The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science - Hardcover

Braude, Stephen E.

3.22

9 ratings by Goodreads

9780710205568: The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0710205562 ISBN 13: 9780710205568

Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Levitations, materializations, healings, earthquake-like rocking. The evidence of large scale spontaneous psychokinesis through history is a neglected and unjustly maligned aspect of the science of parapsychology. In "The Limits of Influence" Stephen E. Braude argues that the familiar card-guessing experiments and statistical proofs' of PSI will never elicit important or revealing facts about the phenomena. Instead he turns our attention to the substantial (if sometimes bizarre) qualitative evidence. Not only does this pose no threat to the fabric of science, but it holds out hope for substantial progress in psychology, as well as in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mind which have so far have failed to solve fundamental problems of consciousness and intentionality. This book should be of interest to students and teachers of philosophy and psychology.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Stephen E. Braude is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. He is also the author of First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Revised Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995).

Review:

Praise for the Original Edition: I'm delighted to see it in print. Braude is surely one of the best-informed and most readable philosophical guides, and his book offers the most orderly entry into the inevitable quarrels. The anecdotal material is absolutely fascinating. But Braude's careful speculation about its bearing on causality and empirical confirmation are even more intriguing and much more important. (Joseph Margolis, Temple University CHOICE)

Rigorous and well written―highly recommended. (Joseph Margolis, Temple University The Scientific and Medical Network Review)

...this work is the only comparable work of sophisticated philosophical analysis. Fine scholarship on the reports of mediums and apparitions is combined with careful philosophical reasoning...The subject itself, with lively discussion of historical examples, will appeal to a wide audience. The careful argumentation should especially provoke philosophers and parapsychologists. Recommended for college and university collections. (CHOICE)

...this work is the only comparable work of sophisticated philosophical analysis. Fine scholarship on the reports of mediums and apparitions is combined with careful philosophical reasoning...The subject itself, with lively discussion of historical examples, will appeal to a wide audience. The careful argumentation should especially provoke philosophers and parapsychologists. Recommended for college and university collections. (CHOICE)

Praise for the Original Edition: I'm delighted to see it in print. Braude is surely one of the best-informed and most readable philosophical guides, and his book offers the most orderly entry into the inevitable quarrels. The anecdotal material is absolutely fascinating. But Braude's careful speculation about its bearing on causality and empirical confirmation are even more intriguing and much more important. (Joseph Margolis, Temple University CHOICE)

Rigorous and well written―highly recommended. (Joseph Margolis, Temple University The Scientific and Medical Network Review)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.