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Divine Stories
by Andy RotmanDivine Stories is the inaugural volume in a landmark translation series devoted to making the wealth of classical Indian Buddhism accessible to modern readers. The stories here, among the first texts to be inscribed by Buddhists, highlight the moral economy of karma, illustrating how gestures of faith, especially offerings, can bring the reward of future happiness and ultimate liberation. Originally contained in the Divyavadana, an enormous compendium of Sanskrit Buddhist narratives from the early Common Era, the stories in this collection express the moral and ethical impulses of Indian Buddhist thought and are a testament to the historical and social power of narrative. Long believed by followers to be the actual words of the Buddha himself, these divine stories are without a doubt some of the most influential stories in the history of Buddhism.
Becoming Beside Ourselves: The Alphabet, Ghosts, and Distributed Human Being
by Brian RotmanBecoming Beside Ourselves continues the investigation that the renowned cultural theorist and mathematician Brian Rotman began in his previous books Signifying Nothing and Ad Infinitum. . . The Ghost in Turing's Machine: exploring certain signs and the conceptual innovations and subjectivities that they facilitate or foreclose. In Becoming Beside Ourselves, Rotman turns his attention to alphabetic writing or the inscription of spoken language. Contending that all media configure what they mediate, he maintains that alphabetic writing has long served as the West's dominant cognitive technology. Its logic and limitations have shaped thought and affect from its inception until the present. Now its grip on Western consciousness is giving way to virtual technologies and networked media, which are reconfiguring human subjectivity just as alphabetic texts have done for millennia. Alphabetic texts do not convey the bodily gestures of human speech: the hesitations, silences, and changes of pitch that infuse spoken language with affect. Rotman suggests that by removing the body from communication, alphabetic texts enable belief in singular, disembodied, authoritative forms of being such as God and the psyche. He argues that while disembodied agencies are credible and real to "lettered selves," they are increasingly incompatible with selves and subjectivities formed in relation to new virtual technologies and networked media. Digital motion-capture technologies are restoring gesture and even touch to a prominent role in communication. Parallel computing is challenging the linear thought patterns and ideas of singularity facilitated by alphabetic language. Barriers between self and other are breaking down as the networked self is traversed by other selves to become multiple and distributed, formed through many actions and perceptions at once. The digital self is going plural, becoming beside itself.
Everybody Present
by Nikolaj Flor Rotne Didde Flor RotneEverybody Present seeks to create a new kind of culture in our schools: one that counters stress and facilitates learning. It reframes the student-teacher relationship, showing teachers how to supplant antagonism and foster strong relationships by planting seeds of mindfulness in their students and encouraging them to embark on a mindfulness practice of their own.Illustrating the transformative effects of mindfulness on educators, students, and their classrooms, Everybody Present shows how mindfulness helps to strengthen inner peace and prevent stress, foster contagious joy and an ethic of altruism, improve understanding between student and teacher, and fortify competence in educational relations.A working manual addressed to everyone in the educational universe, Everybody Present presents real-world applications grounded in solid research. Stories, exercises, and case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of mindful practices across all areas of education.Everybody Present is intended to contribute to the creation of a culture throughout the educational system writ large, working against stress and victim mentality to set in motion a revolution of silence, allowing each individual the experience of inter-being, inner calm, and joy. By exploring the challenges of teaching, Everybody Present will help all educators transform feelings of inadequacy into experiences of abundance.
Rethinking Economics Starting from the Commons: Towards an Economics of Francesco (Contributions to Economics)
by Valentina Rotondi Paolo SantoriThis book proposes a new approach to economics, starting from the commons and based on the Economy of Francesco (EoF), a worldwide movement of young people who aim to change the current economic models and working towards a fair, sustainable, and inclusive economic system. EoF was convened by Pope Francis and is inspired by the example of St. Francis of Assisi, featuring Franciscan economic roots and institutions, as well as theories of the social sciences.The authors raise and answer several important questions throughout the volume, such as: What if the economic courses taught in the universities across the globe focused their attention on the topics of the commons rather than on private goods? What if social businesses, rather than being considered as a hybrid form of businesses, became the normal approach, and ethical and green finance ruled over the standard financial sector? Is it possible to move away from the primacy of the consumers to the preeminence of ethical consumers who express their preferences for an inclusive, sustainable, and workers-friendly economic system with their daily choices? Using a unique approach, the book includes the contributions of prominent scholars which are integrated and discussed by young international scholars, providing a fresh analysis with a glance of hope for the future. The book is a must-read for students, scholars, and researchers of economics and related disciplines interested in alternatives to the current economic mainstream in general, and the Economy of Francesco in particular.
Das Phänomen Krieg: Eine sozialwissenschaftliche Bestandsaufnahme
by Ralph RotteDieses Buch zeichnet die Entwicklungsgeschichte strategischen Denkens von Clausewitz bis zu den „neuen Kriegen“ des 21. Jahrhunderts nach. Dabei verfolgt es eine doppelte Zielsetzung: Zum Einen soll der analytische Mehrwert strategietheoretischer Beiträge in Bezug auf Erklärung und Analyse kriegerischer Gewalt sowie die Erarbeitung von handlungsleitenden Strategien für Prävention und Bewältigung kriegerischer Konflikte anhand exemplarischer Fallbeispiele demonstriert werden. Zum Anderen versteht sich das Buch insgesamt als Plädoyer für eine strategische Perspektive als Grundlage staatlicher und internationaler Sicherheitspolitik, die bisher trotz des offensichtlich vorhandenen Bedarfs an strategischer Orientierung in Deutschland nur in unzureichendem Maße in der Debatte vertreten ist.
Elements of Argument
by Annette T. Rottenberg Donna Haisty WinchellElements of Argument teaches students how to approach, develop, and defend arguments one element at a time. This comprehensive, accessible text carefully scaffolds argument for students, explaining approaches to argumentation, (including Aristotelian, Toulmin, and Rogerian models as well as Stasis Theory questions), critical reading, and argument analysis. The major components of argumentation--claims, support, assumptions, logic--are explained in depth, and a robust research section shows students how to find, incorporate, and build on existing arguments. This Twelfth Edition has also been updated with more sourced readings than ever before, further reinforcing the importance of research and synthesis. Finally, the anthology includes debates and casebooks on unsettled current issues as well as timeless, classic arguments, making Elements of Argument a comprehensive resource for the argument classroom.
For the Love of Psychoanalysis: The Play of Chance in Freud and Derrida
by Elizabeth Rottenberg“One of the most interesting scholars working at the intersection of deconstruction and psychoanalysis.” —Rebecca Comay, University of TorontoFor the Love of Psychoanalysis is a book about what exceeds or resists calculation—in life and in death. Elizabeth Rottenberg examines what emerges from the difference between psychoanalysis and philosophy.Part I, “Freuderrida,” announces a non-traditional Freud: a Freud associated not with sexuality, repression, unconsciousness, and symbolization, but with accidents and chance. Looking at accidents both in and of Freud’s writing, Rottenberg elaborates the unexpected insights that both produce and disrupt our received ideas of psychoanalytic theory. Whether this disruption is figured as a foreign body, as traumatic temporality, as spatial unlocatability, or as the death drive, it points to something neither simply inside nor simply outside the psyche, neither psychically nor materially determined.Whereas the close reading of Freud leaves us open to the accidents of psychoanalytic writing, Part II, “Freuderrida,” addresses itself to what transports us back and limits the openness of our horizon. Here the example par excellence is the death penalty and the cruelty of its calculating decision. If “Freuderrida” insists on the death penalty, if it returns to it compulsively, it is not only because its calculating drive is inseparable from the history of reason as philosophical reason; it is also because the death penalty provides us with one of the most spectacular and spectacularly obscene expressions of Freud’s death drive.“Brilliant, pathbreaking, witty, and lucidly argued” (Elissa Marder, Emory University), this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Freud, Derrida, and the many critical debates to which their thought gives rise.
Inheriting the Future
by Elizabeth RottenbergThis book explores several canonical works of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature. The surprising juxtaposition of Kant's moral philosophy, Freud's reflections on obsessional neurosis, and Flaubert's peculiar late novel Bouvard et Pécuchet forms the basis of a compelling argument linking each of these central works around the problem of moral thought as it fundamentally determines the modern subject in relation to time. The book engages an area of emerging importance in contemporary critical thought, the problem of ethics or "otherness" as a crucial factor at play in speculative and literary works. The readings in this book provide insight into the ways in which three fundamental philosophical, psychoanalytic, and literary texts can be reread in light of their confrontation with a seemingly inhuman force at the heart of the foundation of the human subject.
Inheriting the Future: Legacies of Kant, Freud, and Flaubert
by Elizabeth RottenbergThis book explores several canonical works of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and literature. The surprising juxtaposition of Kant's moral philosophy, Freud's reflections on obsessional neurosis, and Flaubert's peculiar late novel Bouvard et Pécuchet forms the basis of a compelling argument linking each of these central works around the problem of moral thought as it fundamentally determines the modern subject in relation to time. The book engages an area of emerging importance in contemporary critical thought, the problem of ethics or "otherness" as a crucial factor at play in speculative and literary works. The readings in this book provide insight into the ways in which three fundamental philosophical, psychoanalytic, and literary texts can be reread in light of their confrontation with a seemingly inhuman force at the heart of the foundation of the human subject.
The Death Penalty, Volume II
by Elizabeth Rottenberg Jacques DerridaIn the first volume of his extraordinary analysis of the death penalty, Jacques Derrida began a journey toward an ambitious end: the first truly philosophical argument against the death penalty. Exploring an impressive breadth of thought, he traced a deeply entrenched logic throughout the whole of Western philosophy that has justified the state’s right to take a life. He also marked literature as a crucial place where this logic has been most effectively challenged. In this second and final volume, Derrida builds on these analyses toward a definitive argument against capital punishment. Of central importance in this second volume is Kant’s explicit justification of the death penalty in the Metaphysics of Morals. Thoroughly deconstructing Kant’s position—which holds the death penalty as exemplary of the eye-for-an-eye Talionic law—Derrida exposes numerous damning contradictions and exceptions. Keeping the current death penalty in the United States in view, he further explores the “anesthesial logic” he analyzed in volume one, addressing the themes of cruelty and pain through texts by Robespierre and Freud, reading Heidegger, and—in a fascinating, improvised final session—the nineteenth-century Spanish Catholic thinker Donoso Cortés. Ultimately, Derrida shows that the rationality of the death penalty as represented by Kant involves an imposition of knowledge and calculability on a fundamental condition of non-knowledge—that we don’t otherwise know what or when our deaths will be. In this way, the death penalty acts out a phantasm of mastery over one’s own death. Derrida’s thoughts arrive at a particular moment in history: when the death penalty in the United States is the closest it has ever been to abolition, and yet when the arguments on all sides are as confused as ever. His powerful analysis will prove to be a paramount contribution to this debate as well as a lasting entry in his celebrated oeuvre.
Mad Monk Manifesto: A Prescription for Evolution, Revolution, and Global Awakening
by Yun RouWinner of Both Gold & Silver 2018 Nautilus Book Award and #1 New Release in Taoism and Tao Te ChingChange Yourself, Change The WorldFind answers. It’s easy to get outraged by world events, frustrated by our own personal battles, and disenfranchised from government and leadership. Born of moral indignation, informed by decades of study, and seasoned by a life of devoted self-cultivation, Monk Yun Rou’s Mad Monk Manifesto has answers, personal prescriptions, and calls to social and political action in one powerful book.Change the world by changing ourselves. Based on ancient Chinese wisdom such as Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Mad Monk Manifesto is part tour guide to consciousness, part recipe for personal development, part prescription for environmental salvation, and part handbook for social change.Wise advice for the awakened life. As ripples move away from a stone dropped into a pond, Mad Monk Manifesto begins with our personal lives, discussing diet, exercise, meditation, and mind/body practice. Then it expands to our public environment, describing what we can do to improve our community, government, and the world. Full of everything from advice for a healthy, conscious lifestyle to actions we can take to enhance the lives of friends, family, coworkers, and community members; Mad Monk Manifesto highlights spirituality and service. In addition, Monk Yun Rou encourages everyone to engage in the nature that surrounds them, showing how environmentalism can take place in daily life.Mad Monk Manifesto is precisely what the world needs at a time of unprecedented environmental disasters, international instability, and divisive and unreliable leadership. After reading this book, you will learn:How to relax, rectify, and rebalance lifeHow to bolster the community and deepen cultureHow to effect positive change in commerce, government, power, and the environmentMad Monk Manifesto is for readers of Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, and Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer.
The Monk of Park Avenue: A Modern Daoist Odyssey
by Yun RouPriceless Wisdom from a Modern Tao Te Ching Odyssey“...this book will completely absorb your attention from the beginning...” —Emanuele Pettener, PhD, assistant professor of Italian and writer in residence at Florida Atlantic University#1 New Release in Chinese Poetry, Asian Poetry, and Tao Te ChingA literary memoir like no other, Monk of Park Avenue recounts novelist and martial master Monk Yon Rou’s spiritual journey of self-discovery. Learn from Yon Rou as he tackles tragedy and redemption on an unforgettable soul-searching odyssey.A spiritual journey with extraordinary encounters. Yon Rou’s memoir is a kaleidoscopic ride through the upper echelons of New York Society and the nature-worshipping, sword-wielding world of East Asian religious and martial arts. Monk of Park Avenue divulges a privileged childhood in Manhattan, followed by the bitter rigors of kung fu in China and meditations in Daoist temples. Join Yon Rou’s adventure as he encounters kings, Nobel laureates, and the Mob. Witness this martial master’s incarceration in a high-mountain Ecuadorian hellhole and fight for survival in Paraguay’s brutal thorn jungle. Meet celebrities along the way. A story of love, loss, persistence, triumph, and mastery, The Monk of Park Avenue is peopled with the likes of Milos Forman, Richard Holbrooke, Paul McCartney, Warren Beatty and now-infamous opioid purveyors, the Sackler Family. Yun Rou’s memoir is no mere celebrity tell-all, but a novelist and martial master’s path to self-discovery.The Monk of Park Avenue offers you:Paths for personal and spiritual growthAnecdotal stories of self-discovery and insights into how to liveAn eloquent, candid exploration of spiritual transformationIf you loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, To Shake the Sleeping Self, or Lao Tzu by Ursula K. Le Guin, you’ll love The Monk of Park Avenue. Also, be sure to read Monk Yon Rou’s Mad Monk Manifesto, winner of both the Gold & Silver 2018 Nautilus Book Award.
The Misinterpretation of Man: Studies in European Thought of the Nineteenth Century (Routledge Revivals)
by Paul RoubiczekFirst published in 1949, The Misinterpretation of Man traces the deeper roots of the ideas which found their most striking and disastrous expression in German National Socialism. It attempts to show the wrong turn which European thought took during the nineteenth century and to challenge its dangerous inheritance, so as to make room for the growth of different and better ideals. The author believes that Christian tradition and values are losing their hold over a great majority of nations leading to an erosion of magnanimity and forgiveness. This book will be of interest to students of philosophy and history.
Thinking in Opposites: an investigation of the nature of man as revealed by the nature of thinking (Routledge Revivals)
by Paul RoubiczekFirst published in 1952, Thinking in Opposites insists on the need for a carefully thought-out, rather than a merely authoritarian, basis for faith; but also insists that an indispensable preliminary is to know the laws which govern and limit the scope of human thinking in relation to three areas: the external world as it is; the internal world of feeling; and the interrelation of each of these with the other. This book is not a technical work in philosophy and the theory of knowledge; but it deals with problems in those fields which have usually been handled only in technical language. Therefore, this is a book both for the expert and for the intelligent and thoughtful layman: for the man who has a sense of responsibility for what he believes, and who is able to justify his faith amid the chaos of our times.
Classics in Political Science
by Joseph S. RoucekThis anthology collects some of the most significant writings on politics and political science from some of history&’s greatest minds. In Classics in Political Science, editor Joseph S. Roucek guides readers through the ages of political thought and theory with arguments and essays by such groundbreaking theorists as Thomas Hobbes, Nicolai Lenin, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many others. The selections range from ancient philosophers and statesmen, such as Cicero and Aristotle, to major figures of the twentieth century, such as Gandhi and Winston Churchill.
Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
by Elisabeth RoudinescoFor Elisabeth Roudinesco, a historian of psychoanalysis and one of France's leading intellectuals, Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, and Derrida represent a "great generation" of French philosophers who accomplished remarkable work and lived incredible lives. These troubled and innovative thinkers endured World War II and the cultural and political revolution of the 1960s, and their cultural horizon was dominated by Marxism and psychoanalysis, though they were by no means strict adherents to the doctrines of Marx and Freud. Roudinesco knew many of these intellectuals personally, and she weaves an account of their thought through lived experience and reminiscences. Canguilhem, for example, was a distinguished philosopher of science who had a great influence on Foucault's exploration of sanity and madness-themes Althusser lived in a notorious personal drama. And in dramatizing the life of Freud for the screen, Sartre fundamentally altered his own philosophical approach to psychoanalysis. Roudinesco launches a passionate defense of Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, and Derrida against the "new philosophers" of the late 1970s and 1980s, who denounced the work-and sometimes the private lives-of this great generation. Roudinesco refutes attempts to tar them, as well as the Marxist and left-wing tradition in general, with the brush of Soviet-style communism. In Freudian theory and the philosophy of radical commitment, she sees a bulwark against the kind of manipulative, pill-prescribing, and normalizing psychology that aims to turn individuals into mindless consumers. Intense, clever, and persuasive, Philosophy in Turbulent Times captivates with the dynamism of French thought in the twentieth century.
The Sovereign Self: Pitfalls of Identity Politics
by Elisabeth RoudinescoThe toppling of statues in the name of anti-racism is disconcerting, as is the violence sometimes displayed towards others in the name of gender equality. The emancipation movements of the past seem to have undergone a subtle transformation: the struggle now is not so much to bring about progress but rather to denounce offenses, express indignation, and assert identities, sometimes in order to demand recognition. The individual&’s commitment to self-definition and self-appreciation, understood as the exercise of a sovereign right, has become a distinctive sign of our time. Elisabeth Roudinesco takes us into the darker corners of identity thinking, where conspiracy theories, rejection of the other, and incitement to violence are often part of the mix. But she also points to several paths that could lead us away from despair and toward a possible world in which everyone can adhere to the principle according to which &“I am myself, that&’s all there is to it&” without denying the diversity of human communities or essentializing either universality or difference. This bold and courageous interrogation of identity politics will be of great interest to anyone concerned with the state of our world today.
Wanting and Intending
by Neil RoughleyThis book aims to answer two simple questions: what is it to want and what is it to intend? Because of the breadth of contexts in which the relevant phenomena are implicated and the wealth of views that have attempted to account for them, providing the answers is not quite so simple. Doing so requires an examination not only of the relevant philosophical theories and our everyday practices, but also of the rich empirical material that has been provided by work in social and developmental psychology. The investigation is carried out in two parts, dedicated to wanting and intending respectively. Wanting is analysed as optative attitudinising, a basic form of subjective standard-setting at the core of compound states such as 'longings', 'desires', 'projects' and 'whims'. The analysis is developed in the context of a discussion of Moore-paradoxicality and deepened through the examination of rival theories, which include functionalist and hedonistic conceptions as well as the guise-of-the-good view and the pure entailment approach, two views popular in moral psychology. In the second part of the study, a disjunctive genetic theory of intending is developed, according to which intentions are optative attitudes on which, in one way or another, the mark of deliberation has been conferred. It is this which explains intention's subjection to the requirements of practical rationality. Moreover, unlike wanting, intending turns out to be dependent on normative features of our life form, in particular on practices of holding responsible. The book will be of particular interest to philosophers and psychologists working on motivation, goals, desire, intention, deliberation, decision and practical rationality.
Forms of Fellow Feeling
by Neil Roughley Thomas SchrammeWhat is the basis of our capacity to act morally? This is a question that has been discussed for millennia, with philosophical debate typically distinguishing two sources of morality: reason and sentiment. This collection aims to shed light on whether the human capacity to feel for others really is central for morality and, if so, in what way. To tackle these questions, the authors discuss how fellow feeling is to be understood: its structure, content and empirical conditions. Also discussed are the exact roles that relevant psychological features - specifically: empathy, sympathy and concern - may play within morality. The collection is unique in bringing together the key participants in the various discussions of the relation of fellow feeling to moral norms, moral concepts and moral agency. By integrating conceptually sophisticated and empirically informed perspectives, Forms of Fellow Feeling will appeal to readers from philosophy, psychology, sociology and cultural studies.
Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance (The New Middle Ages)
by Linda Marie RouillardMedieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance focuses on the incest motif as used in numerous medieval narratives. Explaining the weakness of great rulers, such as Charlemagne, or the fall of legendary heroes, such as Arthur, incest stories also reflect on changes to the sacramental regulations and practices related to marriage and penance. Such changes demonstrate the Church's increasing authority over the daily lives and relationships of the laity. Treated here are a wide variety of medieval texts, using as a central reference point Philippe de Rémi's thirteenth-century La Manekine, which presents one lay author's reflections on the role of consent in marriage, the nature of contrition and forgiveness, and even the meaning of relics. Studying a variety of genres including medieval romance, epic, miracles, and drama along with modern memoirs, films, and novels, Linda Rouillard emphasizes connections between medieval and modern social concerns. Rouillard concludes with a consideration of the legacy of the incest motif for the twenty-first century, including survivor narratives, and new incest anxieties associated with assisted reproductive technology.
Invisible in the Storm
by Ian Roulstone John NorburyInvisible in the Storm is the first book to recount the history, personalities, and ideas behind one of the greatest scientific successes of modern times--the use of mathematics in weather prediction. Although humans have tried to forecast weather for millennia, mathematical principles were used in meteorology only after the turn of the twentieth century. From the first proposal for using mathematics to predict weather, to the supercomputers that now process meteorological information gathered from satellites and weather stations, Ian Roulstone and John Norbury narrate the groundbreaking evolution of modern forecasting. The authors begin with Vilhelm Bjerknes, a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who in 1904 came up with a method now known as numerical weather prediction. Although his proposed calculations could not be implemented without computers, his early attempts, along with those of Lewis Fry Richardson, marked a turning point in atmospheric science. Roulstone and Norbury describe the discovery of chaos theory's butterfly effect, in which tiny variations in initial conditions produce large variations in the long-term behavior of a system--dashing the hopes of perfect predictability for weather patterns. They explore how weather forecasters today formulate their ideas through state-of-the-art mathematics, taking into account limitations to predictability. Millions of variables--known, unknown, and approximate--as well as billions of calculations, are involved in every forecast, producing informative and fascinating modern computer simulations of the Earth system. Accessible and timely, Invisible in the Storm explains the crucial role of mathematics in understanding the ever-changing weather.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
Artificial Intelligence and the New World Order: New weapons, New Wars and a New Balance of Power (Frontiers of Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Multidisciplinary Applications)
by Fatima RoumateThis book discusses the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on post-COVID-19 international relations. With the decline and fall of U.S. global leadership and the emergence of new powerful actors, as hastened by the global pandemic, new arms are now used in new forms of wars with new players. The balance of power swings between geostrategic interests and those linked to the global governance of virtual space and the race to technological sovereignty. Chapters focus on the challenges imposed by these changes on different parts of the international system—law, governance, diplomacy, international psychological security—and articulate new strategies and ethical policies as possible solutions. The volume is interdisciplinary and will appeal to researchers, students, and professionals across fields interested in the ethics of AI in the international system.
Articulations of Nature and Politics in Plato and Hegel
by Vicky RoupaThis book examines nature as a foundational concept for political and constitutional theory, drawing on readings from Plato and Hegel to counter the view that optimal political arrangements are determined by nature. Focussing on the dialectical implications of the word ‘nature’, i.e. how it encompasses a range of meanings stretching up to the opposites of sensuousness and ideality, the book explores the various junctures at which nature and politics interlock in the philosophies of Plato and Hegel. Appearance and essence, inner life and public realm, the psychical and the political are all shown to be parts of a conflictual structure that requires both infinite proximity and irreducible distance. The book offers innovative interpretations of a number of key texts by Plato and Hegel to highlight the metaphysical and political implications of nature’s dialectical structure, and re-appraises their thinking of nature in a way that both respects and goes beyond their intentions.
Articulating the World: Conceptual Understanding and the Scientific Image
by Joseph RouseNaturalism as a guiding philosophy for modern science both disavows any appeal to the supernatural or anything else transcendent to nature, and repudiates any philosophical or religious authority over the workings and conclusions of the sciences. A longstanding paradox within naturalism, however, has been the status of scientific knowledge itself, which seems, at first glance, to be something that transcends and is therefore impossible to conceptualize within scientific naturalism itself. In Articulating the World, Joseph Rouse argues that the most pressing challenge for advocates of naturalism today is precisely this: to understand how to make sense of a scientific conception of nature as itself part of nature, scientifically understood. Drawing upon recent developments in evolutionary biology and the philosophy of science, Rouse defends naturalism in response to this challenge by revising both how we understand our scientific conception of the world and how we situate ourselves within it.
Social Practices as Biological Niche Construction
by Joseph RouseA broad, synthetic philosophy of nature focused on human sociality. In this book, Joseph Rouse takes his innovative work to the next level by articulating an integrated philosophy of society as part of nature. He shows how and why we ought to unite our biological conception of human beings as animals with our sociocultural and psychological conceptions of human beings as persons and acculturated agents. Rouse’s philosophy engages with biological understandings of human bodies and their environments as well as the diverse practices and institutions through which people live and engage with one another. Familiar conceptual separations of natural, social, and mental “worlds” did not arise by happenstance, he argues, but often for principled reasons that have left those divisions deeply entrenched in contemporary intellectual life. Those reasons are eroding in light of new developments across the disciplines, but that erosion has not been sufficient to produce more adequately integrated conceptual alternatives until now. Social Practices and Biological Niche Construction shows how the characteristic plasticity, plurality, and critical contestation of human ways of life can best be understood as evolved and evolving relations among human organisms and their distinctive biological environments. It also highlights the constitutive interdependence of those ways of life with many other organisms, from microbial populations to certain plants and animals, and explores the consequences of this in-depth, noting, for instance, how the integration of the natural and social also provides new insights on central issues in social theory, such as the body, language, normativity, and power.