Structure and Being
A Theoretical Framework for a Systematic Philosophy
528 pages | 6.125 x 9.25 | 2008
ISBN 978-0-271-03373-0 | cloth: $75.00 sh
Paperback edition is not available
A magisterial work in the grand tradition of systematic philosophy not seen in this country perhaps since Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality (1929), this book by a leading German philosopher aims to resurrect systematic philosophy as an essential part of the theoretical enterprise. In Lorenz Puntel's vision, philosophy as the universal science can be holistic without being imperialistic.
The book presents theoretical frameworks as indispensable for any and all theorizing. It argues that there can be truths only relative to sufficiently determinable theoretical frameworks, and that all such frameworks are genuinely revelatory ontologically. No problematic relativism results, however, because such frameworks can be compared and thereby ranked with respect to their theoretical adequacy.
Structure and Being contributes to the reconciliation of analytic and continental philosophy by insisting upon clarity and precision, as the former does, while aiming for comprehensiveness, as the latter often does.
For further information: www.structureandbeing.comLorenz B. Puntel, born 1935, studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, and Catholic theology in Munich, Vienna, Paris, Rome, and Innsbruck. He received a doctorate in philosophy in 1968 and one in Catholic theology in 1969. He qualified as a university lecturer in philosophy in 1972 and became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Munich in 1978. In 2001, he became Professor Emeritus.
Alan White received his BA from Tulane University in 1972 and his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 1980. In 2000, he became Mark Hopkins Professor of Philosophy at Williams College.
Introduction 1
1. Global Systematics
1.1 Theoretical Framework for a Systematic Philosophy" the complexity of the concept and of its presentation
1.2 A first determination of systematic philosophy
1.3 Structure and being: a first characterization of the basic idea behind the structural-systematic philosophy
1.4 The idealized four-stage philosophical method
1.5. (Self-)grounding of systematic philosophy?
2. Systematics of Theoreticity. The Dimension of Philosophical Presentation
2.1 Theoreticity as a dimension of presentation
2.2 Language as the medium of presentation for theoreticity
2.3 The epistemic dimension as the domain of the accomplishment of theoreticity
2.4 The dimension of theory in the narrower sense
2.5 Fully determined theoreticity: first approach to a theory of truth
3. Systematics of Structure: The Fundamental Structures
3.1 What is the systematics of structure?
3.2 The three levels of fundamental structures
3.3 Theory of truth as explication (articulation) of the fully determinate connections among fundamental structures
4. World-Systematics. Theory of the Dimensions of the World
4.1 The concept of world
4.2 The "natural world"
4.3 The human world
4.4 The aesthetic world
4.5 The world as a whole
5. Comprehensive Systematics: The Theory of the Interconnection of All Structures and Dimensions of Being as Theory of Being As Such and As a Whole
5.1 The philosophical status of comprehensive systematics
5.2 Basic features of a theory of being as such and as a whole
5.3 Starting points for a theory of absolute being
6. Metasystematics: Theory of the Relatively Maximal Self-Determination of Systematic Philosophy
6.1 The status of metasystematics
6.2 Immanent metasystematics
6.3 External metasystematics
6.4 Self-determination, metasystematics, and the self-grounding of the structural-systematic philosophy