Personal Reality, Volume 2: The Emergentist Concept of Science, Evolution, and Culture
328
Personal Reality, Volume 2: The Emergentist Concept of Science, Evolution, and Culture
328eBook
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781532676710 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wipf & Stock Publishers |
| Publication date: | 05/13/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 328 |
| File size: | 867 KB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Volume 1
List of Figures and Tables xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Part 1 Personal Knowledge
Chapter 1 The Origin of Personal Reality 3
1.1 Preface 3
1.2 The Meaning of Evolution and the Theory of Natural Selection 4
1.3 Personal Reality from Personal Knowledge 14
1.4 Conclusion 19
Chapter 2 The Laplacian Ideal of Knowledge 20
2.1 Preface 20
2.2 The Knowledge of the Demon according to Laplace 21
2.3 The Knowledge of the Demon according to Polanyi 24
2.4 The Physics of the Demon 30
2.5 Laplacian Faults or Deceptive Substitutions 37
2.6 Conclusion 43
Chapter 3 Personal Knowledge 45
3.1 Preface 45
3.2 "the Tacit Roots of Scientific Discovery 46
3.3 The Tacit Roots of Personal Knowledge 54
3.4 The Tacit Roots of Explicit Sentences 63
3.5 The Tacit Roots of the Critical Method of Doubt 73
3.6 The Tacit Fundament of Personal Beliefs: Commitment 83
3.7 Conclusion 91
Chapter 4 The Meaning of Randomness 93
4.1 Preface 93
4.2 The Concept of Order 95
4.3 The Recognition of Order 98
4.4 The Appraisal of the Deepness of an Order 109
4.5 Randomness as Emergence 113
4.6 Absolute Randomness 118
4.7 Emergence and Evolution: The Origin of Personal Knowledge 123
4.8 Conclusion 133
Part 2 Emergence
Chapter 5 Emergence 137
5.1 Preface 137
5.2 The Concept and Original Meaning of Emergence 138
5.3 Reduction and Materialism 147
5.4 Reduction as Emergence 151
5.5 The Two Janus Faces of Emergence 161
5.6 Polanyi's Understanding of Emergence 166
5.7 A Short Reductionist Argument against Materialism 174
5.8 The Main Contra-Arguments of Materialism 178
5.9 Conclusion 184
Chapter 6 Space, Time, and Matter 187
6.1 Preface 187
6.2 Alexander's Concept of Space-Time 188
6.3 Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity 198
6.4 Understanding Special Relativity 204
6.5 Einstein's Theory of General Relativity 212
6.6 Understanding General Relativity 222
6.7 Conclusion 233
Chapter 7 The Theory of Boundary Conditions 236
7.1 Preface 236
7.2 The Concept of Boundary Conditions 237
7.3 Boundary Conditions from Physics 241
7.4 Boundary Conditions in Physical Sciences 246
7.5 Boundary Conditions in Life Sciences and Engineering 249
7.6 Boundary Conditions in the Light of Philosophy 258
7.7 The Reality of Time 264
7.8 Conclusion 267
Bibliography 271
Volume 2
List of Figures and Tables ix
Part 3 Evolution
Chapter 8 The Logic of Achievement 3
8.1 Preface 3
8.2 Machines and the Rules of Rightness 5
8.3 Living Beings and the Rules of Rightness 10
8.4 The Knowledge of Machines 16
8.5 The Knowledge of Computers 23
8.6 Conclusion 29
Chapter 9 Evolution 31
9.1 Preface 31
9.2 The Concept of Evolution 32
9.3 The Ordering Principles of Life and Evolution 41
9.4 The General Theory of Evolution 46
9.5 The General Theory of Organization 59
9.6 Knowledge and Biology. Acknowledging the Emergent Reality of Life 74
9.7 Personal Knowledge and Natural Selection 87
9.8 Conclusion 96
Chapter 10 Cultural Evolution 98
10.1 Preface 98
10.2 The Concept of Cultural Evolution 100
10.3 The Theory of Memes 107
10.4 The Concept of Cultural Transmission 115
10.5 The Origin of Cultural Organization 120
10.6 Individuals, Groups, and Persons 133
10.7 The Emergence of Cultural Organization 151
10.8 Writing as an Information Recording and Transmitting System 160
10.9 Conclusion 178
Part 4 Personal Reality
Chapter 11 Scientific and Cultural Reality 183
11.1 Preface 183
11.2 The Concept of Scientific Revolutions 185
11.3 Thomas S. Kuhn and the Evolutionary View of Science 193
11.4 Relativism and Absolutism: David Bloor vs. Pope Benedict XVI 214
11.5 Scientific Revolutions, Personal Knowledge, and Truth 233
11.6 Personal Reality and Demolished Idols 250
11.7 Conclusion 266
Chapter 12 Moral and Intellectual Reality 269
12.1 Preface 269
12.2 Modern Dynamic Societies and their Embedded Menace 270
12.3 Moral Inversion and Marxism 276
12.4 The Intellectual (Spurious) Forms of Moral Inversion 286
12.5 The New Forms of Moral Inversion 297
12.6 Conclusion 303
Chapter 13 The Future of Personal Reality 305
13.1 Preface 305
13.2 Truth and Morality 305
13.3 God and Matter 307
13.4 Evolution and Emergence 311
13.5 Science and Wisdom 312
13.6 Conclusion 314
Bibliography 315
What People are Saying About This
“Addressed to current controversy concerning the origin and explanation of biological life and human culture, Hungarian philosopher Daniel Paksi aims to establish a coherent, scientifically grounded concept of evolutionary emergence as a more viable alternative to both reductionist materialism(s) and ontological dualism(s), providing a sounder conceptual foundation for cultural meaning. Paksi's argument draws on philosopher-scientist Michael Polanyi's Personal Knowledge and Samuel Alexander's Space, Time, and Deity. Developed in dialogue with previous efforts toward this goal, Paksi articulates a hopeful intellectual vision for humankind in the twenty-first century.”
—Dale Cannon, Western Oregon University
“This is a thorough examination of Neo-Darwinism’s denial of the reality and significance of emergence, using and developing Michael Polanyi’s and other philosophies plus more empirical detail, followed by an account of the meaning and reality of the emergence of genuinely new orders of existence and how they can be related by the boundary conditions of a lower level being determined by the next higher. Perhaps how emergence is itself possible is more open than Paski allows.”
—R. T. Allen, author, The Necessity of God