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Answers for Aristotle : how science and philosophy can lead us to a more meaningful life / Massimo Pigliucci.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Pigliucci, Massimo, 1964-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Life.
- Ethics.
- Conduct of life.
- Science.
- Philosophy.
- Aristotle.
- Physical Description:
- 312 pages ; 22 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Basic Books, [2012]
- Summary:
- Pigliucci, a philosophy professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and former biology professor at Stony Brook University, argues for a productive relationship with science and philosophy that leads to the kind of well-being Aristotle indicates in his writings on "eudaimonia." He holds science and philosophy apart though and insists on avoiding the naturalistic fallacy of equivocating what is with what ought to be. This is supposed to affect how we live our lives and so the major themes of the book are of practical matters like how we decide between right and wrong and the evolution of morality, how we know what we do and the cognitive science behind intuition, self-knowledge and the psychological limits of willpower, politics and our sense of fairness, the brain and religious experience. A final section takes a stab at human nature and the meaning of life, where Pigliucci offers a hopeful prognosis about our baser nature's influence over the rest of us. In the end is a thematic guide for further reading. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
- Contents:
- Sci-phi and the meaning of life
- Trolley dilemmas and how we make moral decisions
- Your brain on morality
- The evolution of morality
- A handy-dandy menu for building your own moral theory
- The not so rational animal
- Intuition vs. rationality, and how to become really good at what you do
- The limits of science
- The (limited) power of the will
- Who's in charge anyway?: the zombie inside you
- The hormones of love
- Friendship and the meaning of life
- Right, left, up, down: on politics
- Our innate sense of fairness
- On justice
- Your brain on God
- The evolution of religion
- Euthryphro's dilemma, morality as a human problem
- Conclusion: so what?
- Human nature and the meaning of life.
- Notes:
- Includes index.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780465021383
- 0465021387
- 9780465032808
- 046503280X
- OCLC:
- 793005281
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