Being and Value
Toward a Constructive Postmodern Metaphysics
Published on 1. March 1996
Book
Paperback/Softback
406 pages
978-0-7914-2756-9 (ISBN)
Description
Shows the vital relationship between human life and the philosophical placement of value, emphasizing the now-occurring transition from the old mechanical world view to the postmodern alternative inspired by ecology.
Being and Value begins with a discussion on metaphysics, showing the vital relationship between human life and the philosophical placement of value, and emphasizing the current transition from the old mechanical worldview to the postmodern alternative inspired by ecology.
Being and Value shows how intimately premodern philosophy bound value into the fabric of things, and analyzes the expulsion of value from factual being during the modern period. Special attention is given to beauty: What is the relationship between the subjective and objective conditions of beauty? Is the beauty of nature merely the product of human appreciation? The answer is that beauty-and value-is a more potent ingredient in the structure of things than modern reductionism allows.
Being and Value begins with a discussion on metaphysics, showing the vital relationship between human life and the philosophical placement of value, and emphasizing the current transition from the old mechanical worldview to the postmodern alternative inspired by ecology.
Being and Value shows how intimately premodern philosophy bound value into the fabric of things, and analyzes the expulsion of value from factual being during the modern period. Special attention is given to beauty: What is the relationship between the subjective and objective conditions of beauty? Is the beauty of nature merely the product of human appreciation? The answer is that beauty-and value-is a more potent ingredient in the structure of things than modern reductionism allows.
Reviews / Votes
"This volume is metaphysics with courage and conviction, set forth with persuasion and comprehensiveness, at a time when few people have such metaphysical courage, conviction, and comprehensiveness (and a great many people are cultured despisers of it)." - Holmes Rolston, Colorado State UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
691 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-2756-9 (9780791427569)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Frederick Ferre is Research Professor of Philosophy at The University of Georgia, Athens. He is the editor of Research in Philosophy and Technology and co-founded the Faculty of Environmental Ethics at the University of Georgia.
Content
Preface
Introduction to SUNY Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought
David Ray Griffin, Editor
1. What Is Metaphysics?
How Metaphysical Theories Are Familiar
How Metaphysical Theories Are Strange
How Metaphysical Theories Are Valued
PART ONE PREMODERN METAPHYSICS
2. The Great Pioneers
Cosmos and Decent Order
The Milesians
The Pythagoreans
Change or Permanence?
Pluralists and Atomists
The Sophists
3. The Great Hellenes
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
4. The Great Transition
Value-Echoes of Some pre-Socratics
The Platonic Value-Lens
The Aristotelian Value-Lens
Premodern to Protomodern
PART TWO MODERN METAPHYSICS
5. The Founders
Renaissance Early Moderns
Nonmathematical Early Moderns
Kepler and Galileo
Hobbes and Descartes
6. The Prevalence of Matter
Malebranche and Spinoza
Boyle and Newton
Philosophes and Ideologues
Comte, Maxwell, and Einstein
7. The Primacy of Mind
Leibniz and Berkeley
Kant
Hegel
Bradley
8. The Pervasiveness of Change
Marx and Darwin
Bergson
Alexander
Whitehead
PART THREE POSTMODERN METAPHYSICS
9. Defining the Postmodern
Poststructuralism
Liberationism
Feminism
Environmentalism
10. Toward an Ecological World Model
Postmodern Ecological Science
Understanding Relations
Understanding Entities
11. Toward a Kalogenic Universe
Fundamental Entities: In General
Fundamental Entitles: In Basic Structure
Fundamental Entities: In Themselves
The Kalogenic Universe: In the Making
12. Toward a Reconstructed Metaphysics
Personalistic Organicism
Constructive Postmodernism
Adequacy: The Material for Construction
Coherence: The Manner of Construction
Works Cited
Note on Centers
Name Index
Subject Index
Introduction to SUNY Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought
David Ray Griffin, Editor
1. What Is Metaphysics?
How Metaphysical Theories Are Familiar
How Metaphysical Theories Are Strange
How Metaphysical Theories Are Valued
PART ONE PREMODERN METAPHYSICS
2. The Great Pioneers
Cosmos and Decent Order
The Milesians
The Pythagoreans
Change or Permanence?
Pluralists and Atomists
The Sophists
3. The Great Hellenes
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
4. The Great Transition
Value-Echoes of Some pre-Socratics
The Platonic Value-Lens
The Aristotelian Value-Lens
Premodern to Protomodern
PART TWO MODERN METAPHYSICS
5. The Founders
Renaissance Early Moderns
Nonmathematical Early Moderns
Kepler and Galileo
Hobbes and Descartes
6. The Prevalence of Matter
Malebranche and Spinoza
Boyle and Newton
Philosophes and Ideologues
Comte, Maxwell, and Einstein
7. The Primacy of Mind
Leibniz and Berkeley
Kant
Hegel
Bradley
8. The Pervasiveness of Change
Marx and Darwin
Bergson
Alexander
Whitehead
PART THREE POSTMODERN METAPHYSICS
9. Defining the Postmodern
Poststructuralism
Liberationism
Feminism
Environmentalism
10. Toward an Ecological World Model
Postmodern Ecological Science
Understanding Relations
Understanding Entities
11. Toward a Kalogenic Universe
Fundamental Entities: In General
Fundamental Entitles: In Basic Structure
Fundamental Entities: In Themselves
The Kalogenic Universe: In the Making
12. Toward a Reconstructed Metaphysics
Personalistic Organicism
Constructive Postmodernism
Adequacy: The Material for Construction
Coherence: The Manner of Construction
Works Cited
Note on Centers
Name Index
Subject Index