Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and Its Place in Culture -- Essays on Science, Religion, Law, Literature, and Life - Softcover

Haack, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616144939 ISBN 13: 9781616144937

Publisher: Prometheus, 2013

Synopsis

This engaging and wide-ranging collection of essays is informed and unified by the conviction that philosophy can, and should, engage with real-world issues. Susan Haack's keen analytical skills and well-chosen illustrations illuminate a diverse range of cultural questions; and her direct style and wry sense of humor make complex ideas and subtle distinctions accessible to serious readers whatever their discipline or particular interests. Putting Philosophy to Work will appeal not only to philosophers but also to thoughtful scientists, economists, legal thinkers, historians, literary scholars, and humanists. This new, expanded second edition includes several previously unpublished essays: a devastating critique of Karl Popper's highly (and dangerously) influential philosophy of science; a searching and thought-provoking analysis of scientism; and a groundbreaking paper on "academic ethics in a preposterous environment" that every professor, and would-be professor, should read.

About this title

About the Author:

Susan Haack (Coral Gables, FL) is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, professor of philosophy, and professor of law at the University of Miami. She is the author of numerous highly acclaimed books, including Defending Science-Within Reason; Philosophy of Logics; Evidence and Inquiry; Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Beyond the Formalism; and Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays; and the editor of Pragmatism, Old and New. She is one of the handful of living philosophers in Peter King's 100 Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers, and she was included in the Sunday Independent's 2005 list of the ten most important women philosophers of all time.

Review:

"Doing justice to these essays in a couple of sentences is a tough assignment. Susan Haack shows how the approach to philosophy she has done much to articulate can illuminate an impressively wide range of important issues - philosophical, scientific, social and legal - which she analyses with balance and rigor. A great collection!" --F. John Celndinnen, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne

"In these times, when one has to fight against irrationalism and pedantry, Haack's new book is a powerful stimulus for those who believe in the value of intelligence, honesty, and informed common sense. Haack has become one of the greatest Pragmatists; in the spirit of classical Pragmatism, she regrets the present state of philosophy, trapped between analytic scholasticism, dogmatic ideology, irrelevant technicalities, and grandiloquent vacuities. These essays reflect a mature conception of philosophy and rational inquiry from an outstandingly sensible philosopher." --Maria J. Frápolli, Univeristy of Granada, President of the Spanish Society for Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science

"Susan Haack has been amazingly and admirably energetic, creative, and productive. Her range extends from logic, epistemology, metaphysics, etc., to science, religion, law, literature, and life. There is almost no topic on which she does not contribute penetrating and reasonable viewpoints of her own - with rigor, clarity, scope, depth, pertinence, and significance. This book, manifesting the intellectual integrity of a real and responsible thinker, will interest every reader who really cares about wisdom, truth, and the world." --Chen Bo, Professor of Philosophy, Peking University

"In these times, when one has to fight against irrationalism and pedantry, Haack's new book is a powerful stimulus for those who believe in the value of intelligence, honesty, and informed common sense. Haack has become one of the greatest Pragmatists; in the spirit of classical Pragmatism, she regrets the present state of philosophy, trapped between analytic scholasticism, dogmatic ideology, irrelevant technicalities, and grandiloquent vacuities. These essays reflect a mature conception of philosophy and rational inquiry from an outstandingly sensible philosopher." --Maria J. Frápolli, Univeristy of Granada, President of the Spanish Society for Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science

"Susan Haack has been amazingly and admirably energetic, creative, and productive. Her range extends from logic, epistemology, metaphysics, etc., to science, religion, law, literature, and life. There is almost no topic on which she does not contribute penetrating and reasonable viewpoints of her own - with rigor, clarity, scope, depth, pertinence, and significance. This book, manifesting the intellectual integrity of a real and responsible thinker, will interest every reader who really cares about wisdom, truth, and the world." --Chen Bo, Professor of Philosophy, Peking University

About this edition

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1616144939
• ISBN 13: 9781616144937
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 346