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The Foundations of Experimental Physics: Unraveling the Premises of Physical and Scientific Knowledge
by Jacopo ParraviciniStandard STEM courses, for all of their value, do not tend to include systematic lectures or treatment about the nature of the scientific method. This book aims to provide a wide reflection on the general principles of physics and explore the foundations of scientific knowledge as a whole. The author delves into the study of what lies at the basis of science in general, and physics in particular. Themes such as the relation between natural phenomena and mathematical language are addressed, highlighting the main hubs of conceptual development in science. The volume also examines the conceptual and practical instruments that have been progressively developed to investigate the nature of physics. Furthermore, the author discusses the importance of “scientific practice” within the scientific community, emphasizing its role in advancing knowledge and how it contributes to physics as a whole. Divided into three parts, each covering different aspects of physics and its foundations, the text, while assuming basic knowledge of physics and mathematics taught in university courses, is accessible to all STEM students, and will be useful for anyone looking to gain valuable insights into the nature of physics and the methods used to acquire knowledge in this field.
The Pivotal Generation: Why We Have a Moral Responsibility to Slow Climate Change Right Now
by Henry ShueAn eminent philosopher explains why we owe it to future generations to take immediate action on global warmingClimate change is the supreme challenge of our time. Yet despite growing international recognition of the unfolding catastrophe, global carbon emissions continue to rise, hitting an all-time high in 2019. Unless humanity rapidly transitions to renewable energy, it may be too late to stop irreversible ecological damage. In The Pivotal Generation, renowned political philosopher Henry Shue makes an impassioned case for taking immediate, radical action to combat global warming.Shue grounds his argument in a rigorous philosophical analysis of climate change’s moral implications. Unlike previous generations, which didn’t fully understand the danger of burning carbon, we have the knowledge to comprehend and control rising carbon dioxide levels. And unlike future generations, we still have time to mitigate the worst effects of global warming. This generation has the power, and thus the responsibility, to save the planet. Shirking that responsibility only leaves the next generation with an even heavier burden—one they may find impossible to bear.Written in direct, accessible language, The Pivotal Generation approaches the latest scientific research with a singular moral clarity. It’s an urgently needed call to action for anyone concerned about the planet’s future.
Parabolic Problems: 60 Years of Mathematical Puzzles in Parabola (AK Peters/CRC Recreational Mathematics Series)
by David Angell Thomas BritzParabola is a mathematics magazine published by UNSW, Sydney. Among other things, each issue of Parabola has contained a collection of puzzles/problems, on various mathematical topics and at a suitable level for younger (but mathematically sophisticated) readers.Parabolic Problems: 60 Years of Mathematical Puzzles in Parabola collects the very best of almost 1800 problems and puzzles into a single volume. Many of the problems have been re-mastered, and new illustrations have been added. Topics covered range across geometry, number theory, combinatorics, logic, and algebra. Solutions are provided to all problems, and a chapter has been included detailing some frequently useful problem-solving techniques, making this a fabulous resource for education and, most importantly, fun!Features Hundreds of diverting and mathematically interesting problems and puzzles. Accessible for anyone with a high school-level mathematics education. Wonderful resource for teachers and students of mathematics from high school to undergraduate level, and beyond.
Relational Improvisation: Music, Dance and Contemporary Art
by Simon RoseRelational Improvisation explores the creative exchanges that occur between artistic disciplines through the practice of improvisation in performance. Building upon the growing research into improvisation, the book explores contemporary transdisciplinary collaborations between improvised music and other fields including dance and visual arts, offering insights from a wide range of practitioners. Author Simon Rose takes a ground-up approach that places value on lived experience and reflects the value of collaboration. Mirroring improvisation’s relationality, chapters are co-authored by musicians, dancers and visual artists from diverse backgrounds who are engaged in active artistic collaborations with the author.The relational approach allows for the inclusion of improvisation’s scope and many levels. Showcasing a range of different voices, the chapters address topics in artistic improvisation including cybernetics, interspecies work, working with light, phenomenology, sympoiesis and identity, and utilise a range of approaches including autoethnography and philosophical analysis. Considering the relationships of improvisation to emotion, space, embodiment and philosophy, this book shows how improvisation, collaboration and transdisciplinary artistic practices combine to generate new creative possibilities. It provides vital insights for practicing artists, arts researchers, philosophy and pedagogy and all those studying improvisation and collaborative creativity in contemporary music, dance and visual arts.
Nyāya Sūtra – on Philosophical Method: Sanskrit Text, Translation, and Commentary (Routledge Hindu Studies Series)
by Victor A. van BijlertNyāya Sūtra offers a new English translation of the text ascribed to Akṣapāda, an Indian philosopher who lived around the beginning of the Common Era. The translation is accompanied by the original Sanskrit text and an original commentary.The commentary explains every sūtra separately and identifies the sources of the Nyāya Sūtra. It analyses the way older ideas on epistemology, logic, and soteriology were presented as a new coherent system of thought. The book puts forward the main goal of the Nyāya Sūtra: to define what it considered the basic tenets of a soteriology and how the goal of this soteriology could be reached by rationally applying epistemological and logical methods to finding out the truth. In turn, this truth was thought to lead to the ultimate soteriological goal of freedom from suffering. Showing the coherence of the text and its ultimate goal being soteriological, the new commentary also discusses many scholarly issues regarding the Nyāya Sūtra and its position in the history of Indian philosophy.This book will be of interest to researchers studying Indian philosophy, world philosophies, epistemology, logic, philosophical method, art of debate, soteriology, rationalism, spirituality, Hinduism, Indian religions, and religious studies.
The Problem of Free Will in David Foster Wallace (Routledge Research in American Literature and Culture)
by Paolo PitariThis book argues that David Foster Wallace failed to provide a response to the existential predicament of our time. Wallace wanted to confront despair through art, but he remained trapped, and his entrapment originates in the "existentialist contradiction": the impossibility of affirming the meaningfulness of life and an ethics of compassion while believing in free will.To substantiate this thesis, the analysis reads Wallace in conversation with the existentialist philosophers and writers who influenced him: Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. It compares his non-fiction with the sociologies of Christopher Lasch, Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, and Anthony Giddens. And it finds inspiration in Giacomo Leopardi, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emanuele Severino to conclude that the philosophy which pervades Wallace’s works entails despair and represents the essence of our civilization’s interpretation of the world.
Jacques Derrida on the Aporias of Hospitality
by Gerasimos KakolirisThe book systematically presents Derrida’s views on hospitality, as reflected in his texts and lectures from 1995 until his death in October 2004. Derrida’s engagement with hospitality is perhaps the most important and extensive philosophical attempt to respond critically to the growing hostility of many governments worldwide towards specific categories of foreigners, such as refugees and immigrants. Particular emphasis is placed on the ‘aporetic’ nature of hospitality that Derrida describes: namely, that, on the one hand, the provision of hospitality brings us face to face with the hyper-ethical ‘law’ of ‘unconditional hospitality,’ which requires the unconditional reception of the other, i.e. the provision of hospitality to the foreigner without conditions, restrictions or expecting anything in return. On the other hand, the provision of hospitality forces us to face the ‘conditional’ laws of hospitality, which, while establishing a right to and a duty of hospitality, simultaneously restrict hospitality by setting conditions for the arrival and stay of the foreigner. The book also analyses the ‘decision’ and the ‘event’ of hospitality, as well as the unresolved ‘aporia’ at the heart of the ethics of hospitality (or of ethics in general), an aporia or contradiction related to the fact that we cannot be hospitable towards a singularity without ‘sacrificing’ some other singularities. Attention is paid to Derrida’s attempt to open the provision of hospitality beyond humans, that is, to other living beings. Derrida’s views on hospitality are examined in the book in the light of the philosophical thought of Emmanuel Levinas, Immanuel Kant and René Schérer.
The Things We Make: The Unknown History of Invention from Cathedrals to Soda Cans
by Bill Hammack Ph.D.Discover the secret method used to build the world…For millennia, humans have used one simple method to solve problems. Whether it's planting crops, building skyscrapers, developing photographs, or designing the first microchip, all creators follow the same steps to engineer progress. But this powerful method, the "engineering method", is an all but hidden process that few of us have heard of—let alone understand—but that influences every aspect of our lives.Bill Hammack, a Carl Sagan award-winning professor of engineering and viral "The Engineer Guy" on Youtube, has a lifelong passion for the things we make, and how we make them. Now, for the first time, he reveals the invisible method behind every invention and takes us on a whirlwind tour of how humans built the world we know today. From the grand stone arches of medieval cathedrals to the mundane modern soda can, Hammack explains the golden rule of thumb that underlies every new building technique, every technological advancement, and every creative solution that leads us one step closer to a better, more functional world. Spanning centuries and cultures, Hammack offers a fascinating perspective on how humans engineer solutions in a world full of problems.Perfect for readers of Adam Grant and Simon Winchester, The Things We Make is a captivating examination of the method that keeps pushing humanity forward, a spotlight on the achievements of the past, and a celebration of the potential of our future that will change the way we see the world around us.
The Virtues of Captain America: Modern-Day Lessons on Character from a World War II Superhero
by Mark D. WhiteLearn how Captain America's timeless ethical code is just as relevant in the twenty-first century as it was during the 1940s Captain America, or simply “Cap,” provides an example of the virtues that define personal excellence, as well as the ideals and principles upon which the United States of America was founded. In The Virtues of Captain America, philosopher and long-time comics fan Mark D. White shows us that this fictional superhero's “old-fashioned” moral code is exactly what we need today to restore kindness and respect in our personal and civic lives. Presenting Captain America's personal morality within a virtue ethics framework, the book opens with an introduction to basic concepts in moral and political philosophy and addresses issues surrounding the use of fictional characters as role models. The following chapters examine Captain America in detail, exploring the individual virtues that Cap exemplifies, the qualities that describe his moral character, his particular brand of patriotism, his ongoing battle with fascism, his personal vision of the “American Dream,” his moral integrity and sense of honor, and much more. Now in its second edition, The Virtues of Captain America is updated to include all the new developments in Captain America's saga, including new examples from the last ten years of Captain America's appearances in Marvel Comics. New coverage of the recent “Secret Empire” storyline, in which Captain America was brainwashed by the fascist organization Hydra, features new sections examining the nature of fascism and how Captain America's character and virtues were affected by the change. This edition also offers new material on Sam Wilson—formerly Captain America's partner the Falcon who recently became Captain America himself—and how his interpretation of the role compares to Steve Rogers'. Showing how we can be better people if we pay attention to the choices made by the Sentinel of Liberty, The Virtues of Captain America: Examines the moral and political philosophy behind 80 years of Captain America comics and movies in a light-hearted, often humorous tone Demonstrates that the core principles and judgment exhibited by Captain America in the 1940s remain relevant in the twenty-first century Describes the basic themes of Captain America's ethics, such as courage, humility, perseverance, honesty, and loyalty Illustrates how Captain America stands for the basic ideals of America, not its politics or government Requiring no background in philosophy or familiarity with the source material, the second edition of The Virtues of Captain America: Modern-Day Lessons on Character from a World War II Superhero remains a must-read for everyone wanting to make ethical decisions in complex real-world situations and tackle the personal and political issues of today with integrity and respect.
Fire and Light: How the Enlightenment Transformed Our World
by James MacGregor Burns"With this profound and magnificent book, drawing on his deep reservoir of thought and expertise in the humanities, James MacGregor Burns takes us into the fire's center. As a 21st-century philosopher, he brings to vivid life the incandescent personalities and ideas that embody the best in Western civilization and shows us how understanding them is essential for anyone who would seek to decipher the complex problems and potentialities of the world we will live in tomorrow." --Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989"James MacGregor Burns is a national treasure, and Fire and Light is the elegiac capstone to a career devoted to understanding the seminal ideas that made America - for better and for worse - what it is." --Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author Revolutionary SummerPulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian James MacGregor Burns explores the most daring and transformational intellectual movement in history, the European and American Enlightenment In this engaging, provocative history, James MacGregor Burns brilliantly illuminates the two-hundred-year conflagration of the Enlightenment, when audacious questions and astonishing ideas tore across Europe and the New World, transforming thought, overturning governments, and inspiring visionary political experiments. Fire and Light brings to vivid life the galaxy of revolutionary leaders of thought and action who, armed with a new sense of human possibility, driven by a hunger for change, created the modern world. Burns discovers the origins of a distinctive American Enlightenment in men like the Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and their early encounters with incendiary European ideas about liberty and equality. It was these thinker-activists who framed the United States as a grand and continuing experiment in Enlightenment principles.Today the same questions Enlightenment thinkers grappled with have taken on new urgency around the world: in the turmoil of the Arab Spring, in the former Soviet Union, and China, as well as in the United States itself. What should a nation be? What should citizens expect from their government? Who should lead and how can leadership be made both effective and accountable? What is happiness, and what can the state contribute to it? Burns's exploration of the ideals and arguments that formed the bedrock of our modern world shines a new light on these ever-important questions.
Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone
by Astra TaylorWhat is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist?Astra Taylor, hailed as a “New Civil Rights Leader” by the Los Angeles Times, provides surprising answers.There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of plutocrats in the White House to gerrymandering and dark-money compaign contributions, it is clear that the principle of government by and for the people is not living up to its promise. The problems lie deeper than any one election cycle. As Astra Taylor demonstrates, real democracy—fully inclusive and completely egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West and Wendy Brown, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if those outcomes, whatever they may be—peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry—can be achieved by non-democratic means? In what areas of life should democratic principles apply? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? Democracy's inherent paradoxes often go unnamed and unrecognized. Exploring such questions, Democracy May Not Exist offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, why democracy is so hard to realize, and why it is worth striving for.
Reconsidering Historical Epistemology: French and Anglophone Styles in History and Philosophy of Science (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science #61)
by Matteo VagelliThis book explores the key conceptual stakes underpinning historical epistemology. The strong Anglophone interest in historical epistemology, since at least the 1990s, is typically attributed to its simultaneously philosophical and historical synthetic approach to the study of science. Yet this account, considered by critics to be an unreflective assumption, has prevented historical epistemology from developing a clear understanding and definition, especially regarding how precisely historical and philosophical reflections on the sciences should be combined. Thus, this book uniquely analyses how the problems and tensions inherent to the “contemporary” phase of historical epistemology can be clarified by reference to the “classical” French phase. The archaeological method of Michel Foucault, which draws on and transforms fundamental insights by Gaston Bachelard and Georges Canguilhem, is used to exert an enduring influence on the field—especially through the work of Ian Hacking and his philosophical cum historical analyses of “styles of scientific reasoning”. Though this book is of great value to academic specialists and graduate students, the fact it addresses questions broad in scope ensures it is also relevant to a range of scholars in many disciplines and will provoke discussion among those interested in foundational issues in history and philosophy of science.
Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important—and Most Unexpected—Questions
by Ian OlasovA collection of answers to the philosophical questions on people's minds—from the big to the personal to the ones you didn't know you needed answered.Based on real-life questions from his Ask a Philosopher series, Ian Olasov offers his answers to questions such as:- Are people innately good or bad?- Is it okay to have a pet fish?- Is it okay to have kids?- Is color subjective?- If humans colonize Mars, who will own the land?- Is ketchup a smoothie?- Is there life after death?- Should I give money to homeless people?Ask a Philosopher shows that there's a way of making philosophy work for each of us, and that philosophy can be both perfectly continuous with everyday life, and also utterly transporting. From questions that we all wrestle with in private to questions that you never thought to ask, Ask a Philosopher will get you thinking.
The New Social Question: Rethinking the Welfare State (New French Thought Series #49)
by Pierre RosanvallonHow social and intellectual changes undermine our justifications for the welfare state The welfare state has come under severe pressure internationally, partly for the well-known reasons of slowing economic growth and declining confidence in the public sector. According to the influential social theorist Pierre Rosanvallon, however, there is also a deeper and less familiar reason for the crisis of the welfare state. He shows here that a fundamental practical and philosophical justification for traditional welfare policies—that all citizens share equal risks—has been undermined by social and intellectual change. If we wish to achieve the goals of social solidarity and civic equality for which the welfare state was founded, Rosanvallon argues, we must radically rethink social programs.Rosanvallon begins by tracing the history of the welfare state and its founding premise that risks, especially the risks of illness and unemployment, are equally distributed and unpredictable. He shows that this idea has become untenable because of economic diversification and advances in statistical and risk analysis. It is truer than ever before—and far more susceptible to analysis—that some individuals will face much greater risks than others because of their jobs and lifestyle choices. Rosanvallon argues that social policies must be more narrowly targeted. And he draws on evidence from around the world, in particular France and the United States, to show that such programs as unemployment insurance and workfare could better reflect individual needs by, for example, making more explicit use of contracts between the providers and receivers of benefits. His arguments have broad implications for welfare programs everywhere and for our understanding of citizenship in modern democracies and economies.
Production Diseases in Farm Animals: Pathophysiology, Prophylaxis and Health Management
by Josef Johann GrossThis textbook deals comprehensively with livestock production diseases and their prevention in the major species: ruminants, swine, and poultry. It gives an interdisciplinary view on pathophysiology, prophylaxis, and health management.Livestock breeding and husbandry is often accompanied by a conflict of interest between the animal´s biological requirements and economic producer needs. This conflict is increasingly gaining attention not only by producers, animal scientists, and veterinarians, but also by the public. It creates significant future challenges, which are described and addressed in this book. The main topics covered are: • the use of antimicrobials with emphasis on security and safety for producers/consumers• the impact of locomotion disorders on performance and welfare of farm animals • the interactions of gut microbiome, genetics, climate change, metabolic status and mineral homeostasis with reproduction, performance, animal health and welfare• infectious and respiratory diseases• the raising of neonatesA special section is devoted to behavioural signs indicating an impaired animal welfare. These are the basis for precision livestock farming (PLF) technology and the development of new management concepts. The present work is a valuable resource for veterinarians, students, as well as expert readers from animal and agricultural sciences, food safety and technology. Supplementary videos can be accessed online as well as directly from the print book; simply download the Springer Nature More Media App for free and scan the links with the play button.
The Vindication of the World: Essays Engaging with Stephen Phillips (Routledge Festschrifts in Philosophy)
by Matthew R. Dasti Malcolm KeatingStephen Phillips has devoted his career to excavating some of the most valuable gems of Indian philosophy and bringing them into conversation with contemporary thought. This volume honors him and follows his lead by continuing his lifelong project: faithfully interpreting Sanskrit texts to think along with their authors about ideas that still perplex us today.It features ten new essays focusing on epistemology, logic, and metaphysics from outstanding philosophers and scholars of Sanskrit philosophy, with contributions varying in methodology: both historical and cross-cultural. Further, in addition to essays on Nyāya and Advaita Vedānta, it engages with Navya-Nyāya (“new Nyāya”), an important but understudied part of Indian philosophy. Through these investigations, in conversation with Phillips's groundbreaking work, the contributors show the value of cross-cultural engagement for philosophical progress.The Vindication of the World will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in Indian philosophy, comparative philosophy, and, more generally, epistemology, logic, and metaphysics.
Living Make-Belief: Thriving in a Dream Society (Anticipation Science #9)
by Jim DatorThis book shows how multiple developments have caused the world to move from “an information society” to a “dream society”. Ongoing social and technological forces are pushing us from a world of words, rationality, and truth into a world of images, performance, and make-belief. Rather than deny or reject this transformation, this book argues that one should understand and embrace it as waves of new futures that the world must strive to surf for fame and fun. As a political scientist and futurist, the author also offers hints of new goals and forms of governance fit for a dream society, as he demonstrates that all current systems are ineffective and dangerously obsolete. This book is of great interest to political philosophers, futures scientists, sociologists, and those interested in cultural studies.
Arendt and Augustine: A Pedagogy of Desiring and Thinking for Politics (Transforming Political Theologies)
by Mark AloysiusThis book addresses a lacuna in scholarship concerning Hannah Arendt’s Augustinian heritage that has predominantly focused on her early work. It de-canonises the sources that political theology has appealed to by shifting the interpretive focus to her mature treatment in The Life of the Mind. Arendt’s initial criticism of Augustinian desiring is that it generates 'worldlessness'. In her later works, Arendt develops a more nuanced reading of the movements of thinking, desiring, and loving in her engagement with Augustine. This study attends to these movements and inspects the spatio-temporal framework which structure Arendt’s conception of the political. The author assesses the claim that Arendt’s conception of the political is drawn from a pedagogy of desiring and thinking from Augustine severed from his mystagogy. Although respecting the method of political theory, the author contends that Arendt’s severing of Augustinian pedagogy from mystagogy brings her to an insurmountable aporia. Instead, the author embeds these pedagogical practices within Augustine’s theology and suggests how that aporia might be overcome and used to develop a mystagogy for contemporary political life. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of political theology, as well as political theory, and political philosophy.
Intentionality as Constitution (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Alberto VoltoliniThis book develops a novel theory of intentionality. It argues that intentionality is an internal essential relation of constitution between an intentional state and an object, or between such a state and a possible state of affairs as subsisting.The author’s main claim is that intentionality is a fundamentally modal property, hence a non (scientifically) natural property in that it does not supervene, either locally or globally, on its nonmodal physical basis. This is the property, primarily for an intentional mental state, to be constituted by the entities it is about. In the case of intentionality of reference, such constituents are objects, in the sense of individuals; in the case of intentionality of content, such constituents are possible states of affairs as subsisting. Constitution is meant in a mereologically literal sense: those constituents are essential parts of the relevant states. As a result, the theory claims not only that intentionality is relational but also that it is an internal, essential relation holding between an intentional state and its object or proposition-like content.Intentionality as Constitution will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and cognitive science.
The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy)
by Lawrence Shapiro Shannon SpauldingEmbodied cognition is one of the foremost areas of study and research in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and cognitive science. The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition is an outstanding guide and reference source to the key topics and debates in this exciting subject and essential reading for any student and scholar of philosophy of mind and cognitive science.Extensively revised and enlarged for this second edition, the Handbook comprises 42 chapters by an international team of expert contributors and is divided into ten parts: Historical Underpinnings Perspectives on Embodied Cognition Embodied Cognition and Predictive Processing Perception Language Reasoning and Education Virtual Reality Social and Moral Cognition and Emotion Action and Memory Reflections on Embodied Cognition The early chapters of the Handbook cover empirical and philosophical foundations of embodied cognition, focusing on Gibsonian and phenomenological approaches. Subsequent chapters cover additional, important themes common to work in embodied cognition, including embedded, extended, and enactive cognition as well as chapters on empirical research in perception, language, reasoning, social and moral cognition, emotion, consciousness, memory, and learning and development.For the second edition many existing chapters have been revised and seven new chapters added on: AI and robotics, predictive processing, second-language learning, animal cognition, sport psychology, sense of self, and critiques of embodied cognition, bringing the Handbook fully up to date with current research and debate.
Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy (Routledge Studies in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy)
by Sebastian BenderThis book explores different accounts of powers and abilities in early modern philosophy. It analyzes powers and abilities as a package, hopefully enabling us to better understand them both and to see similarities as well as dissimilarities.While some prominent early modern accounts of power have been studied in detail, this volume also covers lesser‑known thinkers and several early modern women philosophers. The volume also investigates early modern accounts of powers and abilities in a more systematic fashion than has been previously done. By broadening its scope in these ways, the volume uncovers trends and tendencies in early modern thinking about powers and abilities that are easy to miss. Chapters in this book explore how 22 early modern thinkers approached the following questions: What kind of entities are powers and abilities? Are they reducible to something categorical or not? What is the relation between powers and abilities? Is there a fundamental metaphysical difference between them or not? How do we know what powers objects have and what abilities agents have? Are human abilities in any way special? How do they relate to the abilities non‑human animals have? And how do they relate to the powers of inanimate objects? Powers and Abilities in Early Modern Philosophy will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in the history of early modern philosophy, in metaphysics, and in the history of science.
Biblical Narratives and Human Flourishing: Knowledge Through Narrative (Routledge Studies in Analytic and Systematic Theology)
by Eleonore Stump Judith WolfeBiblical narratives include some of the most important and influential narratives in human history, shaping human understanding of the most basic questions of human life as lived individually or in social association with others. These narratives have lasted for so many centuries because they offer deep insights into the nature of the human condition and human flourishing. This volume includes chapters by accomplished philosophers and theologians who bring their expertise to bear on biblical narratives to show the way in which each narrative contributes something distinctive to our understanding of human flourishing. They broaden the ongoing work in analytic theology with a new focus on narrative and the knowledge of persons in philosophical-theological biblical exegesis. They also illustrate the narrative cognition that this methodology can provide. The book will be of interest to scholars of philosophy, theology, and biblical studies.
The Routledge International Handbook of Life and Values Education in Asia (Routledge International Handbooks of Education)
by John Chi-Kin Lee Kerry J KennedyThis Handbook provides a comprehensive look at the educational scope of life and values that characterize 21st-century Asia, as well as those values shared across cultures.Some values are deeply resonant with the region’s past while others reflect modernity and the new contexts in which Asian societies find themselves. Exploring these values of different types and the way they are constructed in Eastern and Western contexts, the contributors delve into the diversity of religious, moral and social education to promote greater understanding across cultures. While a range of values is identified here, there is no single set of values that can be applied to all people in all contexts. The time has long gone, even for single societies, when values can be imposed. Yet this Handbook emphasizes both the extent and importance of values to individuals and their societies—how they respond to these values may provide the key to better and more caring societies and to better lives for all.Academics and teachers will find this Handbook resourceful because it raises important theoretical issues related to social values and their formation in distinctive contexts and provides novel insights into the diverse educational landscape in Asia. Policymakers and educators will also find this text helpful in learning to think about new ways to improve the quality of people’s lives.
Drone Enlightenment: The Colonial Roots of Remote Warfare
by Peter DeGabrieleDrone warfare raises far-reaching questions about responsibility, war, and sovereignty. Who can be held accountable for drone strikes? Do drones conduct wars of national territories and sovereign boundaries? What does the occupation of a land or people look like if there are no boots on the ground? Focusing specifically on the United States' use of killer drones during the War on Terror, Drone Enlightenment argues that this kind of warfare has its intellectual, ideological, and practical roots in the way the Enlightenment imagined moral agency, occupation, race, and sovereignty. As a consequence of seeing drone warfare as a creature of the Enlightenment, and through innovative readings of Hobbes, Locke, Grotius, Pufendorf, Barbeyrac, and Swift, the book also reevaluates the Enlightenment itself.
Ecological Principles for Sustainable Education: Challenging Root Metaphors and the Industrial Schooling System (Routledge Research in Educational Leadership)
by Liza IrelandThis book explores how the education sector can transition to being truly sustainable and why necessary innovations for educational change are being subverted and undermined when mapped onto the existing industrial educational system.Based on PhD case study research with schools that are modelling and teaching sustainability, action research, and the author’s 40 years of working in the K-12 system, this volume examines how education continues to perpetuate the status quo, and why education innovations are thus undermined. It shows the importance of redesigning education based on the principles of sustainable living systems and explores how this can be achieved across all levels of the educational system. The first part of the book establishes a new vision of sustainable education, whilst the second brings to light the industrial mechanistic root metaphors in current practice across leadership and administration, buildings and grounds, curriculum design, teaching, and learning that are subverting innovative efforts. From understanding the foundational, influential, problematic root metaphors of our "Industrial" educational system, it moves to explore how the ecological principles of sustainability can be used to rethink and redesign an educational system, from its administration, leadership, and policy, to curriculum, buildings, grounds and resources, through to teaching and learning, that will support sustainability, innovation, and creativity, developing systems thinking and sustainability as a frame of mind.Exploring how the education sector can transition to being truly sustainable and find new ways to traverse the problematic "Industrial" world view at this pivotal moment, will appeal to administrators, post-secondary educators, policymakers, and researchers and scholars of sustainability education, educational leadership, curriculum design, and educational philosophy.