The rise of scientific philosophy

University of California Press

[1997]

xi, 333 pages

Includes index.

9780520010550

Part One. The roots of speculative philosophy. The question. – The search for generality and the pseudo explanation. – The search for certainty and the rationalistic conception of knowledge. – The search for moral directives and the ethico-cognitive parallelism. – The empiricist approach: success and failure. – The twofold nature of classical physics: its empirical and its rational aspect. – Part Two. The results of scientific philosophy. The origin of the new philosophy. – The nature of geometry. – What is time? – The laws of nature. – Are there atoms? – Evolution. – Modern logic. – Predictive knowledge. – Interlude: Hamlet's soliloquy. – The functional conception of knowledge. – The nature of ethics. – The old and the new philosophy: a comparison. – Index.

Presents a fresh approach to philosophy. This book treats philosophy as a study of problems. It recognizes in traditional philosophical systems the historical function of having asked questions rather than having given solutions. It traces the failures of the systems to psychological causes.

Philosophy

Английский