The Faculties A History 1st Edition by Dominik Perler ISBN 0199935270 978-0199935277

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Product details: 

ISBN 10: 0199935270

ISBN 13: 978-0199935277

Author: Dominik Perler 

It seems quite natural to explain the activities of human and non-human animals by referring to their special faculties. Thus, we say that dogs can smell things in their environment because they have perceptual faculties, or that human beings can think because they have rational faculties. But what are faculties? In what sense are they responsible for a wide range of activities? How can they be individuated? How are they interrelated? And why are different types of faculties assigned to different types of living beings?
The six chapters in this book discuss these questions, covering a wide period from Plato up to contemporary debates about faculties as modules of the mind. They show that faculties were referred to in different theoretical contexts, but analyzed in radically different ways. Some philosophers, especially Aristotelians, made them the cornerstone of their biological and psychological theories, taking them to be basic powers of living beings. Others took them to be inner causes that literally produce activities, while still others provided a purely functional explanation. The chapters focus on various models, taking into account Greek, Arabic, Latin, French, German and Anglo-American debates. They analyze the role assigned to faculties in metaphysics, philosophy of mind and epistemology, but also the attack that was often launched against the assumption that faculties are hidden yet real features of living beings. The short “Reflections” inserted between the chapters make clear that faculties were also widely discussed in literature, science and medicine.

Table of contents: 

Chapter 1: Faculties in Ancient Philosophy
Klaus Corcilius
Reflection: Faculties and Self-debate
Helene P. Foley
Chapter 2: Faculties in Arabic Philosophy
Taneli Kukkonen
Chapter 3: Faculties in Medieval Philosophy
Dominik Perler
Reflection: Faculties and Imagination
Verena Olejniczak Lobsien
Chapter 4: Faculties in Early Modern Philosophy
Stephan Schmid
Chapter 5: Faculties in Kant and German Idealism
Johannes Haag
Reflection: Faculties and Phrenology
Rebekka Hufendiek and Markus Wild
Chapter 6: Faculties and Modularity
Markus Wild and Rebekka Hufendiek
Reflection: Faculties and Neuro-Enhancement
Saskia K. Nagel

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Tags: Dominik Perler, The Faculties, A History