2. What robots do now
Alan Winfield
in Robotics: A Very Short Introduction
‘What robots do now’ looks at robots in industry and our lives today. Assembly line robots, or robot arms, lie on the unglamorous end of the robot family. These robots are effective as they ...
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3. Explanation in science
Samir Okasha
in Philosophy of Science: Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
‘Explanation in science’ begins with Carl Hempel’s covering law model of explanation, which says that to explain a phenomenon is to show that its occurrence follows deductively from a ...
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10. What is metaphysics?
Stephen Mumford
in Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction
‘What is metaphysics?’ attempts to explain the discipline as trying to understand the fundamental nature of reality. Metaphysics seeks to organize and systematize all these specific truths ...
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Introduction
Frank A. J. L. James
in Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction
Michael Faraday's science addressed three key themes: research, communication, and application. These themes linked in various ways during his lifetime, although the relative amount of time ...
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5. Justice
Malcolm Gaskill
in Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction
The early church did not execute witches, seeing them as reformable, but in the Middle Ages the campaign against heresy intensified. Reliance on secular power to kill diabolists was ...
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5. Modern Times I: The Christian Kabbalah
Joseph Dan
in Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction
Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the Kabbalah transformed from a uniquely Jewish tradition to one mixed with European culture, Christian thinking, philosophy, science, and magic. ...
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10. Nature and grace
Henry Chadwick
in Augustine: A Very Short Introduction
In reaction against Manicheism, Augustine in his thirties stressed both church authority and individual freedom. Without God's grace to rescue the fallen man, the right path could not be ...
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1. What is science?
Samir Okasha
in Philosophy of Science: Very Short Introduction (2nd edn)
What is the distinguishing feature of science? ‘What is science?’ explores this question from a philosophical and a historical perspective. One answer is that scientific enquiry involves ...
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5. Science and philosophy
Jerry Brotton
in The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction
The word ‘ambivalence’ best captures the mood of the transformations in popular and applied sciences of the 15th and 16th centuries. We want to know more, but can we know too much? ‘Science ...
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2. Why did the analysis of dream content fail to become a science?
J. Allan Hobson
in Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction
‘Why did the analysis of dream content fail to become a science?’ focuses on Freud's psychoanalytic model as it was developed in his Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895) and The ...
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2. Hobbes's work
Richard Tuck
in Hobbes: A Very Short Introduction
Hobbes began his philosophical enquiries from interest in the philosophical problems raised by modern natural science, and the idea of replacing late Renaissance scepticism with a ...
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2. Finding our place
Bernard Wood
in Human Evolution: A Very Short Introduction
‘Finding our place’ reviews the history of how philosophers and then scientists came to realize that humans are part of the natural world. Classical philosophers believed mankind evolved ...
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7. Scientism versus Obscurantism: Avoiding the traditional predicament in philosophy
Simon Critchley
in Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
‘Scientism versus Obscurantism: Avoiding the traditional predicament in philosophy’ argues that from a Continental perspective, the adoption of scientism in philosophy fails fundamentally ...
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Introduction
Lawrence M. Principe
in The Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction
What was the Scientific Revolution and when was it? The Introduction states that it started around 1500 and ended around 1700 and it is the most important and talked-about era in the ...
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6. Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and the ‘death of God’
Andrew Bowie
in German Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction
‘Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and the “death of God”’ looks at the questioning of self-determination in the work of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The importance of Greek tragedy to German ...
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7. Faraday in the 20th century
Frank A. J. L. James
in Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction
The centenary of Michael Faraday's birth in 1891 was celebrated by a commemorative meeting of the Royal Institution. ‘Faraday in the 20th century’ charts his reputation, which once again ...
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6. How should the agnostic live?
Robin Le Poidevin
in Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction
‘How should the agnostic live?’ compares the effects of agnosticism in science and morality. It argues that a religious life is possible for the agnostic. The argument for faith known as ...
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5. Science
Ronald de Sousa
in Love: A Very Short Introduction
Scientific scrutiny of love cannot reduce it to mere physical processes. Other perspectives are needed to explain why these mechanisms exist in the first place and what role they play in ...
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1. Fear
Malcolm Gaskill
in Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction
‘Fear’ reminds us that witches are monsters haunting our dreams, confirming who we are through what we are not. Witches are living projections of feelings that defy easy rationalization or ...
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2. Heresy
Malcolm Gaskill
in Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction
According to ‘Heresy’, historically, political and religious orthodoxy went together. Romans saw witches as ruthless criminals. The early Christian church expressed hostility to magic but ...
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