Name: The Philosophy of 'As If'
Price: 761 SEK
Availability: OutOfStock

Buy used book

Mint Not in stock 761 SEK

Fair Not in stock 566 SEK

Poor Not in stock 386 SEK

Monitor this book

Buy new book

New book 1543 SEK

Fakta

Publisher	Taylor & Francis Ltd
Language	English
Book type	Hardcover
Utgiven	2021-05-15
Edition	2
More editions	2021/2
Pages	416
ISBN	9780367550219
Kategori(er)

Add to cart

Description

Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933) was an important and fascinating figure in German philosophy in the early twentieth century, founding the well-known journal Kantstudien. Yet he was overshadowed by the burgeoning movements of phenomenology and analytical philosophy, as well as hostility towards his work because of his defense of Jewish scholars in a Germany controlled by Nazism. However, it is widely acknowledged today that The Philosophy of ‘As If’ is a philosophical masterwork. Vaihinger argues that in face of an overwhelmingly complex world, we produce a simpler set of ideas, or idealizations, that help us negotiate it. When cast as fictions, such ideas provide an easier and more useful way to think about certain subjects, from mathematics and physics to law and morality, than would the truth in all its complexity. Even in science, he wrote, we must proceed "as if " a material world exists independently of perceiving subjects; in behaviour, we must act "as if " ethical certainty were possible; in religion, we must believe "as if" there were a God. He also explores the role of fictions in the history of philosophy, going back to the ancient Greeks and the work of Leibniz, Adam Smith and Bentham. The Philosophy of ‘As If’ was a powerful influence on the emerging philosophical movement of pragmatism and was ground-breaking in its anticipation of the central role of model-building and simulation would come to play in the human sciences. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Michael Rosenthal, which provides fascinating and important background to Vaihinger’s life and the legacy of The Philosophy of ‘As If’.

So far, we have reused

books.

Sweden's friendliest and environmental friendliest bookshop with the lowest priced textbooks.

This is our ambition, and we do what it takes to get there. We are here to help students to save and earn money on their textbooks while we at the same time save the environment. We were started in 2005 by two students and have since strived to constantly make it easier to buy and sell used textbooks for as many as possible.

Opening Hours