Recommendations based on "Wisdom of Thomas Jefferson"

Decision-Theoretic Foundations.- From Prior Information to Prior Distributions.- Bayesian Point Estimation.- Tests and Confidence Regions.- Bayesian Calculations.- Model Choice.- Admissibility and Complete Classes.- Invariance, Haar Measures, and Equivariant Estimators.- Hierarchical and Empirical Bayes Extensions.- A Defense of the Bayesian Choice.

'a Cerebrally Enjoyable Survey, Written With Great Clarity And Touches Of Wit . . . The Non-western Section Throws Up Some Fascinating Revelations' Sunday Times The Story Of Philosophy Is An Epic Tale: An Exploration Of The Ideas, Views And Teachings Of Some Of The Most Creative Minds Known To Humanity. But There Has Been No Comprehensive And Entertaining, Single-volume History Of This Great Intellectual Journey Since 1945. With His Characteristic Clarity And Elegance A. C. Grayling Takes The Reader From The World-views And Moralities Before The Age Of The Buddha, Confucius And Socrates, Through Christianity's Dominance Of The European Mind To The Renaissance And Enlightenment, And On To Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre, And Philosophy Today. And, Since The Story Of Philosophy Is Incomplete Without Mention Of The Great Philosophical Traditions Of India, China And The Persian-arabic World, He Gives A Comparative Survey Of Them Too. Intelligible For Students And Eye-opening For Philosophy Readers, He Covers Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Aesthetics, Logic, The Philosophy Of Mind, The Philosophy Of Language, Political Philosophy And The History Of Debates In These Areas Of Enquiry, Through The Ideas Of The Celebrated Philosophers As Well As Less Well-known Influential Thinkers. He Also Asks What We Have Learnt From This Body Of Thought, And What Progress Is Still To Be Made. The First Authoritative And Accessible Single-volume History Of Philosophy For Decades, Remarkable For Its Range And Clarity, This Is A Landmark Work.

The Perennial Philosophy is defined by its author as "The metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds." With great wit and stunning intellect, Aldous Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains them in terms that are personally meaningful.

A profoundly beautiful and uniquely insightful description of the universe, Benedict de Spinoza's Ethics is one of the masterpieces of Enlightenment-era philosophy.Published shortly after his death, the Ethics is undoubtedly Spinoza's greatest work - an elegant, fully cohesive cosmology derived from first principles, providing a coherent picture of reality, and a guide to the meaning of an ethical life. Following a logical step-by-step format, it defines in turn the nature of God, the mind, the emotions, human bondage to the emotions, and the power of understanding - moving from a consideration of the eternal, to speculate upon humanity's place in the natural order, the nature of freedom and the path to attainable happiness. A powerful work of elegant simplicity, the Ethics is a brilliantly insightful consideration of the possibility of redemption through intense thought and philosophical reflection. The Ethics is presented in the standard translation of the work by Edwin Curley. This edition also includes an introduction by Stuart Hampshire, outlining Spinoza's philosophy and placing it in context.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This book, one of the first full-length studies of the modalities to emerge from the debate to which Saul Kripke, David Lewis, Ruth Marcus, and others are contributing, is an exploration and defense of the notion of modality de re, the idea that objects have both essential and accidental properties. Plantinga develops his argument by means of the notion of possible worlds and ranges over such key problems as the nature of essence, transworld identity, negative existential propositions, and the existence of unactual objects in other possible worlds. He also applies his logical theories to the elucidation of two problems in the philosophy of religion: the problem of evil and the ontological argument.

Contemporary science presents us with the remarkable theory that the universe began to exist about fifteen billion years ago with a cataclysmic explosion called "the Big Bang." The question of whether Big Bang cosmology supports theism or atheism has long been a matter of discussion among the general public and in popular science books, but has received scant attention from philosophers. This book sets out to fill this gap by means of a sustained debate between two philosophers, William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith, who defend opposing positions. Craig argues that the Big Bang that began the universe was created by God, while Smith argues that the Big Bang has no cause. Alternating chapters by the two philosophers criticize and attempt to refute preceding arguments. Their arguments are based on Einstein's theory of relativity and include a discussion of the new quantum cosmology recently developed by Stephen Hawking and popularized in A Brief History of Time.

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, first published in 1764, is a series of short, radical essays - alphabetically arranged - that form a brilliant and bitter analysis of the social and religious conventions that then dominated eighteenth-century French thought. One of the masterpieces of the Enlightenment, this enormously influential work of sardonic wit - more a collection of essays arranged alphabetically, than a conventional dictionary - considers such diverse subjects as Abraham and Atheism, Faith and Freedom of Thought, Miracles and Moses. Repeatedly condemned by civil and religious authorities, Voltaire's work argues passionately for the cause of reason and justice, and criticizes Christian theology and contemporary attitudes towards war and society - and claims, as he regards the world around him: 'common sense is not so common'.

Introduction : doing science in a complex world. Science by humans ; Science in a complex world ; The payoff : idealizations and many aims -- Complex causality and simplified representation. Causal patterns in the face of complexity ; Causal patterns ; Causal complexity ; Simplification by idealization ; Reasons to idealize ; Idealizations' representational role ; Rampant and unchecked idealization -- The diversity of scientific projects. Broad patterns : modeling cooperation ; A specific phenomenon : variation in human aggression ; Predictions and idealizations in the physical sciences ; Surveying the diversity -- Science isn't after the truth. The aims of science ; Understanding as science's epistemic aim ; Separate pursuit of science's aims ; Understanding, truth, and knowledge ; The nature of scientific understanding ; The role of truth and scientific knowledge -- Causal pattern explanations. Explanation, communication, and understanding ; An account of scientific explanation ; The scope of causal patterns ; The crucial role of the audience ; Adequate explanations -- Levels and fields of science. Levels in philosophy and science ; Going without levels ; Against hierarchy ; Prizing apart forms of stratification ; The fields of science and how they relate -- Scientific pluralism and its limits. The entrenchment of social values ; How science doesn't inform metaphysics ; Scientific progress.

Are people ever rational? Consider this: You auction off a one-dollar bill to the highest bidder, but you set the rules so that the second highest bidder also has to pay the amount of his last bid, even though he gets nothing. Would people ever enter such an auction? Not only do they, but according to Martin Shubik, the game's inventor, the average winning bid (for a dollar, remember) is $3.40. Many winners report that they bid so high only because their opponent "went completely crazy." This game lies at the intersection of three subjects of eternal fascination: human psychology, morality, and John von Neumann's game theory. Hungarian game-theorist Laszlo Mero introduces us to the basics of game theory, including such concepts as zero-sum games, Prisoner's Dilemma and the origins of altruism; shows how game theory is applicable to fields ranging from physics to politics; and explores the role of rational thinking in the context of many different kinds of thinking. This fascinating, urbane book will interest everyone who wonders what mathematics can tell us about the human condition.

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? These questions today are among the most hotly debated issues among scientists and philosophers, and we have seen in recent years superb volumes by such eminent figures as Francis Crick, Daniel C. Dennett, Gerald Edelman, and Roger Penrose, all firing volleys in what has come to be called the consciousness wars. Now, in The Conscious Mind, philosopher David J. Chalmers offers a cogent analysis of this heated debate as he unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain. Writing in a rigorous, thought-provoking style, the author takes us on a far-reaching tour through the philosophical ramifications of consciousness. Chalmers convincingly reveals how contemporary cognitive science and neurobiology have failed to explain how and why mental events emerge from physiological occurrences in the brain. He proposes instead that conscious experience must be understood in an entirely new light--as an irreducible entity (similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space) that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the sum of its parts. And after suggesting some intriguing possibilities about the structure and laws of conscious experience, he details how his unique reinterpretation of the mind could be the focus of a new science. Throughout the book, Chalmers provides fascinating thought experiments that trenchantly illustrate his ideas. For example, in exploring the notion that consciousness could be experienced by machines as well as humans, Chalmers asks us to imagine a thinking brain in which neurons are slowly replaced by silicon chips that precisely duplicate their functions--as the neurons are replaced, will consciousness gradually fade away? The book also features thoughtful discussions of how the author's theories might be practically applied to subjects as diverse as artificial intelligence and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. All of us have pondered the nature and meaning of consciousness. Engaging and penetrating, The Conscious Mind adds a fresh new perspective to the subject that is sure to spark debate about our understanding of the mind for years to come.