The paperback
version of my new book
Immortal Souls: A
Treatise on Human Nature sold
out on Amazon within a day of being listed there. No word on when it will be back in stock, but
I imagine it will be soon. Meanwhile,
the eBook version is
available
through Barnes and Noble. You can
also order either version through
the
publisher’s website or through Amazon’s websites in
the
U.K. and
Germany.
UPDATE: The book is back in stock at Amazon.
How many copies were sold so far? You must be breaking records for philosophy books!
ReplyDeleteThe Barnes and Noble page has a sample with the first few chapters, including the Preface. Dan Feser, thank you for your example of selfless love for your family.
ReplyDeleteIs an ebook a real book? Does it have the form of a book or *is* it the form of a book? Is an ebook physical or immaterial? Is it also immortal like our souls are?
ReplyDeletea) Yes, it's a real book.
Deleteb) It has the form of a book. It's a file, ergo a physical object.
c) An ebook is physical.
d) No.
Not sure if you were disingenuous or honest, but here are the answers.
I'd argue only the concrete way a book is represented 'here and now' —whether in paper form with ink or electronically displayed through changes in semiconductor states—is physical strictly speaking. But its content is conceptual, and hence abstract, not particular like you or me or angels. For this reason, conceptual content cannot be termed 'immortal', as concepts and abstract forms are not living creatures in the first place.
Delete'Eternal' might be more fitting, if one argues all abstract ideas and concepts in some way or another exist in the mind of God (though I don't know exactly how this works, so if anyone can give feedback on how ideas exist in the mind of God and if this way of talking of books as eternal makes sense or not, please comment)
Anyway, concepts do require of an actual immortal intellect to exist at all in the abstract manner they exist in. If they were not in any intellect, they wouldn't exist at all in this abstract way.
Ι bought the Kindle version yesterday!
ReplyDeleteThe book back in stock in Amazon this week. And, obviously, I buy - the physical book.
ReplyDeleteFrom the land of Holy Cross, God bless you Dr. Feser.
Ps.: E-books are a blasphemy to reading - and the phenomenology of read a physical book is magnanimously better than read a e-book.
Ps.: Ps.: I was thinking: Edward Feser is a conservative right that supports a kind of capitalism or distributivism (I think) and have this blog that tantamount a pay substack - considering contents like, for instance, the pay substack of David Bentley Hart (that I pay, and, of course, is very worth). David Bentley Hart, even thoug a socialist, have a pay substack that yielding the same intelectual degree of this blog. Now, I ask: this is not the symptom of man of the left, that, abstractaly, say things like "oh, we need to be tolerant", "ah, the world needs more compassion", "look, we have thinking in poor"... But, in the concrete life, they don't do anything they say. In the end, Edward Feser is the true "socialist".
Pace and Bene.
To be fair, intelectual property seems to be a modern thing, so a thinker who is less focused on tradition like Dr. Hart* is probably more inclined to see it as a presuposition of his profession.
DeleteIn the Library of Babel your book has always existed. You are the mortal dispatched to search the shelves and return with it. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteAmazon now has the book available for pre-order, with release date of June 30th. I pre-ordered it! :)
ReplyDeleteUpdate: book not yet available for shipping, it says: "Not yet shipped
DeleteWe will email you when we have an estimated delivery date." Also the e-book option is not longer available. Aaaarghhhh.....
Dr. Feser
ReplyDeleteCan you comment about the making of your book? Why was this particular book your biggest book so far?
I'd venture to guess that it's because Philosophy Of Mind is in a way Dr Feser's specialisation, it is mentioned as a primary academic interest from in the introduction to this blog, the book deals with issues, as one can see from the index, that have been core to Dr Feser's contributions to scholastic philosophy, the thomistic revival and in general the increased scepticism about materialistic philosophies of nature apart from the fact that Dr Feser is a very prominent figure in contemporary philosophy of mind as evidenced by Lawrence Kuhn's inclusion of Dr Feser's conception of consciousness.
DeleteIf his book, Philosophy of Mind, was the introduction, it seems that, Immortal Souls is the culmination of almost a decade's reflection on the relevant issues mentioned in the book. That would explain it's length.
I will see how it compares to Rev J.F. Donceel's 1967 book "Philosophical Anthropology." I studied under that brilliant Jesuit philosopher many years ago.
ReplyDeleteCiao Ed,
ReplyDeleteYou made my day, I immediately bought the kindle edition! Sublime! I would like to point out some small formatting errors, several times after a term written in italics a capital "K" appears. Here's a case (I enclosed the term in italics with the character "/"):
The Substantiality of the self
The most Descartes is entitled to claim, held Lichtenberg, is that /there is thinking going on/, but not
that there is an /I/ Kor /self/ Kwho is doing the thinking
"Thomas Aquinas and the Soul Body Connection" a M.A. thesis
ReplyDeletehttps://irl.umsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=thesis
"St Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysical Nature of the Soul and its Union with the Body." a Ph.D. dissertation
ReplyDeletehttps://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1707&context=etd
Available in Canada on June 30th - physical copy only I think. I always wait for the digital version. Hopefully it comes out soon after.
ReplyDeleteIs this really back in stock at Amazon? My pre-order is still saying they will let me know when they have an estimated delivery date.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting on this book since I heard Mr. Feser speak on the topic at West Point (youtube). Amazon UK is selling the Kindle version, any word on when Amazon US will?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, it isn't available in places like Asia and India and Africa as well. I think that Amazon should atleast make the Kindle version available everywhere, I understand if logistics is an issue with the physical copies. Only Amazon UK seems to have the kindle version available.
DeleteIf Prof could look into that, it would be great.
Another update: Now Amazon shows the book as to be released in October, and the estimated delivery date of my pre-order is October 8th.
ReplyDeleteI saw that and don't understand why we have to wait so long in the States. The book is available on Amazon UK, a couple of British sellers on Ebay have it, and an American seller on Abebooks has it in stock too.
DeleteHi Dr Feser
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet brought Immortal Souls, I plan to soon, However I was reading Philosophy Of Mind as a kind of preparation and rehashing of the relevant concepts.
In philosophy of mind , while explaining the Knowledge Argument and defending it against the ability hypothesis, You mentioned the fact it is arguable that the new abilities are gained only because new knowledge is gained.
I was wondering if this is still your view and if you have any particular argument in mind since it wasn't referenced in the book.
After surveying the literature, I found that Brie Gertler offered a similar argument in 1999 in her "Defence of the Knowledge Argument", Would your argument be along the same lines, In recent times it has been Sam Coleman in his paper "Why the Ability Hypothesis is Best Forgotten" ?
Any references would be really helpful.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteUpdate:
DeleteDr Feser actually a couple of objections to the Knowledge Argument in his review of
Charles Bolyard and Rondo Keele: Later Medieval Metaphysics: Ontology, Language, and Logic including the new concept/old fact strategy and the begs the question objection.
Although the ability hypothesis isn't mentioned.
Still the parallels he draws between Aquinas's arguments are superb amd his responses to those objections are decisive.
I am delighted to inform ya'll that the ebook version is available for purchase around the world on the Rakuten Kobo website.
ReplyDeleteJudging from Immortal Souls It looks like Dr Feser still regards his discussion of the qualia arguments in philosophy of mind as what he would say about them today.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess he would still consider his main response to the ability hypothesis as something like what I mentioned above.
I would have liked to see a small treatment of David Lewis views on knowledge of qualia as "know how" kind of knowledge rather than propositional knowledge. I think it would have fit well into the embodied knowledge discussion. But it's already a lengthy book so far. I am enjoying it thoroughly. I tip my hat to Dr Feser.
The issues I mentioned can always be addressed in future blog posts or providing some references or analysis that Dr Feser agrees with.
I hope the book becomes required reading in the philosophy of mind .
PS
DeleteJames Madden has a good treatment of the ability hypothesis in his book Mind Matter and Nature and Stoljar has a detailed treatment of Lewis in his paper "Lewis on materialism and experience"
Essentially Lewis seems to espouse the notion of an identity between Qualia/ Experience and Psychological states described in terms of folk psychology. He essentially reduces qualia to that of "functional roles".
So that's why he adopts the ability hypothesis, On his account Mary gains the ability to imagine red, but if questioned whether she also comes to know the fact that "Red looks like this" where this refers to the sensation of red, the qualitative aspect, Lewis would just reply that red is nothing but a "functional role" where in the function is determined by "folk psychology". Essentially what Lewis is doing when invoking the ability hypothesis is deflecting from the qualitative aspect of the experience and when asked about the quality aspect, trying to define it exclusively in terms of functional roles. In that respect Stoljar even characterises Lewis as sort of an eliminativist with respect to experience.
To add to this informative thread
Deletehttp://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2024/07/knowing-what-its-like-to-see-green.html
I think that since Dr Feser does defend the knowledge argument against contemporary forms of materialism , atleast as an argument for the irreducabilility of qualia to the language of physics,the community will be benefited by an exchange between him and Dr Pruss on this subject of qualia sometime in the near future, God willing.
Similar to their exchange on the A theory and B theory of time was really informative and fruitful.
Also , I found the discussion and distinctions of pre reflective awareness, reflective awareness and unconsciousness in Immortal Souls to be very clarifying. I think it decisively refutes Michael Tye's theory of having experiences that one is totally unaware of. I am thoroughly enjoying the book, the way it is paced and the references to books of thomistic authors like Dr Steven Jensen who I strongly admire.