Search results for "Samuel Scheffler"
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Equality and Tradition
This collection of essays by noted philosopher Samuel Scheffler combines discussion of abstract questions in moral and political theory with attention to the normative dimension of current social and political controversies. In addition to chapters on more abstract issues such as the nature of human valuing, the role of partiality in ethics, and the significance of the distinction between doing and allowing, the volume also includes essays on immigration, terrorism,toleration, political equality, and the normative significance of tradition.Uniting the essays is a shared preoccupation with questions about human value and values. The volume opens with an essay that considers the general question of what it is to value something - as opposed, say, to wanting it, wanting to want it, or thinking that it is valuable. Other essays explore particular values, such as equality, whose meaning and content are contested. Still others consider the tensions that arise, both within and among individuals, in consequence of the diversity of humanvalues. One of the overarching aims of the book is to illuminate the different ways in which liberal political theory attempts to resolve conflicts of both of these kinds.
R 1,834.30
One Life to Lead
It is a truism that each of us has one life to lead -- yet we rarely ask what it means to lead a life. The answer may seem obvious, but leading one's life is actually a complex, multifaceted undertaking, which requires us to negotiate deeply puzzling aspects of our experience and overcome profound challenges to our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. In One Life to Lead, Samuel Scheffler develops an "attachment-sensitive" conception of what it means to lead a recognizably human life. In so doing, he reveals hidden complexities that are latent in our understanding of ourselves and our lives. One Life to Lead focuses special attention on two interrelated dimensions of our experience: the temporal and the interpersonal. Many of the puzzles and challenges we must negotiate in leading our lives concern the passage of time, which comprehensively shapes and frequently unsettles our emotions, our attitudes, and our understanding of ourselves. Other questions concern our determination to form and sustain valuable personal and social attachments, even though doing so requires us to share authority with others and renders us vulnerable to grief, loss, and pain. Scheffler's investigations of our temporal and interpersonal experience remind us that our lives unfold at a particular point in time and in a particular set of social circumstances. Although our capacity to view our lives in broader perspective is extremely important, we can neither eliminate nor undo our social and temporal specificity -- but nor should we want to. We lead our lives, and can hope to lead good lives, not by systematically transcending ourselves or our attachments, as some traditions and thinkers urge, but by engaging with the world as we find it in our contingent historical circumstances. One Life to Lead is an original and rigorous work of philosophy that offers profound insights into some of the most fundamental questions of human life.
R 1,160.00
Why Worry About Future Generations?
The things we do today may make life worse for future generations. But why should we care what happens to people who won't be born until after all of us are gone? Some philosophers have treated this as a question about our moral responsibilities, and have argued that we have duties of beneficence to promote the well-being of our descendants. Rather than focusing exclusively on issues of moral responsibility, Samuel Scheffler considers the broader question of why andhow future generations matter to us. Although we lack a developed set of ideas about the value of human continuity, we are more invested in the fate of our descendants than we may realize. Implicit in our existing values and attachments are a variety of powerful reasons for wanting the chain ofhuman generations to persist into the indefinite future under conditions conducive to human flourishing. This has implications for the way we think about problems like climate change. And it means that some of our strongest reasons for caring about the future of humanity depend not on our moral duty to promote the good but rather on our existing evaluative attachments and on our conservative disposition to preserve and sustain the things that we value. This form of conservatism supportsrather than inhibits a concern for future generations, and it is an important component of the complex stance we take toward the temporal dimension of our lives.
R 1,469.00
Death and the Afterlife
Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children?In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths—the "afterlife" of the title—matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without theexpectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminentextinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers—Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf—who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.
R 1,206.70
Why Worry About Future Generations?
The things we do today may make life worse for future generations. But why should we care what happens to people who won't be born until after all of us are gone? Some philosophers have treated this as a question about our moral responsibilities, and have argued that we have duties of beneficence to promote the well-being of our descendants. Rather than focusing exclusively on issues of moral responsibility, Samuel Scheffler considers the broader question of why andhow future generations matter to us. Although we lack a developed set of ideas about the value of human continuity, we are more invested in the fate of our descendants than we may realize. Implicit in our existing values and attachments are a variety of powerful reasons for wanting the chain ofhuman generations to persist into the indefinite future under conditions conducive to human flourishing. This has implications for the way we think about problems like climate change. And it means that some of our strongest reasons for caring about the future of humanity depend not on our moral duty to promote the good but rather on our existing evaluative attachments and on our conservative disposition to preserve and sustain the things that we value. This form of conservatism supports ratherthan inhibits a concern for future generations, and it is an important component of the complex stance we take toward the temporal dimension of our lives.
R 1,005.00
Human Morality
This book by Samuel Scheffler, one of the most prominent moral philosophers working today, investigates morality's content, scope, authority, and deliberative role, and in so doing offers an interpretation of the place of moral concerns in our lives. Morality is seen as fundamentally a humane phenomenon, which neither coincides with the requirements of an enlightened self-interest nor stands diametrically opposed to them.
R 1,804.18
Boundaries and Allegiances
This book, a collection of eleven essays by one of the most interesting moral philosophers currently writing, is written from a perspective that is at once sympathetic towards and critical of liberal political philosophy. The essays explore the capacity of liberal thought, and of the moral traditions on which it draws, to accommodate a variety of challenges posed by the changing circumstances of the modern world. The essays consider how, in an era of rapidglobalization, when people's lives are structured by social arrangements and institutions of ever increasing size, complexity, and scope, we can best conceive of the responsibilities of individual agents and the normative significance of people's diverse commitments and allegiances. The volume is linked bycommon themes including the responsibilities persons have in virtue of belonging to a community, the compatibility of such obligations with equality, the demands of distributive justice in general, and liberalism's relationship to liberty, community, and equality.
R 3,403.00
Rejection of Consequentialism
In contemporary philosophy, substantive moral theories are typically classified as either consequentialist or deontological. Standard consequentialist theories insist, roughly, that agents must always act so as to produce the best available outcomes overall. Standard deontological theories, by contrast, maintain that there are some circumstances where one is permitted but not required to produce the best overall results, and still other circumstances in which one is positively forbidden to do so. Classical utilitarianism is the most familiar consequentialist view, but it is widely regarded as an inadequate account of morality. Although Professor Scheffler agrees with this assessment, he also believes that consequentialism seems initially plausible, and that there is a persistent air of paradox surrounding typical deontological views. In this book, therefore, he undertakes to reconsider the rejection of consequentialism. He argues that it is possible to provide a rationale for the view that agents need not always produce the best possible overall outcomes, and this motivates one departure from consequentialism; but he shows that it is surprisingly difficult to provide a satisfactory
R 2,282.00
Death and the Afterlife
We normally take it for granted that other people will live on after we ourselves have died. Even if we do not believe in a personal afterlife in which we survive our own deaths, we assume that there will be a "collective afterlife" in which humanity survives long after we are gone. Samuel Scheffler maintains that this assumption plays a surprising — indeed astonishing — role in our lives. In certain important respects, the future existence of people who are asyet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine ourconfidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, then, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead value-laden lives: lives structured by wholehearted engagement in valued activities and pursuits. This conclusion complicates widespread assumptions about human egoism and individualism. And it has striking implications for the way we think about climate change, nuclearproliferation, and other urgent threats to humanity's survival. Scheffler adds that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Scheffler's position is discussed with insight and imagination by four distinguished commentators - Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf — and Scheffler adds a final reply. "This is some of the most interesting and best-written philosophy I have read in a long time. Scheffler's book is utterly original in its fundamental conception, brilliant in its analysis and argument, and concise and at times beautiful in its formulation." Stephen Darwall, Yale University"[Scheffler's] discussion of the issues with which he has concerned himself is fresh and original. Moreover, so far as I am aware, those issues are themselves pretty much original with him. He seems really to have raised, within a rigorously philosophical context, some new questions. At least, so far as I know, no one before has attempted to deal with those questions so systematically. So it appears that he has effectively opened up a new and promising field of philosophical inquiry. Notbad going, in a discipline to which many of the very best minds have already devoted themselves for close to three thousand years." -Harry Frankfurt, Princeton University, from 'How the Afterlife Matters' (in this volume)""A truly wonderful and very important book." - Derek Parfit, Emeritus Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford
R 2,485.88
Rejection of Consequentialism
In contemporary philosophy, substantive moral theories are typically classified as either consequentialist or deontological. Standard consequentialist theories insist, roughly, that agents must always act so as to produce the best available outcomes overall. Standard deontological theories, by contrast, maintain that there are some circumstances where one is permitted but not required to produce the best overall results, and still other circumstances in which one is positively forbidden to do so. Classical utilitarianism is the most familiar consequentialist view, but it is widely regarded as an inadequate account of morality. Although Professor Scheffler agrees with this assessment, he also believes that consequentialism seems initially plausible, and that there is a persistent air of paradox surrounding typical deontological views. In this book, therefore, he undertakes to reconsider the rejection of consequentialism. He argues that it is possible to provide a rationale for the view that agents need not always produce the best possible overall outcomes, and this motivates one departure from consequentialism; but he shows that it is surprisingly difficult to provide a satisfactory
R 3,094.00
Reason and Value
Reason and Value collects 15 new papers by leading contemporary philosophers on themes from the work of Joseph Raz. Raz has made major contributions in a wide range of areas, including jurisprudence, political philosophy, and the theory of practical reason; but all of his work displays a deep engagement with central themes in moral philosophy. The subtlety and power of Raz's reflections on ethical topics make his writings a fertile source for anyone workingin this area. Especially significant are his explorations of the connections between practical reason and the theory of value, which constitute a sustained and penetrating treatment of a set of issues at the very center of moral philosophy as it is practiced today. The contributors to the volume acknowledge the importance of Raz's contributions by engaging critically with his positions and offering independent perspectives on the topics that he has addressed. The volume aims both to honour Raz's accomplishments in the area of ethical theorizing, and to contribute to an enhanced appreciation of the significance of his work for the subject.Contributors: Michael E. Bratman, John Broome, Ruth Chang, Jonathan Dancy, Harry Frankfurt, Ulrike Heuer, Philip Pettit, Peter Railton, Donald H. Regan, T. M. Scanlon, Samuel Scheffler, Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Michael Smith, Michael Stocker, Michael Thompson, R. Jay Wallace.
R 7,541.00
R 457.00
Symbolic Worlds
Symbolism is a primary characteristic of the mind, deployed and displayed in every aspect of our thought and culture. In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the world of science and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind. In addition to philosophers of art and science, likely readers of this book will include students of linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, religion, and psychology.
R 4,624.44
R 274.00
Gallery of Scholars
This book offers a personal account of scholars in philosophy and education with whom I have had the good fortune to interact during the course of my half century at Harvard University and elsewhere. My aim in writing this account is threefold: ?rst, to recapture for myself the pleasure of their memorable company for its own sake, secondly, to have occasion to re?ect on the educational impact of their teaching, and, ?nally, to counteract the prevalent amnesia of universities by recalling the conduct of scholars of past generations who still have things to teach us. Iowe thanks to many people who have helped me in this endeavor. Professor Harvey Siegel, Dr. Stefania Jha, and Dr. Rosalind Schef?er read initial versions of the manuscript and gave me the bene?t of their criticisms, as did the publisher's anonymous readers. JoAnne Sorabella and Stefania Jha listened to my readings of a number of these chapters, and JoAnne Sorabella produced several typescripts of the whole with her usual matchless pro?ciency. I presented some portions of the manuscript to the Philosophy of Education Research Center at Harvard and pro?ted from these occasions.After I joined the Mandel Center at Brandeis University in the Fall of 2003, Avital Feuer assisted me ably in readying the ?nal version of the book. And I am grateful to Laurie Schef?er for her meticulous help with proofreading.
R 3,017.77
Reason and Value
Reason and Value collects 15 new papers by leading contemporary philosophers on themes from the work of Joseph Raz. Raz has made major contributions in a wide range of areas, including jurisprudence, political philosophy, and the theory of practical reason; but all of his work displays a deep engagement with central themes in moral philosophy. The subtlety and power of Raz's reflections on ethical topics make his writings a fertile source for anyone workingin this area. Especially significant are his explorations of the connections between practical reason and the theory of value, which constitute a sustained and penetrating treatment of a set of issues at the very center of moral philosophy as it is practiced today. The contributors to the volume acknowledge the importance of Raz's contributions by engaging critically with his positions and offering independent perspectives on the topics that he has addressed. The volume aims both to honour Raz's accomplishments in the area of ethical theorizing, and to contribute to an enhanced appreciation of the significance of his work for the subject.
R 3,249.00
Gallery of Scholars
This book offers a personal account of scholars in philosophy and education with whom I have had the good fortune to interact during the course of my half century at Harvard University and elsewhere. My aim in writing this account is threefold: ?rst, to recapture for myself the pleasure of their memorable company for its own sake, secondly, to have occasion to re?ect on the educational impact of their teaching, and, ?nally, to counteract the prevalent amnesia of universities by recalling the conduct of scholars of past generations who still have things to teach us. Iowe thanks to many people who have helped me in this endeavor. Professor Harvey Siegel, Dr. Stefania Jha, and Dr. Rosalind Schef?er read initial versions of the manuscript and gave me the bene?t of their criticisms, as did the publisher's anonymous readers. JoAnne Sorabella and Stefania Jha listened to my readings of a number of these chapters, and JoAnne Sorabella produced several typescripts of the whole with her usual matchless pro?ciency. I presented some portions of the manuscript to the Philosophy of Education Research Center at Harvard and pro?ted from these occasions.After I joined the Mandel Center at Brandeis University in the Fall of 2003, Avital Feuer assisted me ably in readying the ?nal version of the book. And I am grateful to Laurie Schef?er for her meticulous help with proofreading.
R 3,016.87
Teachers of My Youth
Having spent forty years teaching education and philosophy at Harvard, and publishing widely on these topics during this period, Israel Scheffler has now written a more personal book, looking at education through the prism of his own early experience, primarily of religious learning. The book consists mainly of portraits of his early teachers, most of whom belonged to a transitional generation of immigrant Hebrew scholars -- unsung heroes of Jewish education on the American scene. Through the medium of such portraits of teaching personalities and styles, as well as firsthand descriptions of various educational settings in the New York City of the 30s and 40s, he comments on aspects of immigrant life, the tensions between religious and secular worlds, the psychology of learning and teaching, the relations between universalism and particularism, the contrasts between intensive education and instrumental schooling, and related themes. These themes, although exemplified in the details of his own experience, are of quite general significance. The book will be of special interest for those concerned with Jewish life, with religious education, with the immigrant experience and with the recent American past.
R 3,024.09
R 618.00
R 1,088.87
R 889.00
Beobachtungen und Ergebnisse bei einer fünfjährigen Frakturenbehandlung (Klinische und unfallmedizinische Feststellungen)
Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.
R 1,682.71
R 1,310.00
Teachers of My Youth
Having spent forty years teaching education and philosophy at Harvard, and publishing widely on these topics during this period, Israel Scheffler has now written a more personal book, looking at education through the prism of his own early experience, primarily of religious learning. The book consists mainly of portraits of his early teachers, most of whom belonged to a transitional generation of immigrant Hebrew scholars -- unsung heroes of Jewish education on the American scene. Through the medium of such portraits of teaching personalities and styles, as well as firsthand descriptions of various educational settings in the New York City of the 30s and 40s, he comments on aspects of immigrant life, the tensions between religious and secular worlds, the psychology of learning and teaching, the relations between universalism and particularism, the contrasts between intensive education and instrumental schooling, and related themes. These themes, although exemplified in the details of his own experience, are of quite general significance. The book will be of special interest for those concerned with Jewish life, with religious education, with the immigrant experience and with the recent American past.
R 3,024.98
So This Is What It Feels Like
James Wright (1927–80) was considered one of the major poets of his era, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1972, even though the intense emotion of his work could prove divisive. So This Is What It Feels Like, a new critical study by poet and critic Adam Scheffler, makes a renewed case for Wright's importance by examining how his empathy for other people gives meaning to his poems. Raised in the poor factory town of Martins Ferry, Ohio, during the Great Depression, Wright often wrote about struggling working-class Ohioans, as well as about suffering and marginalized people in Appalachia and the Midwest. Moving chronologically through Wright's career, Scheffler reveals that the author's intense empathy for these people challenged his poetic imagination in ways that often altered the form of a poem midway through, sometimes forcing him to invent a new style that would capture the resilient humanity of his subjects. So This Is What It Feels Like provides a renewed appreciation for Wright's art and how it expands the social capabilities of lyric poetry.
R 1,645.12
Choiseul Island Social Structure
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.
R 1,470.00
R 1,131.22
R 652.00
R 779.00
R 841.26
R 735.00
R 281.27
Symbolic Worlds
Symbolism is a primary characteristic of the mind, deployed and displayed in every aspect of our thought and culture. In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the world of science and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind. In addition to philosophers of art and science, likely readers of this book will include students of linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, religion, and psychology.
R 1,751.76
R 1,921.00
R 1,809.03
Schaf - sollen
“The work is indispensable for deciphering no longer known proverbs in collective manuscripts and in texts far beyond the Middle Ages.” Prof. Dr. Johannes Janota
R 12,503.97
Choiseul Island Social Structure
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.
R 2,796.00
R 550.00
R 994.68
Cracking the Cube
Ian Scheffler, journalist and aspiring "speedcuber," attempts to break into the international phenomenon of speedsolving the Rubik's Cube--think chess played at the speed of Ping-Pong--while exploring the greater lessons that can be learned through solving it. When Hungarian professor Ernő Rubik invented the Rubik's Cube (or, rather, his Cube) in 1974 out of wooden blocks, rubber bands, and paper clips, he didn't even know if it could be solved, let alone that it would become the world's most popular puzzle. Since its creation, the Cube has become many things to many people: one of the bestselling children's toys of all time, a symbol of intellectual prowess, a frustrating puzzle with 43.2 quintillion possible permutations, and now a worldwide sporting phenomenon that is introducing the classic brainteaser to a new generation. In Cracking the Cube, Ian Scheffler reveals that cubing isn't just fun and games. Along with participating in speedcubing competitions--from the World Championship to local tournaments--and interviewing key figures from the Cube's history, he journeys to Budapest to seek a meeting with the legendary and notoriously reclusive Rubik, who is still tinkering away with puzzles in his seventies. Getting sucked into the competitive circuit himself, Scheffler becomes engrossed in solving Rubik's Cube in under twenty seconds, the quasi-mystical barrier known as "sub-20," which is to cubing what four minutes is to the mile: the difference between the best and everyone else. As Scheffler learns from the many gurus who cross his path, from pint-sized kids to engineering professors, it's not just about memorizing algorithms or even solving all six sides--it's about discovering how to solve yourself.
R 456.00
Anatomy of Inquiry (Routledge Revivals)
First published in 1963, this title considers the philosophical problems encountered when attempting to provide a clear and general explanation of scientific principles, and the basic confrontation between such principles and experience. Beginning with a detailed introduction that considers various approaches to the philosophy and theory of science, Israel Scheffler then divides his study into three key sections – Explanation, Significance and Confirmation – that explore how these complex issues involved have been dealt with in contemporary research. This title, by one of America’s leading philosophers, will provide a valuable analysis of the theory and problems surrounding the Philosophy of Science.
R 7,589.67
Weisheit als Ressource in der Psychotherapie
Samuel Pfeifer gibt einen Überblick über verschiedene Weisheitsmodelle und entwirft ein didaktisches Basismodell der Weisheit von Empathie, Kontextualismus, Zeitperspektive und Werthaltungen. Einer biologistischen personalisierten Psychiatrie steht eine personzentrierte Haltung gegenüber. Effektive Therapie zeigt erstaunlich viele Parallelen zu grundlegenden Tugenden der Weisheit. Als Therapiekonzept können Weisheitskompetenzen als Psychoedukation bei psychischen Störungen vermittelt werden. Weisheit ist aber auch eine persönliche Grundhaltung der Balance in der eigenen Existenz. Dieses Essential schlägt einen Bogen von alten Weisheitsquellen zu aktueller Praxis in helfenden Berufen. Über die letzten 30 Jahre wurde an verschiedenen Zentren intensiv zur psychologischen Bedeutung von Weisheit geforscht. Weisheit wird dabei auf ihre historischen, spirituellen und philosophischen Wurzeln zurückverfolgt, dann aber auch in aktueller Form für die Psychologie unserer Zeit relevant gemacht.
R 691.88
