Applied philosophy has been a growing area of research for the last 40 years. Until now, however, almost all of this research has been centered around the field of ethics. A Companion to Applied Philosophy breaks new ground, demonstrating that all areasof philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind, can be applied, and are relevant to questions of everyday life. This perennial topic in philosophy provides an overview of these various applied philosophy developments, highlighting similarities and differences between various areas of applied philosophy, and examining the very nature of this topic. It is an area to which many of the towering figures in the history of philosophy have contributed, and this timely Companion demonstrates how various historical contributions are actually contributions within applied philosophy, even if they are not traditionally seen as such. The Companion contains 42 essays covering major areas of philosophy; the articles themselves are all original contributions to the literature and represent the state of the art on this topic, as well as offering a map to the current debates.

This book increases the accessibility of philosophical concepts to a wider audience within medical education, translating ‘knowing’ to ‘doing.’ It prompts health professions educators and researchers to consider the dynamics and structure of contemporary issues within health professions education in new, philosophical ways. Through considering the practical implications of applying philosophical concepts to contemporary issues, the book recommends avenues for further research and pedagogical change. Individual educators are considered, with practice points for teaching generated within each chapter. Readers will acquire practical ways in which they can change their own practice or pedagogy that align with the new insight offered through our philosophical analysis. These practical recommendations may be systemic in nature, but the authors of this book also offer micro-level recommendations for practitioners that can be considered as ways to improve individual approaches to education and research.

To probe the underlying premises of a liberal political order, John Rawls felt obliged to use a philosophical method that abstracted from many of the details of ordinary life. But this very abstraction became a point of criticism, as it left unclear the implications of his theory for public policies and life in the real political world. Rawlsian Explorations in Religion and Applied Philosophy attempts to ferret out those implications, filling the gap between Rawls’s own empyrean heights and the really practical public policy proposals made by government planners, lobbyists, and legislators. Among the topics examined are natural rights, the morality of war, the treatment of mentally deficient humans and nonhuman sentient creatures, the controversies over legacy and affirmative action in college admissions, and the place of religious belief in a democratic society. The final chapter explores how Rawls’s own religious beliefs, as revealed in two works posthumously published in 2009, played into his formulation of his theory of justice.

This Handbook represents a collective exploration of the emerging field of applied philosophy of language. The volume covers a broad range of areas where philosophy engages with linguistic aspects of our social world, including such hot topics as dehumanizing speech, dogwhistles, taboo language, pornography, appropriation, implicit bias, speech acts, and the ethics of communication. An international line-up of contributors adopt a variety of approaches and methods in their investigation of these linguistic phenomena, drawing on linguistics and the human and social sciences as well as on different philosophical subdisciplines. The aim is to map out fruitful areas of research and to stimulate discussion with thought-provoking essays by leading and emerging philosophers.

Illustrates how William James’s philosophical pragmatism can help to resolve issues in everyday contemporary life. William James, one of America’s most original philosophers and psychologists, was concerned above all with the manner in which philosophy might help people to cope with the vicissitudes of daily life. Writing around the turn of the twentieth century, James experienced firsthand, much as we do now, the impact upon individuals and communities of rapid changes in extant values, technologies, economic realities, and ways of understanding the world. He presented an enormous range of practical recommendations for coping and thriving in such circumstances, arguing consistently that prospects for richer lives and improved communities rested not upon trust in spiritual or material prescriptions, but rather on clear thinking in the cause of action. This volume seeks to demonstrate how James’s astonishingly rich corpus can be used to address contemporary issues and to establish better ways for thinking about the moral and practical challenges of our time. In the first part, James’s theories are applied directly to issues ranging from gun control to disability, and the ethics of livestock farming to the meaning of “progress” in race relations. The second part shows how James’s theories of ethics, experience, and the self can be used to “clear away” theoretical matters that have inhibited philosophy’s deployment to real-world issues. Finally, part three shows how individuals might apply ideas from James in their personal lives, whether at work, contemplating nature, or considering the implications of their own habits of thought and action. “This book is the first sustained attempt to take James’s call for a lived philosophy at face value, both exploring the extent of James’s own philosophical project and furthering it in ever new directions. As is clear from the reading of the various contributions, we are given a taste of what Jamesian philosophy might or should achieve rather than merely presenting what it promises to deliver. And this is clearly novel and extremely intriguing.” — Sarin Marchetti, author of Ethics and Philosophical Critique in William James

Philosophical issues often lie at the heart of societal problems, yet it is rare for philosophers to be actively engaged in the search for solutions. Conventionally, philosophy prioritizes the written word and the seminar room while living at a remove from everyday life. In contrast, field philosophy, the approach invoked by the chapters in this book, emphasizes the immediacy of the spoken word and engages people in their daily activities to help them understand the philosophical elements of their everyday tasks. This book offers field philosophy as a model for social engagement, advancing a new way for doing philosophy relevant to the needs of 21st century society. The chapters in the book describe the historical significance of field philosophy, its ethical commitments, and the theoretical warrant underlying its practice. Together, they advance the societal relevance of philosophy and the many ways it can interface with a diverse range of communities from engineers and scientists to policymakers and activists. This book will be of interest to the academic philosophy community, policy makers and policy researchers, university administrators, and those interested in the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity. Versions of some of its chapters were originally published as a special issue of Social Epistemology.

This book examines the issue of moral realism from a pragmatist point of view, drawing attention to our human practices of ethical evaluation and deliberation. It defends the essentially ungrounded and humanly fundamental place of ethics in our thought and action. Ethics must remain beyond justification and ubiquitous in our human form(s) of life.

In our increasingly complex world, the teaching of thinking has become imperative. Yet evidence shows that our children are not learning how to think. Matthew Lipman, a leading educational theorist, gets to the heart of our educational problems, in Thinking in Education and makes profound and workable suggestions for solving those problems. Thinking in Education describes procedures that must be put in place if students at all levels of education are to become more thoughtful, more reasonable, and more judicious. It recommends that the classroom be converted into a community of inquiry and that the discipline of philosophy be redesigned so as to provide the concepts and values now missing from the curriculum. These recommendations have now been carried out; the community of inquiry is a recognized pedagogical strategy, and traditional academic philosophy has been transformed into a discipline that offers a model of higher-order thinking and an image of what all education can be. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.