The Philosopher S Autobiography

Author : Christopher Cowley
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 249 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2015-10-26
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780226267920

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The Philosophy of Autobiography by Christopher Cowley Pdf

This book promises to be the first of its kind: a philosophical investigation of autobiographical writing. All of us are autobiographers at least some of the time, and all of us crave certain kinds of recognition and confirmation from others, just as we fear blame and reproach from those who know us well. The philosophy of autobiography examines this fundamental story-telling process and its place in our lives. As such it straddles a number of long-standing philosophical questions, having to do with the meaning of life, the problems of autonomy and responsibility and authenticity, the nature of self-deception and bad faith, the structure of the self and its existence through time, the question of the reliability and meaning of memory, and the problem of understanding another person and imaginatively identifying with him. The contributors to the volume are mostly philosophers, but many of them have interests outside philosophy and have been informed by research findings from literary theory and from psychiatry. Some of the contributors are also literary theorists, and one of them has even published autobiographical work. Contributors also examine specific autobiographies and diaries, of philosophers and non-philosophers, as well as fictional works using an autobiographical format, in order to explore the philosophical implications and presuppositions of the genre. The result is a most useful and productive interdisciplinary exchange.

Author : Shlomit C. Schuster
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2003-01-30
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780313013287

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The Philosopher's Autobiography by Shlomit C. Schuster Pdf

Throughout the ages philosophers have examined their own lives in an attempt both to find some meaning and to explain the roots of their philosophical perspectives. This volume is an introduction to philosophical autobiography, a rich but hitherto ignored literary genre that questions the self, its social context, and existence in general. The author analyzes representative narratives from antiquity to postmodernity, focusing in particular on three case studies: the autobiographies of St. Augustine, Rousseau, and Sartre. Through the study of these exemplary texts, philosophical reflection on the self emerges as a valid alternative to Freudian psychoanalysis and as a way of promoting self-renewal and change.

Author : Simon Critchley
Publisher : Granta Books
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2011-08-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781847085429

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The Book Of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley Pdf

Starting from the premise that philosophers' deaths have been as interesting as their lives, Simon Critchley looks at the strange circumstances in which some philosophers have died and then confronts the big themes - in this case, what 'a good death' means and how to live with the knowledge of death. The book consists of short entries on various philosophers, cataloguing the manner of their demises and linking this to their central ideas, from the Pre-Socratics to Rousseau, Kant and Nietzsche among many others. The book concludes with Critchley's thoughts on the ideal of the philosophical death as a way of denouncing contemporary delusions and sophistries, what Francis Bacon saw as the Idols of the Tribe, the Den, the Market-Place and the Theatre (incidentally, Bacon died in a particularly cold winter in London in 1626 from a cold contracted after trying to stuff a chicken with snow as an experiment in refrigeration).

Author : Thomas Mathien,D. G. Wright
Publisher : Taylor & Francis US
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2010-04
Category : Autobiography
ISBN : 0415591570

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Autobiography As Philosophy by Thomas Mathien,D. G. Wright Pdf

This collection discusses several philosophers' autobiographies in the light of their authors' broader work, and considers whether there are any philosophical tasks for which life accounts are particularly appropriate.

Author : J. Lenore Wright
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791480984

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The Philosopher's "I" by J. Lenore Wright Pdf

This book examines philosophers' autobiographies as a genre of philosophical writing. Author J. Lenore Wright focuses her attention on five philosophical autobiographies: Augustine's Confessions, Descartes' Meditations, Rousseau's The Confessions, Nietzsche's Ecce Homo, and Hazel Barnes's The Story I Tell Myself. In the context of first-person narration, she shows how the philosophers in question turn their attention inward and unleash their analytical rigor on themselves. Wright argues that philosophical autobiography makes philosophical analysis necessary and that one cannot unfold without the other. Her distinction between the ontological and rhetorical dimensions of the self creates a rich middle ground in which questions of essence and identity bear upon existence.

Author : Christopher Cowley
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 249 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2015-10-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226268088

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The Philosophy of Autobiography by Christopher Cowley Pdf

We are living through a boom in autobiographical writing. Every half-famous celebrity, every politician, every sports hero—even the non-famous, nowadays, pour out pages and pages, Facebook post after Facebook post, about themselves. Literary theorists have noticed, as the genres of “creative nonfiction” and “life writing” have found their purchase in the academy. And of course psychologists have long been interested in self-disclosure. But where have the philosophers been? With this volume, Christopher Cowley brings them into the conversation. Cowley and his contributors show that while philosophers have seemed uninterested in autobiography, they have actually long been preoccupied with many of its conceptual elements, issues such as the nature of the self, the problems of interpretation and understanding, the paradoxes of self-deception, and the meaning and narrative structure of human life. But rarely have philosophers brought these together into an overarching question about what it means to tell one’s life story or understand another’s. Tackling these questions, the contributors explore the relationship between autobiography and literature; between story-telling, knowledge, and agency; and between the past and the present, along the way engaging such issues as autobiographical ethics and the duty of writing. The result bridges long-standing debates and illuminates fascinating new philosophical and literary issues.

Author : Morton White
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2010-11-01
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780271038025

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Philosopher's Story by Morton White Pdf

Author : George Herbert Palmer
Publisher : New York ; London : Johnson Reprint
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 1930
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : NWU:35556027913276

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The Autobiography of a Philosopher by George Herbert Palmer Pdf

Author : Richard Schain
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 129 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2007-09
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780595471430

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Behold The Philosopher by Richard Schain Pdf

Behold The Philosopher presents the development of the author as a philosopher, beginning with his childhood in New York City, through his introduction to philosophy at New York University, then his subsequent training as a research neurologist at Yale, and finally culminating in his departure from medical academia and embarkation into the life of an independent philosopher, totally apart from the conventions of academic philosophy. The epochs in one's life, as Henry David Thoreau once wrote, are one's "thoughts"; the author's thoughts form the central focus of his writings, which are reviewed in this philosophical autobiography. There is a clear metaphysical orientation throughout, as opposed to the analytic and scholarly approach of most contemporary university philosophers. An interview with the author published in the literary magazine The Die is reproduced in full. The epilogue entitled "The Last Infirmity of the Noble Mind" summarizes the author's views on philosophy and the philosophic life. The very essence of philosophy is the discovery of the metaphysical mind. When a philosopher abandons this search for a tenuous membership in the institutions of science and takes on the habits accompanying them, he has abandoned his high calling in the cosmos. He has traded in the philosopher's venerable 'himation' for the dubious white coat of science.

Author : Jerry Martin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-17
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0996725318

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God by Jerry Martin Pdf

The voice announced, "I am God." For Jerry Martin, that encounter began a personal, intellectual, and spiritual adventure. He had not believed in God. He was a philosopher, trained to be skeptical-- to doubt everything. So his first question was: Is this really God talking? There were other urgent questions: What will my wife think? Why would God want to talk to me? Does God want me to do something? He began asking all the questions about life and death and ultimate things to which he--and all of us--have sought answers: Love and loss. Happiness and suffering. Good and evil. Death and the afterlife. The world's religions. The ways God communicates with us. How to live in harmony with God. God: An Autobiography tells the story of these mind-opening conversations with God.Jerry L. Martin was raised in a Christian home. By the time he left college, he was not a believer. But he was interested in the big questions and so he studied the great thinkers. He became a philosophy professor and served as head of the philosophy department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to scholarly articles on epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and public policy, he wrote reports on education that received national attention and was invited to testify before Congress. He stepped down from that career to write this book.

Author : Ben-Ami Scharfstein
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 1989
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780195059274

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The Philosophers by Ben-Ami Scharfstein Pdf

This highly readable volume offers a broad introduction to modern philosophy and philosophers. Scharfstein contends that personal experience, especially that of childhood, affects philosophers' sense of reality and hence the content of their philosophies. Basing his argument on biographical studies of twenty great philosophers, from Descartes to Sartre, he provides the beginnings of a psychological history of philosophy.

Author : Nicholas Rescher
Publisher : University Press of America
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0761805869

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Instructive Journey by Nicholas Rescher Pdf

Nicholas Rescher was born in Germany in 1928 and came to the USA at the age of ten. He attended Queens College in New York City and Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. while still twenty-two. Since 1961 he has been University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh where he has also served as Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and as Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science. The author of more than seventy books in various areas of philosophy, works by Mr. Rescher have been translated into German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese. One of the few contemporary exponents of philosophical idealism, Mr. Rescher has been active in the rehabilitation on the coherence theory of truth and in the reconstruction of philosophical pragmatism in line with the idealistic tradition. He has pioneered the development of inconsistency-tolerant logics and, in the philosophy of science, the exponential retardation theory of scientific progress based on the epistemological principle that knowledge increases merely with the logarithm of the increase in information. Books about Rescher's work have appeared in English, German, and Italian. His contributions to philosophy have been recognized repeatedly by honorary degrees awarded by universities in the U.S.A. and abroad. In 1977 its fellow elected him an honorary member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and in 1983 he received an Alexander von Humboldt Humanities Prize, awarded under the auspices of the Federal Republic of Germany 'in recognition of the research accomplishments of humanistic scholars of international distinction.' In this autobiographical work, Rescher describes his boyhood in Nazi Germany, his family's struggles to make a new life for themselves in the USA of the 1930's, and the vicissitudes attending his own labors as a professional philosopher. The book provides a vivid and humane portrait of the intellectual and personal formation of America's most productive philosophical author.

Author : Willard Van Orman Quine
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 1985
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 0262170035

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The Time of My Life by Willard Van Orman Quine Pdf

"Some Pow'r did us the giftie grant/ To see oursels as others can't." With that play on Burns' famous line as a preface, Willard Van Orman Quine sets out to spin the yarn of his life so far. And it is a gift indeed to see one of the world's most famous philosophers as no one else has seen him before. To catch an intimate glimpse of his seminal and controversial theories of philosophy, logic, and language as they evolved, and to hear his warm and often amusing comments on famous contemporary philosophers. From his beginnings in Akron, Ohio in the early 1900s, Quine takes us on a tour of over 100 countries over three-quarters of a century, including close observations of the Depression and two world wars. Far from a philosophical tract, it is an ebullient, folksy account of a richly varied and rounded life. When he does dip into philosophy, it is generally of the armchair sort, and laced with a gentle good humor: "There is that which one wants to do for the glory of having done it, and there is that which one wants to do for the joy of doing it. One can want to be a scientist because he wants to see himself as a Darwin or an Einstein, and one can want to be a scientist because he is curious about what makes things tick .... In normal cases the two kinds of motivation are in time brought to terms .... In me the glory motive lingered ...... In this book, Quine approaches the details of his life the way he has always approached them with a sharp sense of interest, adventure and fun. And he has a skill for picking a word that is just off-center enough to pull an ordinary event out of the humdrum of daily life and evoke its personal meaning. The result is a book of memories that is utterlymesmerizing. Willard Van Orman Quine is the author of numerous books, including "Word and Object, "published by The MIT Press in 1960. A Bradford Book.

Author : DK
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 772 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2015-03-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781465441065

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The Philosophy Book by DK Pdf

Discover how our big social, political and ethical ideas are formed with The Philosophy Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Philosophy in this overview guide to the subject, great for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Philosophy Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Philosophy, with: - Key quotes from more than 100 of the great thinkers of philosophy - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Philosophy Book is the perfect introduction to philosophy, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover how key concepts in philosophy have shaped our world, with authoritative articles that explore big ideas. Learn about everyone who's contributed to the flow of world philosophy, from antiquity to the modern age, through superb mind maps explaining the line of thought. Your Philosophical Questions, Simply Explained If you thought it was difficult to learn philosophy and its many concepts, The Philosophy Book presents the key ideas in a clear layout. Find out what philosophers thought about the nature of reality, and the fundamental questions we ask ourselves; What is the meaning of life? What is the Universe made of? And work your way through the different branches of philosophy such as metaphysics and ethics, from ancient and modern thinkers. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Philosophy Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

Author : Christopher Hamilton
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 199 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2021-11-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030706579

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Philosophy and Autobiography by Christopher Hamilton Pdf

This book, taking its point of departure from Stanley Cavell’s claim that philosophy and autobiography are dimensions of each other, aims to explore some of the relations between these forms of reflection, first by seeking to develop an outline of a philosophy of autobiography, and then by exploring the issue from the side of five autobiographical works. Christopher Hamilton argues in the volume that there are good reasons for thinking that philosophical texts can be considered autobiographical, and then turns to discuss the autobiographies of Walter Benjamin, Peter Weiss, Jean-Paul Sartre, George Orwell, Edmund Gosse and Albert Camus. In discussing these works, Hamilton explores how they put into question certain received understandings of what philosophical texts suppose themselves to be doing, and also how they themselves constitute philosophical explorations of certain key issues, e.g. the self, death, religious and ethical consciousness, sensuality, the body. Throughout, there is an exploration of the ways in which autobiographies help us in thinking about self-knowledge and knowledge of others. A final chapter raises some issues concerning the fact that the five autobiographies discussed here are all texts dealing with childhood.