Reality's Fugue : Reconciling Worldviews in Philosophy, Religion, and Science / F. Samuel Brainard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brainard, F. Samuel, 1943- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reality.

Religion--Philosophy.

Religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

University Park, PA : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Science, religion, philosophy: these three categories of thought have organized humankind's search for meaning from time immemorial. Reality's Fugue presents a compelling case that these ways of understanding, often seen as competing, are part of a larger puzzle that cannot be rendered by one account of reality alone.This book begins with an overview of the concept of reality and the philosophical difficulties associated with attempts to account for it through any single worldview. By clarifying the differences among first-person, third-person, and dualist understandings of reality, F. Samuel Brainard repurposes the three predominant ways of making sense of those differences: exclusionist (only one worldview can be right), inclusivist (viewing other worldviews through the lens of one in order to incorporate them all, and thus distorting them), and pluralist or relativist (holding that there are no universals, and truth is relative). His alternative mode of understanding uses Douglas Hofstadter's metaphor of a musical fugue that allows different "voices" and "melodies" of worldviews to coexist in counterpoint and conversation, while each remains distinct, with none privileged above the others. Approaching reality in this way, Brainard argues, opens up the possibility for a multivoiced perspective that can overcome the skeptical challenges that metaphysical positions face.Engagingly argued by a lifelong scholar of philosophy and global religions, this edifying and accessible exploration of the nature of reality addresses deeply meaningful questions about belief, reconciliation, and being.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART ONE: WHAT IS REAL?

Chapter One: The Predicament

Chapter Two: Two Views of Reality

PART TWO: THREE THEMES

Chapter Three: Universals and Particulars

Chapter Four: Hinduism and the Third-Person View

Chapter Five: Awareness and Its Objects

Chapter Six: Buddhism and the First-Person View

Chapter Seven: The Dualism of Everyday Reality

Chapter Eight: Western Theism and the Dualist View

PART THREE: REALITY AS FUGUE

Introduction to Part Three

Chapter Nine: Awareness's Two Roles

Chapter Ten: Artifacts of Awareness

Chapter Eleven: Physical Reality

Chapter Twelve: Religions Revisited

Postscripts

Postscript One: Scale as a Dimension of Reality

Postscript Two: A Definition for Truth

Acknowledgments

Terms Defined in This Book

Glossary of Hindu and Buddhist Terms

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780271080574

0271080574

OCLC:

1309022424