bioethics and the significance of medical and nursing experience in moral decision making. The third part addresses the complementary (or contradictory, as the case may be) principles of dignity, autonomy, precaution, and solidarity, and their use in theoretical and practical settings. In the fourth part, public health measures and experimental research are defended against traditional moral concerns. Part five scrutinizes parental responsibilities in bearing and rearing children, especially the reasons for and against human reproduction in individual cases. In part six, enhancements to human nature by various means are analyzed. Following in the footsteps of four previous collections in the Values in Bioethics special series by the same editorial team- Scratching the Surface of Bioethics , Bioethics and Social Reality , Ethics in Biomedical Research , and Arguments and Analysis in Bioethics -this book, compiled in honor of Professor Matti Häyry's 50th birthday, drills into the core of the discipline to show the philosophical depths that lie under the polished surface of policy-driven everyday bioethics.
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1 online resource (xii, 258 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789042027404 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Smart Technologies and Fundamental Rights /
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"Smart Technologies and Fundamental Rights covers a broad range of vital topics that highlight the ethical, socio-political, and legal challenges as well as technical issues of AI with respect to fundamental rights. Either humanity will greatly profit from the use of AI in almost all domains in human life that may eventually lead to a much better and more humane society. Or, it could be the case that people may misuse AI for idiosyncratic purposes as well as intelligent machines may turn against human beings. Therefore, we should be extremely cautious with respect to the technological development of AI because we might not be able to control the machines once they reached a certain level of sophistication"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004437876
9789004436732
Genetic transparency? : ethical and social implications of next generation human genomics and genetic medicine /
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Genetic Transparency? tackles the question of who has, or should have access to personal genomic information. Genomic science is revolutionary in how it changes the way we live, individually and together, and how it changes the shape of society. If this is so, then - the authors of this volume claim - the rules that regulate genetic transparency should be debated carefully, openly and critically. It is important to see that the social and cultural meanings of DNA and genetic sequences are much richer than can be accounted for by purely biomedical knowledge. In this book, an international group of leading genomics experts and scholars from the humanities and social sciences discuss how the new accessibility of genomic information affects interpersonal relationships, our self-understandings, ethics, law, and healthcare systems. Contributors are: Kirsten Brukamp, Gabrielle Christenhusz, Lorraine Cowley, Malte Dreyer, Jeanette Erdmann, Andrei Famenka, Teresa Finlay, Caroline Fündling, Shannon Gibson, Cathy Herbrand, Angeliki Kerasidou, Lene Koch, Fruzsina Molnár-Gábor, Tim Ohnhäuser, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Benedikt Reiz, Vasilja Rolfes, Sara Tocchetti
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1 online resource (292 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004311893 :
2211-4416 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Debating cognitive existentialism : values and orientations in hermeneutic philosophy of science /
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Cognitive existentialism is a version of hermeneutic philosophy. The volume provides a summation of the critical approaches to this version. All essays are engaged in probing the value of universal hermeneutics. Drawing on various conceptions developed in analytical and Continental traditions, the authors explore the interpretative dimensions of scientific inquiry. They try to place the projects of their investigations in historical, socio-cultural, and political contexts. The task of extending hermeneutics to the natural sciences is an initiative of much relevance to the dialogue between the scientific and humanistic culture. A special aspect of this dialogue, addressed by all authors, is the promotion of interpretive reflexivity in both kinds of academic culture.
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1 online resource (x, 201 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004299191 :
0929-8436 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Thinking about provincialism in thinking /
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The volume addresses a problem rarely discussed by philosophers - the question of provincialism in science (in the broadest sense of the term). There are only a few great centers of science, which attract funding and provide almost ideal opportunities for research and development. They also attract some of the best researchers. Some - but not all. For a variety of reasons, some of the best researchers, or ones who have that potential, may do science outside these centers, in the provinces. The volume is devoted to the problems they face. What is an intellectual province? Who are the provincial thinkers? What is the mark of provincialism? Do provincial (or central) thinkers have any special duties? Are there ways of overcoming one's own provincialism? The authors address these questions across different disciplines, cultures, locations and time periods.
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1 online resource (301 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789401209007 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Genomics and democracy : towards a 'lingua democratica' for the public debate on genomics /
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This book addresses the ethical and political questions flowing from the vastly increased possibilities to manipulate the genetic properties of organisms, including human beings. Due to the great complexity of the scientific fields involved, these questions are framed and answered mostly by scientific experts. But the new technological possibilities and social practices connected with genetic manipulation intrude into domains that for a long time have been the provenance of religious and secular worldviews and touch upon deep-seated convictions and emotions. Moreover they are strongly influenced by economic and political interests. As a consequence, questions of scientific truth and technical control are getting more and more mixed up with questions regarding values and interests. Against this background, this book starts from the premise that neither clinging to the idea of value-neutral, disinterested science, nor the complete abandonment of this idea in favour of postmodern relativism will be of much help here. Instead the different contributions to this book explore the idea of a 'lingua democratica' for the life sciences and sketch the contours of this notion by focusing on a broad range of conceptual and practical issues in the field of genomics.
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1 online resource (355 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401209755 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Social brain matters : stances on the neurobiology of social cognition /
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This book examines philosophical and scientific implications of Neodarwinism relative to recent empirical data. It develops explanations of social behavior and cognition through analysis of mental capabilities and consideration of ethical issues. It includes debate within cognitive science among explanations of social and moral phenomena from philosophy, evolutionary and cognitive psychology, neurobiology, linguistics, and computer science. The series Cognitive Science provides an original corpus of scholarly work that makes explicit the import of cognitive-science research for philosophical analysis. Topics include the nature, structure, and justification of knowledge, cognitive architectures and development, brain-mind theories, and consciousness.
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1 online resource (xv, 299 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789401204491 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The limits of science : an analysis from "barriers" to "confines" /
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The problem of the limits of science is twofold. First, there is the problem of demarcation, id est, the boundaries or "barriers" between what is science and what is not science. Second, there is the problem of the ceiling of scientific activity, which leads to the "confines" of this human enterprise. These two faces of the problem of the limits - the "barriers" and the "confines" of science - require a new analysis, which is the task of this book. The authors take into account the Kantian roots but they are focused on the current stage of the philosophical and methodological analyses of science. This vision looks to supersede the Kantian approach in order to reach a richer conception of science.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004325401 :
0303-8157 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The search for a theory of cognition : early mechanisms and new ideas /
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The book brings into relief the variety of approaches and disciplines that have informed the quest for a theory of cognition. The center of interest are the historical, geographical, and theoretical peripheries of classic AI's mainstream research program. The twelve chapters bring back into focus the variety of strategies and theoretical questions that researchers explored while working toward a scientific theory of cognition and pre-cognition. The volume is organized in four parts, each one including three essays. The first one deals with cybernetics, the approach that may be considered as the most important periphery of classic AI research. The second part focuses on the geographical periphery of AI research. It examines how the theories and techniques developed on AI's home ground were translated into countries with different cultures and traditions: Italy, France, and the Soviet Union. The third part focuses on AI's periphery understood in the cultural and historical meaning of the term. It contains essays that locate some of the central concepts of AI, like representation and computability, within a broader philosophical (Descartes, Aristotle, Leibniz) and technical background (programming theory and practice). The fourth and final part of the volume is focused directly on the limitation of Turing's classic computability theory and its possible alternatives, some of which were studied in the early years of AI's research (e.g. Ashby's re-entrant information model), while others have been intensely studied in recent times (quantum automata).
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1 online resource (xxvii, 375 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-351) and index. :
9789401207157 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The scaffolding of our thoughts : essays on Assyriology and the history of science in honor of Francesca Rochberg /
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Francesca Rochberg has for more than thirty-five years been a leading figure in the study of ancient science. Her foundational insights on the concepts of "science," "canon," "celestial divination," "knowledge," "gods," and "nature" in cuneiform cultures have demanded continual contemplation on the tenets and assumptions that underlie the fields of Assyriology and the History of Science. "The Scaffolding of Our Thoughts" honors this luminary with twenty essays, each reflecting on aspects of her work. Following an initial appraisal of ancient "science" by Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, the contributions in the first half explore practices of knowledge in Assyriological sources. The second half of the volume focuses specifically on astronomical and astrological spheres of knowledge in the Ancient Mediterranean.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004363380 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jahān-i dānish /
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Sharaf al-Din Mas'ūdi (6th/12th cent.) was a philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and logician. A native of Marw, he spent a large part of his life in Bukhara and Samarqand, Transoxiana. In Bukhara he had a number of debates with the philosopher and theologian Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī (d. 606/1210), described in the latter's Munāẓarāt jarat fī bilād Mā warāʾ al-nahr . From among his philosophical works, his critical notes to Avicenna's (d. 428/1037) al-Ishārāt wal-tanbīhāt deserve special mention. In the sciences, he wrote a work on astronomy and geography called al-Kifāya fī ʿilm al-hayʾa . In the introduction to this work he explains that he composed it at the request of a friend and that it is based on the works of others, among then Ibn al-Haytham (d. ca. 432/1040-41) and Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. late 4th/10th cent.). Afterwards, he translated it into Persian-this time without mentioning his sources-calling it Jahāni- dānish , published in this volume.
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1 online resource. :
9789004403383
9789646781764
Pizhūhishhāʾī dar tārīkh-i ʿilm : Maqālātī dar bāra-yi tārīkh-i riyāḍiyyāt, nujūm, mikānīk, wa pizishkī /
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As is well known, large parts of the Greek sciences were assimilated by the medieval Muslim world. Equally well known is the fact that quite a number of Muslim scholars contributed to the further development of some of these sciences and also, that some of their works were translated into Latin and other western languages, leaving their imprint on late medieval and early modern science in turn. For this reason, anyone interested in the history of science in the western world will be interested in reading about the history of science in Islam and vice versa. This is why the editor of the present collection of articles has done well to bring together contributions from both fields, in French, English, and Persian. While all of these articles are interesting in their own right, the section dedicated to Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 672/1274) and a study of Descartes' (d. 1650) de Solidorum elementis deserve special mention.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405813
9786002030184
Rawḍat al-munajjimīn /
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In the first centuries of Islam, Arabic gradually replaced Middle Persian to become the language of the new religion and the administration of Iran. Works in Middle Persian were translated into Arabic and Persian authors also started writing directly in Arabic. From the fifth/eleventh century onward, there arose a need for works in New Persian, either translated from Arabic or composed in New Persian straightaway. The work published in this volume is a product of that period. Not much is known about the life of its author, Shahmardān b. Abi ʼl-Khayr. A resident of Gurgān and Astarābād, he was a scholar who also worked as a secretary and financial officer. In astronomy, he was a student of Abu ʼl-Ḥasan Nasawī (fl. 2nd quart. 5th/11th cent.). Shahmardān's work is an accessible, popularized compilation of the works of others, among them Abū Maʿshar (d. 272/886), Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. late 4th/10th cent.), and Bīrūnī (d. 440/1048)
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1 online resource. :
9789004403673
9789646781795
Rāshīkāt al-Hind : Tanāsub nazd-i Hindiyān /
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Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. after 442/1050) is one of the greatest scholars in the history of Islam. A native of Kāth, capital of Khwārazm, he wrote on subjects ranging from mathematics, geography, astronomy and natural science to history, linguistics and ethnography. He was a student of, among others, the astronomer-mathematicians Kushyār b. Labbān (fl. 390/1000) and Abū Maḥmūd al-Khujandī (d. 390/1000). He also met and corresponded with Avicenna (d. 428/1037). As was common for a scholar of his rank in those days, he spent his life in the entourage of powerful rulers, in Khwārazm, Khurāsān, and Sidjistān. It was at the court of Maḥmūd b. Sebüktigin (d. 421/1030) and his sucessors in Ghazna that he accompanied Maḥmūd on his campaigns to north-west India. It is there that he got acquainted with Indian methods in the arithmetic of proportions and ratios, the subject of this book. Arabic text with a Persian translation by the editor.
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1 online resource. :
9789004405615
9789648700954