Philosophy of mind Books

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1844, Søren Kierkegaard’s concise treatise identified—long before Freud—anxiety as a profound human condition, portraying human existence largely as a constant struggle with our own spiritual identities.Trade Review"“[A] book at once so profound and byzantine that it seems to aim at evoking the very feeling it dissects. Perhaps more than any other philosopher, Kierkegaard reflected on the question of how to communicate the truths that we live by.”" -- The New York Times"“[A] book at once so profound and byzantine that it seems to aim at evoking the very feeling it dissects. Perhaps more than any other philosopher, Kierkegaard reflected on the question of how to communicate the truths that we live by.”" -- The New York Times

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Book SynopsisAn exciting journey through history, socio-economic discourse, and philosophical discussion. This book will guide you, using a holistic approach to finding true happiness. It has the potential to change lives, not by giving advice as to how you should lead your life but by exposing you to concepts, philosophies and a way of thinking (for yourself) that may not have been so obvious before.Providing an abundance of stimulation and enlightenment on several key topics, it breaks happiness down into three parts (Money, Love, and Health). The etymology of the word “happiness” means “living well”. What flows from this is that if you “live well” you will find happiness and the reason most people believe they will be happy if they are wealthy, in love and in good health is that those three things i.e. money, love, and health promote well-being. This trifecta has the power to make us happy when things are going smoothly, but also the ability to make us really miserable when they are not. The Quest for Happiness is something that every single one of us aspires to.Our Quest for happiness begins by following historical and present-day examples of figures of accomplishment, those who have succeeded in their own Quests. The whole idea is to encourage the reader to have the mindset of an explorer; because explorers are a special type of human being. They have physical endurance – they have mental toughness – They have plenty of determination and a deep feeling of purpose and most of all they have faith in their pursuit. The author took this concept of exploration a bit further. Geographical explorations have limits whilst exploration of ourselves as a human being is infinite. The author is inviting her readers to turn inwards; because when you turn inwards this is where you find your own treasure.The book is shaped like a journey, and the author is taking her readers on an Epic Journey serving as their tour guide. This book will entice, surprise and inspire. The words have depth, the journey is meaningful and the message uplifting and thought-provoking. Are you ready for your Quest?

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Book SynopsisThe most important thing in my life, in anyone''s life, is the state of our mind. But sometimes people can easily spend as much as half their waking hours in a vaguely mind-wandering, daydreaming, out-of it, zoned out, zombie state of mind.For thousands of years people have been finding ways to enlighten their minds in their lives.This book shows you how to enlighten your mind by using any of a few simple mental gestures, and most important: YOU DON''T HAVE TO MEDITATE. There is no need for long and tedious ''practice,'' where you sit silently trying to jerk your mind into an unnatural contorted position, and then keep dragging it back into that position when it quite naturally revolts against it.You don''t need a teacher or a guru or to carve out a special time or go to a special place or do any repetitive activity or spiritual ''exercise'' or engage in any intentional discriminating reflection or apply any rule of moral conduct or take the least trouble to do ''good.''This book not only explains what enlightenment means but most importantly it describes exactly how to do any of 7 simple mental gestures, any one of which brings you awake at once and any one of which you can test out for yourself. I want to be clear: you can test them out right away right now and see that they work immediately.Enlightenment is the same thing as full awakeness, full consciousness, high consciousness.What it feels like: State of immediate presence; Simple feeling of being, Sparkling awareness.Who is doing this: There is an intensified feeling that You Are There; You are seeing things from Inside Your Perspective, which you carry around with you always; I-am-ness.The 7 mental gestures are from the 21st century (1) , 20th century (3), 7th century (1), 6th century (1) CE, and 5th century (1) BCE, with supporting material from all the centuries between. They were created in France (1), China (1), Tibet (1), India (1), and the US (3), with supporting material from all over.All that is in Section 1 - GETTING THERE RIGHT-AWAY NOW. Section 2 - THE BABY ON THE BATTLEFIELD - explains how to easily prevent the hostile army of your own negative thoughts from kidnapping you and carrying you away; Section 3 - BEING HERE RIGHT-AWAY NOW- enumerates the rewards and benefits, and Section 4 - YOU CAN GO WHEREVER YOU WANT! - points you towards deciding for yourself what you want to do next in your life, taking along your always-available enlightened mind.You might well ask: Why weren''t we told about this before? The reason is that although this has been well known since the beginning, the idea of enlightenment has been taken over by institutions, which become encrusted with not only property and buildings and treasure but also hordes of personnel, who write vast libraries of scriptures, and those employees have to keep their customers occupied and get them to commit themselves and their resources, so they create an immense body of rituals. Meditations are such rituals.There are already hundreds of meditation rituals, and more are being created all the time, as you can find on the internet. You can well ask yourself: If any of these were effective, why would we have to keep creating hundreds of new ones? Suppose a doctor said, "Oh yes, we can treat this disease; in fact, we have hundreds of treatments for it." Wouldn''t you wonder why so many treatments would be needed if any of them were effective?This book cuts through the mumbo-jumbo and gives it to you straight. A quote from Buddha: "Enlightened on their own...In this whole world, there is no one except myself equal to those enlightened on their own...These attain insight alone...fully and perfectly enlightened all by themselves! ..illuminators of the world, shining like pure solid gold, undoubtedly worthy of any gifts in this world."

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Book Synopsis'Intellectual Entertainments' consists of eight philosophical dialogues, each with five participants, some living, some imaginary and some dead. The dialogues take place either in Elysium or in an imaginary Oxford Common Room. Each historical figure speaks in his own idiom with a distinctive turn of phrase. The imaginary figures speak in the accent and idiom of their respective countries (English, Scottish, American, Australian). The themes are the nature of the mind and the relation between mind and body; the nature of consciousness and its demystification; the nature of thought and its relation to speech; and the objectivity or subjectivity of perceptual qualities such as colour, sound, smell, taste and warmth. Each participant presents a different point of view and defends his position against the arguments of the others. No philosophical knowledge is presupposed.Trade Review‘No one interested in philosophy should miss this exceptional opportunity to enter the philosophical fray through dialogues spiced with humour, and achieve clarity on the most difficult and controversial philosophical questions such as the nature of the mind; how it relates to the body and differs from the brain; whether consciousness exists; the nature of thought and how it relates to language. This is a tour de force by the most eminent Wittgenstein scholar of our time.’ — Daniele Moyal-Sharrock, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire, UK, and President of the British Wittgenstein Society‘In these engaging dialogues Peter Hacker has distilled a lifetime’s meticulous and insightful philosophical reflection on consciousness, thought and the nature of the mind, and the often misguided ways in which we talk and think about them.’ — John Cottingham, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading, UK, and Professor of Philosophy, University of Roehampton, UKTable of ContentsPreface; Acknowledgements; Section 1 Two Dialogues on Mind and Body; Introduction; First Dialogue On the Nature of the Mind; Second Dialogue The Mind and the Body; Section 2 Two Dialogues on Consciousness; Introduction; Third Dialogue The Mystery of Consciousness; Fourth Dialogue Consciousness as Experience – Consciousness as Life Itself; Section 3 A Dialogue on the Objectivity or Subjectivity of Perceptual Qualities; Introduction; Fifth Dialogue On the Objectivity or Subjectivity of Perceptual Qualities; Section 4 Two Dialogues on Thought; Introduction; Sixth Dialogue Thought; Seventh Dialogue Thought and Language; Section 5 A Dialogue on Ownership of Pain; Introduction; Eighth Dialogue Can You Have My Pain? Can Different People Have the Same Pain?

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Book SynopsisWhat goes on in creative writers’ heads when they write? What can cognitive psychology, neuroscience, literary studies and previous research in creative writing studies tell creative writers about the processes of their writing mind? Creative writers have for centuries undertaken cognitive research. Some described cognition in vivid exegetical essays, but most investigated the mind in creative writing itself, in descriptions of the thinking of characters in fiction, poetry and plays. The inner voicings and inner visualising revealed in Greek choruses, in soliloquies, in stream-of-consciousness narratives are creative writers’ ‘research results’ from studying their own cognition, and the thinking of others. The Creative Writer’s Mind is a book for creative writers: it sets out to cross the gap between creative writing and science, between the creative arts and cognitive research.Trade ReviewHow might writers think about the kinds of thinking that go into writing? Nigel Krauth takes up glimmers of insight offered by neuroscience, psychology, and centuries of writers who ‘notice thought’. If you wonder how to start writing, how to go on with it, or if you suspect you might learn from questions asked by others, this book will become your companion. * Kevin Brophy, Emeritus Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia *Thrillingly broad in reference and combining the insights of a novelist with the curiosity of a cognitive scientist, this fascinating book will appeal to anyone interested in the workings of the creative mind. * Charles Fernyhough, Durham University, UK *Nigel Krauth’s new book constitutes a line of flight, one that traces the movement creatives make from the familiar to the arcane, swooping between writing science and neuroscience, imagination and evidence, and navigating all the complex considerations that lie behind the production of a work of literary art. * Jen Webb, University of Canberra, Australia *Table of ContentsFigures Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Depictions of the Creative Writing Mind Chapter 2. Writers and Thinking, According to Critics Chapter 3. Thinking and Writing, According to Writers Chapter 4. The Mosaic Mind: Writing and Divergent Thinking Chapter 5. The Flow Mind: Writing and Convergent Thinking Chapter 6. Reflective Questions for Developing Writers and Classroom Discussions References Index

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Book SynopsisThe essays in Logos and Life, mainly dating from 2014 and later, cover topics in philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, ethics and philosophy of language. There are numerous strands connecting these four areas, which Roger Teichmann highlights: in this sense the collection exhibits thematic unity as well as diversity. Several of the essays take as their starting points the ideas and philosophical methods of Wittgenstein and of Elizabeth Anscombe, and so will be of interest to anyone studying those philosophers. A newly written Introduction serves to indicate the main themes and arguments of the book, and provides an overall statement of Teichmann's philosophy.

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Book SynopsisThis book uses a neo-Aristotelian framework to examine human subjectivity as an embodied being. It examines the varieties of reductionism that affect philosophical writing about human origins and identity, and explores the nature of rational subjectivity as emergent from our neurobiological constitution. This allows a consideration of the effect of neurological interventions such as psychosurgery, neuroimplantation, and the promise of cyborgs on the image of the human. It then examines multiple personality disorder and its implications for narrative theories of the self, and explores the idea of human spirituality as an essential aspect of embodied human subjectivity.

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Book SynopsisThe purpose of The Corporeal Turn is to document in a single text the impressive array of investigations possible with respect to the body and bodily life, and to show that, whatever the specific topic being examined, it is a matter of fathoming and elucidating complex and subtle structures of animate meaning. The corporeal turn is envisioned as an ever-expanding, continuous, and open-ended spiral of inquiry in which deeper and deeper understandings are forged, understandings that in each instance themselves call out for deeper and deeper inquiries. The first thirteen essays have already been published as distinct articles. The two new essays constituting the final two chapters are testimony to this open-ended spiral of inquiry.

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Book SynopsisThis book uses Viktor Frankl’s Existential Psychology (logotherapy) to explore the ways some professors use unusually personal scholarship to discover meaning in personal adversity. A psychiatrist imprisoned for three years in Nazi concentration camps, Frankl believed the search for meaning is a powerful motivator, and that its discovery can be profoundly therapeutic. Part I begins with four stories of professors finding meaning. Using the case studies as a foundation, Part II investigates issues of epistemology and ethics in unusually personal research from an existential perspective. The book offers advice for graduate students and faculty who want to live and work more meaningfully in the academy.Table of Contents1. Introduction to Mesearch2. Mesearch in the Social and Behavioral Sciences3. Mesearch in the Hard Sciences4. Mesearch in the Arts and Humanities5. Autoethnography6. Mesearch in Graduate School7. Mesearch and Motivation8. To Disclose or Not?9. Getting a Job and Getting Tenure10. Mesearch as Therapeutic Practice11. Mesearch and Activism12. The Case for a New Epistemology13. The Future of Mesearch

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Book SynopsisThis innovative book proposes a unique and original perspective on the nature of the mind and how phenomenal consciousness may arise in a physical world. From simple sentient organisms to complex self-reflective systems, Faye argues for a naturalistic-evolutionary approach to philosophy of mind and consciousness. Drawing on substantial literature in evolutionary biology and cognitive science, this book offers a promising alternative to the major theories of the mind-body problem: the quality of our experiences should not, as some philosophers have claimed, be associated with subjectivity that is not open for scientific explanation, nor should it be associated with intrinsic properties of the brain. Instead, Faye argues that mental properties are extrinsic properties of the brain caused by the organism’s interaction with its environment. Taking on the explanatory gap, and rejecting the ontological pluralism of present naturalist theories of the mind, Faye thus proposes a unified view of reality in which it is possible to explain qualitative mental presentations as part of the physical world. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Flipping the Debate.- Chapter 2: Our Animal Mind.- Chapter 3: Subjectivity in a Biological Perspective.- Chapter 4: A Difference That Is No Difference.- Chapter 5: Why Identity Is Not Enough.- Chapter 6: Functionalism, Mechanisms, and Levels of Reality.- Chapter 7: The Environment Is What Matters.- Chapter 8: Understanding Consciousness.- Chapter 9: Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers an analysis of experimental psychology that is embedded in a general understanding of human behavior. It provides methodological self-awareness for researchers who study and use the experimental method in psychology. The book critically reviews key research areas (e.g., rule-breaking, sense of agency, free choice, task switching, task sharing, and mind wandering), examining their scope, limits, ambiguities, and implicit theoretical commitments. Topics featured in this text include: Methods of critique in experimental research Goal hierarchies and organization of a task Rule-following and rule-breaking behavior Sense of agency Free-choice tasks Mind wandering Experimental Psychology and Human Agency will be of interest to researchers and undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, theoretical psychology, and critical psychology, as well as various philosophical disciplines. Table of ContentsChapter 1: Shifting Focus.- Chapter 2: Experience and Reality.- Chapter 3: Hierarchies of Purpose.- Chapter 4: Rules of a Task.- Chapter 5: What is a Task?.- Chapter 6: Free Choice.- Chapter 7: Sense of Agency.- Chapter 8: Varieties of Disengagement.- Chapter 9: A Reflective Science.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers the first comprehensive assessment of Heidegger’s account of affective phenomena. Affective phenomena play a significant role in Heidegger’s philosophy — his analyses of mood significantly influenced diverse fields of research such as existentialism, hermeneutics, phenomenology, theology and cultural studies. Despite this, no single collection of essays has been exclusively dedicated to this theme. Comprising twelve innovative essays by leading Heidegger scholars, this volume skilfully explores the role that not only Angst plays in Heidegger’s work, but also love and boredom. Exploring the nature of affective phenomena in Heidegger, as well as the role they play in wider philosophical debates, the volume is a valuable addition to Heideggerian scholarship and beyond, enriching current debates across disciplines on the nature of human agency.Trade Review“This collection can be considered a major contribution to its own field, one that simultaneously invites further productive engagement with the theme from anyone interested in what Heidegger brings to bear on affects (be it from within the field or from without). The volume’s efficacy lies in seriously considering how affects are existentially pertinent to human beings, deepening the widely-held intuition that they are. For that reason, it is of considerable merit and should be of interest to many.” (Tijmen Lansdaal, Phenomenological Reviews, December 10, 2019)Table of ContentsChapter 1. Being, Nothingness and Anxiety. Mahon O'Brien.- Chapter 2. Heidegger: πάθος as the thing itself. Thomas Sheehan.- Chapter 3. The Affects of Rhetoric and Reconceiving the Nature of Possibility. Niall Keane.- Chapter 4. Angst and evidence: Shifting phenomenology's measure. Christos Hadjioannou.- Chapter 5. Missing in Action: Affectivity in Being and Time, Daniel O. Dahlstrom.- Chapter 6. Affect and Authenticity: Three Heideggerian Models of Owned Emotion. Denis McManus.- Chapter 7. Finding Oneself, Called. Katherine Withy.- Chapter 8. Is Profound Boredom Boredom?. Andreas Elpidorou & Lauren Freeman.- Chapter 9. Truth, Errancy, and Bodily Dispositions in Heidegger's Thought. Daniela Vallega-New.- Chapter 10. Love as Passion: epistemic and existential aspects of Heidegger's unknown concept. Tatjana Noemi Tömmel.- Chapter 11. The Ethics of Moods. Francois Raffoul.- Chapter 12. Heidegger and the Affective (un)grounding of Politics. Jan Slaby & Gerhard Thonhauser.

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Book SynopsisThis book applies Heidegger’s writings to experimental fictions and film genres in order to study a being-there that performs itself beyond liveness and a future that is already here. Theatrical mise-en-scène is analyzed as a way of modeling the Heideggerian ontological-existential, exchanging a deeper presencing for the fictional “now” of liveness. The book is organized around ostensible objects that are in fact things-as-such and performs its theme via time-traveling, interruptions, decompositions, incompleteness, failure, geometric patterning, and above all black pages first cited in Tristram Shandy. This is a nuanced, original work that combines unexpected sources with even more unexpected writing, imagery, and correspondences. It is part of Golub’s ongoing project of lyrically reimagining philosophy and the mise-en-scène of theatrical performance (a presence-room of consciousness) in light of one another. Table of Contents1.Page (Rectangle) 2.Book (Decomposition) 3. Clock (Time’s Pre-Sequels) 4. Horse (Why Is There Something Else Rather Than Something?) 5. Human (Being)

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Book SynopsisThis book explains that while posthumanism rose in opposition to the biblical contention that ‘Man was created in the image of God’, transhumanism ascertained the complementary view that ‘Man has been assigned dominion over all creatures’, further exploring a path that had been opened up by the Enlightenment’s notion of human perfectibility.It explains also how posthumanism and transhumanism relate to deconstruction theory, and on a broader level to capitalism, libertarianism, and the fight against human extinction which may involve trespassing the boundary of the skin, achieving individual immortality or dematerialization of the Self and colonisation of distant planets and stars.Two authors debate about truth and reason in today’s world, the notion of personhood and the legacy of the Nietzschean Superhuman in the current varieties of anti-humanism.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Humanism and its Discontents - The Rise of Transhumanism and Posthumanism, Paul JorionI. Humanism on the waneStrong Artificial Intelligence and theological anthropology: one problem, two solutions, Marius DorobantuII. Complement and supplementsOn Prosthetic Existence: what differentiates deconstruction from transhumanism and posthumanism, Susanna LindbergIII. Boundaries and frontiersDiscourse between Stefan Lorenz Sorgner and Paul Jorion on Nietzsche, Fascism and Moving Beyond Humanism: From Friedrich Nietzsche to Stefan Sorgner: the short path leading from superhumanism to metahumanism, Paul JorionDignity, Personhood, and the Sacred, Stefan Lorenz SorgnerTruth? Still breathing!, Paul JorionEnlightenment, Truths, and the Sciences, Stefan Lorenz SorgnerWhen skin and technology intertwine, Hélène JeanninIV. The Enlightenment recoveredOn Max More’s extropianism, Salomé BourTranshumanism and Advanced Capitalism: elitist logics and dangerous implications, Alexander ThomasV. The cunning of ReasonPosthumanism, transhumanism, superhumanism and metahumanism from an adaptive standpoint, Paul JorionEthics and Complexity: Why standard ethical frameworks cannot cope with socio-technological change, Clément Vidal & Francis Heylighen

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Book SynopsisThis open access book is a timely contribution in presenting recent issues, approaches, and results that are not only central to the highly interdisciplinary field of concept research but also particularly important to newly emergent paradigms and challenges. The contributors present a unique, holistic picture for the understanding and use of concepts from a wide range of fields including cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer science. The chapters focus on three distinct points of view that lie at the core of concept research: representation, learning, and application. The contributions present a combination of theoretical, experimental, computational, and applied methods that appeal to students and researchers working in these fields.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction (Lucas Bechberger).- Chapter 2. The Geometric Structure of Word (Peter Gärdenfors).- Chapter 3. Aligning between Conceptual Systems Using Internal and External Information (Robert Goldstone).- Chapter 4. Lexical and Structural Divergences between WordNets of Different Languages (Christiane D. Fellbaum).- Chapter 5. Emergence of Grounded Communication and Concepts using Deep Reinforcement Learning (Michael Spranger).- Chapter 6. Prototypes, Theory, Trust: A Multi-Dimensional Model of Concepts And a Computational Approximation (David Schlangen).- Chapter 7. Machine Learning in Conceptual Spaces: Two Learning Processes (Lucas Bechberger).- Chapter 8. On the Evaluation of Conceptual Spaces: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (Hadi Banaee).- Chapter 9. Kind formation by Similarity (Helmar Gust).- Chapter 10. Theories about World Representations for the Internet of Things (Michael Färber).- Chapter 11. Effects of semantic specificity in action verb processing (Margit Scheibel).- Chapter 12. Evaluating Semantic CoCreation in Cognitive Representation Models (Stefan Schneider).- Chapter 13. Grounding Abstract Concepts in Action (Paola Vernillo).- Chapter 14. (José V. Hernández-Conde).- Chapter 15. Does the Activation of Motor Information Affect Semantic Processing? (Elisa Scerrati).

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers a multidisciplinary dialogue on relational anthropology in contemporary economics. A particular view of the human being is often assumed in economic models, but seldom acknowledged let alone explicated. Addressing this neglected area of research in economic studies, altogether the contributors touch upon the importance and potential of virtues, the notions of freedom and self-love, the potential of simulation models, the dialectics of love, and questions of methodology in constructing a relational anthropology for contemporary economics. The overall result is a highly informative and constructive dialogue, establishing inter alia a research agenda for future collaborative and multidisciplinary study.Table of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis book suggests a radical departure in approaching the mind-body problem. Instead of trying to causally relate subjective experience to the functioning of the body, it begins with the notion of the psychosomatic unity of the individual and looks for its conditions of possibility. This text shows that what makes this unity possible is the generalized entanglement relation that connects a person's subjective experience with its body functioning in a specific way.In addition to providing a significant contribution to the long-standing philosophical debate about the nature of the mind-body connection, this change of perspective based on the concept of generalized entanglement allows for exploring a holistic approach to health. It can for example explain the existence of body memory and leads to a better understanding of the genesis and evolution of internal diseases, allowing for the development of mind-body therapies. This volume also provides new insights into mental disorders and sets the theoretical basis of self-healing methods appealing to students, researchers and professionals in the fields.Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1. Mind-body connection and causation1.1. About psychophysical correlations 1.2. Which concept of “causation” are we referring to?1.3. Dualism and causal efficacy• Dualism of substances: elusive psychophysical “interactions”• Non-reductive physicalism: logical inconsistency of psychophysical causation1.4. The hopeless attempts to build a concept of mental causation• Woodward’s interventionist account of causation and mental causation• The counterfactual account of causation and mental causation1.5. Reductionist PhysicalismChapter 2. Exploring neutral monism philosophy 2.1. Spinoza’s psychophysical parallelism 2.2. Neutral monism and individual experience2.3. Jung and Pauli: Unus Mundus and archetypes2.4. Quantum-like Neutral Monism• Bohm and Hiley: the implicate order theory• Atmanspacher and Primas: symmetry breaking and co-emergence of the psychic and physical aspects of the psychophysical unity• Time entanglement of mind and matter? Chapter 3. Mind-body entanglement3.1. The psychosomatic unity of the individual3.2. Mind-Body interdependence: the case of emotions3.3. Specificity (or meaningfulness) of the psychophysical correlations3.4. Mind-body entanglement and psychosomatic unity• Which systemic approach for dealing with the mind-body interdependence? • Mind-body entanglement, condition of possibility of the psychosomatic unityChapter 4. A quantum-like representation of the psychosomatic unity4.1. Quantum-like representation of psychosomatic states4.2. Complementarity in quantum physics and beyond4.3. Quantum-like representation of mind-body entanglement4.4. An experimental test of mind-body entanglement Chapter 5. Mind-body entanglement and healing5.1. From biomedicine to the holistic mind-body approach to illness5.2. Body memory, internal diseases and complementary medicines5.3. Self-healing technics: placebo “effect”, biofeedback and mental imagery, meditation5.4. Psychiatric disorders5.5. Distant healingConclusionAppendix 1: About the mathematical formalism of quantum theoryAppendix 2: Complementarity of anger and disgustAppendix 3: Complementarity of systolic pressure and stroke volumeAppendix 4: Joint measurement of emotional and cardiovascular observablesAppendix 5: A quantum-like model of bipolar disorder

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Book SynopsisIn-Between: Exploring Small Cracks of Everyday Life is an anthology comprising contributions from a group of social scientists all preoccupied with the possibilities and potentials of working ethnographically. The chapters of the book investigates a range of small everyday life ‘cracks’ – a notion covering unnoticed, withdrawn and overlooked phenomena alike, and which designate the metaphorical interstices and in-betweens that influence and affect most aspects of everyday experience, the comprehensive field also subject to ethnographic inquiry. The chapters in the anthology are all based on original fieldwork and explore different cracks occurring in-between humans as well as in-between humans and non-human entities.A distinct element of the book as a whole is that it comprises experiments in terms of both ethnographic writing approaches as well as with the construction of analytical objects. The argument consistently going through the separate chapters, as well as through the volume in entirety, is that the many wondrous, mysterious, odd and puzzling phenomena encountered in everyday life are not necessarily grasped best by the application of strictly rational and rigorous academic approaches. To the contrary, and as the authors all demonstrate in their own manner, social science can also seek to fathom these sides of human existence with analytical explorations that are both sensitive, bold and infused with responsive and creative intensity.

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Book SynopsisThe movement of German idealism culminates in the revelation of the re? ective boundaries of theoretical knowledge. The history of the most important intellectual developments thereafter could be described, following a recent remark of Jurgen Habermas, as a his- 1 tory of the de-transcendentalization of the cognizing subject. In this context, the epistemological interpretation proposed in this book must be speci? cally understood. Examining the problem of knowledge in the development of German idealism, it aims not at an epistem- ogy of the Cartesian type, and even less at a formal logical analysis of knowledge which lacks the re? ective element of the devices it employs as "the search for the immutable structures within which knowledge, 2 life, and culture must be contained. " These "structures" do not only condition the process of knowledge, they are themselves conditioned. There is thus an unsurpassable circle in this process, a circle which German idealism brings to the surface and profoundly scrutinizes. Therefore, the task is to re? ectively account for the historical horizons in which cognition arises (being ultimately thereupon dependent), instead of searching for an ultimate Archimedean point for its deduction. Rather than searching for inexplicably transc- dental concepts, this argument points to their determination from within a given Lebenswelt. It does not renounce but rather rede? nes 3 objectivity, by seeing the subject as a coming-to-know-itself totality. 1 J. Habermas, Wahrheit und Rechtfertigung. Philosophische Aufsatze (Frankfurt a. M. : Suhrkamp, 1999), p. 186.Trade ReviewPRAISE FOR THE BOOK FIRST REVIEWER This is a very important, well thought out, extremely well documented, useful, very intelligent account and analysis of the epistemological problem in German idealism in general. The German idealist approach to the problem of knowledge has increasingly attracted attention in recent years. This is the first effort at an overall account with detailed discussion of all the main figures. So far as I know, there is nothing comparable to this book available in any language. It is therefore a kind of instant classic, which will attract attention from those interested in this problem or in a widespread account of some main features of the entire range of figures in German idealism. Limnatis knows his materials very well. What he has to say is interesting and important. There is probably nothing comparable to Limnatis's work in the literature since Kroner, perhaps earlier. Someone like Cassirer would have been proud of this kind of book. In discussing German idealism in great detail, Limnatis calls us back to the origin of the problems that are now central in the contemporary discussion. SECOND REVIEWER ….philosophically first-rate, original, much needed, and scrupulous in a genuinely daring way in its attempt to work through, philosophically, the central innovation of the tradition that runs from Kant to Hegel (and beyond), including, in a sustained and continuous way, an analysis of the contribution and limitations assigned to Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel chiefly. Efforts of this kind are extraordinarily rare and even more rare when informed by a commanding grasp of the accumulating scholarship and applied to all four figures. It seems more than reasonable to believe that the subsequent discussion of the issues Limnatis raises will have to come to terms with his range of scholarship and innovativeness. …the overall impression….is one of unusual competence, breadth of reading, and dialectical skill (on the author's part), which justifies viewing his own contribution as a continuation of the classic discussion. That, I would say, is as grand a compliment as any contemporary author could hope for. …Very skilful indeed – and very difficult to equal… ….a signal contribution to the literature.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION. 1. Epistemology or Metaphysics? The Kantian Background.1.1 Scientific Metaphysics? 1.2. Transcendentalism versus Realism? 1.3. The Ontological Facet: the Transcendental Self and the Thing-in-itself 1.4. From the Ontological to the Logical. Understanding, Reason and Totality 1.5. The Logical Facet: Kant’s Relation to Formal Logic and the Problem of Contradiction 2. From Epistemology to Metaphysics: Fichte and Schelling2.1. Fichte: The Thing-in-itself and the Dialectical Leap 2.2. Schelling: Epistemology and the Resurrection of Metaphysics 3. From Metaphysics to Epistemology I: From the Phenomenology to the Logic or Hegel’s Claim for Absolute Knowing and its Meaning3.1. Idealism, Reason and Contradiction in the Early Hegel 3.2. Hegel’ Phenomenology. The Coming to be of the Self and the Question of Intersubjectivity 3.3. The Transition to Self-Consciousness and Idealism 4. From Metaphysics to Epistemology II: Logic and Reality4.1. The Idea of an Epistemological Reading of the Science of Logic 4.2. Toward an Epistemological Totality. CONCLUSION. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisHeidegger's lectures delivered at the University of Freiburg in 1936 on Schelling's Treatise On Human Freedom came at a crucial turning point in Heidegger's development. He had just begun his study to work out the term Ereignis. Heidegger's interpretation of Schelling's work reveals a dimension of his thinking which has never been previously published in English.While Schelling's philosophy is less known than that of the other major German Idealists, Fichte and Hegel, he is one of the thinker with whom Heidegger has the most affinity, making this study fruitful for an understanding of both philosophers. Heidegger's interpretation of On Human Freedom is the most straightforward of the studies to have appeared in English on the Treatise, and is the only work that is devoted to Schelling in Heidegger's corpus. The basic problems at stake in Schelling's Treatise lie at the very heart of the idealist tradition: the question of the compatibility of the sy

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Book SynopsisIt has long been understood that illness is influenced not only by our bodies'' physiology, but also language, culture, and meaning. This book, written by renowned cultural psychiatrist Laurence Kirmayer, explores of the influence of metaphor, narrative, and imagination in experiences of suffering and processes of healing across cultures. It emphasizes how metaphor can open a window to the hidden mechanisms of healing driven by meaning and symbolism, myth and imagination. At the same time, it offers a rigorous critical account of the metaphors embedded in the epistemology and practice of contemporary biomedicine, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. In doing so, it exposes the sociomoral and political dimensions of these dominant approaches to understanding and treating illness.

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Book SynopsisIn his exciting and original view of the universe, Itzhak Bentov has provided a new perspective on human consciousness and its limitless possibilities. Widely known and loved for his delightful humor and imagination, Bentov explains the familiar world of phenomena with perceptions that are as lucid as they are thrilling. He gives us a provocative picture of ourselves in an expanded, conscious, holistic universe.Trade Review"Dazzles the imagination and causes you to rethink everything you ever thought you knew about the nature of reality." * Jean Houston, The Foundation for Mind Research *"A ground-breaking work. Clear, imaginative, and inspiring, it offers a revolutionary image of the human mind and the universe." * Dr. Stanislav Grof, Author of Beyond the Brain *"A brilliantly executed theoretical romp through the universe. . . to do all this with humor and suspense is indeed a major accomplishment." * Dr. Montague Ullman, Director, Maimonides Medical Center *Table of Contents Preface by William A. Tyler Introduction 1. Sound, Waves and Vibration 2. A Look Through a Supermicroscope 3. A Morse Code of Action and Rest 4. An Experiment with Time 5. Quantity and Quality of Consciousness 6. Relative Realities 7. The Parable of the Bicycle 8. A Model of the Universe 9. The "How to" of Intuitive Knowledge 10. Some Reflections on the Creator Epilogue Appendix: Stresses and the Body Introduction The Physio-kundalini Syndrome Appendix Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAs read on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week', a timely, moving and profound exploration of how writers, composers and artists have searched for solace while facing loss, tragedy and crisis, from the historian and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Michael Ignatieff.'This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.' Toronto StarWhen we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes – war, famine, pandemic – we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic.How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of portraits of writers, artists, and musicians searching for consolation – from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi – writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewIlluminating and moving, these wide-ranging portraits of men and women seeking answers in dark times . . . appeal to us all, as a universal quest and an intimate personal testament. -- Jenny Uglow, author of Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and NonsenseAn extraordinary meditation on loss and mortality - drawing on all of Michael Ignatieff’s powers as a philosopher, a historian, a politician and a man. -- Rory Stewart, author of The Places in BetweenReading this book is like taking a walk along a winding path with a dear friend and sharing life’s travails . . . At the end, you feel enlivened, fortified, and somehow just a little wiser. This is a bold, brilliant, and yes, moving book. -- Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness: On Grief, Anger, Loss and LoveIn an age when we are so much in need of solace, Michael Ignatieff went looking for it in textsand times whose assumptions are profoundly different from our own . . . elegant, humane and intensely rewarding. -- Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies that Bind: Rethinking IdentityIt is at once illuminating, moving and consoling, to follow Michael Ignatieff as he searches formoments of consolation across the centuries. With resolute honesty Ignatieff follows the searchinto his own inner life, grappling, as we all must do, with failure, loss, and death. -- Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became ModernThis is an extraordinarily moving book. The idea of solidarity in time is itelf consoling, amidst so much loss: in Ignatieff’s words, “we are not alone, and we never have been”. -- Emma Rothschild, author of The Inner Life of EmpiresA wonderful balance of literary survey and personal reflection, this book is wide-ranging, moving, and stylishly written. It makes the perfect introduction to a genre that never goes out of fashion. -- Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live and At the Existentialist CaféOn Consolation is splendidly immune to the panics of our age. Written with eloquence in anaffecting spirit of humility by a man of uncommon intelligence, for many of its readers thisbook will be—is there any higher praise for a study of this subject?—useful. -- Leon Wieseltier, author of KaddishA passionate, thought-provoking, unpredictable book. -- Carlo Ginzburg, author of Threads and TracesReading [Ignatieff's] memorable portraits of historical figures who needed, sought, lost, or found consolation leaves the reader with a deeper appreciation of the profound challenges and possibilities that life lays before every one of us. -- Mark Lilla, author of The Reckless MindAn inspiration for those in need of words to carry on with life. * Kirkus *

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Book SynopsisDrawing on diverse intellectual traditions, including those rooted in economics, psychology, sociology, and political science, Kuran provides a unified theory of how preference falsification shapes collective decisions, orients structural change, sustains social stability, distorts human knowledge, and conceals political possibilities.Trade ReviewHow can societies experience such dramatic reversals [as the end of apartheid in South Africa, widespread smoking bans and Republican control of Congress] in such short periods? In his inventive and sometimes astonishing book, Timur Kuran offers an answer--one that bears not just on revolutionary movements, but also on feminism, conformity, cognitive dissonance, the moral majority, 'outing' homosexuals, rationality, hate speech codes, Gorbachev, hippies and the caste system (all of which make prominent appearances in these pages)...Much of the interest of Kuran's book is owed to his insistence, unusual and refreshing among economists (of whom he is one), that people's choices, and even their desires, are not given and fixed, but are a function of social and psychological conditions, above all pressures imposed by other people...Kuran's book is a terrific success. -- Cass R. Sunstein * New Republic *A splendid book. It tackles a long list of interesting and important questions that have been discussed at length, and largely unsuccessfully, by scholars from each of the social sciences. The narrow rational choice model simply cannot answer many of these questions. Psychological theories by themselves cannot even address many of them. And sociological theories that take the group as the unit of analysis have made little progress. Kuran patiently and intelligently blends the insights of these disciplines into a behavioral model that moves the discussion forward on many fronts. -- Robert H. Frank * Journal of Economic Literature *From the caste system of India, to communism's rise and fall, to the continuing controversy over affirmative action, Timur Kuran's new theory of social evolution is as provocative as it is ambitious. Merging insights from many disciplines, Private Truths, Public Lies seeks to show how 'preference falsification' shapes social action, biases knowledge, inhibits change, and (from time to time) unleashes revolution...An excellent book that can be read by scholars of all disciplines. Its interdisciplinary insights illuminate a raft of social, political, and economic phenomena. -- Laurence R. Iannaccone * Journal of Economic History *Economist Timur Kuran has written a fascinating study of how even formally 'free' citizens can be socially pressured into 'living a lie,' publicly justifying beliefs and practices that they privately reject, even abhor. -- Frederick R. Lynch * National Review *The core idea of this stimulating book is simple to grasp: Social factors, the nature of which is variable with the circumstances, can have the effect that people falsify their private preferences when they have to express them publicly. -- Raymond Boudon * Contemporary Sociology *[Kuran's] arguments are elegantly made and the lengthy discussions of the applications of the basic ideas are well researched and suffiently detailed to be of considerable interest in their own right...This is a thoughtful, imaginative, and stimulating book which deserves a wide audience. -- Alan Hamlin * Economic Journal *Timur Kuran takes us on a grand journey through world history, from the creation of the Indian caste system to present-day racial quotas in the United States. The journey is guided by the search for the social consequences of a phenomenon that Kuran argues is all-pervasive: preference falsification...Kuran's book opens important new perspectives for the analysis of both individual choice and social change. -- Felix Oberholzer-Gee * Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (Tübingen, Germany) *Few recent contributions to the literature of social science open so many windows. This engagingly written book carries its learning and sophistication lightly. -- Loren E. Lomasky * Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy *A fascinating study in social and political psychology and public opinion...For those who stress that war, violence and peace start in the minds of men, this is certainly an important work. -- Gernot Kohler * Peace Research *A compelling theoretical analysis of how contextual structures of power influence an individual to conform to public sentiment. Combining perspectives of economics, psychology, and sociology, the author provides countless insights into the process whereby individuals repress their true opinions because of possible censure or admonition from those representing the prevailing sentiment...Kuran's argument has crucial implications for social theory...Highly recommended for its thorough and insightful analysis. * Choice *[E]normously subtle...[Kuran's] exposition of 'preference falsification' is the most original work of social science I have read for many a long year. The term and concept have innumerable applications and deserve to enter the language...The conclusion Kuran reaches is a powerful one which is at odds with most social science and indeed everyday thought about our ability to understand or forecast social change...The text is entirely lucid and the theme is of the utmost importance. -- Eric Jones * Quadrant (Australian Review of Ideas) *Kuran argues that agents choose 'public preferences' which are contrary to their 'private preferences' in order to attain 'reputational utility.' Such 'preference falsification' pushes, in turn, ideas away from private consciousness, originating 'knowledge falsification' (i.e., indoctrination). Kuran's book is well-argued, never dull, and studded with diverse anecdotes. It is destined to become a classic, providing a methodological individualistic alternative to Karl Marx's theory of ideology...Academics as well as educated persons will come back after reading the book more enriched on how to understand our complex world. -- Elias L. Khalil * Southern Economic Journal *Kuran is the leading pioneer in examining the harsh and the subtle ways in which we are induced to deceive our public, our acquaintances, and eventyally ourselves about the issues that matter most in our lives or in our careers. His insight is always persuasive, sometimes stunning. A very careful book. -- Thomas C. Schelling, University of Maryland at College ParkThis fascinating book analyzes a topic almost never considered by economists, how social pressures modify choices among publicly visible actions. In particular, expressed "public opinion" may be unrepresentative of actual private beliefs, so a minor shock can easily set a bandwagon in motion. Thus political and social equilibria are far more fragile than is usually believed. In fact, almost all great revolutions have been more or less total surprises. The author's applications of the model--to the caste system in India, to the downfall of communism, and (unexpectedly!) to the affirmative action juggernaut in the United States--are gripping, insightful, and (with regard to the last issue) courageous. -- Jack Hirshleifer, University of California, Los AngelesTimur Kuran explores the devastating consequences to political discourses that derive from the simple unwillingness of intelligent individuals to say publicly what they believe privately. The United States may have constitutional guarantees for freedom of speech that were nowhere to be found in communist societies. But the eerie parallels that Kuran draws between the persistence of communism in Eastern Europe and the persistence of affirmative action at home should give even skeptical readers pause about the ability of our legal institutions to promote candid discussion of the major political issues of our times. -- Richard A. Epstein, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsPreface Living a Lie The Significance of Preference Falsification Private and Public Preferences Private Opinion, Public Opinion The Dynamics of Public Opinion Institutional Sources of Preference Falsification Inhibiting Change Collective Conservatism The Obstinacy of Communism The Ominous Perseverance of the Caste System The Unwanted Spread of Affirmative Action Distorting Knowledge Public Discourse and Private Knowledge The Unthinkable and the Unthought The Caste Ethic of Submission The Blind Spots of Communism The Unfading Specter of White Racism Generating Surprise Unforeseen Political Revolutions The Fall of Communism and Other Sudden Overturns The Hidden Complexities of Social Evolution From Slavery to Affirmative Action Preference Falsification and Social Analysis Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Popular books on the illusion of self tend to be crass and sensationalist, the academic ones dull and turgid. Jay L. Garfield has successfully followed the less trodden middle way. As a result, the promise of losing yourself in a book has never been more literal."---Julian Baggini, Times Literary Supplement"Passionate, logical, and thought-provoking."---David Greder, Reading Religion"Incisive. . . .This book makes a valuable contribution."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Ikigai urges individuals to simplify their lives by pursuing what sparks joy for them. . . . Much in the same way that The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up emphasizes ‘choosing what we want to keep, and not what we want to get rid of,’ [Ikigai] demonstrates that aging could be an opportunity to keep working, keep smiling, keep active, and keep being social.” —KonMari Newsletter“Want to live longer? Keep super busy. If hygge is the art of doing nothing, ikigai is the art of doing something—and doing it with supreme focus and joy. . . . Pack up those cozy blankets and candles you purchased in last year’s hygge-fueled Ikea spree. Fall’s biggest imported lifestyle trend is ikigai, and it might help you live to 100.” —New York Post“Originating from a country with one of the world’s oldest populations, ikigai is becoming popular outside of Japan as a way to live longer and better. . . . [It] is helping people live longer on Okinawa as it gives them purpose.” —World Economic Forum“The Japanese concept of ikigai (the happiness of being busy) [is] attainable and even an important key to living longer.” —Elle.com“Discovering your ikigai, or passion, can be one of the greatest journeys you will embark on.” —Forbes“Enjoy a cup or two of green tea as you digest this small, charming book.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune“A must-follow lifestyle hack . . . Think feng shui with Venn diagrams—although this time there is no need to move the front door.” —The Guardian“Ikigai is what allows you to look forward to the future even if you’re miserable right now. . . . It might just help you live a more fulfilling life.” —BBC “A refreshingly simple recipe for happiness.” —Stylist“An attractive and absorbing book.” —The Bookseller“Persuasively shows that small changes can help readers find more joy and purpose in their lives [with] clear, succinct information . . . skillfully compiled . . . into an engaging, easily accessible format with lists, charts, and illustrations.” —Publishers Weekly“Ikigai gently unlocks simple secrets we can all use to live long, meaningful, happy lives. Science-based studies weave beautifully into honest, straight-talking conversation you won’t be able to put down.” —Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation

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Book SynopsisA lively and approachable meditation on how we can transform our digital lives if we let a little Nietzsche in.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsForeword: Philosophy in Furs by Catherine Malabou Translators’ Note Introduction Approach Origins Animality Taking Care Intelligence Potential The Sensory Celebration (I) Sales Pitch Language Sources Justice and Forgiveness East A Silent Transformation Feeling and Sensibility The Symbolic Force of Gentleness Free Form Pure Gentleness? Patrolling Sensory Celebration (II) Counterfeits Exhaustion Penumbra “Master and Man” by Tolstoy The Sensory Celebration (III) Sublimation Cruelties In Hell Listening Trauma and Creation At the Confines Clandestine Gentleness The Sensory Celebration (IV) Childhood Gentleness of Melancholy Dolce Vita A Gentle Revolution Notes Index

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Book SynopsisLOS ANGELES TIMES AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER • The powerful memoir of a young doctor and former college athlete diagnosed with a rare disease who spearheaded the search for a cure—and became a champion for a new approach to medical research.“A wonderful and moving chronicle of a doctor’s relentless pursuit, this book serves both patients and physicians in demystifying the science that lies behind medicine.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene David Fajgenbaum, a former Georgetown quarterback, was nicknamed the Beast in medical school, where he was also known for his unmatched mental stamina. But things changed dramatically when he began suffering from inexplicable fatigue. In a matter of weeks, his organs were failing and he was read his last rites. Doctors were baffled by his condition, which they had yet to even diagnose. Floating in and out of consciousness, Fajgenbaum prayed for a second chance, the equivalent of a dramatic play to second the game into overtime.Miraculously, Fajgenbaum survived—only to endure repeated near-death relapses from what would eventually be identified as a form of Castleman disease, an extremely deadly and rare condition that acts like a cross between cancer and an autoimmune disorder. When he relapsed while on the only drug in development and realized that the medical community was unlikely to make progress in time to save his life, Fajgenbaum turned his desperate hope for a cure into concrete action: Between hospitalizations he studied his own charts and tested his own blood samples, looking for clues that could unlock a new treatment. With the help of family, friends, and mentors, he also reached out to other Castleman disease patients and physicians, and eventually came up with an ambitious plan to crowdsource the most promising research questions and recruit world-class researchers to tackle them. Instead of waiting for the scientific stars to align, he would attempt to align them himself. More than five years later and now married to his college sweetheart, Fajgenbaum has seen his hard work pay off: A treatment  he identified has induced a tentative remission and his novel approach to collaborative scientific inquiry has become a blueprint for advancing rare disease research. His incredible story demonstrates the potency of hope, and what can happen when the forces of determination, love, family, faith, and serendipity collide.Praise for Chasing My Cure“A page-turning chronicle of living, nearly dying, and discovering what it really means to be invincible in hope.”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit“[A] remarkable memoir . . . Fajgenbaum writes lucidly and movingly . . . Fajgenbaum’s stirring account of his illness will inspire readers.”—Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisExamining the links between today’s ideas of radical life extension and age-old notions of immortality From Plato’s notion of generation to Derrida’s concept of survival to such modern phenomena as anti-aging treatments, cryogenics, cloning, and whole-brain uploads, Adam Rosenthal’s Prosthetic Immortalities shows how the dream of indefinite life has always been a technological one: a matter of prosthesis. He argues that every biological instance of perpetual life, from one-celled organisms to rejuvenating jellyfish to Henrietta Lacks’s “immortal” cancer cells, always results in the transformation of the original being. There can, therefore, be no certainty of immortality. Yet, because finite mortal life is already marked by difference, division, and change, as Rosenthal concludes: “the problem of immortality will not cease to haunt us.” Prosthetic Immortalities examines the pers

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Book SynopsisAccording to Peter van Inwagen, visible inanimate objects do not, strictly speaking, exist. In defending this controversial thesis, he offers fresh insights on such topics as personal identity, commonsense belief, existence over time, the phenomenon...Trade Review"A fascinating, densely argued, and highly original book on the metaphysics of material objects. The objections van Inwagen raises to the standard views on material parthood are not easily answered. Moreover, his examination of the topic of personal identity is a significant contribution to the philosophy of the mind."—Philosophical Review"Commonplace things such as hawks and handsaws pose philosophical problems at least as imposing as those presented by abstract objects such as numbers and divine beings. Van Inwagen argues vigorously for the view that our world contains . . . only living organisms, the activity of whose various parts constitute a life and against psychological accounts of personal identity. This gives only a rough idea of the contents of this rich and rewarding book."—Review of Metaphysics"There is much to bee learned from this book. . . . Material Beings is a refreshing example of straight-on, full-speed metaphysics. Van Inwagen goes where his arguments lead him—and they lead him to some remarkable places indeed."—Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

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Book Synopsis“[An] acute and powerful vision . . . offers a renaissance of humane values.”—Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life   Plato called it “daimon,” the Romans “genius,” the Christians “guardian angel”; today we use such terms as “heart,” “spirit,” and “soul.” While philosophers and psychologists from Plato to Jung have studied and debated the fundamental essence of our individuality, our modern culture refuses to accept that a unique soul guides each of us from birth, shaping the course of our lives. In this extraordinary bestseller, James Hillman presents a brilliant vision of our selves, and an exciting approach to the mystery at the center of every life that asks, “What is it, in my heart, that I must do, be, and have? And why?”   Drawing on the biographies of figures such as Ella Fitzgerald and Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hillman argues that character is fate, that there is more to each individual than can be explained by genetics and environment. The result is a reasoned and powerful road map to understanding our true nature and discovering an eye-opening array of choices—from the way we raise our children to our career paths to our social and personal commitments to achieving excellence in our time.   Praise for The Soul’s Code “Champions a glorious sort of rugged individualism that, with the help of an inner daimon (or guardian angel), can triumph against all odds.”—The Washington Post Book World “[A] brilliant, absorbing work . . . Hillman dares us to believe that we are each meant to be here, that we are needed by the world around us.”—Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisWe long for moments we can slow down and be still. Our days are often filled with too much noise, anxiety, and confusion. What do you do when your life isn't what you expected it to be? What can you do to slow it all down? Stilte encourages readers to focus on stillness and literal silence, creating space for moments of peace.Originally published in Dutch, Stilte reveals a grace-filled lifestyle. It shows practical ways for how to receive inner calmness and serenity. It brings you closer to the heart of yourself, other people, and God.

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Book SynopsisAnswers some of the most pressing questions about life's nature and value. This title argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality, and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about reality, morality, and the meaning of life.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011 "[Thagard] offers a tightly reasoned, often humorous, and original contribution to the emerging practice of applying science to areas heretofore the province of philosophers, theologians, ethicists, and politicians: What is reality and how can we know it? Are mind and brain one or two? What is the source of the sense of self? What is love? What is the difference between right and wrong, and how can we know it? What is the most legitimate form of government? What is the meaning of life, and how can we find happiness in it? Thagard employs the latest tools and findings of science in his attempts to answer these (and additional) questions."--Michael Shermer, Science "A thoughtful and well-researched attempt to answer that most fundamental existential question: why not kill yourself? Or, to give it a positive spin, what gives life meaning? Thagard lays out detailed arguments that reality is knowable through science, that minds are nothing other than material brains and that there are no ultimate rights and wrongs handed down by a supernatural being."--New Scientist "Thagard's 'neural naturalism' promises nothing short of a conceptual revolution, or better, a paradigm shift. His evidence-based strategy uses the data from psychology and neuroscience to expose empirically based answers to questions such as, What is the meaning of life? What ought one to do? ... Thagard's reader-friendly text includes a glossary, endnotes, and extensive references."--Choice "The name of this well-written and ambitious book understates the breadth of its scope. The book deals with the relation of modern neuroscience not only to the meaning of life, but also to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology... The discussion is rich, unorthodox, and frequently exciting."--Iddo Landau, Metapsychology Online Reviews "The book integrates decades of multidisciplinary research, but its clear explanations and humor make it accessible to the general reader."--Gaia Media News "[R]eaders will find much of the author's advice to be beneficial. The book contains many good suggestions for making one's life better including advice on how to be happier and how to make good decisions, all based on solid research in psychology and neuroscience. For anyone who is curious about current research in these fields, Thagard's book provides an accessible introduction to important concepts and theories."--Margery Lucas, Society "Thagard has published a string of distinguished books and papers on reasoning and scientific explanation, and was a pioneer in using cognitive science to study the way scientists think. The sections on reasoning bear the imprint of this work, and pack a lot of philosophy into a short span."--Dominic Murphy, Australian Review of Public AffairsTable of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1: We All Need Wisdom 1 Why Live? 1 Sources of Wisdom 3 Philosophical Approaches 5 The Relevance of Minds and Brains 6 Looking Ahead 8 Conclusion 12 Chapter 2: Evidence Beats Faith 13 Faith versus Evidence 13 How Faith Works 14 How Evidence Works 20 Evidence and Inference in Science 23 Medicine: Evidence or Faith? 27 Evidence, Truth, and God 32 A Priori Reasoning and Thought Experiments 35 Conclusion 40 Chapter 3: Minds Are Brains 42 The Brain Revolution 42 Evidence That Minds Are Brains 43 Evidence for Dualism? 54 Objections to Mind-Brain Identity 59 Who Are You? 63 Conclusion 64 Chapter 4: How Brains Know Reality 67 Reality and Its Discontents 67 Knowing Objects 69 Appearance and Reality 72 Concepts 76 Knowledge beyond Perception 81 Coherence in the Brain 85 Coherence and Truth 90 Conclusion 92 Chapter 5: How Brains Feel Emotions 94 Emotions Matter 94 Valuations in the Brain 95 Cognitive Appraisal versus Bodily Perception 98 Synthesis: The EMOCON Model 100 Emotional Consciousness 105 Multilevel Explanations 108 Rationality and Affective Afflictions 111 Conclusion 116 Chapter 6: How Brains Decide 119 Big Decisions 119 Inference to the Best Plan 121 Decisions in the Brain 123 Changing Goals 126 How to Make Bad Decisions 133 Living without Free Will 137 Conclusion 140 Chapter 7: Why Life Is Worth Living 142 The Meaning of Life 142 Nihilism 143 Happiness 146 Goals and Meaning 149 Love 152 Work 158 Play 161 Conclusion 165 Chapter 8: Needs and Hopes 168 Wants versus Needs 168 Vital Needs 169 How Love, Work, and Play Satisfy Needs 171 Balance, Coherence, and Change 176 Hope versus Despair 177 Conclusion 182 Chapter 9: Ethical Brains 183 Ethical Decisions 183 Conscience and Moral Intuitions 184 Mirror Neurons 188 Empathy 190 Moral Motivation 192 Ethical Theory 195 Moral Objectivity 201 Responsibility 204 Conclusion 206 Chapter 10. Making Sense of It All 209 Connections Made 209 Wisdom Gained 213 What Kind of Government Should Countries Have? 215 How Can Creative Change Be Produced? 217 What Is Mathematical Knowledge? 221 Why Is There Something and Not Nothing? 224 The Future of Wisdom 226 Notes 231 Glossary 251 References 255 Index 271

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Book SynopsisNearly all the works Aristotle (384–322 BC) prepared for publication are lost; the priceless ones extant are lecture-materials, notes, and memoranda (some are spurious). They can be categorized as practical; logical; physical; metaphysical; on art; other; fragments.

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Book SynopsisDianetics 55! is the ultimate manual on the subject of communiucation - in view of how communication is the "univerval solvent", and its use in Dianetics and Scientology. Subjects covered in the book are the components of Understanding, the "awareness of awareness unit" - meaning you, the spiritual being, and how Dianetics is approaching increasing ability.

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Book Synopsis“Sublime . . . Kalman’s elegantly witty and at times melancholy narrative runs arm in arm with her unmistakable paintings on a serendipitous romp through the history of the world.” —Vanity Fair “Wildly original . . . there’s nothing else even remotely like it . . . This hilarious, wise, and deeply moving volume [is] the ultimate picture book for grown-ups.” —O Magazine Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in this inimitable combination of image and textAn irresistible invitation to experience life through a beloved artist's psyche, The Principles of Uncertainty is a compilation of Maira Kalman's New York Times columns. Part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman, these brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images - which initially appear random - ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldv

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