Focusing on the limitations of traditional epistemology, this work critiques the conventional philosophical approach to knowledge. It advocates for a shift towards an ecological philosophy that examines the interplay between technology and civilization, emphasizing the need for a more holistic understanding of knowledge in contemporary contexts.
The first book to focus on the intersection of Western philosophy and the Asian martial arts,Striking Beauty collapses the boundaries between Eastern and Western thought, comparatively studying the historical and philosophical traditions of martial arts practice and their ethical value in the modern world. Expanding Western philosophy's global outlook, the book forces a theoretical reckoning with the concerns of Chinese philosophy and the aesthetic and technical dimensions of martial arts practice. Striking Beauty explains the relationship between Asian martial arts and the Chinese philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in addition to the strategic wisdom of Sunzi'sArt of War. It connects martial arts practice to the Western concepts of mind-body dualism and materialism, sports aesthetics, and the ethics of violence. Incorporating innovations in body phenomenology, somaesthetics, and embodied cognition, the work ameliorates Western philosophy's hostility toward the body, emphasizing the pleasure of watching and engaging in martial arts, along with their beauty and the ethical problem of their violence.
Written by a booking clerk, an occupation most people might think dull and uninteresting, Just the Ticket reflects on Barry Allen's career in this profession. Barry's own exploits in this job could hardly be described as dull! Humour forms the basis of his story, without which life would be much the poorer. .
Barry Allen here explains the philosophical ideas of Henri Bergson, a French philosopher prominent in the early 20th century. Allen puts forward Bergson as worthy of re-appraisal, and explains and interprets the arguments across Bergson's work in order to show why they are relevant to Anglophone philosophy today. A chapter is devoted to each of Bergson's four major works, explaining his theories of time, perception, memory, and panpsychic consciousness, his innovative concept of virtual existence, his objection to Darwin, his controversy with Einstein, his philosophy of creative evolution, and his social philosophy of closed and open society.