Background
Watson, Richard Allan was born on February 23, 1931 in New Market, Iowa, United States. Son of Roscoe Richard and Daisy Belle (Penwell) Watson.
(A cricket, a rat and a bat live happily in the dark depth...)
A cricket, a rat and a bat live happily in the dark depths of their cave. Each one has a unique way of navigating the world without light, but one day an explorer brings light to the cave. Small children will enjoy the rhythmic verse of this story.
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( Combines historical research and philosophical analysis...)
Combines historical research and philosophical analysis to cast light on why and how Cartesianism failed as a complete metaphysical system. Far more radical in its conclusions than his 1966 study The Downfall of Cartesianism (a slightly revised version of which forms the main body of the current work), Watson argues that Descartes's ontology is incoherent and vacuous, his epistemology deceptive, and his theology unorthodox--indeed, that Descartes knows nothing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0872204065/?tag=2022091-20
(In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchl...)
In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchland Watson argues that all intelligible theories of representation by ideas are based on likeness between representations and objects. He concludes that 17th century materialist criticisms of 'having' mental representations in the mind apply to contemporary material representations in the brain, as proposed by neurophilosophers. The argument begins with Plato, with particular stress on Descartes, Malebranche, and Arnauld. He then proceeds with an examination of the picture theory developed by Wittgenstein, Carnap, and Goodman, and concludes with an examination of Patricia Churchland, Ruth Millikan, Robert Cummins, and Mark Rollins. The use of the historical development of representationalism to pose a central problem in contemporary cognitive science is unique. For students, scholars and researchers in neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and modern philosophy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0792334531/?tag=2022091-20
(In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchl...)
In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchland Watson argues that all intelligible theories of representation by ideas are based on likeness between representations and objects. He concludes that 17th century materialist criticisms of 'having' mental representations in the mind apply to contemporary material representations in the brain, as proposed by neurophilosophers. The argument begins with Plato, with particular stress on Descartes, Malebranche, and Arnauld. He then proceeds with an examination of the picture theory developed by Wittgenstein, Carnap, and Goodman, and concludes with an examination of Patricia Churchland, Ruth Millikan, Robert Cummins, and Mark Rollins. The use of the historical development of representationalism to pose a central problem in contemporary cognitive science is unique. For students, scholars and researchers in neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and modern philosophy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9401040370/?tag=2022091-20
( In 1925 the geological connection between Flint Ridge a...)
In 1925 the geological connection between Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave was proved when dye placed in a Flint Ridge spring showed up in Echo River at Mammoth Cave. That tantalizing swirl of dye confirmed speculations that were to tempt more than 650 cavers over half a century with the thrill of being the first to make human passage of the cave connection. Roger Brucker and Richard Watson tell not only of their own twenty-year effort to complete the link but the stories of many others who worked their way through mud-choked crawlways less than a foot high only to find impenetrable blockages. Floyd Collins died a grisly death in nearby Sand Cave in 1925, after being trapped there for 15 days. The wide press coverage of the rescue efforts stirred the imagination of the public and his body was on macabre display in a glass-topped coffin in Crystal Cave into the 1940s. Agents of a rival cave owner once even stole his corpse, which was recovered and still is in a coffin in the cave. Modern cavers still have a word with Floyd as they start their downward treks. Brucker and Watson joined the parade of cavers who propelled themselves by wiggling kneecaps, elbows, and toes through quarter-mile long crawlways, clinging by fingertips and boot toes across mud-slick walls, over bottomless pits, into gurgling streams beneath stone ceilings that descend to water level, down crumbling crevices and up mountainous rockfalls, into wondrous domed halls, and straight ahead into a blackness intensified rather than dispelled by the carbide lamps on their helmets. Over two decades they explored the passages with others who sought the final connection as vigorously as themselves. Pat Crowther, a young mother of two, joined them and because of her thinness became the member of the crew to go first into places no human had ever gone before. In that role, in July 1972, she wiggled her way through the Tight Spot and found the route that would link the Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave systems into one cave extending 144.4 miles through the Kentucky limestone. In a new afterword to this edition the authors summarize the subsequent explorations that have more than doubled the established length of the cave system. Based upon geological evidence, the authors predict that new discoveries will add another 200 miles to the length of the world’s longest cave, making it over 500 miles long.
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(Phenomenalism, idealism, spiritualism, and other contempo...)
Phenomenalism, idealism, spiritualism, and other contemporary philo sophical movements originating in the reflective experience of the cogito witness to the immense influence of Descartes. However, Carte sianism as a complete metaphysical system in the image of that of the master collapsed early in the 18th century. A small school of brilliant Cartesians, almost all expert in the new mechanistic science, flashed like meteors upon the intellectual world of late 17th century France to win well-deserved recognition for Cartesianism. They were accompanied by a scintillating comet, Ma1ebranche, the deviant Cartesian, now remembered as the orthodox Cartesians are not. However, all these bright lights faded upon the philosophical horizon, almost as soon as they appeared. The metaphysical dualism of Des cartes was, as such, neither to be preserved nor reconstructed. There are many reasons why the Cartesian system did not survive the victory over Scholasticism which Descartes, Malebranche, and the others had won. Newtonian physics very soon replaced Cartesian physics. The practical interest and success of the new science which the Cartesians themselves had nurtured drew men down from the lofty realms of metaphysics. On the popular front, Cartesianism was attacked and ridiculed for the view that animals are unthinking machines. In the schools of Paris and elsewhere, there was the general but severe opposition of pedants, which is perhaps of more historical than philosophical interest.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9401700230/?tag=2022091-20
Watson, Richard Allan was born on February 23, 1931 in New Market, Iowa, United States. Son of Roscoe Richard and Daisy Belle (Penwell) Watson.
Bachelor of Arts, University Iowa, 1953; Master of Arts, University Iowa, 1957; Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy,, U. Iowa, 1961; Master of Science in Geology, University of Minnesota, 1959.
Watson taught philosophy at Washington University in Saint Louis for forty years. He is considered one of the foremost living authorities on Descartes. He is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy for Washington University in Saint Louis.
He has a degree in geology specializing in "paleoclimatology of 10,000 years ago." This involved the development of agrarian societies in the Fertile Crescent.
His book, Cogito, Ergo Sum: a life of René Descartes was a travelogue in the form of following Rene Descarte"s travels around Europe. lieutenant was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its "25 Books to Remember from 2002." Mr.
Watson, Watson, Watson, "".
(In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchl...)
(In Representational Ideas: From Plato to Patricia Churchl...)
(Phenomenalism, idealism, spiritualism, and other contempo...)
( In 1925 the geological connection between Flint Ridge a...)
( Combines historical research and philosophical analysis...)
(A cricket, a rat and a bat live happily in the dark depth...)
Served to 1st lieutenant United States Air Force, 1953-1955. Member National Speleological Society (honorary life), American Philosophical Association, Cave Research Found. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science, Spelco Club de Paris (honorary life).
Married Patty Jo Andersen, July 30, 1955. 1 child, Anna Melissa.