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The Current State of the Coherence Theory

Author: J. Bender

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 9400923600

The subtitle of this book should be read as a qualification as much as an elaboration of the title. If the goal were completeness, then this book would have included essays on the work of other philosophers such as Wilfrid Sellars, Nicholas Rescher, Donald Davidson, Gilbert Harman and Michael Williams. Although it would be incorrect to say that each of these writers has set forth a version of the coherence theory of justification and knowledge, it is clear that their work is directly relevant, and reaction to it could easily fill a companion volume. This book concentrates, however, on the theories of Keith Lehrer and Laurence BonJour, and I doubt that any epistemologist would deny that they are presently the two leading proponents of coherentism. A sure indication of this was the ease with which the papers in this volume were solicited and delivered. The many authors represented here were willing, prepared, and excited to join in the discussion of BonJour's and Lehrer's recent writings. I thank each one personally for agreeing so freely to contribute. All of the essays but two are published for the first time here. Marshall Swain's and Alvin Goldman's papers were originally presented at a symposium on BonJour's The Structure of Empirical Knowledge at the annual meeting of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, Illinois, in April, 1987.

The Tapestry of Reason

Author: Amalia Amaya

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-04-30

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 1782255176

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In recent years coherence theories of law and adjudication have been extremely influential in legal scholarship. These theories significantly advance the case for coherentism in law. Nonetheless, there remain a number of problems in the coherence theory in law. This ambitious new work makes the first concerted attempt to develop a coherence-based theory of legal reasoning, and in so doing addresses, or at least mitigates these problems. The book is organized in three parts. The first part provides a critical analysis of the main coherentist approaches to both normative and factual reasoning in law. The second part investigates the coherence theory in a number of fields that are relevant to law: coherence theories of epistemic justification, coherentist approaches to belief revision and theory-choice in science, coherence theories of practical and moral reasoning and coherence-based approaches to discourse interpretation. Taking this interdisciplinary analysis as a starting point, the third part develops a coherence-based model of legal reasoning. While this model builds upon the standard theory of legal reasoning, it also leads to rethinking some of the basic assumptions that characterize this theory, and suggests some lines along which it may be further developed. Thus, ultimately, the book not only improves upon the current state of coherence theory in law, but also contributes to the larger debate about how to articulate a theory of legal reasoning that results in better decision-making.

Introduction to the Theory of Coherence and Polarization of Light

Author: Emil Wolf

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-10-11

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 0521822114

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All optical fields undergo random fluctuations. They may be small, as in the output of many lasers, or they may be appreciably larger, as in light generated by thermal sources. The underlying theory of fluctuating optical fields is known as coherence theory. An important manifestation of the fluctuations is the phenomenon of partial polarization. Actually, coherence theory deals with considerably more than fluctuations. Unlike usual treatments, it describes optical fields in terms of observable quantities and elucidates how such quantities, for example, the spectrum of light, change as light propagates. This book is the first to provide a unified treatment of the phenomena of coherence and polarization. The unification has been made possible by very recent discoveries, largely due to the author of this book. The subjects treated in this volume are of considerable importance for graduate students and for research workers in physics and in engineering, who are concerned with optical communications, with propagation of laser beams through fibers and through the turbulent atmosphere, with optical image formation, particularly in microscopes, and with medical diagnostics, for example. Each chapter contains problems to aid self-study. Book jacket.

Theory of Knowledge

Author: Keith Lehrer

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1135196095

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In this important new text, Keith Lehrer introduces students to the major traditional and contemporary accounts of knowing. Beginning with the accepted definition of knowledge as justified true belief, Lehrer explores the truth, belief and justification conditions on the way to a thorough examination of foundation theories of knowledge, externalism and naturalized epistemologies, internalism and modern coherence theories as well as recent reliabilist and causal theories. Lehrer gives all views careful examination and concludes that external factors must be matched by appropriate internal ones to yield knowledge. Readers of Professor Lehrer's earlier book Knowledge will want to know that this text adopts the framework of that classic text. But Theory of Knowledge is a completely rewritten and updated version of that book that has been simplified throughout for student use.

Real Knowing

Author: Linda Alcoff

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780801430473

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"Real" knowing always involves a political dimension, Linda Martín Alcoff suggests. But this does not mean we need to give up realism or the possibility of truth. Recent work in continental philosophy insists on the influence that power and desire exert on knowing, whereas contemporary analytic philosophy largely ignores these political concerns in its accounts of justification and truth. Alcoff engages these traditionally conflicting approaches in a constructive dialogue, effectively spanning the analytic/continental divide.In provocative readings of major figures in the continental tradition, Alcoff shows that the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Michel Foucault can help rectify key problems in coherence epistemology, such as the link between coherence and truth. She also argues that discussions about knowledge among continental philosophers can benefit from the work of analytic philosophers Donald Davidson and Hilary Putnam on meaning and ontology. Alcoff makes a compelling case for the need to address truth as a metaphysical issue, in contrast to minimalist tendencies in Anglo-American philosophy and deconstructionism on the continent. Her work persuasively argues for coherentist epistemology as a more realistic reconfiguration of the ontology of truth.

A Companion to the Philosophy of Language

Author: Bob Hale

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-02-15

Total Pages: 1176

ISBN-13: 1118972082

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“Providing up-to-date, in-depth coverage of the central question, and written and edited by some of the foremost practitioners in the field, this timely new edition will no doubt be a go-to reference for anyone with a serious interest in the philosophy of language.” Kathrin Glüer-Pagin, Stockholm University Now published in two volumes, the second edition of the best-selling Companion to the Philosophy of Language provides a complete survey of contemporary philosophy of language. The Companion has been greatly extended and now includes a monumental 17 new essays – with topics chosen by the editors, who curated suggestions from current contributors – and almost all of the 25 original chapters have been updated to take account of recent developments in the field. In addition to providing a synoptic view of the key issues, figures, concepts, and debates, each essay introduces new and original contributions to ongoing debates, as well as addressing a number of new areas of interest, including two-dimensional semantics, modality and epistemic modals, and semantic relationism. The extended “state-of-the-art” chapter format allows the authors, all of whom are internationally eminent scholars in the field, to incorporate original research to a far greater degree than competitor volumes. Unrivaled in scope, this volume represents the best contemporary critical thinking relating to the philosophy of language.

Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics

Author: Leonard Mandel

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1995-09-29

Total Pages: 1200

ISBN-13: 9780521417112

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This book presents a systematic account of optical coherence theory within the framework of classical optics, as applied to such topics as radiation from sources of different states of coherence, foundations of radiometry, effects of source coherence on the spectra of radiated fields, coherence theory of laser modes, and scattering of partially coherent light by random media.

Coherence in Thought and Action

Author: Paul Thagard

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2002-07-26

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 9780262700924

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This book is an essay on how people make sense of each other and the world they live in. Making sense is the activity of fitting something puzzling into a coherent pattern of mental representations that include concepts, beliefs, goals, and actions. Paul Thagard proposes a general theory of coherence as the satisfaction of multiple interacting constraints, and discusses the theory's numerous psychological and philosophical applications. Much of human cognition can be understood in terms of coherence as constraint satisfaction, and many of the central problems of philosophy can be given coherence-based solutions. Thagard shows how coherence can help to unify psychology and philosophy, particularly when addressing questions of epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, politics, and aesthetics. He also shows how coherence can integrate cognition and emotion.

A Coherence Theory in Ethics

Author: Joseph P. Demarco

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-06-08

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 9004463674

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This book offers a comprehensive approach to moral experience. It respects the many dimensions of our moral life which elude the traditional philosophical theories that deal exclusively with principles, consequences, virtues, or some other single dimension. Working from a critique of such traditions, the book shows how to integrate their values in a dynamic coherence. Thus, it is not just another ethical theory, but a new level of philosophizing in ethics which rewards the reader with an enlarged and enriched vision of our complexity as moral beings.

The Oxford Handbook of Truth

Author: Michael Glanzberg

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-26

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13: 0191502650

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Truth is one of the central concepts in philosophy, and has been a perennial subject of study. Michael Glanzberg has brought together 36 leading experts from around the world to produce the definitive guide to philosophical issues to do with truth. They consider how the concept of truth has been understood from antiquity to the present day, surveying major debates about truth during the emergence of analytic philosophy. They offer critical assessments of the standard theories of truth, including the coherence, correspondence, identity, and pragmatist theories. They explore the role of truth in metaphysics, with lively discussion of truthmakers, proposition, determinacy, objectivity, deflationism, fictionalism, relativism, and pluralism. Finally the handbook explores broader applications of truth in philosophy, including ethics, science, and mathematics, and reviews formal work on truth and its application to semantic paradox. This Oxford Handbook will be an invaluable resource across all areas of philosophy.