Robert C. Scharff's Books

How History Matters to Philosophy

Reconsidering Philosophy’s Past After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

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How History Matters to Philosophy

Reconsidering Philosophy’s Past After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

In recent decades, widespread rejection of positivism’s notorious hostility toward the philosophical tradition has led to renewed debate about the real relationship of philosophy to its history. How History Matters to Philosophy takes a fresh look at this debate. Current discussion usually starts with the question of whether philosophy’s past should matter, but Scharff argues that the very existence of the debate itself demonstrates that it already does matter. After an introductory review of the recent literature, he develops his case in two parts. In Part One, he shows how history actually matters for even Plato’s Socrates, Descartes, and Comte, in spite of their apparent promotion of conspicuously ahistorical Platonic, Cartesian, and Positivistic ideals. In Part Two, Scharff argues that the real issue is not whether history matters; rather it is that we already have a history, a very distinctive and unavoidable inheritance, which paradoxically teaches us that history’s mattering is merely optional. Through interpretations of Dilthey, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, he describes what thinking in a historically determinate way actually involves, and he considers how to avoid the denial of this condition that our own philosophical inheritance still seems to expect of us. In a brief conclusion, Scharff explains how this book should be read as part of his own effort to acknowledge this condition rather than deny it.

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346

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134626738

ISBN 13

9781134626731

Comte After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

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Comte After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

This 1996 book provides a detailed, systematic reconsideration of Auguste Comte.

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Page Count

252

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521893038

ISBN 13

9780521893039

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916–1925

By: Robert C. Scharff

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Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916–1925

By: Robert C. Scharff

In this first book-length study of the topic, Robert C. Scharff offers a detailed analysis of the young Heidegger’s interpretation of Dilthey’s hermeneutics of historical life and Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology. He argues that it is Heidegger’s prior reading of Dilthey that grounds his critical appropriation of Husserl’s phenomenology. He shows that in Heidegger’s early lecture courses, a “possible” phenomenology is presented as a genuine alternative with the modern philosophies of consciousness to which Husserl’s “actual” phenomenology is still too closely tied. All of these philosophies tend to overestimate the degree to which we can achieve intellectual independence from our surroundings and inheritance. In response, Heidegger explains why becoming phenomenological is always a possibility; but being a phenomenologist is not. Scharff concludes that this discussion of the young Heidegger, Husserl, and Dilthey leads to the question of our own current need for a phenomenological philosophy—that is, for a philosophy that avoids technique-happiness, that at least sometimes thinks with a self-awareness that takes no theoretical distance from life, and that speaks in a language that is “not yet” selectively representational.

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Page Count

215

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1786607743

ISBN 13

9781786607744

The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority

By: Robert P. Crease

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The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority

By: Robert P. Crease

A fascinating look at key thinkers throughout history who have shaped public perception of science and the role of authority. When does a scientific discovery become accepted fact? Why have scientific facts become easy to deny? And what can we do about it? In The Workshop and the World, philosopher and science historian Robert P. Crease answers these questions by describing the origins of our scientific infrastructure—the “workshop”—and the role of ten of the world’s greatest thinkers in shaping it. At a time when the Catholic Church assumed total authority, Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, and René Descartes were the first to articulate the worldly authority of science, while writers such as Mary Shelley and Auguste Comte told cautionary tales of divorcing science from the humanities. The provocative leaders and thinkers Kemal Atatürk and Hannah Arendt addressed the relationship between the scientific community and the public in in times of deep distrust. As today’s politicians and government officials increasingly accuse scientists of dishonesty, conspiracy, and even hoaxes, engaged citizens can’t help but wonder how we got to this level of distrust and how we can emerge from it. This book tells dramatic stories of individuals who confronted fierce opposition—and sometimes risked their lives—in describing the proper authority of science, and it examines how ignorance and misuse of science constitute the preeminent threat to human life and culture. An essential, timely exploration of what it means to practice science for the common good as well as the danger of political action divorced from science, The Workshop and the World helps us understand both the origins of our current moment of great anti-science rhetoric and what we can do to help keep the modern world from falling apart.

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Page Count

365

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393292444

ISBN 13

9780393292442

The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty

By: Robert P. Crease,Alfred Scharff Goldhaber

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The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty

By: Robert P. Crease,Alfred Scharff Goldhaber

A very fun way to learn about where quantum physics comes from and the strange, even astonishing places it has gone." —Peter Galison, Harvard University, author of Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps From multiverses and quantum leaps to Schrödinger’s cat and time travel, quantum mechanics has irreversibly shaped the popular imagination. Entertainers and writers from Lady Gaga to David Foster Wallace take advantage of its associations and nuances. In The Quantum Moment, philosopher Robert P. Crease and physicist Alfred Scharff Goldhaber recount the fascinating story of how the quantum jumped from physics into popular culture, with brief explorations of the underlying math and physics concepts and descriptions of the fiery disputes among figures including Einstein, Schrödinger, and Niels Bohr. Understanding and appreciating quantum imagery, its uses and abuses, is part of what it means to be an educated person in the twenty-first century. The Quantum Moment serves as an indispensable guide.

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Page Count

282

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0393245993

ISBN 13

9780393245998

How History Matters to Philosophy

Reconsidering Philosophy’s Past After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

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How History Matters to Philosophy

Reconsidering Philosophy’s Past After Positivism

By: Robert C. Scharff

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Page Count

379

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134626800

ISBN 13

9781134626809

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916–1925

By: Robert C. Scharff

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Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Interpreting Husserl through Dilthey, 1916–1925

By: Robert C. Scharff

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

215

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1786607743

ISBN 13

9781786607744

Book's by Robert C. Scharff

How History Matters to Philosophy

How History Matters to Philosophy

Comte After Positivism

Comte After Positivism

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority

The Workshop and the World: What Ten Thinkers Can Teach Us About Science and Authority

The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty

The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty

How History Matters to Philosophy

How History Matters to Philosophy

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

Heidegger Becoming Phenomenological

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