James Kern Feibleman, born in New Orleans in 1904 of Jewish parents, had an early career as poet, short story writer and novelist, and assistant manager of a department store and partner in an investment company. His formal higher educa tion did not extend beyond a semester of study at the Uni versity of Virginia. In 1942 he joined the faculty of the Tulane College of Arts and Sciences as a lecturer in English, and soon thereafter transferred to Philosophy. Appointed full professor of philoso phy in 1945, he became head of the Arts and Sciences depart ment in 1951, and university chairman in 1957. He has also served as special lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at Louisiana State University Medical School from 1958 to 6 19 7. In 1969, upon his retirement from the department chairman ship, Professor Feibleman was appointed in the W.R. Irby Chair in Philosophy. In 1974 he was appointed Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, having the honor of being not only the first occupant of this newly established chair but also perhaps the only person ever selected from the university faculty for this honor. In 1975, upon his final retirement from the university, the faculty approved his appointment as Emer itus Professor of Philosophy.

What is the philosophy of religion? How can we distinguish it from theology on the one hand and the psychology/sociology of religious belief on the other? What does it mean to describe God as 'eternal'? And should religious people want there to be good arguments for the existence of God, or is religious belief only authentic in the absence of these good arguments? In this Very Short Introduction Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion, and engages with some of the most burning questions that philosophers discuss. Considering how 'religion' should be defined, and whether we even need to be able to define it in order to engage in the philosophy of religion, he goes on to discuss whether the existence of God matters. Exploring the problem of evil, Bayne also debates the connection between faith and reason, and the related question of what role reason should play in religious contexts. Shedding light on the relationship between science and religion, Bayne finishes by considering the topics of reincarnation and the afterlife. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Scott Soames, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at University of Southern California. Scott Soames is specialized in the philosophy of language and the history of analytic philosophy. This detailed conversation provides a detailed introduction to analytic philosophy, including some examples of contemporary relevance to a wide range of other fields. This carefully-edited book includes an introduction,The Utility of Philosophy, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter: I. An Analytical Introduction - From sociological musings to Gottlob Frege II. Investigating Logic - The benefits of rigorous inquiry III. Language and Meaning - Minds as gateways to information IV. Legal Applications - Some concrete examples V. Changing the Culture - Philosophy everywhere VI. Gödelian Challenges - Making sense of the incompleteness theorems About Ideas Roadshow Conversations: This book is part of an expanding series of 100+ Ideas Roadshow conversations, each one presenting a wealth of candid insights from a leading expert through a focused yet informal setting to give non-specialists a uniquely accessible window into frontline research and scholarship that wouldn't otherwise be encountered through standard lectures and textbooks.

This book explores the richness of contemporary philosophical reflection in Eastern and Central Europe. Philosophers from Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, and the United States discuss the status of democracy, nationalism, language, economics, education, women, and philosophy itself in the aftermath of communism. Fresh ideas are combined with renewed traditions as poignant problems are confronted.

In the current atmosphere of controversy about modes of interpreting literature, historical influences in science, and subtle ideologies in social theory, Abraham Edel confronts the institutionalized separation of the humanities and the sciences, the segregation of disciplines through structures that rest on entrenched dualisms, and the isolations reenforced by habits of the academy and its struggles over turf. Edel's "search for connections" - carried out not only theoretically but through a series of particular studies spanning major disciplines from philosophy and social theory to jurisprudence, biography, and cultural anthropology - leads into uncharted waters. He faces the startling conclusion that the clue to answering internal questions characteristically turns out to come from trans-discipline relations. This fourth volume of Edel's "Science, Ideology and Value "focuses in a Deweyan vein on the functional requirements at the base of the social sciences and humanities alike: discipline structures are subject to change, development, and decay, and even to categorial shifts as well as to readjustments. At the same time, Edel's philosophical nauralism helps diagnose the obstacles to research that stem from imposed dualisms such as theory and practice, subjectivity and objectivity, fact and value, individual and society, as well as social contrasts of elite and mass. Normative structures are to be held responsible to inquiry, and a self-conscious exploratory practice is needed to minimize the risks of arbitrary closures. For those who wish to get beyond sloganeering in the world of education, humane learning, and the social and historical sciences, this book is a must.

Cultural politics and identity : the public space of recognition / Barbara Weber -- Beyond understanding Rousseau and the beginning of the other / Karlfriedrich Herb -- Lévinas and the problem of mutual recognition of the consumer society and its fears / Barbara Weber -- A phenomenological perspective on the relationship between human rights and recognition / James R. Mensch -- Heidegger, Nietzsche, and the struggle for Europe / Gary E. Aylesworth -- Shared life / James Risser -- A discussion of diachronic identity : the example of the painter Masuji Ono's political transformation in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel 'An artist of the floating world' / Eval Marsal & Takara Dobashi -- The fate of hair and conversation : on moral identity and recognition in The man who wasn't there / Maria Sibylla Lotter -- Jacques Derrida : "No, again, I won't be able to-- " : of cruelty and responsibility / Petra Schweitzer -- The futility of postcolonialism : national victimhood revisited / Benjamin Zachariah -- Hygiene, secual politics, and the gendered other : Chile at the beginning of the twentieth century / Celina Tuozzo -- Anthropology, alterity and (com)motion : the quests for the other and the others' quests / Lisiane Koller Lecznieski -- Confusion of voices : the crucial dilemmas of being a human being : Czeslaw Milosz's poetry and the search for personal identity / Andrew Wiercinski -- Taking selves seriously / Susan T. Gardner -- Educating for civil friendship / Jen Glaser -- Understanding the reality interdisciplinary and arranging it socially and integratively / Maria Anna Bäuml-Rossnagl -- Art and community : aesthetic practice as exposure to the other / Dorota Glowacka -- "Weatherless dialogues," short stories / Tamara Ralis.