Paul Weiss is one of the two or three most original and creative philosophers and metaphysicians in America today. Creativity and Common Sense reveals why. It contains fourteen recent articles on the thought of Paul Weiss by authors who are most familiar with his writings, including an essay by Charles Hartshorne that provides a unique perspective on Weiss by one who has known him for his entire career. Weiss is shown to be one of the very few contemporary philosophers who examines every area of concern to philosophy and does so on the basis of ontological insights regarding the ultimate elements of reality. He begins his philosophical consideration with the evidences offered by the world of common sense and seeks to provide an adequate and comprehensive account of what he finds there. The contributors to this collection present and examine many of Weiss' strategic insights. They help clarify key elements in his thought and thereby contribute to an appreciation and understanding of his work. They also make evident the importance of Weiss' insights for resolving vexing questions in such diverse areas as the philosophy of science, philosophical methodology, ethics, aesthetics, the philosophy of the human person, and the philosophy of language. This collection makes a significant contribution to the development of Weissian scholarship and to the growing appreciation of the significance of his thought for the discussions of contemporary philosophy.
Toward a Perfected State is a testament to the philosophical genius of Paul Weiss. The discussions combine a variety of levels, from the most basic categorical distinctions to major figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Marx, Rawls and Northrop, to classic documents such as the United States Constitution and the Federalist Papers, to practical social and political problems. Paul Weiss is Heffer Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He founded the Metaphysical Society of America and The Review of Metaphysics. In a long and distinguished career, Dr. Weiss has published well over 20 books, among them is his multivolumed philosophical journal, Philosophy in Process, now published by SUNY Press.
Surrogates introduces an important new philosophic topic: the pervasive ways that things stand for one another in nature and human experience. Going beyond semiotic theory, Paul Weiss interprets surrogacy in terms of metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and religious dimensions of life, integrating the concept into a systematic way of regarding reality. Just as philosophy brings a systematic set of questions to the issue of surrogate reality, Weiss's investigation of the topic raises new questions for philosophy itself, manifesting his great concern for philosophy's freedom and creativity. The author concludes each chapter with a provocative set of questions and answers that engage imagined critics in a dialogue. Together with his previous book, Emphatics, Surrogates constitutes a richly textured phenomenology of human experience with important ramifications for contemporary pragmatism. The wit and intelligence of this volume are a delight for any reader.
Paul Weiss systematically maps creativity in its many manifestations--creative ventures in the arts, in mathematics and the sciences, in moral development, in social movements, and in government. A truly creative work arises from a combination of factors. Weiss argues that among these factors are two kinds of ultimates, one of which he calls the Dunamis, an absolute ground of being of sufficient complexity to warrant an appendix of its own. The other ultimate is divided into five conditions (voluminous, rational, stratifying, affiliating, and coordinating), each of which is primarily operative upon one of the five kinds of creative ventures. Weiss traces the ways these ultimates are combined with the creator's individual being and with the obdurate material at hand as the creator strives toward a creative ideal. The result is the rare, truly creative venture sustaining human existence.
Defining an "emphatic" as an intrusion that alters the import of what it intrudes on, Weiss sets the stage for an exquisitely systematic, speculative study of the major themes confronting modern metaphysics. The idea of an emphatic has its roots in Weiss's long-developed pluralistic ontology, with special focus on what we experience as an "emphasis." The most obvious examples are grammatical devices such as changed pitch in speech or exclamation and question marks in writing. Weiss also analyzes emphatics in etiquette, social status, nature, art, conventional behavior, encyclopedias, psychiatry, and religion. Brilliant in every respect, Emphatics rewrites Weiss's systematic ontology in new terms. Not only are the lineaments of the system reexamined, but this book floods the reader with new perspectives and insights on relationship, signs, truth, particularity, space-time causality, education, mind-body issues, Being and other ultimate philosophical categories, and good and evil. Weiss engages the various objections to his position in a series of question-and-answer epilogues at the end of each chapter that allow the reader to follow step-by-step a great philosophical mind at work. He takes his critics seriously, grapples with their objections, and answers them honestly. His discourse creatively revisits age-old questions and in reimagining new answers establishes the continuing relevance of philosophy as an academic discipline.
Philosophy in Process, Volume 7, Part II continues the publication of the working journals, the intellectual diary of one of the greatest modern metaphysicians. It represents the unique opportunity to experience him at work, thinking critically about his past writings and breaking ground in the creation of new works.
Philosophy in Process, Volume 8, continues the publication of the working journals, the intellectual diary of one of the greatest modern metaphysicians. It presents the unique opportunity to experience him at work, thinking critically about his past writings and breaking ground in the creation of new works.
A deep exploration of the direct experience of non-dual reality and its lessons for spiritual growth and development • Examines the direct perception of non-dual reality and shows its implications for navigating ordinary reality in an open, compassionate, and ever-maturing way • Shares the author’s most significant awakening experiences and explores their psycho-emotional and psychospiritual foundations • Offers practical teachings for spiritual understanding, emotional development, and the cultivation of compassion Exploring the direct perception of non-dual, “non-ordinary” reality, Paul Weiss shares guidance for navigating ordinary reality in an open, compassionate, and ever-maturing way. He affirms our shared human potential for the “direct experience” of reality--unmediated by our more relativistic mental faculties--and reveals this experience as an essential dimension of our conscious capacity for growth. He shares his most significant awakening experiences and the circumstances leading up to them, exploring the personal and transpersonal dimensions of the experiences and their psycho-emotional and psycho- spiritual foundations. He points to such experiences as part of our ongoing integration as human beings and the essential path of practice that supports our availability to them. Interweaving perspectives from psychology and neuroscience with important lessons from spiritual traditions around the world, Weiss explores how to live a life of integrity, reciprocity, and openness to reality, offering practical teachings for spiritual understanding, emotional development, and the cultivation of compassion, viewed by ancient Buddhist sages as the true meaning of existence. He addresses such human qualities as vulnerability, empathy, reciprocity, openness, and intimacy and shows how they express and participate in deeper conscious truths. The author also examines practical wisdom teachings within both Buddhist and Christian paths to realization. Combining engaged mysticism with transcendent humanism, along with thought- provoking poetry, Weiss offers a living vision of a non-dual way of experiencing the world, a path that supports our functional, emotional, and spiritual maturity.
A rich and original collection of Dharma teachings, Moonlight Leaning Against an Old Rail Fence weaves the poetic and the expository in a series of Zen poems and commentaries that invite both direct experience and meditative study. Paul Weiss evokes the awake, pristine, and poetic nature of our human experience while also examining the mechanisms of ego that define our personal and cultural experience of separation and suffering. Here you will find simple, ecstatic celebrations of luminous and transparent reality; clarification of technical points of practice; support for everyday life; and reflections on issues of history, culture, and human ecology. All become threads in a jeweled net of integrative spiritual thought and practice that will inform and encourage any reader's practice, contemplation and personal growth. Moonlight Leaning Against an Old Rail Fence points beyond our literal fixations with language, ideas, and doctrines to the great ungraspable poetic reality that is expressed in all our spirituality and in all our human experience.
Philosophy in Process, Volume Eleven, continues the publication of the working journals, the intellectual diary of one of the greatest modern metaphysicians. It presents the opportunity to experience him at work, thinking critically about his past writings and breaking ground in the creation of new works.
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