In de culture wars bestoken partijen elkaars culturele stellingen met claims en verwijten over identiteit, zelfbegrip en sociale tegenstellingen. Cultuurmarxisten, social justice warriors, alt‑righters, incels, populisten en woke activisten strijden in kwesties als Black Lives Matter en #MeToo over voorrechten en achterstelling – soms met ironie, soms verbitterd, maar altijd vanuit de vaste overtuiging van een gelijk dat is verbonden met de eigen identiteit. Juist in die stellige overtuig...

Worden wij de eerste soort op aarde die zijn eigen evolutionaire opvolger gaat scheppen?

Recente ontwikkelingen in de biotechnologie, neurowetenschappen en robotica hebben een diepe impact op ons zelfbegrip en dagelijks leven. Wat te denken van genetisch gemodificeerde baby’s? Of van dwarslaesiepatiënten die een computer kunnen aansturen met hun gedachten? Of van androïde robots die werken als prostituees, zoals in de sciencefictionserie Real Humans? Wie we zijn en wat ...

Deze inleiding tot de taalfilosofie biedt de lezer een historisch overzicht van de

belangrijke analytische taalfilosofen. Het boek vat aan met de baanbrekende

ideeën van Gottlob Frege over de betekenis van een woord als zijn bijdrage tot de

propositie die de spreker wil uitdrukken. De auteur geeft de lezer een uitvoerige

voorstelling van Freges Betekenistheorie, alsook de relatie tussen die theorie en

Freges ruimere inzichten over de rol van taal in kennisoverdracht door communicatie.

Bertra...

One big question. Two great answers. In Is Free Speech Under Threat? two leading thinkers tackle the issue at the very heart of the culture wars.

Suzanne Nossel (CEO of PEN America) puts the case that even though there is an important rebalancing of power taking place in society today, rightly giving minority voices the space and prominence they have long been owed, even so the uncompromising intolerance of a left-leaning minority crosses the threshold of an important principle on which free ...

The classic translation of the cornerstone work of western philosophy Plato's Republic is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an inquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge; what is the purpose of education? ...

New and thoroughly updated, Epistemology:

An Anthology continues to represent the most comprehensive and authoritative collection of canonical readings in the theory of knowledge. Concentrates on the central topics of the field, such as skepticism and the Pyrrhonian problematic, the definition of knowledge, and the structure of epistemic justificationOffers coverage of more specific topics, such as foundationalism vs coherentism, and virtue epistemologyPresents wholly new sections on 'Testim...

History and Philosophy of the Humanities: An Introduction presents a reasoned overview of the conceptual and historical backgrounds of the humanities.

The humanities include disciplines as diverse as literary theory, linguistics, history, film studies, theology, and philosophy. Do these various fields of study have anything in common that distinguishes them from, say, physics or sociology? The tripartite division between the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities may seem se...

In Imagining Europe, Chiara Bottici and Benoit Challand explore the formation of modern European identity. Europe has not always been there, although we have been imagining it for quite some time. Even after the birth of a polity called the European Union, the meaning of Europe remained a very much contested topic.

What is Europe? What are its boundaries? Is there a specific European identity or is the EU just the name for a group of institutions? This book answers these questions, showing th...

What is meaning? How is linguistic communication possible? What is the nature of language? What is the relationship between language and the world? How do metaphors work? The Philosophy of Language, considered the essential text in its field, is an excellent introduction to such fundamental questions. This revised edition collects forty-eight of the most important articles in the field, making it the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the subject. Revised toaddress changing trends an...