The Novum Organum, (or Novum Organum Scientiarum - "New Instrument of Science"), is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, originally published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method.

Why do some types of settings and some combinations of sensory information induce a sense of dread in humans? This article brings empirical evidence from psychological research to bear on the experience of horror, and explains why the tried-and-true horror devices intuitively employed by writers and filmmakers work so well. Natural selection has favored individuals who gravitated toward environments containing the “right” physical and psychological features and avoided those which posed a threat. Places that contain a bad mix of these (...) features induce unpleasant feelings of dread and fear, and therefore have become important ingredients of the settings for horror fiction and films. This article ap­plies McAndrew and Koehnke’s theory of creepiness to the study of classic horror settings and explores the role played by architecture, isolation, association with death, and other environmental qualities in the experience of creepiness and dread. (shrink)

This paper examines the prospects for global order in an environment of globalization. It analyzes the current practice in which globalization crystallizes in the universalization of Western cultural values, and identifies in this practice, a major source of all the conflicts currently plaguing the contemporary world. It argues that acts of terrorism and other similar acts are reactions to the perceived injustices of the present globalization phenomenon. This paper studies these crises because of their cultural underpinnings.Drawing on the postmodernist philosophy, (...) which not only rejects a single over-arching scheme by which all societies could be judged and advocates a thoroughgoing cultural pluralism in which alternative cultures are free to plot their own future courses, the essay believes that acts of terrorism, like similar other reactions to the present conception of global reality, can be mitigated if efforts are directed at understanding, appreciating, and respecting the traditions and cultural values of distinct societies, rather than submerging them under one dominant culture. (shrink)

This richly annotated second edition of the now-classic pairing of Bacon’s masterpieces, New Atlantis and The Great Instauration features the addition of other works by Bacon, including “The Idols of the Mind,” Of Unity in Religion” and “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates,” as well a Summary of the each work and Questions for the reader. S Includes works new to the second edition, including “The Idols of the Mind,” “Of Unity in Religion,” and “Of the True Greatness (...) of Kingdoms and Estates” Updates the layout of the previous edition with a more generous interior design, making this work more student-friendly and easier to navigate in the classroom Each work is introduced and subsequently discussed, revealing the importance of Bacon’s work to his contemporaries as well as to modern readers Includes a comprehensive introduction and annotations throughout the text; as well as an appendix of Principal Dates in the Life of Sir Francis Bacon; a selected bibliography; and synopses and questions to accompany each work. (shrink)

Reason and Sentiment Throughout the long history of philosophy there has appeared from time to time a certain dilemma which is both attractive and fatal. ...

In the aftermath of the complex humanitarian crises of the 1990s, the concept of the Responsibility to Protect emerged powerfully on the international stage. The report of the International C...

Towards the end of Plutarch's treatise de Pytkiae oraculis Theon quotes a short passage of verse but does not identify its author. The fragment is now customarily printed among the remains of Pindar's Parthenea, most recently by Snell.

The call of the Second Vatican Council for the renewal of moral theology has received very divergent responses. This article identifies and compares three such proposals. The underlying presupposition for this analysis is that each proposal begins with a divergent understanding of where the tradition went awry. Hence, the proposed cures ended up irreconcilable. This article seeks to describe ‘as precisely as possible the nature of the confusion and its sources, showing where attention must be directed if a solution is (...) to be discovered.’1. (shrink)

Freedom interpreted as absence of restraints, as such, is a vacuous ideal. It requires reference to some setting and course of action in order to distinguish those restraints that block human effort from those, say, that support it. More broadly, this notion of freedom has little meaning and less value without some external criterion for evaluating human action and its conditions. Many thinkers have argued that the. criterion must be the absolute Truth ? truth that is unconditioned, indubitable, and imperative. (...) They have often argued that there is no freedom of error, and that the many persons who do not know such Truth are free only in obeying the few who do. This concept of freedom is often regarded as intolerable. A third possibility is to interpret freedom as a name for a range of significant alternatives for thought and action. Freedom, here, is compatible with truth interpreted in terms of the process of inquiry, rather than as substantive possession. It is a necessary condition for judging which restraints are real obstacles and which courses of action may be harmless, legitimate or good. The third meaning, especially, is illustrated with reference to the freedoms of utterance (expression) and speech (communication). (shrink)

However, metaphysics itself has presuppositions. In the order of explanation the governing presupposition of intelligible metaphysics is that the world itself is intelligible. By 'intelligible' I mean 'free from contradiction'. By 'the world' I mean the range of things that possess being of any kind, or, in other words, the realm of being. If the presupposition referred to is accepted metaphysics is possible; if not, it is not. The word 'presupposition' must be taken literally. The presupposition in question is, in (...) fact, a presupposition and cannot be proved. It is not possible to prove that the world--the aggregate of things--is intelligible. Any attempted proof is circular. It would, in essence, be obliged to say: the world is noncontradictory for, were it contradictory, this circumstance itself would involve a contradiction. But this is equivalent to the assumption that the contradictory is impossible; which in turn is nothing but the conclusion given as a premise. To say that the contradictory is impossible is simply to say, in other words, that nothing is or can be contradictory, which was the point to be proved. Hence, though the presupposition that the world is intelligible is necessary, it is, nevertheless, a presupposition and cannot be demonstrated. (shrink)