Concept audits : a philosophical method / Nicholas Rescher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rescher, Nicholas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Methodology.

Concepts.

Physical Description:

ix, 184 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, [2016]

Summary:

Concept auditing is based on an innovative premise for philosophers: when they address an everyday-life conception on the order of knowledge, truth, justice, fairness, beauty, or the like and purport to be dealing with what it involves, then they must honor the existing meanings of these terms. And insofar as the prevailing meaning is being contravened, they must explain how and justify why this is being done. They must, in sum, explain how their treatment of a topic relates to our established pre-systematic understanding of the issues involved and relate their deliberations to the prevailing conception of the matter they are proposing to discuss. The aim of a concept audit is to consider to what extent a given philosophical discussion honors this communicative obligation. Concept Audits sets out not only to explain and defend this procedure, but also to consider a host of applications and exemplifications of these ideas. Nicholas Rescher shows how this method of conceptual auditing can function to elucidate and evaluate philosophical theses and doctrine across a wide spectrum of issues, ranging from logic to ethics and metaphysics. Accordingly, he explains and illustrates an instructive innovation in philosophical method. This new study of philosophical methodology presents its method in a clear and convincing way and shows the method at work with respect to a wide spectrum of important philosophical issues. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Methodology 1

1 Introduction: The Concept Auditing Process 3

Part II Some Historical Applications 13

2 The Socratic Method as an Illustration 15

3 Neo-Platonic Wholes 17

4 Descartes and Generalization 21

5 Spinoza on Things and Ideas 24

6 Kantian Absolutism in Moral Theory 26

7 Mill on Desirability 30

8 Ordinary-Language Philosophy on the Nature of Knowing 33

9 Russell-Gettier on the Analysis of Knowledge 36

10 Concept Dialectics in Historical Perspective 42

11 Metaphysical Illusions 51

Part III Further Illustrative Applications 55

12 Who Dun It? 57

13 Existence: To Be Or Not To Be 59

14 Explanatory Regression 64

15 The Fallacy of Respect Neglect 71

16 Appearance and Reality 78

17 On Truth about Reality 82

18 Sameness and Change 85

19 Origination Issues 89

20 Shaping Ideas 91

21 Construing Necessitation 94

22 Conceptual Horizons 96

23 Language Limits 100

24 On Certainty 107

25 Timeless Truth? 110

26 Assessing Acceptability 112

27 Value Neutrality in Science 115

28 Personhood and Obligation 119

29 Control Issues 125

30 Fairness Problems 136

31 The Ethics of Delegation 147

32 Doing Unto Others 150

33 Faux Quantities 151

34 Luck versus Fortune 153

35 The Problem of Progress 157

36 Issues of Excellence 159

37 Problems of Perfection 170

Part IV Conclusion 173

38 Concluding Observations 175.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Rescher, Nicholas, author. Concept audits

ISBN:

9781498540391

1498540392

OCLC:

950611368