Bodies And Souls

HUBER, Marie. The World Unmask'd: or, the Philosopher the greatest Cheat; in Twenty-Four Dialogues between Crito a Philosopher, Philo a Lawyer, and Erastus a Merchant. In which True Virtue is distinguished from what usually bears the Name or Resemblance of it: The many Prejudices and Mistakes in Judgment and Practice, in regard to Conscience and Religion, are examined and rectified: And the Value of Truth is shewn; with the Reasons why it is not more generally known. To which is added, The State of Souls separated from their Bodies .... In Answer to a Treatise, entitled, An Enquiry into Origenism. Together with a Large Introduction, evincing the same Truth from the Principles of Natural Religion. Translated from the French. London: printed for A. Millar. 1736.. 1736.
viii, 446 pp. plus publisher's advertisement leaf. Contempoary speckled calf, gilt decorated spine with raised bands and morocco label, partially split at top of front joint. First edition in English. A translation of 'Le Monde fou prefere au monde sage ' and 'Le Sisteme des anciens et des modernes, concilies . ' With 'The Sequel of the Fourteen Letters concerning the State of Souls separated from their Bodies. Being an answer to .... An Enquiry into Origenism. By Mr. Professor R-' [Abraham Ruchat], a translation of Marie Huber's 'Suite du Sisteme des anciens et des modernes . ' Marie Huber (1695-1753), a Swiss deist..

[SW: British 17-18th century Philosophy FEMINISM/WOMEN Continental Philosophy 1736,]

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Fisher, Len: WEIGHING THE SOUL: SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY FROM THE BRILLIANT TO THE BIZARRE, Arcade Publishing 2004
ISBN: 1-55970-732-1 As New condition

<strong> "Science and common sense often don't mix," notes Fisher, a research fellow at the University of Bristol famous for studying the science of dunking doughnuts. This new effort is largely about discoveries, such as the wave theory of light and the theory of relativity, that defy reason yet are the bedrock for our understanding of the world. <P> To make his various points, Fisher also portrays an eclectic mix of scientists and the ridicule heaped on them for their apparently nutty ideas; he also includes genuine quacks and charlatans, like "Doctor James Graham," whose 18th-century specialty was enhancing his customers' sex lives with electrical devices. Fisher entertains in an airy, lighthearted manner, while also imparting his own philosophy of science, eloquently discussing the borderlines between science and philosophy and faith: In his view, science can't know everything, and those things that it can't know "are the province of philosophy and religion." <P> He also tackles the question of whether science can keep us safe. For instance, can it answer questions about the long-term effect of exposure to microwaves? His answer is guarded; taking risks is necessary for progress; science's job is to provide accurate information with which society can weigh both the risk of trying something new and the risk of not doing it. Illus. Agent, Barbara Levy. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. Kirkus Reviews The British science popularizer (How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life, not reviewed) describes the counterintuitive elements behind important scientific theories. Fisher's preface defines his latest as a history of scientists who stuck to their guns even though their contemporaries challenged and even ridiculed their ideas. The twist here is that not all the wacky ideas he examines have been upheld by subsequent research and experiment. The title essay, for example, begins with the tale of Duncan MacDougall, a doctor who, just after 1900, put the hospital beds of terminal patients on a sensitive scale in hopes of determining the weight of their departing souls. While the bodies did appear to each lose just under an ounce at the moment of death, there were so many variables that to this day nobody can say for certain just what MacDougall had weighed. From this springboard, Fisher turns to an inquiry into the subject of mass, a crucial physical entity that ultimately eludes precise definition. (Its essence is believed to lie in the hypothetical Higgs boson, at the moment no more detectable than the soul.) Energy, too, remains mysterious, although each of us constantly deals with its specific manifestations. The author goes on to cover the careers of such familiar figures as Galileo and Newton, along with lesser lights like Robert Boyle, who laid much of the groundwork for chemistry while secretly attempting to perform alchemical experiments, and Volta and Galvani, whose scientific controversy about the role of electricity in living bodies is believed to have inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Fisher makes amusing use of his own student years and of anecdotes showing thehuman side of famous scientists. The appendix and the footnotes are as entertaining as the main text. A quirky but winning approach to scientific history. Published at Twenty Five dollars. </strong> Hardcover 8.54x5.80x.98 in. 1.10 lbs.

[SW: Discoveries in science -- History, Science -- Anecdotes, Science -- History]

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Endsjö, Dag Öistein: Primordial Landscapes, Incorruptible Bodies. Desert Asceticism and the Christian Appropriation of Greek Ideas on Geography, Bodies, and Immortality. New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien Peter Lang Vlg. 2008. ISBN: 978-1-4331-0181-6
As the first monk in the desert, Antony became an early Christian superstar, eclipsing his many ascetic predecessors. The introduction of asceticism into the wilderness also represented an encounter between Christian and Hellenistic ideas. For centuries Greeks had considered the uncultivated geography intrinsically primordial, a chaotic place where man struggled to remain human. The wilderness represented an eternal ordeal, where man always faced fierce beasts, disorder, and death, but also where simultaneously he could attain boundless wealth, wisdom, and even physical immortality. Through Athanasius of Alexandria's fourth-century biography of Antony, we learn how the Christian appropriation of Greek ideas on geography, bodies and immortality raised asceticism to an entirely new level. Placed in his uncultivated landscape, Antony became a true martyr, an athlete of God, and a holy man able to retrieve the bodily incorruptibility lost in the Fall, which all Christians could look forward to at the end of times. In this way Athanasius employed a traditional Greek worldview to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity over Paganism, which never promised ordinary people anything but an eternal existence as dead and disembodied souls.

X, 195 pp. Hardback *neuwertig*

[SW: Theologie]

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KLAUS PETRUS (ED).. On Human Persons. Ontos-Verlag.de (DE). 2003.. Ontos-Verlag.de (DE), 2003. ; weicher Einband / soft cover ISBN: 9783937202310
Paperback, 214pp., This listing is a new book, a title currently in-print which we order directly and immediately from the publisher. There is no question: We are all persons. But what exactly are persons? Are we immaterial souls or Cartesian Egos which only contingently have bodies? Or are persons nothing over and above their bodies? Are they essentially or most fundamentally animals, evolved beings of a certain sort? Or are we something other or more than animals, namely constituted beings with a certain capacity that distinguishes persons from everything else? What is necessary, and what is sufficient, for an entity to be classified or (re-)identified as a person? What's the value of an analysis of such (biological or psychological) conditions? What does it contribute to our understanding of ourselves as free agents or as beings wanting to live their individual live? The essays collected in this anthology try to answer these questions. They are primarily concerned with the metaphysics of persons and the criteria of personal identity, but also touch on problems of the theory of action and of practical philosophy..

PB, NEAR FINE.

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