Philosophy Books

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisRepresentation—in visual arts and fiction—play an important part in our lives and culture. Walton presents a theory of representation which illuminates its many varieties and goes a long way toward explaining its importance. Walton’s theory also provides solutions to thorny philosophical problems concerning the existence of fictitious beings.Trade ReviewRigor, ingenuity and arresting subtlety are evident in the detailed working out of Walton’s ideas. -- Sebastian Gardner * Times Literary Supplement *This is philosophy at its best; combining the breadth of concern of the best continental philosophy (but shorn of its often wilful cloudiness) and the precision of the best analytical philosophy… A work of very great importance that will set the agenda for discussions in aesthetics for a long time to come. * Philosophy *Walton’s aim…is to explore and explain the foundations of the representational arts. His theory is one that he has stated and restated with increasing detail and sophistication over the last seventeen years, and in this book it bears all the refinement and subtlety of argument that analytic philosophy can muster. This is an engaging, insightful, and persuasive volume. * Philosophy and Literature *Kendall Walton’s book is one of the few genuinely distinguished contributions to aesthetic theory published in the last decade or two. It will be essential reading for anyone in the field and contains much that will be of great interest to scholars and critics of the arts. -- Marshall Cohen, University of Southern CaliforniaTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction PART 1: REPRESENTATIONS 1. Representation and Make-Believe 1. Imagining 2. Prompters 3. Objects of Imaginings 4. Imagining about Oneself 5. Props and Fictional Truths 6. Fictionality without Props: Dreams and Daydreams 7. Representations 8. Nonfigurative Art 9. Fictional Worlds 10. The Magic of Make-Believe 2. Fiction and Nonfiction 1. Nonfiction 2. Fiction versus Reality 3. Linguistic Strategies 4. Fiction and Assertion 5. Pretended and Represented Illocutionary Actions 6. Fiction Making as an Illocutionary Action? 7. Mixtures, Intermediates, Ambiguity, Indeterminacy 8. Legends and Myths 9. A Note on Truth and Reality 10. Two Kinds of Symbols? 3. Objects of Representation 1. What Objects Are 2. Representation and Matching 3. Determinants 4. Representing and Referring 5. Uses of Objects 6. Reflexive Representation 7. The Inessentiality of Objects 8. Nonactual Objects? 4. The Mechanics of Generation 1. Principles of Generation 2. Direct and Indirect Generation 3. Principles of Implication 4. The Mechanics of Direct Generation 5. Silly Questions 6. Consequences PART 2: APPRECIATING REPRESENTATIONS 5. Puzzles and Problems 1. Rescuing Heroines 2. Fearing Fictions 3. Fictionality and Other Intentional Properties 6. Participation 1. Participation in Children's Games 2. Appreciators as Participants 3. Verbal Participation 4. Restrictions on Participation 5. Asides to the Audience 6. Seeing the Unseen 7. Psychological Participation 1. Fearing Fictionally 2. Participating Psychologically 3. Paradoxes of Tragedy 4. Suspense and Surprise 5. The Point of Participation 6. Appreciation without Participation PART 3: MODES AND MANNERS 8. Depictive Representation 1. Depiction Defined 2. Looking at Pictures and Looking at Things 3. Styles of Depiction 4. Realism 5. Cross-Modal Depiction 6. Musical Depictions 7. Points of View (in Depictions) 8. Conclusion 9. Verbal Representations 1. Verbal Depiction 2. Narration 3. Two Kinds of Reliability 4. Nonverbal Narration 5. Absent and Effaced Narrators 6. Storytelling Narrators 7. Mediation 8. Points of View in Narrated Representations PART 4: SEMANTICS AND ONTOLOGY 10. Doing without Fictitious Entities 1. The Problem 2. Speaking within and about Fictional Worlds 3. Ordinary Statements 4. Unofficial Games 5. Variations 6. Logical Form 11. Existence 1. Betrayal and Disavowal 2. Claims of Existence and Nonexistence Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is a commonplace that the modern world cannot be experienced as enchanted - that the very concept of enchantment belongs to past ages of superstition. This title challenges that view. It seeks to rehabilitate enchantment, showing not only how it is possible to experience wonder, but how such experience is crucial to motivating ethical behavior.Trade Review"The very best feature of The Enchantment of Modern Life is the way it performs its own thesis: it is an enchanting, wonderful, and generous book that edifies and elevates the reader."—Moira Gatens, University of Sydney"This book is a delight to read. Bennett has a remarkable talent for both being imaginative and yet not letting the enchantment of this flight lead her to fail in the task of carefully engaging those with whom she disagrees. She is enacting her own ideal of generosity while forging a powerful and original vision of late modern life. The core strength of this book lies in the way it draws the reader to entertain a distinctively different way of experiencing the world. No small achievement."—Stephen K. White, Virginia Tech, and Editor of Political Theory"Bennett can do what others have not yet been able to do because she goes to the heart of the matter, to the foundation of those who claim to be foundationless, namely, to our underlying presumptions about the character of the material universe. She is a wonderful writer; her prose is crisp and clear, full of startling and enchanting formulations. The general effect of her book is to induce in us moments of enchantment, the ethical significance of which Bennett makes clear: she endeavors to attach us to the world, to bring forth our love for life, so that we are inspired to exercise greater care toward humanity and the material universe in which we live."—Melissa Orlie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"The Enchantment of Modern Life has something very rare in an academic work: a mission. Even rarer, its sense of mission comes at no one's expense. The project is at once scholarly and ethical, seamlessly, integrally. This is not just another treatment of modernity. It is an exemplar, offering a gentle cure—a modernity of wonder—to the critical-cynical detachment that has been the hallmark of the humanities theorist for too long."—Brian Massumi, State University of New York at AlbanyTable of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Acknowledgments, pg. vii*1. The Wonder of Minor Experiences, pg. 1*2. Cross-Species Encounters, pg. 17*3. The Marvelous Worlds of Paracelsus, Kant, and Deleuze, pg. 33*4. Disenchantment Tales, pg. 56*5. Complexity and Enchantment, pg. 91*6. Commodity Fetishism and Commodity Enchantment, pg. 111*7. Ethical Energetics, pg. 131*8. Attachments and Refrains, pg. 159*Notes, pg. 175*Index, pg. 209

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisInfluential philosopher Michel Serres's foundational work uses fable to explore how human relations are identical to that of the parasite to the host body. Among Serres's arguments is that by being pests, minor groups can become major players in public dialogue—creating diversity and complexity vital to human life and thought.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat does feminism have to say to the Anthropocene? How does the concept of the Anthropocene impact feminism? This book is a daring and provocative response to the masculinist and techno-normative approach to the Anthropocene so often taken by technoscientists, artists, humanists, and social scientists. By coining and, for the first time, fully exploring the concept of “anthropocene feminism,” it highlights the alternatives feminism and queer theory can offer for thinking about the Anthropocene. Feminist theory has long been concerned with the anthropogenic impact of humans, particularly men, on nature. Consequently, the contributors to this volume explore not only what current interest in the Anthropocene might mean for feminism but also what it is that feminist theory can contribute to technoscientific understandings of the Anthropocene. With essays from prominent environmental and feminist scholars on topics ranging from Hawaiian poetry to Foucault to shelled creatures to hypomodernity to posthuman feminism, this book highlights both why we need an anthropocene feminism and why thinking about the Anthropocene must come from feminism. Contributors: Stacy Alaimo, U of Texas at Arlington; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht U; Joshua Clover, U of California, Davis; Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State U; Dehlia Hannah, Arizona State U; Myra J. Hird, Queen’s U; Lynne Huffer, Emory U; Natalie Jeremijenko, New York U; Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Columbia U; Jill S. Schneiderman, Vassar College; Juliana Spahr, Mills College; Alexander Zahara, Queen’s U.Trade Review"These insights are extremely important. Moreover, they go a long way toward creating a more sophisticated feminist ecology."—Los Angeles Review of Books"It is certainly a volume that due to its richness I will no doubt regularly return to and use as a point of reference."—Leonardo"What the authors in Anthropocene Feminism do collectively is foreground alternative timelines, histories, locations, and speculations for the Anthropocene, refiguring it as provocation for what remains to be done."—Glasgow Review of Books "Anthropocene Feminism anthologizes nine major thinkers in feminist theory whose work engages the current ecological crises. The book stages a rich transdisciplinary exchange among its contributors." —Signs JournalTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction. Anthropocene Feminism: An Experiment in Collaborative TheorizingRichard Grusin1. We Have Always Been Post-Anthropocene: The Anthropocene CounterfactualClaire Colebrook2. Four Theses on Posthuman FeminismRosi Braidotti3. The Three Figures of GeontologyElizabeth A. Povinelli4. Foucault’s Fossils: Life Itself and the Return to Nature in Feminist PhilosophyLynne Huffer5. Your Shell on Acid: Material Immersion, Anthropocene DissolvesStacy Alaimo6. The Arctic WastesMyra J. Hird and Alexander Zahara7. Gender Abolition and Ecotone WarJoshua Clover and Juliana Spahr8. The Anthropocene ControversyJill S. Schneiderman9. Natalie Jeremijenko’s New ExperimentalismDehlia Hannah in Conversation with Natalie JeremijenkoAcknowledgmentsContributorsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver the past few hundred years, animism has been dismissed as a primitive, naive and irrational perspective, irrelevant within the civilised West. In The Wakeful World, Emma Restall Orr argues that this is based on the misrepresentation, drawn in crayon, that each tree and stone has its own Christian-like immortal soul. Taking the reader on a philosophical adventure, Restall Orr explores the heritage of Western thought with precision, enthusiasm and sensitivity, considering how soul, spirit, mind and consciousness have been understood through millennia. Challenging the prevailing worldviews of materialism and dualism, she presents animism as a radically different, yet mature and coherent philosophy. Providing deep green ethics with a wholly rational metaphysical foundation, The Wakeful World is a compelling view of the nature of existence and the experience of reality, giving solid ground for the now necessary journey to a sustainable world.Trade ReviewThis original and lively book brings back animism - a most useful range of ideas which reductivists have somewhat wildly abandoned during the last century - into focus once more just when it is badly needed to cure current confusions about mind and body. Dr Mary Midgley, Moral Philosopher Emma Restall Orr has accomplished a most difficult task: combining academic-quality research with an accessible and compelling narrative. The concepts of animism, panpsychism, and mind in nature are all explored with great dexterity and insight. The Wakeful World offers a fascinating and powerful vision of animism for the present day - a vision that promises to reconnect us to the living Earth. David Skrbina PhD, Author, Panpsychism in the West New science and ancient philosophy contribute to her careful and grounded consideration of the value of being a thoughtful animist today. Graham Harvey, Reader in Religious Studies, The Open University, Author of Animism: Respecting the Living World

Read more less

Book SynopsisI Want to Die, I Hate My Life is at once a searching philosophical engagement with tragedy and a bracing argument against the widespread tendency to reduce literary texts to mere illustrations of philosophical ideas.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA critical analysis of Spivak's classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society’s goods. A key theme of Gayatri Spivak's work is agency: the ability of the individual to make their own decisions. While Spivak's main aim is to consider ways in which "subalterns" – her term for the indigenous dispossessed in colonial societies – were able to achieve agency, this paper concentrates specifically on describing the ways in which western scholars inadvertently reproduce hegemonic structures in their work. Spivak is herself a scholar, and she remains acutely aware of the difficulty and dangers of presuming to "speak" for the subalterns she writes about. As such, her work can be seen as predominantly a delicate exercise in the critical thinking skill of interpretation; she looks in detail at issues of meaning, specifically at the real meaning of the available evidence, and her paper is an attempt not only to highlight problems of definition, but to clarify them. What makes this one of the key works of interpretation in the Macat library is, of course, the underlying significance of this work. Interpretation, in this case, is a matter of the difference between allowing subalterns to speak for themselves, and of imposing a mode of "speaking" on them that – however well-intentioned – can be as damaging in the postcolonial world as the agency-stifling political structures of the colonial world itself. By clearing away the detritus of scholarly attempts at interpretation, Spivak takes a stand against a specifically intellectual form of oppression and marginalization.Table of ContentsWays In to the Text Who is Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak? What does Can the Subaltern Speak Say? Why does Can the Subaltern Speak Matter? Section 1: Influences Module 1: The Author and the Historical Context Module 2: Academic Context Module 3: The Problem Module 4: The Author's Contribution Section 2: Ideas Module 5: Main Ideas Module 6: Secondary Ideas Module 7: Achievement Module 8: Place in the Author's Work Section 3: Impact Module 9: The First Responses Module 10: The Evolving Debate Module 11: Impact and Influence Today Module 12: Where Next? Glossary of Terms People Mentioned in the Text Works Cited

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Slow Professor, Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber discuss how adopting the principles of the Slow movement in academic life can counter the erosion of humanistic education.Trade Review"'Thrilling' isn't a word I often apply to books about higher education, but these pages galvanized me." -- Barbara Hunt National Public Radio (NPR), May 13, 2016 "What Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber are doing in The Slow Professor is protesting against the "corporatization of the contemporary university", and reminding us of a kind of "good" selfishness; theirs is a self-help book that recognises the fact that an institution can only ever be as healthy as the sum of its parts." -- Emma Rees Times Higher Education, May 26, 2016 "The fact that precarious labour is becoming the norm in the academy impacts everyone, including those with tenure." -- Christina Turner Rabble.ca, May 26, 2016 'A welcome part of a crucial conversation.' -- Rachel Hadas Times Literary Supplement, July 29, 2016 "The Slow Professor recognizes the psychological strains of academic work, but subtly points toward explicitly political responses to the emotional toxins we absorb; but, it also avoids the fate of most subject-centred therapeutic exercises which are mainly courses in adaptation and resignation. Although it is no call to arms, no manifesto, nor a shout of defiance at the authorities, for insightful readers, the next step beyond self-awareness will be obvious." -- Howard A. Doughty CAUT Bulletin, September, 2016 "It's a beguiling book, written in controlled anger at the corporatized university, overrun by administrators and marketers." -- Rick Salutin The Toronto Star, September 9, 2016 'Thoughtful, reflective... The best thing this book accomplishes is its unabashed encouragement to talk to our colleagues in order to increase solidarity and togetherness in the combat against changing and challenging professional environments.' -- Kate Mattocks Journal of Higher Education - September 2016 "While The Slow Professor has already raised some eyebrows as an example of "tenured privilege," it's at once an important addition and possible antidote to the growing literature on the corporatization of the university." -- Colleen Flaherty Inside Higher Education, April 19, 2016Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Time Management and Timelessness 2. Pedagogy and Pleasure 3. Research and Understanding 4. Collegiality and Community Conclusion: Collaboration and Working Together

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, is a guide to self-realization. A translation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a renowned Vedic scholar, offers insights into consciousness, the self, and the universe. This edition is presented without adulteration, providing a timely and enlightening message.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book is a fully updated and expanded new edition of An Introduction to Continental Philosophy, first published in 1996. It provides a clear, concise and readable introduction to philosophy in the continental tradition.Trade Review"West's ability as a story teller makes this a thoroughly interesting read regardless of one's degree of expertise in the subject. It is an exemplary introduction." Sociological Review "Thoughtful, thoroughly researched, well written, Continental Philosophy invites students and scholars to engage in a rich and interesting tradition." Teaching Philosophy "This second edition does more than introduce continental philosophy; it makes it interesting and intriguing." Philip Pettit, Princeton University "David West's interpretations of the major figures of continental philosophy are succinct and insightful. He reads continental philosophy as a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism and as a potential foundation for emancipatory politics. This edition includes a courageous critique of several important recent figures: Agamben, ?i?ek and Badiou. West provides an illuminating and thorough introduction to the continental tradition." William R. Schroeder, University of IllinoisTable of ContentsPreface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. 1 Introduction: What is Continental Philosophy? 2 Modernity, Enlightenment and their Continental Critics. From Modernity to Enlightenment. The Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Continental Critics of Enlightenment. The Hegelian Synthesis. 3 Dialectics of Emancipation: Marx, the Frankfurt School and Habermas. Feuerbach, Marx and Marxism. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Habermas and the Renewal of Critical Theory. 4 Historicism, Hermeneutics and Phenomenology. Dilthey, Philosophy of Life and Hermeneutics. Husserl and Phenomenology. Heidegger's Phenomenology of Being. Gadamer and the Universality of Hermeneutics. The Phenomenology of Political Action ÐHannah Arendt. 5 Beyond Theory: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Existentialism. Søren Kierkegaard. Friedrich Nietzsche. Jean-Paul Sartre and French Existentialism. 6 Beyond the Subject: Structuralism and Poststructuralism. Decentring the Subject. The Break with Humanism. Foucault's Genealogy of the Subject. Derrida's Deconstruction of Western Metaphysics. 7 Postmodernism. Varieties of Postmodernism. Philosophical Critique of Enlightenment and Modernity Postmodernity as a Stage of Western Society. Politics of Difference and Ethics of the Other. 8 Radical Departures. After the End of History. The Return of the Political - Agamben, Nancy, Lacoue-Labarthe Slavoj Žižek - The Fractious Subject of Ideology. In the Event of Alain Badiou. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book explains how and why our brains think in stories. Angus Fletcher, an expert in neuroscientific approaches to narrative, identifies this capacity as “storythinking.”Trade ReviewFletcher’s done it again. His polymathic erudition and word-wizardry elegance pull off the equivalent of a Copernican revolution in our understanding of storytelling—in all its resplendent iterations. With Storythinking he invites us on an extraordinary odyssey that enriches understanding of our deep, instinctive impulse to create stories as makers and transformers of our world. Storythinking is nothing less than a cosmological paradigm shift that puts story making and thinking at the center of all that we do. -- Frederick Luis Aldama, award-winning author and Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, UT AustinAngus Fletcher explains why effective narrative prioritizes the unique, shifts viewpoints, and encourages conflict. Not for their own sake. It makes a writer create and clarify more thoughtful ideas and leads readers to intuit and retain the message. Both revelatory and pragmatic, and so gracefully explained. -- Shane Greenstein, author of How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New NetworkStorythinking is absolutely excellent: a much-needed reminder of and expansion on the transformative power of story, story as an enriched form of learning and as a valid epistemology. The book is a lovely, readable addition to academic and public life. I am eager to see the use of story resurrected! -- Lisa Miller, Ph.D., Professor & Founder, Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityStory is a basic mental operation. Most of our experience, knowledge, and thinking is formed and organized by story: prediction, evaluation, planning, explanation, agents and actors, processes, goals. Story is an indispensable element of creativity. Human beings project from story to story and blend stories to create new concepts, new proposals, new science. How can we push the cognitive science of story forward? Fletcher, in this captivating and inspiring new book, leads the way. -- Mark Turner, author of The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and LanguageThe quickest way to elicit a scoff from 'serious thinkers' is to mention 'story'. But as someone who has built a career as a science communicator, who consistently straddles the line between art and science, and whose work is grounded in neuroscience, I know intuitively that storytelling is fundamental to how we think. Finally, Angus Fletcher brings his deep understanding of narrative together with his keen scientific mind to explain why we think in stories, why embracing story structure is the way forward, and how stories provide an architecture to thought as powerful and important as logic. Read this book. -- Indre Viskontas, Cognitive Neuroscientist, University of San Francisco[Storythinking] is a most unusual book, plumbing the depths of history to find where philosophy went off the rails, examining neurobiology for insight into creativity, and festooned with stories about great characters all the way through. I can honestly report I’ve never read anything like it. And that’s a good thing. * The Straight Dope *Table of Contents1. Story2. Story and Thinking3. The Origin of Story4. Why Our Schools Teach Logic, Not Story5. The Limits of Logic—or Why We Still Need Storythinking6. The Brain Machinery of Storythinking7. Improving Storythinking8. Storythinking for Personal Growth9. Storythinking for Social Growth10. Story’s Answer to the Meaning of LifeCoda: Conversations with a StorythinkerNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisHadot shows how the schools, trends, and ideas of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy strove to transform the individual’s mode of perceiving and being in the world. For the ancients, philosophical theory and the philosophical way of life were inseparably linked. Hadot asks us to consider whether and how this connection might be reestablished today.Trade ReviewFirst published in France in 1995, Hadot's overview of ancient philosophy…is quite possibly one of the best one-volume works on the subject to have appeared in English in a very long time, not only for the clarity with which it is written…but also for the point of view Hadot takes. In keeping with Socrates' dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living, Hadot places each philosopher or movement discussed firmly within its cultural and intellectual context and shows that philosophy was not simply a process for creating theories but, more importantly, a way of life for many. -- Terry Skeats * Library Journal *Pierre Hadot is determined to change our view of ancient philosophy, and by extension, of philosophy as a discipline… Like Hadot's hero Socrates, What is Ancient Philosphy? is a triumph of irony: a meticulous historical survey that ends by inspiring the reader to actually do philosophy. Handsomely designed, with useful bibliography and chronology, it's a compact text for the 'never-ending quest.' -- Thomas D'Evelyn * Christian Science Monitor *Hadot's account moves gracefully from the beginning of philosophy among the Greeks, though its transformation under the Romans, and the encounter with Christianity, also touching on the relation between Eastern and Western philosophy. Profound learning stylishly worn makes the whole book, and the whole sweep of philosophy's first 1,000 years, accessible to any reader interested in what philosophy was like before it was taken over by the professors. -- Barry Allen * Globe & Mail *Pierre Hadot deserves to be better known to English-language readers—and not just because he was a favorite of Michel Foucault's and is the man largely responsible for introducing Wittgenstein to the French. Hadot is a historian of ancient philosophy, a professor emeritus at the prestigious Collège de France. But it is more accurate to say that he is a philosopher who makes use of the ancients for his own ideas… In What is Ancient Philosophy? Hadot brings all his concerns together in a small volume of extraordinary erudition and surprising…clarity of prose… It is the summa of a distinguished career. -- Barry Gewen * New York Times Book Review *This is a stimulating book. Thinking comparatively about what philosophy was and is will surely enrich the field. -- R. Kamtekar * Choice *In its sweep and clarity of presentation, I would compare this book with some of the great syntheses of an earlier generation—for instance, Werner Jaeger's Paideia. At the center of the study is the strikingly original notion of the spiritual exercise, which Professor Hadot here and elsewhere shows to lie at the heart of Greek Hellenistic thinking about man, morality, and the universe. -- Brian Stock, University of TorontoHadot's What Is Ancient Philosophy? is a wonderful book. It strives to persuade us to revise our view of philosophy—to think of philosophy, as the ancients did, as crucially involving a philosophical way of life. -- Michael Frede, Oxford UniversityThis book is a masterpiece of erudition and insight—it combines Pierre Hadot's extraordinary textual knowledge, his profound and original philosophical vision, and his famously lucid prose to give us a new way of approaching ancient philosophy. Beyond this, it proposes a conception of the tasks of philosophy that will be of abiding interest to philosophers and nonphilosophers alike. -- Arnold Davidson, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Translator's Note Introduction I. The Platonic Definition of "Philosopher" and Its Antecedents 1. Philosophy before Philosophy 2. The Inception of the Idea of "Doing Philosophy" 3. The Figure of Socrates 4. The Definition of "Philosopher" in Plato's Symposium II. Philosophy as a Way of Life 5. Plato and the Academy 6. Aristotle and His School 7. The Hellenistic Schools 8. Philosophical Schools in the Imperial Period 9. Philosophy and Philosophical Discourse III. Interruption and Continuity: The Middle Ages and Modern Times 10. Christianity as a Revealed Philosophy 11. Eclipses and Recurrences of the Ancient Concept of Philosophy 12. Questions and Perspectives Notes Quotations of Ancient Texts Selected Bibliography Chronology Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHere are fresh ways of seeing nature on a journey through the seasons with observation and drawing exercises. Simple observation exercises interwoven with inspiring illustrations invite you ''to see'' with a fresh pair of eyes. This opens a door onto a new way of practicing Science as an Art, using the holistic approach of Goethe.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Elements of Moral Philosophy 9e by James Rachels and Stuart Rachels is a best-selling text for undergraduate courses in ethics. Thirteen thought-provoking chapters introduce readers to major moral concepts and theories in philosophy through clear, understandable explanations and compelling discussions.  Chapters are written so that they may be read independently of one another thus providing greater flexibility for students and instructors.**Available exclusively through McGraw-Hill Create, Discourses: A Database of Classical and  Contemporary Readings for Philosophy by Donald C. Abel  is an online collection of more than 450 readings that can be customized for your course.Table of ContentsThe Elements of Moral Philosophy, 9eCHAPTER 1: What is Morality? CHAPTER 2: The Challenge of Cultural RelativismCHAPTER 3: Subjectivism in EthicsCHAPTER 4: Does Morality Depend on Religion?CHAPTER 5: Ethical EgoismCHAPTER 6: The Social Contract TheoryCHAPTER 7: The Utilitarian ApproachCHAPTER 8: The Debate Over UtilitarianismCHAPTER 9: Are There Absolute Moral Rules?CHAPTER 10: Kant and Respect for PersonsCHAPTER 11: Feminism and the Ethics of CareCHAPTER 12: Virtue EthicsCHAPTER 13: What Would a Satisfactory Moral Theory Be Like?

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Art of War is the collection of leadership and military strategies composed by the esteemed Chinese general, Sun Tzu. Divided into 13 distinct chapters, each category gives clarity and voice to varying subjects pertaining to the intricacies of war and wartime strategy. Having inspired generations of readers,The Art of War continues to be perceived as a kind of spiritual lighthouse for all those seeking sage leadership advice. Though Sun Tzu's expertise was considered to be professing wartime strategy, the principals enumerated within the text extend far beyond the logistics of a battlefield. Having lived during the Warring States Period, Sun Tzu understood conflict and political strife. Sun Tzu, using the culmination of decades worth of knowledge inspired generations of leaders with his words. His insight was not wasted on the bloodshed of lives lost in battle, yet it was composed into beautifully succinct proverbs and adages that make up the whole of The Art of War. Perhaps his most well-known axiom is, “Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.”With proverbs as popular as the one above, the entirety of his work is composed of this level of insight. As pertinent as it was when it was written over 2,000 year ago, The Art of War is a true work of philosophical mastery. With eye-catching new covers and a professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Art of War is both modern and readable.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAdding the selections from the Speech on Capital Punishment is an excellent idea. --Mark Migotti, University of Calgary

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create ways of being, as individuals and as a society. Here, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process. Language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning, and the shared practice of speech shapes human experience.Trade ReviewCharacteristically, [Taylor’s] latest book transgresses the boundaries of usually distinct philosophical topics, incorporating disciplines outside philosophy: anthropology, sociology and developmental psychology. Philosophy of language becomes the doorway to metaphysics, politics and ethics, and to working out the nature of modernity and what it has made us. -- Jane O’Grady * Times Higher Education *Taylor moves well beyond theory, looking at the ‘shape, scope and uses of language.’ We find out a great deal about how language is learned, semantic invention, and how words fit into the broader palette of art, ritual, gesture and symbol. -- Jonathan Wright * Catholic Herald *Taylor’s prolific philosophical output is justly celebrated for the rich historical sweep of its learning…The Language Animal…is no exception…By the end we have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human. -- John Cottingham * The Tablet *There is no other book that has presented a critique of conventional philosophy of language in these terms and constructed an alternative to it in anything like this way. -- Akeel Bilgrami, Columbia UniversityTaylor is one of the handful of most important thinkers of our era. The line of thinking he develops in The Language Animal is basic to his whole work since Explanation of Behaviour. Many readers will grasp the importance of a constitutive view of language, and for them this will be a landmark book. -- Craig Calhoun, Director of the London School of Economics and Political ScienceJust as Humboldt believed that ‘possessing a language is to be continuously involved in trying to extend its powers of articulation,’ Charles Taylor’s new book, The Language Animal, demonstrates how the very study of language over time embodies the evolving human effort to extend our understanding—not only of language, but of the very self language helps to describe, propel, and transcend. It is a deeply thoughtful, historically enriching, and ultimately luminous book. -- Maryanne Wolf, Tufts UniversityTrue to its author’s background in philosophy and political thought, The Language Animal is less a scientific, by-the-facts book than a reflective and often poetic account of how language shapes human experience. -- Charisma Lee * LSE Review of Books *Taylor’s argument is salutary and powerful. His erudition is impressive, and the rich diet of examples he assembles poses a serious challenge to facile reductionist accounts of language and of human nature. -- Edward Feser * National Review *[Taylor’s] ultimate objective in his latest book, The Language Animal, is to demonstrate how we can all live in a more tolerant ‘flexible’ (his word) world—if we can learn how to make the most of the resources, above all the resources for communication, we all share. This is a continuation of the ideas he has been working on throughout his astonishingly long and productive career. Taylor writes in a compelling, congenial way that enables him to encompass seeming contradictions. -- Anthony Pagden * World Post *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe new edition of this authoritative introduction to the philosophy of technology includes recent developments in the subject, while retaining the range and depth of its selection of seminal contributions and its much-admired editorial commentary.Table of ContentsSource Acknowledgments ix Introduction to the Second Edition xiii Part I The Historical Background 1 Introduction 3 1 On Dialectic and “Technē” 9 Plato 2 On “Technē” and “Epistēmē” 19 Aristotle 3 The Greek Concepts of “Nature” and “Technique” 25 Wolfgang Schadewaldt 4 On the Idols, the Scientific Study of Nature, and the Reformation of Education 33 Francis Bacon 5 Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View 47 Immanuel Kant 6 The Nature and Importance of the Positive Philosophy 54 Auguste Comte 7 On the Sciences and Arts 68 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 8 Capitalism and the Modern Labor Process 74 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Part II Philosophy, Modern Science, and Technology 89 Positivist and Postpositivist Philosophies of Science 91 9 The Scientific Conception of the World: The Vienna Circle 101 Rudolf Carnap, Hans Hahn, and Otto Neurath 10 Paradigms and Anomalies in Science 111 Thomas Kuhn 11 Experimentation and Scientific Realism 121 Ian Hacking 12 Hermeneutical Philosophy and Pragmatism: A Philosophy of Science 131 Patrick A. Heelan and Jay Schulkin 13 What are Cultural Studies of Science? 147 Joseph Rouse 14 Revaluing Science: Starting from the Practices of Women 161 Nancy Tuana 15 Is Science Multicultural? 171 Sandra Harding 16 On Knowledge and the Diversity of Cultures: Comment on Harding 183 Shigehisa Kuriyama The Task of a Philosophy of Technology 187 17 Philosophical Inputs and Outputs of Technology 191 Mario Bunge 18 Analytic Philosophy of Technology 201 Maarten Franssen 19 On the Aims of a Philosophy of Technology 205 Jacques Ellul 20 Toward a Philosophy of Technology 210 Hans Jonas 21 The Technology Question in Feminism: A View from Feminist Technology Studies 224 Wendy Faulkner Part III Defining Technology 239 Introduction 241 22 Conflicting Visions of Technology 249 Mary Tiles and Hans Oberdiek 23 The Mangle of Practice 260 Andrew Pickering 24 The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts 266 Trevor J. Pinch and Wiebe E. Bijker 25 Actor-Network Theory (ANT) 278 Bruno Latour 26 Actor-Network Theory: Critical Considerations 289 Sergio Sismondo Part IV Heidegger on Technology 297 Introduction 299 27 The Question Concerning Technology 305 Martin Heidegger 28 On Philosophy’s “Ending” in Technoscience: Heidegger vs. Comte 318 Robert C. Scharff 29 Focal Things and Practices 329 Albert Borgmann 30 Heidegger and Borgmann on How to Affirm Technology 350 Hubert L. Dreyfus and Charles Spinosa 31 Philosophy of Technology at the Crossroads: Critique of Heidegger and Borgmann 362 Andrew Feenberg Part V Technology and Human Ends 375 Human Beings as “Makers” or “Tool-Users”? 377 32 Tool Users vs. Homo Sapiens and the Megamachine 381 Lewis Mumford 33 The “Vita Activa” and the Modern Age 389 Hannah Arendt 34 Putting Pragmatism (especially Dewey’s) to Work 406 Larry Hickman 35 Buddhist Economics 421 E. F. Schumacher Is Technology Autonomous? 426 36 The “Autonomy” of the Technological Phenomenon 430 Jacques Ellul 37 Do Machines Make History? 442 Robert L. Heilbroner 38 The New Forms of Control 449 Herbert Marcuse 39 Technological Determinism Is Dead; Long Live Technological Determinism 456 Sally Wyatt Technology, Ecology, and the Conquest of Nature 467 40 Mining the Earth’s Womb 471 Carolyn Merchant 41 The Deep Ecology Movement 482 Bill Devall 42 Deeper than Deep Ecology: The Eco-Feminist Connection 491 Ariel Salleh 43 In Defense of Posthuman Dignity 495 Nick Bostrom Part VI Technology as Social Practice 503 Technology and the Lifeworld 505 44 Cultural Climates and Technological Advance in the Middle Ages 511 Lynn White, Jr. 45 Three Ways of Being-With Technology 523 Carl Mitcham 46 A Phenomenology of Technics 539 Don Ihde 47 Postphenomenology of Technology 561 Peter-Paul Verbeek 48 Technoscience Studies after Heidegger? Not Yet 573 Robert C. Scharff Technology and Cyberspace 582 49 Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds 588 Daniel C. Dennett 50 Why Heideggerian AI Failed and How Fixing It Would Require Making It More Heideggerian 597 Hubert L. Dreyfus 51 A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century 610 Donna Haraway 52 A Moratorium on Cyborgs: Computation, Cognition, and Commerce 631 Evan Selinger and Timothy Engström 53 Anonymity versus Commitment: The Dangers of Education on the Internet 641 Hubert L. Dreyfus Technology, Knowledge, and Power 648 54 Panopticism 654 Michel Foucault 55 Do Artifacts Have Politics? 668 Langdon Winner 56 The Social Impact of Technological Change 680 Emmanuel G. Mesthene 57 Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals, with the Author’s 2000 Retrospective 693 John McDermott 58 Democratic Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Freedom 706 Andrew Feenberg

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A classic available in English at last, this collaboration between Vilém Flusser and Louis Bec is a pioneering exploration of uncharted territory in the realm of animal cognition, philosophy and art. At once inquisitive and whimsical, this unclassifiable book brings together some of the best work of two cutting-edge thinkers that were not only geographic but also intellectual neighbors." —Eduardo Kac"Vampryoteuthis Infernalis is a unique work that is at once literary and philosophical, poetic and scientific, and it nicely combines the imaginative fancy of the beast fable with elements of science fiction and horror. Flusser’s work is a hybrid creature, a marvelous and monstrous text that mirrors the fantastical creature it describes. The Vampyroteuthis holds a wonderfully strange and unhuman mirror up to the human and in so doing opens the way for a strange and novel non-philosophy of life." —Eugene Thacker, author of After LifeTable of ContentsContentsThe TreatiseI. OctopodaII. GenealogyThe Phylum MolluscaThe Class CephalopodaThe Species Vampyroteuthis infernalis giovanniIII. The Vampyroteuthic WorldIts ModelThe AbyssVampyroteuthic DaseinIV. Vampyroteuthic Culture Its ThinkingIts Social LifeIts ArtV. Its EmergenceReport by the Institut Scientifique de Recherche Paranaturaliste

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn inclusive vision of mathematics—its beauty, its humanity, and its power to build virtues that help us all flourishTrade Review“Beautifully written, contains well-chosen and interesting mathematical puzzles, and offers an important viewpoint for mathematicians to consider. . . . The book is aimed at a broader audience and is also a call to being more inclusive, to recognising that there are many paths to success.”—Pamela Gorkin, Mathematical IntelligencerAwarded Book of the Year by Aleo ReviewWinner of the Euler Book Prize, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of AmericaSelected for the 2021 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science Short List“The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them.”—Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine “Please read this beautiful, compelling, galvanizing book if you care about mathematics, social justice, or humanity, which I hope is everyone.”—Eugenia Cheng, author of The Art of Logic in an Illogical World “The world desperately needs this all‑embracing and deeply human perspective on what mathematics is and why it matters. The key qualities developed by mathematical thinking are characteristics that we should all value and long for.”—Eddie Woo, author of It’s a Numberful World “I was mesmerized by this unusual, sublime book. Original insights and engaging puzzles made me feel young again, discovering a way to Zen and the Art of Mathematics.”—Nalini Joshi, University of Sydney “Francis Su believes that math can make us better humans—and he leads by example. Every page is a work of generosity and compassion. Plus, the puzzles will haunt you for weeks.”—Ben Orlin, author of Math with Bad Drawings “A celebration of mathematics and the human spirit. Learning mathematics enriches our lives, and Su wants everyone to have a seat at the banquet.”—Edward Scheinerman, author ofvThe Mathematics Lover’s Companion “A delightful mixture of philosophy, mathematical illustrations, and compassion.”—John Cook, Singular Value Consulting “Francis Su has written a lyrical meditation on the beauty of mathematics and how it connects to our common humanity.”—John Urschel, author of Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football “Su elegantly uncovers the beauty and power of mathematics as they relate to our desires to be loved, trusted, and accepted. A powerful narrative of mathematical beauty, this book is the antidote for a mathematically fixed mindset.”—Talithia Williams, author of Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics “This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart.”—James Tanton, Global Math Project“The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them.”—Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine

Read more less

Book SynopsisBhagavata Purana's 10th Canto details Krsna's daily activities by Vyasadeva, emphasizing God as a person with likes and adventures. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's "Krishna Book" spreads Krsna's activities in English. Chanting fosters God consciousness, as promoted by George Harrison for peace and love.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Bhagavad-gita is a guide to self-realization and spiritual wisdom, spoken by Lord Krishna to Arjuna. A translation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada offers profound insights on consciousness, the self, the universe, and the Supreme without adulteration, providing timely enlightenment.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, is a guide to self-realization. A translation by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a renowned Vedic scholar, offers insights into consciousness, the self, and the universe. This edition is presented without adulteration, providing a timely and enlightening message.

Read more less

Book Synopsis'You're 82 years old. You've shrunk six centimetres, you only weigh 45 kilos yet you're still beautiful, graceful and desirable' – so begins André Gorz's 'open love letter' to the woman he has lived with for 58 years and who lies dying next to him. As one of France's leading post-war philosophers, André Gorz wrote many influential books, but nothing he wrote will be read as widely or remembered as long as this simple, passionate, beautiful letter to his dying wife. In a bittersweet postscript a year after Letter to D was published, a note pinned to the door for the cleaning lady marked the final chapter in an extraordinary love story. André Gorz and his terminally ill wife, Dorine, were found lying peacefully side by side, having taken their lives together. They simply could not live without one another. An international bestseller, Letter to D is the ultimate love story – and all the more poignant because it's true.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is an expanded edition of James Ellington's translation of Kant's essay, in which Kant replies to one of the standard objections to his moral theory as presented in the main text: that it requires us to tell the truth even in the face of harmful consequences.Trade ReviewI love teaching this edition of the Groundwork. It is highly readable while accurate, and affordable for undergraduates. --Mark LeBar, Ohio University

Read more less

Book SynopsisThere are many ways to try to improve our lives - we can turn to the wisdom of philosophers, the teachings of religions or the latest experiments of psychologists. But we rarely to look to history for inspiration - and when we do it can be surprisingly powerful. Showing the lessons that can be learned from the past, cultural historian Roman Krznaric explores twelve universal topics, from work and love to money and creativity, and reveals the wisdom that we've been missing. There is much to be learned from Ancient Greece on relationships, from the industrial revolution on job satisfaction, and from Ming-dynasty China on bringing up our children. Just as a Renaissance 'Wunderkammer' was a curiosity cabinet full of fascinating objects, each with a story behind it, The Wonderbox is full of stories and ideas from history, each of which sheds invaluable light on the decisions we make every day, whether we think about the different uses of the senses or changing attitudes to time. History is usually read for pleasure or for insight into current affairs, but The Wonderbox, stepping into the territory of Alain de Botton and Theodore Zeldin, is 'practical history' - using the past to think about our day to day lives.Trade ReviewA fascinating rattlebag of intelligent, stimulating essays. The Wonderbox is very much in the mould of Alain de Botton's bestsellers * Financial Times *Entertaining and instructive * The Times *A cornucopia of delights. Completely fascinating, beautifully written and brimming with insights -- Michael Wood, historian, film maker and author of The Story of EnglandThe author's enthusiasm for direct solutions to modern dilemmas is infectious. -- Sue Gerhardt, author of Why Love Matters and The Selfish SocietyThink Alain de Botton meets Niall Ferguson ... a wonderful mix of social history and good ideas for everyday living. -- Robert Kelsey, author of What’s Stopping You?Taking one hefty theme per chapter - such as love, work or home - Krznaric serves up a fascinating series of accounts of how we got where we are now, sifting the valuable from the worthless with an impressive indifference to current fashions. After reading The Wonderbox, endlessly shopping for stuff you already have will seem distinctly strange * Reader's Digest *Ranging from such lofty issues as love and death to the finer points of carpentry, Krznaric offers a compendium of fascinating and quirky anecdotes and character studies, refiguring them as practical fables for everyday life. Though a pleasure to read cover-to-cover, this book lends itself perfectly to the occasional reader looking for workable solutions to any dilemma. The scope of the stories and the versatility of Krznaric's interpretations are at once fascinating and illuminating. -- Emily Best * We Love This Book *A guaranteed pick-me-up for the early days of January! And a book I'm going to be returning to for years. -- Clare English * BBC Radio Scotland Book Cafe *Inspiration for bold experiments in living. * The Oxford Times *An intriguing upmarket self-help guide. * The Guardian *Roman Krznaric delves into the wonderbox of history...and reveals how the past can prompt us to aim higher than we do. Four star review * Metro *Brim-full of insights drawn not from philosophy, religious teachings or psychology but drawing on the writing and lives of great writers including Tolstoy, Thoreau and Orwell. Krznaric weaves together a compelling, fresh argument about how we conduct our relationships, make decisions about the life we lead and the crucial importance of empathy. -- Steve Moore, CEO * The Big Society Network *The Wonderbox is a treasury of history and philosophy that manages also to be truly, practically motivational -- John-Paul Flintoff, author of Sew Your OwnAlmost like an opera, it begins with love and ends with death. But it isn't operatic in style. It is earthy and literate in an old-fashioned style, iconoclastic and realistic. It throws light into the world of personal fulfilment and issues a call to ethical action on a global context. * The Australian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is a truism that each of us has one life to lead -- yet we rarely ask what it means to lead a life. The answer may seem obvious, but leading one''s life is actually a complex, multifaceted undertaking, which requires us to negotiate deeply puzzling aspects of our experience and overcome profound challenges to our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. In One Life to Lead, Samuel Scheffler develops an attachment-sensitive conception of what it means to lead a recognizably human life. In so doing, he reveals hidden complexities that are latent in our understanding of ourselves and our lives. One Life to Lead focuses special attention on two interrelated dimensions of our experience: the temporal and the interpersonal. Many of the puzzles and challenges we must negotiate in leading our lives concern the passage of time, which comprehensively shapes and frequently unsettles our emotions, our attitudes, and our understanding of ourselves. Other questions concern our determination to form and sustain valuable personal and social attachments, even though doing so requires us to share authority with others and renders us vulnerable to grief, loss, and pain. Scheffler''s investigations of our temporal and interpersonal experience remind us that our lives unfold at a particular point in time and in a particular set of social circumstances. Although our capacity to view our lives in broader perspective is extremely important, we can neither eliminate nor undo our social and temporal specificity -- but nor should we want to. We lead our lives, and can hope to lead good lives, not by systematically transcending ourselves or our attachments, as some traditions and thinkers urge, but by engaging with the world as we find it in our contingent historical circumstances. One Life to Lead is an original and rigorous work of philosophy that offers profound insights into some of the most fundamental questions of human life.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis"This book almost didn't exist. I was about to write a serious, heavy book entitled How To Save Western Civilization, as a sequel to my book How To Destroy Western Civilization and Other Ideas from the Cultural Abyss. But writing it was not making me happy, and reading it was not going to make anybody else happy either. And then I stopped just long enough for my guardian angel to squeeze through that tiny window of opportunity that I had opened up by my silence and to whisper this commonsense question into my subconscious: "Why not make them happy instead?" (Angels specialize in common sense.) I started thinking: Western civilization is neither healthy, happy, nor holy. Humor is all three. Humor is not only holy, it's Heavenly. And if you are surprised to be told that humor is Heavenly, you need to read this book because you reveal your misunderstanding of both humor and Heaven. If you ask, 'Is there laughter in Heaven?' my answer is: 'You can't be serious!'" Trade Review... Probably the shortest, funniest philosophy book you’ll ever read — Sarah Schutte, National Review

Read more less

Book SynopsisObjects generate time; time does not generate or change objects. That is the central thesis of this book by the philosopher Graham Harman and the archaeologist Christopher Witmore, who defend radical positions in their respective fields. Against a current and pervasive conviction that reality consists of an unceasing flux – a view associated in philosophy with New Materialism – object-oriented ontology asserts that objects of all varieties are the bedrock of reality from which time emerges. And against the narrative convictions of time as the course of historical events, the objects and encounters associated with archaeology push back against the very temporal delimitations which defined the field and its objects ever since its professionalization in the nineteenth century. In a study ranging from the ruins of ancient Corinth, Mycenae, and Troy to debates over time from Aristotle and al-Ash‘ari through Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead, the authors draw on alternative conceptions of time as retroactive, percolating, topological, cyclical, and generational, as consisting of countercurrents or of a surface tension between objects and their own qualities. Objects Untimely invites us to reconsider the modern notion of objects as inert matter serving as a receptacle for human categories.Trade Review"Objects Untimely is a remarkable achievement, developing a radical object-oriented theory of archaeology while simultaneously providing a novel account of time’s dependence upon objects. Things will never be (and never have been) the same."Jon Cogburn, Louisiana State University“This is a deeply important book written by two pioneering scholars in their respective fields which argues for nothing less than a radical revolution in the way we think about time in the humanities and social sciences.”Gavin Murray Lucas, University of IcelandTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of FiguresPreface1 Time and Objects, by Graham Harman and Christopher Witmore2 The Antiquity of Time: Objects Greek, by Christopher Witmore3 Discussion of Chapter Two4 Objects as the Root of Time, by Graham Harman5 Discussion of Chapter FourA Note on Models of Time NotesReferences Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisSince its publication twenty years ago, Brian Massumi''s pioneering Parables for the Virtual has become an essential text for interdisciplinary scholars across the humanities. Massumi views the body and media such as television, film, and the internet as cultural formations that operate on multiple registers of sensation. Renewing and assessing William James''s radical empiricism and Henri Bergson''s philosophy of perception through the filter of the postwar French philosophy of Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault, Massumi links a cultural logic of variation to questions of movement, affect, and sensation. Replacing the traditional opposition of literal and figural with distinctions between stasis and motion and between actual and virtual, Massumi tackles related theoretical issues by applying them to cultural mediums as diverse as architecture, body art, the digital art of Stelarc, and Ronald Reagan''s acting career. The result is an intriguing combination of cultural theory, scienTrade Review“Parables for the Virtual has become an indispensable reference point for many of the most vigorous intellectual developments of the past decade. It points the way to a style of thought that might well lead to renewed and invigorated conceptualizations of the most varied domains. As one of the most important theory texts of the twenty-first century, Parables remains influential, fertile, and suggestive.” -- Steven Shaviro, author of * The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism *“Shifting focus from subjects to the situations and events that form them, Parables for the Virtual has given those who dream futures beyond coloniality, patriarchy, capitalist extraction, and state biopower not only a different vocabulary but a range of new perceptual habits to attune to the violences that shape our world. Spurring experimental ways of living into new futures, this book is not only one of our most important theories of the event, it is an event: it alters the reader's perception, their sense of what might yet be.” -- Nathan Snaza, author of * Animate Literacies: Literature, Affect, and the Politics of Humanism *Table of ContentsPreface to the Twentieth-Anniversary Edition xi Keywords for Affect xxxiii Missed Conceptions xliii Introduction: Concrete Is as Concrete Doesn't 1 1. The Autonomy of Affect 25 2. The Bleed: Where Body Meets Image 49 3. The Political Economy of Belonging and the Logic of Relation 73 4. The Evolutionary Alchemy of Reason: Stelarc 97 5. On the Superiority of the Analog 145 6. Chaos in the "Total Field" of Vision 157 7. The Brightness Confound 177 8. Strange Horizon: Buildings, Biograms, and the Body Topologic 193 9. Too-Blue: Color-Patch for an Expanded Empiricism 227 Notes 279 Works Cited 333 Index 343

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Law of Peoples extends the idea of a social contract to the Society of Peoples and lays out the principles that should be accepted as the standard for regulating a society's behavior toward another. In particular, it draws a distinction between basic human rights and the rights of each citizen of a liberal constitutional democracy.Trade Review[These essays are] some of [Rawls’s] strongest published expressions of feeling… These are the final products of a remarkably pure and concentrated career… The writings of John Rawls, whom it is now safe to describe as the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century…owe their influence to the fact that their depth and their insight repay the close attention that their uncompromising theoretical weight and erudition demand. -- Thomas Nagel * New Republic *Rawls offers us the appealing vision of a social order that every citizen finds legitimate despite large differences in their personal values. In The Law of Peoples, he attempts a parallel feat for global society. He tries to spell out a Law of Peoples that both liberal and non-liberal peoples can agree upon to govern their international relations. This involves steering a judicious mid-course between liberalism’s imperialist and isolationist tendencies… I should say straight away that this is the most engaging and accessible book Rawls has written. Although some of the daunting conceptual apparatus from Political Liberalism appears from time to time, for the most part Rawls lays out his argument in a straightforward way, and refers extensively to historical and contemporary episodes to illustrate it. -- David Miller * Times Literary Supplement *John Rawls is one of the great political philosophers of the 20th century… His ideas have not only sparked a lively debate among philosophers, which continues to this day, but they have also been taken up by economists, sociologists and others. So The Law of Peoples, Mr. Rawls’s latest work and probably his last significant effort, deserves to be read with interest, and some respect. * The Economist *Now, in an effort to turn realpolitik on its big, bald head, Rawls in The Law of Peoples proposes to extend his historicist, pragmatic notions of justice to the larger world of ‘peoples’—the term he prefers to ‘nations.’ He lays out a series of general principles—among them, that peoples are free and independent, should honor human rights, and should observe a duty of nonintervention—that can and should be accepted as a standard for regulating their behavior toward one another. Without the slightest hint of millenarian fever, he goes so far as to assert that we stand on the brink of a ‘realistic utopia’… The Law of Peoples seems likely to reframe the debate about what is possible in the international realm. In contrast to the chastened, inward gaze of most 20th-century thought, Rawls’s book is one of those rare works of philosophy that directs its energies outward. It has the potential to send shockingly optimistic reverberations through the world at large, and maybe even jolt those somber-suited realists right out of the realpolitik. -- Will Blythe * Civilization *Why should we care whether Rawls has modified his difference principle so that it avoids unpopular outcomes? In the course of doing so, he advances some excellent arguments. * The Mises Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction The First Part of Ideal Theory The Law of Peoples as Realistic Utopia Why Peoples and Not States? Two Original Positions The Principles of the Law of Peoples Democratic Peace and Its Stability Society of Liberal Peoples: Its Public Reason The Second Part of Ideal Theory Toleration of Nonliberal Peoples Extension to Decent Hierarchical Peoples Decent Consultation Hierarchy Human Rights Comments on Procedure of the Law of Peoples Concluding Observations Nonideal Theory Just War Doctrine: The Right to War Just War Doctrine: Conduct of War Burdened Societies On Distributive Justice among Peoples Conclusion Public Reason and the Law of Peoples Reconcilation to Our Social World THE IDEA OF PUBLIC REASON REVISITED The Idea of Public Reason The Content of Public Reason Religion and Public Reason in Democracy The Wide View of Public Political Culture On the Family as Part of the Basic Structure Questions about Public Reason Conclusion Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA translation of Hegel's German text. It includes a bilingual annotated glossary, bibliographic and interpretive notes to Hegel's text, an Index of References for works cited in the notes, a select Bibliography of various works on Hegel's logic, and an Index.Trade ReviewThe appearance of this translation is a major event in English-language Hegel studies, for it is more than simply a replacement for Wallace's translation cum paraphrase. Hegel's Prefaces to each of the three editions of the Enzyklopädie are translated for the first time into English. There is a very detailed Introduction translating Hegel's German, which serves not only as a guide to the translator's usage but also to Hegel's. Also included are a detailed bilingual annotated glossary, very extensive bibliographic and interpretive notes to Hegel's text (28 pp.), an Index of References for works cited in the notes, a select Bibliography of recent works on Hegel's logic, and a detailed Index (16 pp.). The translation is guided by the (correct) principle that rendering Hegel's logical thought clearly and consistently requires rendering his technical terms logically. . . . This ought immediately to become the standard translation of this important work. --Kenneth R. Westphal, in Review of Metaphysics

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Collected Works of Spinoza provides, for the first time in English, a truly satisfactory edition of all of Spinoza's writings, with accurate and readable translations, based on the best critical editions of the original-language texts, done by a scholar who has published extensively on the philosopher's work. The centerpiece of this second volTrade ReviewOne of The Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2016, chosen by Clare Carlisle "The Collected Works of Spinoza has been the labour of a lifetime, and it provides us with a fluent, meticulous, consistent and usefully annotated English version of everything Spinoza wrote (except the Hebrew grammar), and a fresh opportunity to see his arguments in detail and to see them whole."--Jonathan Ree, London Review of Books "A magnificent achievement and a beautiful companion to the first volume. This edition will last--I'm hesitant to say forever--but it's hard for me to see how it will ever be surpassed."--Steven Smith, Yale UniversityTable of ContentsGeneral Preface, ix Short titles and Abbreviations, xix Letters: September 1665-September 1669 Editorial Preface, 3 Letters 29-41, 10 A Critique of Theology and Politics Editorial Preface, 45 Theological-Political Treatise, 65 Letters: January 1671-Late 1676 Editorial Preface, 357 Letters 42-84, 374 Designs for Stable States Editorial Preface, 491 Political Treatise, 503 Glossary-Index Preface, 607 Glossary, 613 Latin-Dutch-English Index, 666 Index of Biblical and Talmudic References, 713 Index of Proper Names, 721 Works Cited, 725 Correlation of the Alm and Bruder Paragraph Numbers (ttp), 767

Read more less

Book SynopsisLogic is essential to correct reasoning and also has important theoretical applications in philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and mathematics. This book provides an introduction to classical logic, with an approach that emphasizes both the hows and whys of logic. It covers the formal tools and techniques of logic.Trade Review"[I]f you are a teacher in the market for a new logic text, or a student looking for very helpful reading, this could indeed be the book for you."--Logic Matters blog "This book provides an excellent comprehensive introduction to classical first-order logic with identity. It has the expected virtues of clarity, precision and accessibility... The book deserves to be used widely, both as a text for courses and for self-study."--Greg O'Hair, Australasian Journal of Philosophy "You will find this book outstanding whenever you read it, but you'll be even smarter if you read it before other, even excellent, logic books in your library."--George Hacken, Computing Reviews "[T]his volume displays a masterly combination of clarity, friendliness to the beginning student with technical accuracy, and carefully thought out choice of topics that is hard to find on the market. Smith succeeds in introducing his readers to the complexities of symbolic logic in a very gentle manner--there is not a formula or a definition in the book that is not thoroughly explained or illustrated with an abundance of examples."--F. Paoli, History and Philosophy of Logic "An excellent textbook for an undergraduate course on this topic."-- Peter W. Evans, Philosophy in ReviewTable of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xv Part I Propositional Logic 1 Chapter 1: Propositions and Arguments 3 1.1 What Is Logic? 3 1.2 Propositions 5 1.3 Arguments 11 1.4 Logical Consequence 14 1.5 Soundness 21 1.6 Connectives 23 Chapter 2: The Language of Propositional Logic 32 2.1 Motivation 32 2.2 Basic Propositions of PL 32 2.3 Connectives of PL 36 2.4 Wff Variables 39 2.5 Syntax of PL 40 Chapter 3: Semantics of Propositional Logic 49 3.1 Truth Tables for the Connectives 49 3.2 Truth Values of Complex Propositions 51 3.3 Truth Tables for Complex Propositions 54 3.4 Truth Tables for Multiple Propositions 58 3.5 Connectives and Truth Functions 59 Chapter 4: Uses of Truth Tables 63 4.1 Arguments 63 4.2 Single Propositions 67 4.3 Two Propositions 69 4.4 Sets of Propositions 74 4.5 More on Validity 75 Chapter 5: Logical Form 79 5.1 Abstracting from Content: From Propositions to Forms 81 5.2 Instances: From Forms to Propositions 82 5.3 Argument Forms 84 5.4 Validity and Form 87 5.5 Invalidity and Form 91 5.6 Notable Argument Forms 94 5.7 Other Logical Properties 95 Chapter 6: Connectives: Translation and Adequacy 97 6.1 Assertibility and Implicature 97 6.2 Conjunction 103 6.3 Conditional and Biconditional 110 6.4 Disjunction 117 6.5 Negation 122 6.6 Functional Completeness 124 7 Trees for Propositional Logic 134 7.1 Tree Rules 136 7.2 Applying the Rules 140 7.3 Uses of Trees 146 7.4 Abbreviations 156 Part II Predicate Logic 161 Chapter 8: The Language of Monadic Predicate Logic 163 8.1 The Limitations of Propositional Logic 164 8.2 MPL, Part I: Names and Predicates 167 8.3 MPL, Part II: Variables and Quantifiers 172 8.4 Syntax of MPL 182 Chapter 9: Semantics of Monadic Predicate Logic 189 9.1 Models; Truth and Falsity of Uncomplicated Propositions 191 9.2 Connectives 196 9.3 Quantified Propositions: The General Case 197 9.4 Semantics of MPL: Summary 204 9.5 Analyses and Methods 206 Chapter 10: Trees for Monadic Predicate Logic 211 10.1 Tree Rules 212 10.2 Using Trees 223 10.3 Infinite Trees 228 Chapter 11: Models, Propositions, and Ways the World Could Be 242 11.1 Translation 243 11.2 Valuation 247 11.3 Axiomatization 251 11.4 Propositions 253 11.5 Logical Consequence and NTP 257 11.6 Postulates 261 Chapter 12: General Predicate Logic 264 12.1 The Language of General Predicate Logic 264 12.2 Semantics of GPL 276 12.3 Trees for General Predicate Logic 282 12.4 Postulates 286 12.5 Moving Quantifiers 293 Chapter 13: Identity 298 13.1 The Identity Relation 299 13.2 The Identity Predicate 303 13.3 Semantics of Identity 306 13.4 Trees for General Predicate Logic with Identity 311 13.5 Numerical Quantifiers 321 13.6 Definite Descriptions 326 13.7 Function Symbols 343 Part III Foundations and Variations 355 14 Metatheory 357 14.1 Soundness and Completeness 358 14.2 Decidability and Undecidability 368 14.3 Other Logical Properties 374 14.4 Expressive Power 382 15 Other Methods of Proof 385 15.1 Axiomatic Systems 386 15.2 Natural Deduction 407 15.3 Sequent Calculus 421 16 Set Theory 438 16.1 Sets 438 16.2 Ordered Pairs and Ordered n-tuples 449 16.3 Relations 453 16.4 Functions 454 16.5 Sequences 458 16.6 Multisets 460 16.7 Syntax 462 Notes 467 References 509 Index 515

Read more less