Human Nature - The Categorial Framework

Informationen zum Autor P. M. S. Hacker is the leading authority on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. He is author of the four-volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations , the first two volumes co-authored with G. P. Baker (Blackwell, 1980-96) and of Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-century Analytic Philosophy (Blackwell, 1996). He has also written extensively on philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, most recently Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (Blackwell, 2003) and History of Cognitive Neuroscience (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008), both co-authored with M. R. Bennett. He is also co-editor (with Joachim Schulte) and co-translator of the 4th edition of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). Klappentext This major study examines the most fundamental categories in terms of which we conceive of ourselves, critically surveying the concepts of substance, causation, agency, teleology, rationality, mind, body and person, and elaborating the conceptual fields in which they are embedded.* The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind* Written by one of the world's leading philosophers, the co-author of the monumental 4 volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell Publishing, 1980-2004)* Uses broad categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature* Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted* Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters Zusammenfassung This major new study returns to Aristotle in order to examine the salient categories in terms of which we think about ourselves and our nature. An overview of the concepts of substance, causation, power and agency provides the background for an investigation into teleology, rationality and explanations of behaviour in terms of reasons. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface xi Chapter 1 The Project 1 1. Human nature 1 2. Philosophical anthropology 4 3. Grammatical investigation 7 4. Philosophical investigation 11 5. Philosophy and 'mere words' 14 6. A challenge to the autonomy of the philosophical enterprise: Quine 17 7. The Platonic and Aristotelian traditions in philosophical anthropology 21 Chapter 2 Substance 29 1. Substances: things 29 2. Substances: stuffs 34 3. Substance-referring expressions 37 4. Conceptual connections between things and stuffs 42 5. Substances and their substantial parts 44 6. Substances conceived as natural kinds 45 7. Substances conceived as a common logico-linguistic category 49 8. A historical digression: misconceptions of the category of substance 51 Chapter 3 Causation 57 1. Causation: Humean, neo-Humean and anti-Humean 57 2. On causal necessity 62 3. Event causation is not a prototype 65 4. The inadequacy of Hume's analysis: observability, spatio-temporal relations and regularity 69 5. The flaw in the early modern debate 73 6. Agent causation as prototype 75 7. Agent causation is only a prototype 80 8. Event causation and other centres of variation 82 9. Overview 88 Chapter 4 Powers 90 1. Possibility 90 2. Powers of the inanimate 93 3. Active and passive powers of the inanimate 96 4. Power and its actualization 98 5. Power and its vehicle 103 6. First- and second-order powers; loss of power 105 7. Human powers: basic distinctions 106 8. Human powers: further distinctions 114 9. Dispositions 118 Chapter 5 Agency 122 1. Inanimate agents...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface.
 
Chapter 1 The Project.
 
1. Human nature.
 
2. Philosophical anthropology.
 
3. Grammatical investigation.
 
4. Philosophical investigation.
 
5. Philosophy and 'mere words'.
 
6. A challenge to the autonomy of the philosophical enterprise: Quine.
 
7. The Platonic and Aristotelian traditions in philosophical anthropology.
 

Chapter 2 Substance.
 
1. Substances: things.
 
2. Substances: stuffs.
 
3. Substance-referring expressions.
 
4. Conceptual connections between things and stuffs.
 
5. Substances and their substantial parts.
 
6. Substances conceived as natural kinds.
 
7. Substances conceived as a common logico-linguistic category.
 
8. A historical digression: misconceptions of the category of substance.
 
Chapter 3 Causation.
 
1. Causation: Humean, neo-Humean and anti-Humean.
 
2. On causal necessity.
 
3. Event causation is not a prototype.
 
4. The inadequacy of Hume's analysis: observability, spatio-temporal relations and regularity.
 
5. The flaw in the early modern debate.
 
6. Agent causation as prototype.
 
7. Agent causation is only a prototype.
 
8. Event causation and other centres of variation.
 
9. Overview.
 
Chapter 4 Powers.
 
1. Possibility.
 
2. Powers of the inanimate.
 
3. Active and passive powers of the inanimate.
 
4. Power and its actualization.
 
5. Power and its vehicle.
 

6. First- and second-order powers; loss of power.
 
7. Human powers: basic distinctions.
 
8. Human powers: further distinctions.
 
9. Dispositions.
 
Chapter 5 Agency.
 
1. Inanimate agents.
 
2. Inanimate needs.
 
3. Animate agents: needs and wants.
 
4. Volitional agency: preliminaries.
 
5. Doings, acts and actions.
 
6. Human agency and action.
 
7. A historical overview.
 
8. Human action as agential causation of movement.
 
Chapter 6 Teleology and Teleological Explanation.
 
1. Teleology and purpose.
 
2. What things have a purpose?
 
3. Purpose and axiology.
 
4. The beneficial.
 
5. A historical digression: teleology and causality.
 
Chapter 7 Reasons and Explanation of Human Action.
 
1. Rationality and reasonableness.
 
2. Reason, reasoning and reasons.
 
3. Explaining human behaviour.
 
4. Explanation in terms of agential reasons.
 
5. Causal mythologies.
 
Chapter 8 The Mind.
 
1. Homo loquens.
 
2. The Cartesian mind.
 
3. The nature of the mind.
 
Chapter 9 The Self and the Body.
 
1. The emergence of the philosophers' self.
 
2. The illusion of the philosophers' self.
 
3. The body.
 
4. The relationship between human beings and their bodies.
 
Chapter 10 The Person.
 
1. The emergence of the concept.
 
2. An unholy trinity: Descartes, Locke and Hume.
 
3. Changing bodies and switching brains: puzzle cases and red herrings.
 
4. The concept of a person.
 
Index.

Bericht

"Full of helpful distinctions and arguments which show in different ways how carefully we must proceed ... and how sensitive we must be to contexts." (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)
 
"an outstanding contribution to contemporary metaphysics and philosophical anthropology"' (Stephen Mulhall, Philosophical Quarterly)
 
"an amazing achievement when writing about such potentially confusing and hotly contested issues" (Duncan Richter, Metapsychology)

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Hacker, P M S Hacker, P. M. S. Hacker, P. M. S. (University of Oxford Hacker, Hacker P. M. S.
• Verlag: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erschienen: 04.06.2010
• EAN: 9781444332483
• ISBN: 978-1-4443-3248-3
• Seiten: 340
• Abmessung: 152 mm x 229 mm x 25 mm
• Themen: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik > Philosophie; Sachbuch > Philosophie, Religion > Philosophie: Allgemeines, Nachschlagewerke; Philosophie, PHILOSOPHY / Social, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy, social and political philosophy, Geistesphilosophie