Introduction to Philosophical Principles: Logic, Physics, and the Human Person

Introduction to Philosophical Principles: Logic, Physics, and the Human Person

The expanded second edition of this book introduces and attempts to make clear and accessible—without denigrating their importance or difficulty3the most important principles for conducting any systematic philosophical inquiry, and therefore for building any serious philosophical habit. These principles are broken down into three sections: logic, physics, and person; or, the basic encounter with thought, with the world, and the nexus of thought and world. Although the work draws on the traditions of Thomism, Semiotics, and Phenomenology, readers are not introduced to the history of philosophy in any tradition nor given extensive dialectical arguments. Rather, this book should be considered an introduction to philosophical questioning in the pursuit of developing a philosophical habit--that is, the habit of routinely examining human life and the experiences had within it. This book is intended, in other words, to be a helpful series of guideposts not only as to the kind of material you should engage if pursing a philosophical mentality, or the sorts of questions you should ask—which would be an introduction to the cultural phenomenon of philosophy—but to how the very process of philosophy is carried out. It may not always help, and the farther you progress in questioning thoughts, the world, and the nexus of the two, the less likely you will be to find a complete answer here, either as to content or as to method: but it is to be hoped that this will provide a solid basis for that progress. The expanded second edition includes approximately 50,000 words of new material, including additional glosses, a bibliography, and an index.