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Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Mary-Jane RubensteinStrange Wonder confronts Western philosophy's ambivalent relationship to the Platonic "wonder" that reveals the strangeness of the everyday. On the one hand, this wonder is said to be the origin of all philosophy. On the other hand, it is associated with a kind of ignorance that ought to be extinguished as swiftly as possible. By endeavoring to resolve wonder's indeterminacy into certainty and calculability, philosophy paradoxically secures itself at the expense of its own condition of possibility.Strange Wonder locates a reopening of wonder's primordial uncertainty in the work of Martin Heidegger, for whom wonder is first experienced as the shock at the groundlessness of things and then as an astonishment that things nevertheless are. Mary-Jane Rubenstein traces this double movement through the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Jacques Derrida, ultimately thematizing wonder as the awesome, awful opening that exposes thinking to devastation as well as transformation. Rubenstein's study shows that wonder reveals the extraordinary in and through the ordinary, and is therefore crucial to the task of reimagining political, religious, and ethical terrain.
Worlds without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse
by Mary-Jane RubensteinA religion professor elucidates the theory of the multiverse, its history, and its reception in science, philosophy, religion, and literature.Multiverse cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Mary-Jane Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores the reasons for their recent appearance. One concerns the so-called fine-tuning of the universe: nature's constants are so delicately calibrated that it seems they have been set just right to allow life to emerge. For some thinkers, these "fine-tunings" are evidence of the existence of God; for others, however, and for most physicists, "God" is an insufficient scientific explanation. Hence the multiverse&’s allure: if all possible worlds exist somewhere, then like monkeys hammering out Shakespeare, one universe is bound to be suitable for life. Of course, this hypothesis replaces God with an equally baffling article of faith: the existence of universes beyond, before, or after our own, eternally generated yet forever inaccessible to observation or experiment. In their very efforts to sidestep metaphysics, theoretical physicists propose multiverse scenarios that collide with it and even produce counter-theological narratives. Far from invalidating multiverse hypotheses, Rubenstein argues, this interdisciplinary collision actually secures their scientific viability. We may therefore be witnessing a radical reconfiguration of physics, philosophy, and religion in the modern turn to the multiverse.&“Rubenstein&’s witty, thought-provoking history of philosophy and physics leaves one in awe of just how close Thomas Aquinas and American physicist Steven Weinberg are in spirit as they seek ultimate answers.&”—Publishers Weekly&“A fun, mind-stretching read, clear and enlightening.&”—San Francisco Book Review
Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages
by Richard E. RubensteinEurope was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten, until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, offering the scientific view that the natural world, including the soul of man, was a proper subject of study. The rediscovery of these ancient ideas sparked riots and heresy trials, caused major upheavals in the Catholic Church, and also set the stage for today's rift between reason and religion. In Aristotle's Children, Richard Rubenstein transports us back in history, rendering the controversies of the Middle Ages lively and accessible-and allowing us to understand the philosophical ideas that are fundamental to modern thought.
Silent Revolution: How the Left Rose to Political Power and Cultural Dominance
by Barry RubinRespected historian and political scientist Barry Rubin exposes the radicalism that masquerades as liberalism today in Silent Revolution, his thorough history that charts the movement's unchecked rise to cultural and political power.Over the past fifty years, an ideological revolution has created a brand of radical leftism that now dominates the liberal movement in the United States. The values espoused by the left today are a far cry from the traditional progressive and Enlightenment values that have historically defined the movement.Barry Rubin argues that, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, the survivors of the '60s New Left drew on the ideas of radicals like Saul Alinsky, cultural Marxists like Antonio Gramsci, and Third World revolutionary thinkers like Frantz Fanon to create a Third Left: a radical movement that championed a new class of experts and managers to seize control from within. Silent Revolution explores the formation and ideology of The Third Left and documents how this movement culminated in 2008, when Americans elected the most radical left-wing government in their history.Concise and hard-hitting, Silent Revolution is a must for all conservatives looking to understand and overcome American liberalism.
Civic Education for Diverse Citizens in Global Times: Rethinking Theory and Practice (Rutgers Invitational Symposium On Education Ser.)
by Beth C. Rubin James M. GiarelliThis book explores four interrelated themes: rethinking civic education in light of the diversity of U.S. society; re-examining these notions in an increasingly interconnected global context; re-considering the ways that civic education is researched and practiced; and taking stock of where we are currently through use of an historical understanding of civic education. There is a gap between theory and practice in social studies education: while social studies researchers call for teachers to nurture skills of analysis, decision-making, and participatory citizenship, students in social studies classrooms are often found participating in passive tasks (e.g., quiz and test-taking, worksheet completion, listening to lectures) rather than engaging critically with the curriculum. Civic Education for Diverse Citizens in Global Times, directed at students, researchers and practitioners of social studies education, seeks to engage this divide by offering a collection of work that puts practice at the center of research and theory.
Eclipse of Man
by Charles T. RubinTomorrow has never looked better. Breakthroughs in fields like genetic engineering and nanotechnology promise to give us unprecedented power to redesign our bodies and our world. Futurists and activists tell us that we are drawing ever closer to a day when we will be as smart as computers, will be able to link our minds telepathically, and will live for centuries-or maybe forever. The perfection of a "post-human" future awaits us.Or so the story goes. In reality, the rush toward a post-human destiny amounts to an ideology of human extinction, an ideology that sees little of value in humanity except the raw material for producing whatever might come next.In Eclipse of Man, Charles T. Rubin traces the intellectual origins of the movement to perfect and replace the human race. He shows how today's advocates of radical enhancement are-like their forebears-deeply dissatisfied with given human nature and fixated on grand visions of a future shaped by technological progress.Moreover, Rubin argues that this myopic vision of the future is not confined to charlatans and cheerleaders promoting this or that technology: it also runs through much of modern science and contemporary progressivism. By exploring and criticizing the dreams of post humanity, Rubin defends a more modest vision of the future, one that takes seriously both the limitations and the inherent dignity of our given nature.
Beyond Camelot: Rethinking Politics and Law for the Modern State
by Edward L. RubinThis book argues that many of the basic concepts that we use to describe and analyze our governmental system are out of date. Developed in large part during the Middle Ages, they fail to confront the administrative character of modern government. These concepts, which include power, discretion, democracy, legitimacy, law, rights, and property, bear the indelible imprint of this bygone era's attitudes, and Arthurian fantasies, about governance. As a result, they fail to provide us with the tools we need to understand, critique, and improve the government we actually possess. Beyond Camelot explains the causes and character of this failure, and then proposes a new conceptual framework, drawn from management science and engineering, which describes our administrative government more accurately, and identifies its weaknesses instead of merely bemoaning its modernity. This book's proposed framework envisions government as a network of connected units that are authorized by superior units and that supervise subordinate ones. Instead of using inherited, emotion-laden concepts like democracy and legitimacy to describe the relationship between these units and private citizens, it directs attention to the particular interactions between these units and the citizenry, and to the mechanisms by which government obtains its citizens' compliance. Instead of speaking about law and legal rights, it proposes that we address the way that the modern state formulates policy and secures its implementation. Instead of perpetuating outdated ideas that we no longer really believe about the sanctity of private property, it suggests that we focus on the way that resources are allocated in order to establish markets as our means of regulation. Highly readable, Beyond Camelot offers an insightful and provocative discussion of how we must transform our understanding of government to keep pace with the transformation that government itself has undergone.
The Hebrew Saga
by Gershon RubinA personal and philosophical meditation on the Hebrew Bible, its stories, and its sages.In this volume, Gershon Rubin attempts to draw the secrets of the antediluvian world into the modern day. Through the lens of a lifetime of spiritual learning, he explores the ancient saga of creation, Adam and Eve, and the generations to come after. As Rubin states by way of introduction to The Hebrew Saga, &“My first name, Gershon, is similar to the Greek word geron (old man). Thus through my &‘geronoscope,&’ I view the over-four-thousand-year-long written history of the Hebrew nation, which resulted in the origination of this my world-view, or world outlook.&”
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
by Jonah S. RubinEric Hoffer’s The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements is one of the most widely read works of social psychology written in the 20th-century. It exemplifies the powers of creative thinking and critical analysis at their best, providing an insight into two crucial elements of critical thinking. Hoffer is likely to go down in history as one of America’s great creative thinkers – a writer not bound by standard frameworks of thinking or academic conventions, willing to beat his own path in framing the best possible answers to the questions he investigated. An impoverished, largely unschooled manual laborer who had survived the worst effects of the Great Depression in the United States, Hoffer was a passionate autodidact whose philosophical and psychological education came from omnivorous reading. Working without the help of any mentors, he forged the fearsomely creative and individual approach to problems demonstrated in The True Believer. The book, which earned him his reputation, examines the different phenomena of fanaticism – religious or political – and applies Hoffer’s analytical skills to reveal that, deep down, all ‘true believers’ display the same needs and tendencies, whatever their final choice of belief. Incisive and persuasive, it remains a classic.
Busing and Backlash: White against White in a California School District
by Lillian B. RubinThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.
Democracy and Famine (Routledge Research in Comparative Politics)
by Olivier RubinFamine is the most extreme manifestation of the existence of poverty, inequality and political apathy. Whereas poverty, hunger and diseases are not easily eradicated in the world today, famines are often perceived to be relatively simple to avert. However, the political incentives to prevent famines are not always present. Inspired by the work of Amartya Sen, whose influential hypothesis that democratic institutions together with a free press provide effective protection from famine, Democracy and Famine is a study combining qualitative and quantitative evidence, analysing the effect of democracy on famine prevention. The book’s overall framework moves from placing political systems at the heart of famine protection to look at the political processes involved. Using a case study based approach drawing on famines from India, Malawi and Niger; Democracy and Famine will be of interest to scholars and students of democracy, comparative politics and international relations.
The Yellow Pad: Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World
by Robert E. RubinRobert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain timesIn 1958, as a college sophomore, Robert Rubin took a class that changed his life. The class was introduction to philosophy, and the professor, Raphael Demos, instilled in his students an idea that was simple yet profound: There is no such thing as certainty. For Rubin, this led to a critically important question: How can we make sound decisions in a fundamentally uncertain world?While serving in some of the most significant roles in markets, business, and government, Rubin has grappled with that question. Time and again, when faced with a high-stakes decision, he turned to his most trusted tool: a simple yellow legal pad. Rubin&’s yellow pad (or more recently, his iPad) became an expression of a larger decision-making philosophy that has both lasted and shaped a lifetime. In The Yellow Pad, Rubin lays out that philosophy with depth and detail, and presents a compelling intellectual framework for confronting some of the most difficult issues we face today.The Yellow Pad contains a former Treasury secretary&’s approach to economic policymaking. A former Goldman Sachs senior partner&’s approach to personal investing and understanding risk. A former director of the National Economic Council&’s approach to managing people in both private- and public-sector organizations. And much more. Yet despite his lifetime of experiences, Rubin remains refreshingly open-minded, interested in exploring ideas rather than promoting ideologies. With its combination of wisdom and relevance, The Yellow Pad is an essential guide for anyone looking to make better decisions in life, work, and public policy.
Constituent Power: A History (Ideas in Context #128)
by Lucia RubinelliFrom the French Revolution onwards, constituent power has been a key concept for thinking about the principle of popular power, and how it should be realised through the state and its institutions. Tracing the history of constituent power across five key moments - the French Revolution, nineteenth-century French politics, the Weimar Republic, post-WWII constitutionalism, and political philosophy in the 1960s - Lucia Rubinelli reconstructs and examines the history of the principle. She argues that, at any given time, constituent power offered an alternative understanding of the power of the people to those offered by ideas of sovereignty. Constituent Power: A History also examines how, in turn, these competing understandings of popular power resulted in different institutional structures and reflects on why contemporary political thought is so prone to conflating constituent power with sovereignty.
Marx and Wittgenstein: Social Praxis and Social Explanation
by D. RubinsteinFirst published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Fragmentation of the Photographic Image in the Digital Age (Routledge History of Photography)
by Daniel RubinsteinFragmentation of the Photographic Image in the Digital Age challenges orthodoxies of photographic theory and practice. Beyond understanding the image as a static representation of reality, it shows photography as a linchpin of dynamic developments in augmented intelligence, neuroscience, critical theory, and cybernetic cultures. Through essays by leading philosophers, political theorists, software artists, media researchers, curators, and experimental programmers, photography emerges not as a mimetic or a recording device but simultaneously as a new type of critical discipline and a new art form that stands at the crossroads of visual art, contemporary philosophy, and digital technologies.
Taiwan: A New History (Taiwan In The Modern World Ser.)
by Murray A. RubinsteinThis is a comprehensive portrait of Taiwan. It covers the major periods in the development of this small but powerful island province/nation. The work is designed in the style of the multi-volume "Cambridge History of China".
Les Nazis et le Mal. La destruction de l'être humain
by Ana Rubio-SerranoLes Nazis et le Mal. La destruction de l'être humain par Ana Rubio-Serrano. (Nouvelle édition) Le Nazisme a ouvert la porte au terrorisme global. Il a dessiné un mal structurel où personne n'était sûre, pas même le peuple allemand. L'ennemi : tout celui pouvant penser par lui-même de façon libre et différente à ce que les règles nazies le dictaient. Les aryens n'étaient que des "individus créés", conçus pour la violence, c'est-à-dire, des automates intelligents déshumanisés. La socialisation du crime à travers la violence devenue en culture a été l'un des objectifs que l'on a pu établir dans les camps et dans la société. Bien que plus de soixante-cinq ans se sont écoulés depuis qu'Hitler monta au pouvoir en Allemagne, le sujet du Nazisme et de l'Holocauste est encore un des sujets pertinents, en gardant en vie les questions suivantes : Comment cela a-t-il pu arriver ? Et quelles sont les conséquences de ce qui a eu lieu ? Ces questions sont abordées dans "Les nazis et le mal, la destruction de l'être humain", publié par Éditorial UOC sous la marque Niberta et avec un prologue du Chaire en éthique à l'Université de Barcelone, Norbert Bilbeny. Ce qui est, d'abord, une question très vaste, est réduite à une enquête exhaustive de la notion du mal chez les hommes du Troisième Reich ou ce qui est équivalent au Même, le processus de comment les êtres humains deviennent méchants, ce qui se matérialise dans le Troisième Reich. On pourrait penser que le sujet concernant le Nazisme est déjà surchargé de références et qu'il serait difficile d'ajouter de nouveaux éléments à la réflexion sur cette question. Cependant, à peine quelques décennies représentent un bref intermède dans l'histoire dans son ensemble et la complexité du mal Nazi continue à nous troubler ; surtout, il est terrifiant d'être conscient du degré réel du mal atteint par des personnes qui, comme nous, vivaient dans de
The Nazis and Evil: The Annihilation of the Human Being
by Ana Rubio-Serrano Jillian Kostora da SilvaNazism opened the door to global terrorism. It designed a structural evil in which no one was safe, not even the German people themselves. The enemy: anyone able to think freely for themselves, in a manner contrary to rules dictated by the Nazis. The Aryans were merely "manufactured individuals," designed for violence, that is to say, dehumanized, intelligent automatons. The socialization of crime through violence-turned-culture was one of the objectives that the Nazis managed to establish within the camps and throughout society. This is a current book that reflects on the past and offers us questions on the present.
Os Nazis e o Mal. A Destruição do Ser Humano
by Ana Rubio-Serrano João RomãoO nazismo abriu a porta ao terrorismo globalizado. Traçou um mal estrutural onde ninguém estava a salvo, nem mesmo o povo alemão. O inimigo: todo aquele que fosse capaz de pensar por si mesmo de uma forma livre e contrária ao que ditavam as regras nazis. Os arianos eram pura e simplesmente «indivíduos fabricados», concebidos para a violência, isto é, autómatos inteligentes desumanizados. A socialização do crime mediante a violência convertida em cultura foi um dos objetivos que lograram estabelecer nos campos de concentração e na sociedade. A presente obra levanta novamente a eterna questão: «O que é realmente o Homem? Um ser humano ou uma massa amorfa?»
Mind Tools: The Five Levels of Mathematical Reality
by Rudy RuckerThis reader-friendly volume groups the patterns of mathematics into five archetypes: numbers, space, logic, infinity, and information. Rudy Rucker presents an accessible introduction to each of these important areas, reflecting intelligence gathered from the frontiers of mathematical thought. More than 100 drawings illuminate explorations of digital versus analog processes, logic as a computing tool, communication as information transmission, and other "mind tools.""Mind Tools is an original and fascinating look at various aspects of mathematics that is sure to fascinate the nonmathematician." -- Isaac Asimov "A lighthearted romp through contemporary mathematics. . . . Mind Tools is a delight." -- San Francisco Chronicle"For those who gave up college mathematics for what seemed more liberal arts, Rudy Rucker's book, Mind Tools, is a dazzling refresher course. . . . He rekindles the wonder that can come from contemplating logarithms, exponential curves and transcendental numbers." -- The New York Times Book Review"One of Rucker's greatest assets is his ability to make complexities comprehensible to the general reader without lecturing." -- The Washington Post"Approaching all of mathematics, and everything else, by way of information theory, Dr. Rucker's latest and most exciting book opens vistas of dazzling beauty -- scenes that blend order with chaos, reality with fantasy, that startle you with their depths of impenetrable mystery." -- Martin Gardner
Albert Schweitzer’s Legacy for Education
by A. G. RudThis is the first book devoted to the study of the thought of Albert Schweitzer as it relates to educational theory and practice. Rud argues that Schweitzer's life and work offer inspiration and timely insights for both educational thought and practice in our new century.
Teaching with Reverence
by A. G. Rud Jim GarrisonReverence is a forgotten virtue in teaching and learning. When taken in a broader spiritual sense, it is often associated with a mute and prim solemnity. The essays gathered here examine reverence as a way to understand some of the spiritual dimensions of classroom teaching.
Abolishing Freedom: A Plea for a Contemporary Use of Fatalism (Provocations)
by Frank RudaPushing back against the contemporary myth that freedom from oppression is freedom of choice, Frank Ruda resuscitates a fundamental lesson from the history of philosophical rationalism: a proper concept of freedom can arise only from a defense of absolute necessity, utter determinism, and predestination.Abolishing Freedom demonstrates how the greatest philosophers of the rationalist tradition and even their theological predecessors—Luther, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Freud—defended not only freedom but also predestination and divine providence. By systematically investigating this mostly overlooked and seemingly paradoxical fact, Ruda demonstrates how real freedom conceptually presupposes the assumption that the worst has always already happened; in short, fatalism. In this brisk and witty interrogation of freedom, Ruda argues that only rationalist fatalism can cure the contemporary sickness whose paradoxical name today is freedom.
Indifference and Repetition; or, Modern Freedom and Its Discontents
by Frank RudaIn capitalism human beings act as if they are mere animals. So we hear repeatedly in the history of modern philosophy. Indifference and Repetition examines how modern philosophy, largely coextensive with a particular boost in capitalism’s development, registers the reductive and regressive tendencies produced by capitalism’s effect on individuals and society.Ruda examines a problem that has invisibly been shaping the history of modern, especially rationalist philosophical thought, a problem of misunderstanding freedom. Thinkers like Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and Marx claim that there are conceptions and interpretations of freedom that lead the subjects of these interpretations to no longer act and think freely. They are often unwillingly led into unfreedom. It is thus possible that even “freedom” enslaves. Modern philosophical rationalism, whose conceptual genealogy the books traces and unfolds, assigns a name to this peculiar form of domination by means of freedom: indifference. Indifference is a name for the assumption that freedom is something that human beings have: a given, a natural possession. When we think freedom is natural or a possession we lose freedom. Modern philosophy, Ruda shows, takes its shape through repeated attacks on freedom as indifference; it is the owl that begins its flight, so that the days of unfreedom will turn to dusk.
The Scalpel and the Butterfly - The Conflict Between Animal Research and Animal Protection
by Deborah RudacilleIn this sweeping history of animal research and the animal protection movement, Deborah Rudacille examines the ethical question of whether enhancement of human life justifies the use of animals for research. She shows how the question and the answers provided by both scientists and anti-vivisectionists over the past 150 years have shaped contemporary society. Rudacille anchors her narrative in events from the lives of key players in the history of the war between science and animal protection, describing the work of activists who work outside the law as well as those working to change the system from within.