Global Pandemics and Epistemic Crises in Psychology


Book Description

Using COVID-19 as a base, this groundbreaking book brings together several renowned scholars to explore the concept of crisis, and how this global event has shaped the discipline of psychology. It engages directly with the challenges that psychology continues to face when theorizing societal issues of gender, race, class, history, and culture, while not disregarding "lived" experiences. This edited volume offers a set of pathways to rethink psychology beyond its current scope and history to become more apt to the conditions, needs, and demands of the 21st century. The book explores topics like resilience, interpersonal relationships, mistrust in the government, and access to healthcare. Dividing the book into three distinct sections, the contributors first examine the current crisis within psychology, then go on to explore how psychology theorizes the subject and the other in a social world of perpetual political, economic, cultural, and social crises, and lastly consider the role of crises in the creation of new theorizing. This is essential reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of theoretical and philosophical psychology, social psychology, community psychology, and developmental psychology.




The Philosophy of Creativity


Book Description

Creativity pervades human life. It is the mark of individuality, the vehicle of self-expression, and the engine of progress in every human endeavor. It also raises a wealth of neglected and yet evocative philosophical questions. The Philosophy of Creativity takes up these questions and, in doing so, illustrates the value of interdisciplinary exchange.







Life Is a Journey, Not a Race


Book Description

Life presents us with challenges as well as opportunities. It confronts us with obstacles as we journey on, but it also offers us various pathways and routes that we can take. Comparing our life-journey to the travels we make in life, this book is an invitation to readers to face up to those challenges and to meet them through a series of reflections called “comma-moments”: the chance to “stop momentarily and mull things over,” or to “create space in time” as they go about the business of living from day to day. Like commas in a sentence, which help us to read and interpret its meaning properly, a life punctuated with short reflective breaks enables us to draw out its meaning and significance. Drawing on his vast educational background and diverse global travels, the author shares with readers some “thoughts for food” while on our life-journeys. These reflections, as well as anecdotes and stories, also avail themselves of the real-life experiences of others and the wisdom of many contemporary voices and historical figures throughout the world, especially those who have been concerned with the kind of reflection that will help as we move on in life. In particular, it discusses a conceptual life-map to aid us navigate our way in life and to step up to its challenges.




Society in its Challenges


Book Description

Living in society has always presented a variety of challenges to its members. These challenges need to be addressed if there is to be an improvement in the quality of life in society. However, to what extent can philosophical thinking facilitate the task? This book pursues and answers this question. It offers an analysis of fundamental issues and provides philosophical considerations of the challenges arising from living in society. The topics discussed here include philosophy and the social context; individual interests and the common good; dualistic thinking of and in society; relationships and communal life; the individual and society; ethical thinking and formation; images, reality and truth; the power and limits of human freedom; social roles, public office and moral society; economic crisis and accountability; the marketplace, academia, education; contemporary society and faith-based education; and the meaning and significance of life. After reviewing these discussions, the concluding chapter then sets out a philosophical vision to facilitate an understanding of and motivation for the creative advance of society.







Dictionary Of Modern American Philosophers


Book Description

The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers includes both academic and non-academic philosophers, and a large number of female and minority thinkers whose work has been neglected. It includes those intellectuals involved in the development of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, education, theology, political science, and several other fields, before these disciplines came to be considered distinct from philosophy in the late nineteenth century. Each entry contains a short biography of the writer, an exposition and analysis of his or her doctrines and ideas, a bibliography of writings, and suggestions for further reading. While all the major post-Civil War philosophers are present, the most valuable feature of this dictionary is its coverage of a huge range of less well-known writers, including hundreds of presently obscure thinkers. In many cases, the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers offers the first scholarly treatment of the life and work of certain writers. This book will be an indispensable reference work for scholars working on almost any aspect of modern American thought.










Charles Hartshorne's Concept of God


Book Description

Charles Hartshorne's considerable writings have been influential in contem 1 porary religious and philosophical thought. Not only is he regarded as the leading living representative of process thought as well as a much respected interpreter of Whitehead, but he has also established himself as an original 2 and creative thinker in his own right. The literature on his philosophy has been rapidly increasing. His thought and influence have also been the subject 3 of a number of conferences and gatherings of scholars. One of Hartshorne's most notable contributions to contemporary philoso 4 phy and theology is his concept of God. In his writings he has set out "to formulate the idea of deity so as to preserve, perhaps increase, its religious value, while yet avoiding the contradictions which seem inseparable from the 5 idea as customarily defined." The result of his efforts has been the develop ment of the concept of a "dipolar God" (insofar as contrasting metaphysical predicates, e.g. relative/absolute, contingent/necessary, finite/infinite and so on, are affirmed as applicable to God although always in an eminent way). Inasmuch as he has elaborated this concept in close dialogue with classical theism, he also refers to it as "neo-classical". Because of the emphasis he places on the reality of change and becoming in his metaphysics (which regards God as the chief exemplification of metaphysical principles), the term 6 "process" has likewise been used to describe his notion of God.