A rigorous and canny way of construing reality; food for thought as vast as a Viennese dessert cart.
Psychiatrist Müller seeks to handle the mind-body riddle vexing the Western epistemological tradition of ontology.
If reality is prestructured and independent of mind, says Müller, why have so many schools of thought that have taken their cues from that particular ontological perspective—from theism to deconstructionist—run into a dead end? Alternatively, Müller says, the creation of mental structures in the brain are subjectively experienced, i.e., accept the reality of the mind and use a subject-inclusive reality design. Müller cuts the lay reader no slack in the dark matter of ontological language—“That is, the ontic unknowable but nevertheless postulated and posited shared mind-independently ‘real reality’ is abandoned”—but does proceed from point to point, with extremely handy notes ushering readers forward and back in the text to appropriate references. And he drums his points home with vigor: that we structure experience (“the world is a stage that we build as we need and can”); that the subjective is the priority for coherence and that we create a reality design that is a knowable, testable working instrument. This reality design is a pragmatic working-reality scheme with elements that are more deliberate (such as music and religion) or more automatic (gravity and thunder), where things that are considered absolutes are particularly reliable tools. Müller does a particularly nice job taking apart the dominant ontological approach as a “mind-independently prestructured reality-in-itself,” pointing to its foibles but never being dismissive since the approach has served as important movement forward. Some elements of his outline will nag at the neophyte, including the fuzziness of object-perception (Müller says it is a guideline that will not be sharp), or in the nature of objectivity (let alone “ineffable unstructured”)—“the theory of evolution results from objective study”—if experienced through the subject priority. Especially gratifying is his approach as a bridge feature: “We structure mental instruments in the unstructured, and then posit and use them” as tools, be they God or a bicycle, and “evidence becomes the viability of posited structures.”
A rigorous and canny way of construing reality; food for thought as vast as a Viennese dessert cart.Pub Date: Dec. 27, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450200950
Page Count: 124
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 10, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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