Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in The Ancient World

Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in The Ancient World

By: Peter Bogucki

Th e story of the ancient world spans the globe and covers vast amounts of time. It is the largely overlooked story of the tremendous diversity in human experience, ranging from the ice age societies whose way of life is so remote from ours to the citizens ofGreeceandRomewhom we easily recognize from history books. During the 2 million years since we became human, members of our species have settled every corner of the earth and organized their lives in countless diff erent ways. Th e articles in this encyclopedia will provide you with an overview of the various ways in which people lived in the past and point to sources where you can fi nd more information about the topics that interest you. To learn about the modern world, all we have to do is look around, travel, read, or watch a video about what we cannot see. [download]

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Encyclopedia of The Essay

Encyclopedia of The Essay 

By: Tracy Chevalier

The entries in this book were chosen primarily by the advisory board (listed on page ix), with advice from contributors when appropriate. Choosing what is to go in reference books is notoriously difficult. There are the subjects that must obviously have entries, and those that must obviously not. In between lies a vast block of those for which an argument can be made for or against. This is where the problems lie, and I expect ourchoices will inevitably raise a few quibbles. Some gaps reflect the nature of the essay and essay scholarship rather than ignorance. There are markedly fewer entries on women, for instance, because historically women’s opinions have not been encouraged, certainly not in written form. Moreover, when women did write they usually chose genres that made them money; the essay has not been known for being lucrative. [download]

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Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia

Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia

By: Shannon L. Vennable

As early as 2.5 billion years ago, the chemical element that constitutes gold in its native form began to emerge in volcanic and sedimentary rock in sources that would later be discovered by humans on every continent on Earth exceptAntarctica, in addition to the gold deposits found deep under the ocean fl oor. Evidence for human exposure to gold dates from around 5000 BC, and it can be said that from this fi rst encounter, humankind cherished gold as a precious symbol of wealth and majesty, thought to contain some aspect of the divine, or even to hold the key to eternal life, because of its unique physical properties and striking beauty. From antiquity to the present day, gold has played a role in the course of human history through its infl uence in a wide variety of realms spiritual, cultural, political, scientifi c, and economic. Access to signifi cant supplies of gold can be credited with contributing to the rise of powerful states and empires. [download]

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The Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies

The Philosophy of Science and Technology Studies 

By: Steve Fuller

Not twenty minutes has passed since you left me here in the cafe, since I said No to your request, that I would never write out for you the story of my mortal life, how I became a vampire – how I came upon Marius only years after he had lost his human life. Now here I am with your notebook open, using one of the sharp pointed eternal ink pens you left me, delighted at the sensuous press of the black ink into the expensive and flawless white paper. Naturally, David, you would leave me something elegant, an inviting page. This notebook bound in dark varnished leather, is it not, tooled with a design of rich roses, thornless, yet leafy, a design that means only Design in the final analysis but bespeaks cover. The thick pages are ruled in light blue you are practical, so thoughtful, and you probably know I almost never put pen to paper to write anything at all. [download]

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Philosophy and Simulation The Emergence of Synthetic Reason

Philosophy and Simulation The Emergence of Synthetic Reason 

By: Manuel Delanda

The origin of the modern concept of emergence can be traced to the middle of the nineteenth century when realist philosophers first began pondering the deep dissimilarities between causality in the fields of physics and chemistry. The classical example of causality in physics is a collision between two molecules or other rigid objects. Even in the case of several colliding molecules the overall effect is a simple addition. If, for example, one molecule is hit by a second one in one direction and by a third one in a different direction the composite effect will be the same as the sum of the two separate effects: the first molecule will end up in the same final position if the other two hit it simultaneously or if one collision happens before the other. In short, in these causal interactions there are no surprises, nothing is produced over and above what is already there. [download]

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Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Encyclopedia of Philosophy 

By: Donald M. Borchert

The last and, in fact, the only previous major philosophical reference work in the English language, J.M. Baldwin’s Dictionary of Psychology and Philosophy, appeared in 1901. While it was in many ways an admirable work (it numbered among its contributors men of such caliber as Charles Peirce and G. E. Moore), the scope of Baldwin’s Dictionary was quite limited. The great majority of articles were exceedingly brief, providing concise definitions of technical terms sometimes accompanied by additional information of a historical nature. There were articles about individual philosophers, but these usually amounted to no more than a few lines. Baldwin himself insisted that his work was primarily a dictionary and not an encyclopedia, but he did feature several articles of “encyclopedic character” dealing with important movements in the history of philosophy and the general divisions of philosophy. [download]

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Philosophy The Classics

Philosophy The Classics 

By: Nigel Warburton 

This book consists of twenty four chapters, each focused on a single great phi losophical book. The point is to introduce each book. bringing out its most important themes. The books dealt with here are worth reading today because they engage with ph ilosophical problems that are still worth discussing. and because they continue to offer insights. Apart from that, many of them hold their own as great works of literature. Ideally, reading this book should be a spur to your reading (or re-readi ng) the books it treats. But not everyone has time or energy to do that. At least I hope this will guide you to the books among the twemy four that you are likely to fi nd most rewarding, and offer you some suggestions about how you might read them critically. [download]

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Ideology An Introduction

Ideology An Introduction

By: Terry Eagleton 

CONSIDER the following paradox. The last decade has wimessed a remarkable resurgence of ideological movements throughout the world. In theMiddle East, Islamic fundamentalism has emerged as a potent political force. In the so-called Third World, and in one region of theBritish Isles, revolutionary nationalism continues to join battle with imperialist power. In some of the post-capitalryt states of the Eastern bloc, a still tenacious neo Stalinism remains locked in combat with an array of oppositional forces. The most powerful capitalist nation in history has been swept from end to end by a peculiarly noxious brand of Christian Evangelicalism. [download]

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Expert Political Judgment

Expert Political Judgment 

By: Philip E. Tetlock

Every day, countless experts offer innumerable opinions in a dizzying array of forums. Cynics groan that expert communities seem ready at hand for virtually any issue in the political spotlight communities from which governments or their critics can mobilize platoons of pundits to make prepackaged cases on a moment’s notice. Although there is nothing odd about experts playing prominent roles in debates, it is odd to keep score, to track expert performance against explicit benchmarks of accuracy and rigor. And that is what I have struggled to do in twenty years of research of soliciting and scoring experts’ judgments on a wide range of issues. The key term is “struggled.” For, if it were easy to set standards for judging judgment that would be honored across the opinion spectrum and not glibly dismissed as another sneaky effort to seize the high ground for a favorite cause, someone would have patented the process long ago. [download]

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Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy

Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy

Edited By: Brian Carr and Indira Mahalingam 

This collection of some fifty essays on Asian philosophy is designed as a reference volume for students, scholars and others who require more than just a simple sketch of ‘oriental’ ideas. It has been complied with the intention of doing justice to the arguments, ideas and presuppositions of philosophers working largely outside the confines of western philosophical traditions. The volume engages in a unique project, that of bringing together scholars from institutions world-wide in an exploration of the great diversity of the philosophical traditions of Asia. These traditions are of quite widespread interest in the West, but their general appreciation falls far short of their vitality, their rigour and their immense contemporary relevance to the established practices of western philosophy. [download]

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Encyclopedia of Conflict Resolution

Encyclopedia of Conflict Resolution 

By: Heidi Burgess and Guy M. Burgess

Although people have been resolving conflicts as long as they have existed, conflict resolution as a unique field is relatively new. In one sense, it can be traced back to a group of scholars and practitioners who responded to World War I with efforts to try to prevent a recurrence of worldwide, violent conflict. Leading scholars from international relations and other fields began to apply scientific methods to investigate the causes and processes of conflict and to try to develop ways to avoid conflict escalation and its destructive results. This research was stalled during World War II, but it began again even more intensely after the war. In the early 1950s, scholars such as Herbert Kelman, Kenneth Boulding, and Anatol Rapoport founded the Research Exchange on the Prevention of War. [download]  

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Dictionary of Literary Influences

Dictionary of Literary Influences

Edited By: John Powell

The study of literary influence is in some ways a very old one. It has often been practiced in relation to novelists, poets, philosophers, and men of letters generally. Because they write, it has been supposed, they are greatly influenced by others who write. Literary influences are less often studied in relation to painters, architects, athletes, musicians, scientists, economists, and businessmen. As they too read, and have in large measure been educated both formally and informally by literature, the impact of the printed word on these cultural figures should be explored. The relationship between their achievements and their reading will not only tell us a great deal about the history of our culture, it will inspire us with a new appreciation for the possibilities of its future. [download]

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Encyclopedia of Terrorism

Encyclopedia of Terrorism 

By: Harvey W. Kushner 

Terrorism, in various forms, has been practiced throughout history and across a wide variety of political ideologies. There are as many definitions for the word terrorism as there are methods of executing it; the term means different things to different people, and trying to define or classify terrorism to everyone’s satisfaction proves impossible. However, most definitions of terrorism hinge on three factors: the method (violence), the target (civilians or the government), and the purpose (to instill fear and force political or social change) The adoption of terrorist techniques by insurgent groups, especially in the developing world, led to a perception of terrorism as a natural outgrowth of the anticolonial struggle merely another weapon of revolutionary guerrillas in their campaigns for independence. [download]

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Fundamentals of Pediatric Cardiology

Fundamentals of Pediatric Cardiology

By: David J. Driscoll M.D.

Many pediatricians and family practice physicians are intimidated by heart disease in infants, children, and adolescents. This may result from the perception that learning so many types of congenital heart defects and diseases may appear to be an insurmountable task. In addition becoming an expert in auscultation of the heart does require considerable experience, and it is easy to become frustrated when one is unable to make an anatomic diagnosis on the basis of physical examination. This is unfortunate because it is often difficult even for experts and frequently unnecessary to make an anatomical diagnosis on the basis of physical examination alone. Rather, it is important to determine whether the patient (i) does or does not have congenital heart disease, (ii) has cyanotic or acyanotic heart disease, (iii) has heart failure or pulmonary overcirculation (too much pulmonary blood flow), (iv) has reduced cardiac output, or (v) requires urgent detailed evaluation and treatment. I hope this book will facilitate all primary care physicians who care for infants and children to make these distinctions. [download]

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The Many Faces of Philosophy-Reflection From Plato to Arendt

The Many Faces of Philosophy-Reflection From Plato to Arendt 

Edited By: Amelie Oksenberg Rorty

Philosophy has been and been perceived as a dangerous activity. In raising fundamental questions, examining basic assumptions, revising received views, philosophers undertook immense risks. Even when philosophers took themselves to be engaged in the constructive work of rationalizing World Systems, their interpretations of religious doctrines were seen as subversive, their analyses of social and political practices were frequently thought disloyal if not actually seditious, their reconstructions of morality were often perceived as potentially corrupting. Athenians saw Socratic questioning as a threat to the stability and morality of public order; Roman emperors feared Seneca; theologians censored Abelard; Scottish universities were apprehensive of Hume’s skeptical influence. [download]

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Political Concepts and Political Theories

Political Concepts and Political Theories 

By: Gerald F. Gaus

Political Theory and Political Concepts. Western political philosophy begins with Socrates and Plato, and especially the Republic. In this imaginary conversation among a group of Athenians, Socrates poses what may be the most fundamental of all questions in political philosophy: “What is justice?” Indeed, one of the great legal theorists of the twentieth century called this “the eternal question of mankind.”  We all wish a govenunent that is just-but what is justice? To a large extent, the study of political theory is an exploration of different ways of understanding core political concepts such as justice, liberty, power, equality, and authority. From Plato onward, political theorists have asked-and have provided conflicting answers to questions such as “What is justice?” “What is liberty?” “What is power?” and “What is equality?” [download]

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Principles of Environmental Sciences

Principles of Environmental Sciences

By: Jan J. Boersema and Lucas Reijnder

This chapter examines the contribution of environmental sciences and scientists to the fi nding to solutions to environmental problems. It defi nes and describes important concepts, highlights methods used to analyse human impacts on the environment, and it discusses the ways in which sustainability can be measured. The chapter is subdivided into three sections: The term environment in environmental sciences is derived from the science of ecology. The term ecology or oekologie was coined by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, when he defi ned it as ‘the comprehensive science of the relationship of the organism to the environment’. In the environmental sciences these organisms are humans. This explains why the term human ecology is used sometimes as a synonym for environmental sciences. [download]

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Marxism, Maoism and Utopianism

Marxism, Maoism and Utopianism

By: Maurice Meisner

The Term “Utopia,” Lewis Mumford once observed, can be taken to mean iether the ultimate in human hipe or the ultimate in human folly. Mumford also noted that Sir Thomas More, whose celebrated work introduced the term to modern political discourse, was aware of both meanings of the word when he pointed to its divergent Greek origins: eutopia, which means the good place; and outopia, which means no place. The ambiguity of “utopia” at once suggesting the grandeur of striving to reach “the good place” and the futility of searching for “no place” reflects the ambiquity inherent in utopian modes of thought and their ambigiuous relationship to history. For utopias are the product of trans historical moral ideals, and the relationship between moral demands and historical realities is a most tenuous and uncertain one. [download]

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An Introduction to The Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze

An Introduction to The Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze

Edited By: Jean Khalfa  

When Deleuze started to write, in the years immediately after World War II, the French intellectual terrain was divided into camps: on one side the human sciences presented themselves as a type of knowledge which would make philosophy redundant, on the other, a highly scholarly but purely historical discourse on philosophy relegated it to the museum. Both thus equally supposed the death of philosophy as creative thought. More generally, hopes for a true intellectual renaissance in the wake of the Liberation had been crushed. Apart from important but marginal thinkers such as Sartre,4 of course, but also, later on, Gilbert Simondon, or Raymond Ruyer for instance, nothing new seemed possible within the dominant philosophical production. An atmosphere particularly stale to a philosopher who said, retrospectively, that he had always opposed (naively even) the idea of the end of philosophy as a creative activity, judging creative thought to be, on the contrary, more urgent than ever. [download]

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Oriental Philosophy

Oriental Philosophy

By: DR. Ted Gambordella

Remember the Japanese gymnast in the 1976 Summer Olympics who performed on the rings with an injured knee? The commentators and the audience were awed by his performance, and rightfully so: the man landed on a dislocated leg from a height of fourteen feet after performing a strenuous gymnastics routine. As I recall, the commentators attributed it to “mind control.” However a Westerner chooses to describe how this talented athlete did the seemingly impossible, he did not achieve this feat by possessing a positive mental attitude. It would be possible to overcome the pain with mind control, but to land hard on a broken leg without collapsing requires more than changing the picture of pain you hold in your mind. That feat requires an exquisite control of the body as well. And that requires the understanding and manipulation of KI. [download]

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