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Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy
by Goran TherbornA global panorama of the historical development and contemporary malaise of liberal democracy, from a renowned social theorist.Barely a century has passed since liberal democracy became established in the majority of advanced capitalist economies. Elsewhere, it is of even more recent vintage. Classical liberalism held universal suffrage a mortal threat to property. So why did it nevertheless come to pass, and how stable today is the marriage between representative government and the continued rule of capital?People on all continents consider inequality a "very big problem". The Davos Economic Forum and the OECD say they are worried. But capitalist democracies don't respond. How has democracy been transformed from a popular demand for social justice to a professional power game?These questions are raised, and answered, in Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy. Together with an essay on the current situation, it includes a compact global history of 'The Right to Vote and the Four World Routes to/through Modernity' and two landmark essays from New Left Review, 'The Rule of Capital and the Rise of Democracy' and 'The Travail of Latin American Democracy', collected here in book form for the first time.
Inequality in Public School Admission in Urban China: Discourses, Practices And New Solutions (Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #43)
by Jing LiuThis book explores and interprets discourses and practices in school admissions to public lower secondary education in urban China by utilizing a discourse analysis approach and a case study method. It identifies continuities and changes in discourses shaped by diverse forces in public lower secondary school admissions in the context of China’s social transformation from a profit-driven society to a more equitable society, and elucidates the power relationships among stakeholders in public school admissions by analysing their interplay in the process. More importantly, it exposes how current socio-economic, institutional and educational systems are shaping the engagement of stakeholders in the public school admissions process. It also presents some on-going projects intended to yield new policies and practices for more equitable public secondary education in China in the development stage of the post-2015.
Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban Schooling
by R. L'Heureux Lewis-McCoyNestled in neighborhoods of varying degrees of affluence, suburban public schools are typically better resourced than their inner-city peers and known for their extracurricular offerings and college preparatory programs. Despite the glowing opportunities that many families associate with suburban schooling, accessing a district's resources is not always straightforward, particularly for black and poorer families. Moving beyond class- and race-based explanations, Inequality in the Promised Land focuses on the everyday interactions between parents, students, teachers, and school administrators in order to understand why resources seldom trickle down to a district's racial and economic minorities. Rolling Acres Public Schools (RAPS) is one of the many well-appointed suburban school districts across the United States that has become increasingly racially and economically diverse over the last forty years. Expanding on Charles Tilly's model of relational analysis and drawing on 100 in-depth interviews as well participant observation and archival research, R. L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy examines the pathways of resources in RAPS. He discovers that—due to structural factors, social and class positions, and past experiences—resources are not valued equally among families and, even when deemed valuable, financial factors and issues of opportunity hoarding often prevent certain RAPS families from accessing that resource. In addition to its fresh and incisive insights into educational inequality, this groundbreaking book also presents valuable policy-orientated solutions for administrators, teachers, activists, and politicians.
Inessential Woman: Problems Of Exclusion In Feminist Thought
by Elizabeth V. SpelmanThroughout history, Western philosophers have buried women's characters under the category of "men's nature. " Feminist theorists, responding to this exclusion, have often been guilty of this exlcusion as well - focusing only on white, middle-class women and treating others as inessential. Inessential Woman is an eloquent argument against white, middle-class bias in feminist theory. It warns against trying to seperate feminist thinking and politics from issues of race and class, and challenges the assumption of homogeneity that underlies much of feminist thought.
Inevitability of AI Technology in Education: Futurism Perspectives for Education for the Next Two Decades
by Orit Hazzan Yoav ArmonyThis book layouts historic and future perspectives at the introduction of technology into education systems: On the one hand, the book attempts to explain why despite numerous attempts, technology has struggled to integrate successfully into the education system for over a century; on the other hand, it explores whether this trend will persist in the foreseeable future, questioning if emerging technologies, like virtual reality or Gen-AI will ever be embraced by education systems worldwide, and introducing a hypothesis that these technologies will become inevitable so that education systems will have a little choice in adopting them. The underlying perspective is that education systems need to prepare for this new future and better start doing so now. The book encompasses three key areas: education, technology, and future studies, with a focus on how technology will shape the future of education. It begins by examining past failures of integrating technology into education, analyzing the reasons behind these setbacks. It progresses to assess the potential integration of future technologies (10-20 years from now), exploring a feasible scenario and the force implications on learning, teachers, and the system. Examining recent attempts to implement technology in education reveals numerous reasons for failure. A significant contributing factor appears to be inherent conflicts within the education system's fundamental structure. These conflicts, involving goals, curricula, organizational structure, pedagogy, and student management, prevent the system from embracing reforms or new technologies. Envisioning a future where technology will deeply 'know' the students, 'sense' their environment, 'understand' the context and the situation, 'explain' and 'advise' them on the best suitable behavior or activity, the book anticipates applications in education ranging from ensuring personal safety and health to enhancing knowledge acquisition and decision-making. As the book explores the potential inevitability of technology in education, it recognizes the transformative impact on teachers and students and outlines possible desire scenario to aid in preparation, such as, personalized education to better suit student's capabilities, needs, and desires; how to motivate students to learn in an environment where all tasks can be done by machines; ethical issues; the new role of the school, the educator, and the system, etc. This book is especially suitable for teachers, educators, public officials, and anyone interested in the future of education.
Inexcusabiles: Salvation and the Virtues of the Pagans in the Early Modern Period (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées #229)
by Alberto FrigoThis thought provoking book deals with religious scholarship and important controversies of the early modern period, specifically those relating to the question of the salvation of the pagans and the afterlife. From the Reformation, through the Renaissance and on to the seventeenth and eighteenth century, this was a time when religious scholarship was updated with the discoveries of the New World and colonial expansion. These chapters present new work, shedding light on the interplay of philosophy and theology in key thinkers such as Montaigne, Leibniz, Bayle and Spinoza, but also in less known authors such as Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola and Sebastian Castellio.Readers will discover analysis of the reshaping of specific theological issues, focussing on the reception of ancient philosophical traditions such as Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, and scepticism. The authors investigate the relationship between the ethical models inspired by the heroes and philosophers of antiquity and the ‘new philosophy’. Above all, this book enables exploration of the ways in which discussions of the salvation and virtues of pagans intersected with the early modern reception of ancient philosophy, including a reassessment of the question of the moral status of unbelievers in the early modern period.Students and faculty working on early modern intellectual history will find that this book both inspires and enriches their knowledge. Those with an interest in Renaissance humanism, the history of early modern philosophy and science, in theology, or the history of religion will also appreciate the new contributions that it makes.
Infectious Diseases in the New Millennium: Legal and Ethical Challenges (International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine #82)
by Iain Brassington Mark Eccleston-TurnerThis book examines the often tough questions raised by infectious diseases through essays that explore a host of legal and ethical issues. The authors also offer potential solutions in order to ensure that past errors are not repeated in response to future outbreaks. The essays touch on a number of key themes, including institutional competence, the accountability and responsibility of non-state actors, the importance of pharmaceuticals, and the move towards a rights-based approach in global health.Readers gain insights into such important questions as follows: How can we help victims in other countries? What (if any) responsibility should be placed upon international organizations whose actions exacerbate infectious diseases? How can we ensure that pharmaceutical research helps all communities, even those who cannot afford to pay for the products? While broadly covering global health law, the book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach that draws on public international law, philosophy, international relations, human rights law, and healthcare economics. As such, it is a valuable resource for academic libraries, appealing to scholars and postgraduates engaged in relevant research, as well as to those engaged with global health and policy at the international level.
Inference and Consciousness (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Timothy Chan Anders NesInference has long been a central concern in epistemology, as an essential means by which we extend our knowledge and test our beliefs. Inference is also a key notion in influential psychological accounts of mental capacities, ranging from problem-solving to perception. Consciousness, on the other hand, has arguably been the defining interest of philosophy of mind over recent decades. Comparatively little attention, however, has been devoted to the significance of consciousness for the proper understanding of the nature and role of inference. It is commonly suggested that inference may be either conscious or unconscious. Yet how unified are these various supposed instances of inference? Does either enjoy explanatory priority in relation to the other? In what way, or ways, can an inference be conscious, or fail to be conscious, and how does this matter? This book brings together original essays from established scholars and emerging theorists that showcase how several current debates in epistemology, philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind can benefit from more reflections on these and related questions about the significance of consciousness for inference.
Inference and Representation: A Study in Modeling Science
by Mauricio SuárezThe first comprehensive defense of an inferential conception of scientific representation with applications to art and epistemology. Mauricio Suárez develops a conception of representation that delivers a compelling account of modeling practice. He begins by discussing the history and methodology of model building, charting the emergence of what he calls the modeling attitude, a nineteenth-century and fin de siècle development. Prominent cases of models, both historical and contemporary, are used as benchmarks for the accounts of representation considered throughout the book. After arguing against reductive naturalist theories of scientific representation, Suárez sets out his own account: a case for pluralism regarding the means of representation and minimalism regarding its constituents. He shows that scientists employ a variety of modeling relations in their representational practice—which helps them to assess the accuracy of their representations—while demonstrating that there is nothing metaphysically deep about the constituent relation that encompasses all these diverse means. The book also probes the broad implications of Suárez’s inferential conception outside scientific modeling itself, covering analogies with debates about artistic representation and philosophical thought over the past several decades.
Inference in Argumentation: A Topics-based Approach To Argument Schemes (Argumentation Library #34)
by Eddo Rigotti Sara GrecoThis book investigates the role of inference in argumentation, considering how arguments support standpoints on the basis of different loci. The authors propose and illustrate a model for the analysis of the standpoint-argument connection, called Argumentum Model of Topics (AMT). A prominent feature of the AMT is that it distinguishes, within each and every single argumentation, between an inferential-procedural component, on which the reasoning process is based; and a material-contextual component, which anchors the argument in the interlocutors’ cultural and factual common ground. The AMT explains how these components differ and how they are intertwined within each single argument. This model is introduced in Part II of the book, following a careful reconstruction of the enormously rich tradition of studies on inference in argumentation, from the antiquity to contemporary authors, without neglecting medieval and post-medieval contributions. The AMT is a contemporary model grounded in a dialogue with such tradition, whose crucial aspects are illuminated in this book.
Inference to the Best Explanation (International Library of Philosophy)
by Peter LiptonHow do we go about weighing evidence, testing hypotheses, and making inferences? According to the model of Inference to the Best Explanation, we work out what to infer from the evidence by thinking about what would actually explain that evidence, and we take the ability of a hypothesis to explain the evidence as a sign that the hypothesis is correct. In Inference to the Best Explanation, Peter Lipton gives this important and influential idea the development and assessment it deserves.The second edition has been substantially enlarged and reworked, with a new chapter on the relationship between explanation and Bayesianism, and an extension and defence of the account of contrastive explanation. It also includes an expanded defence of the claims that our inferences really are guided by diverse explanatory considerations, and that this pattern of inference can take us towards the truth. This edition of Inference to the Best Explanation has also been updated throughout and includes a new bibliography.
Inference, Explanation, and Other Frustrations: Essays in the Philosophy of Science (Pittsburgh Series in Philosophy and History of Science #14)
by John EarmanThese provocative essays by leading philosophers of science exemplify and illuminate the contemporary uncertainty and excitement in the field. The papers are rich in new perspectives, and their far-reaching criticisms challenge arguments long prevalent in classic philosophical problems of induction, empiricism, and realism. By turns empirical or analytic, historical or programmatic, confessional or argumentative, the authors' arguments both describe and demonstrate the fact that philosophy of science is in a ferment more intense than at any time since the heyday of logical positivism early in the twentieth century. Contents: "Thoroughly Modern Meno," Clark Glymour and Kevin Kelly "The Concept of Induction in the Light of the Interrogative Approach to Inquiry," Jaakko Hintikka "Aristotelian Natures and Modern Experimental Method," Nancy Cartwright "Genetic Inference: A Reconsideration of "David Hume's Empiricism," Barbara D. Massey and Gerald J. Massey "Philosophy and the Exact Sciences: Logical Positivism as a Case Study," Michael Friedman "Language and Interpretation: Philosophical Reflections and Empirical Inquiry," Noam Chomsky "Constructivism, Realism, and Philosophical Method," Richard Boyd "Do We Need a Hierarchical Model of Science?" Diderik Batens "Theories of Theories: A View from Cognitive Science," Richard E. Grandy "Procedural Syntax for Theory Elements," Joseph D. Sneed "Why Functionalism Didn't Work," Hilary Putnam "Physicalism," Hartry Field This 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 1992.
Inferences by Parallel Reasoning in Islamic Jurisprudence: Al-Shīrāzī’s Insights into the Dialectical Constitution of Meaning and Knowledge (Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning #19)
by Shahid Rahman Muhammad Iqbal Youcef SoufiThis monograph proposes a new (dialogical) way of studying the different forms of correlational inference, known in the Islamic jurisprudence as qiyās. According to the authors’ view, qiyās represents an innovative and sophisticated form of dialectical reasoning that not only provides new epistemological insights into legal argumentation in general (including legal reasoning in Common and Civil Law) but also furnishes a fine-grained pattern for parallel reasoning which can be deployed in a wide range of problem-solving contexts and does not seem to reduce to the standard forms of analogical reasoning studied in contemporary philosophy of science and argumentation theory. After an overview of the emergence of qiyās and of the work of al-Shīrāzī penned by Soufi Youcef, the authors discuss al-Shīrāzī’s classification of correlational inferences of the occasioning factor (qiyās al-'illa). The second part of the volume deliberates on the system of correlational inferences by indication and resemblance (qiyās al-dalāla, qiyās al-shabah). The third part develops the main theoretical background of the authors’ work, namely, the dialogical approach to Martin-Löf's Constructive Type Theory. The authors present this in a general form and independently of adaptations deployed in parts I and II. Part III also includes an appendix on the relevant notions of Constructive Type Theory, which has been extracted from an overview written by Ansten Klev. The book concludes with some brief remarks on contemporary approaches to analogy in Common and Civil Law and also to parallel reasoning in general.
Inferences during Reading
by Anne E. And Lorch, Robert F. O'Brien Edward J. And Cook, Anne E. And Cook Jr. Edward J. O'Brien Anne E. Cook Robert F. Lorch Jr.Inferencing is defined as 'the act of deriving logical conclusions from premises known or assumed to be true', and it is one of the most important processes necessary for successful comprehension during reading. This volume features contributions by distinguished researchers in cognitive psychology, educational psychology, and neuroscience on topics central to our understanding of the inferential process during reading. The chapters cover aspects of inferencing that range from the fundamental bottom-up processes that form the basis for an inference to occur, to the more strategic processes that transpire when a reader is engaged in literary understanding of a text. Basic activation mechanisms, word-level inferencing, methodological considerations, inference validation, causal inferencing, emotion, development of inferences processes as a skill, embodiment, contributions from neuroscience, and applications to naturalistic text are all covered as well as expository text, online learning materials, and literary immersion.
Inferentialism
by Jaroslav PeregrinThe term 'inferentialism', coined by Robert Brandom, has become a trademark of a certain position in the philosophy of language which claims that meanings identify with inferential roles a radical departure from more traditional semantic approaches. Independently of this, the term is now cropping up in logic, in connection with positions prioritizing proof-theory over model theory and approaching meaning in logical, especially proof-theoretical, terms. The book brings these two strands together: it reviews and critically assesses the foundations of Brandomian inferentialism; it proposes upgrades; and it clarifies its relationship to inferentialism in logic. Emphasis is laid on clearly articulating the general assumptions on which inferentialism rests, thus elucidating its foundations, followed by discussing the consequences of this standpoint, and then dealing with the most intensive objections raised against the standpoint. "
Inferno: An Anatomy of American Punishment
by Robert A. FergusonAn Open Letters Monthly Best Nonfiction Book of the YearAmerica’s criminal justice system is broken. The United States punishes at a higher per capita rate than any other country in the world. In the last twenty years, incarceration rates have risen 500 percent. Sentences are harsh, prisons are overcrowded, life inside is dangerous, and rehabilitation programs are ineffective. Looking not only to court records but to works of philosophy, history, and literature for illumination, Robert Ferguson, a distinguished law professor, diagnoses all parts of a now massive, out-of-control punishment regime.“If I had won the $400 million Powerball lottery last week I swear I would have ordered a copy for every member of Congress, every judge in America, every prosecutor, and every state prison official and lawmaker who controls the life of even one of the millions of inmates who exist today, many in inhumane and deplorable conditions, in our nation’s prisons.”—Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic“Inferno is a passionate, wide-ranging effort to understand and challenge…our heavy reliance on imprisonment. It is an important book, especially for those (like me) who are inclined towards avoidance and tragic complacency…[Ferguson’s] book is too balanced and thoughtful to be disregarded.”—Robert F. Nagel, Weekly Standard
Infinite Ascent
by David BerlinskiIn Infinite Ascent, David Berlinski, the acclaimed author of The Advent of the Algorithm, A Tour of the Calculus, and Newton's Gift, tells the story of mathematics, bringing to life with wit, elegance, and deep insight a 2,500-year-long intellectual adventure.Berlinski focuses on the ten most important breakthroughs in mathematical history-and the men behind them. Here are Pythagoras, intoxicated by the mystical significance of numbers; Euclid, who gave the world the very idea of a proof; Leibniz and Newton, co-discoverers of the calculus; Cantor, master of the infinite; and Gödel, who in one magnificent proof placed everything in doubt. The elaboration of mathematical knowledge has meant nothing less than the unfolding of human consciousness itself. With his unmatched ability to make abstract ideas concrete and approachable, Berlinski both tells an engrossing tale and introduces us to the full power of what surely ranks as one of the greatest of all human endeavors.From the Hardcover edition.
Infinite Autonomy: The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche
by Jeffrey ChurchG. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality—to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals at the expense of individual rights. By drawing from Hegelian and Nietzschean ideas of autonomy, Church finds a third way for the individual—what he calls the “historical individual,” which goes beyond the disagreements of the ancients and the moderns while nonetheless incorporating their distinctive contributions.
Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen
by Bernie GlassmanIn Infinite Circle, one of America's most distinctive Zen teachers takes a back-to-basics approach to Zen. Glassman illuminates three key teachings of Zen Buddhism, offering line-by-line commentary in clear, direct language: 1. The Heart Sutra: the Buddha's essential discourse on emptiness, a central sutra of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. 2. "The Identity of Relative and Absolute": an eighth-century poem by Shih-t'ou His-ch'ien, a key text of the Soto Zen school. 3. The Zen precepts: the rules of conduct for laypeople and monks. His commentaries are based on workshops he gave as Abbot of the Zen Community of New York, and they contain within them the principles that became the foundation for the Greyston Mandala of community development organizations and the Zen Peacemaker Order. "Bernie Glassman is a Zen master and the first dharma successor to Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He is well known for integrating Zen practice with social, economic, and educational initiatives. He is also the author of Instructions to the Cook and Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace. ""A timely and spiritually wise book. Glassman is a very profound and skilled teacher who manages to illuminate some very difficult Zen subjects."-- Spirituality and Health "Glassman's style and thinking are like thick, polished glass: clear, compact, and strong. Marrying metaphor, illustration, and abstraction, he reaches into the heart of many essential concepts, reminding us firmly that, among other things, 'we don't practice to become enlightened . . . we practice because we are enlightened.'"--Publishers Weekly "A watershed book for Zen students, a good study companion and a trustworthy guide."--Zoketsu Norman Fisher, founding teacher of the Everyday Zen Foundation
Infinite Greed: The Inhuman Selfishness of Capital (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Adrian JohnstonSelfishness is essential to capitalism—or so both advocates and opponents claim. In Infinite Greed, Adrian Johnston argues that this consensus is mistaken. Through a novel synthesis of Marxism and psychoanalysis, he reveals how the relentless pursuit of profits is not fundamentally animated by human acquisitiveness. Instead, capitalism’s strange “infinite greed” demands that individuals sacrifice their pleasures, their well-being, and even themselves to serve inhuman capital.Johnston traces the mechanisms that compel capitalist subjects to obey the cold imperative to accumulate in perpetuity and without limits—and also without regard for the consequences for everyone and everything else. Facing crises such as spiraling wealth inequality and the profit-driven prospect of a looming ecological apocalypse, the rational self-interest of the majority would seem to dictate putting a stop to capitalist accumulation. By bringing together the Marxian critique of political economy with psychoanalytic metapsychology, Johnston shows why and how capitalism, rather than being responsive to people’s rationally selfish interests, disregards and overrides them instead.Unlike previous syntheses of Marxism and psychoanalysis, Infinite Greed pairs Freudian and Lacanian concepts with the economic heart of Marx’s historical materialism. In so doing, Johnston brings to light the complex intertwining of political and libidinal economies keeping us invested and complicit in perpetuating capitalism and its ills.
Infinite Mindfield
by Anthony PeakeFor thousands of years, voyagers of inner space spiritual seekers, shamans and mystics have returned from their inner travels reporting another level of reality that is more real than the one we inhabit in waking life. Others have claimed that under the influence of mysterious substances, known as entheogens, the everyday human mind can be given glimpses of this multidimensional realm of existence. Using information from the cutting edge of modern science, Peake presents a startling new hypothesis that these inner worlds are as real, or possibly even more real, than the reality we experience in waking life. As his starting point, Peake examines the widespread historical belief that the mid-brains pine-cone shaped pineal gland activates the third eye described by mystics and seers. Through careful analysis of ancient religious texts and artifacts, he gives evidence that the spiritual properties of the pineal gland have been embedded in myths and cultures across the globe. (Why else would the Buddha so often be found wearing a pine cone hat?) Peake then shows that it is through this small organ that we experience lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, hypnagogic imagery, near-death experiences, astral travel and the kundalini experience. The book ends with the mind-blowing conclusion that all living beings are one unitary consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
Infinite Mindfield
by Anthony PeakeUsing information from the cutting edge of modern science, Peake presents startling evidence that the inner worlds of our mystics and shamans are as real, or possibly even more real, than the reality we experience in waking life. As his starting point, Peake examines the widespread historical belief that the mid-brain's pine-cone shaped pineal gland activates the third eye described by mystics and seers. Through careful analysis of ancient religious texts and artifacts, he gives evidence that the spiritual properties of the pineal gland have been embedded in myths and cultures across the globe. (Why else would the Buddha so often be found wearing a pine cone hat?) Peake then shows that it is through this small organ that we experience lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, hypnagogic imagery, near-death experiences, astral travel and the kundalini experience. The book ends with the mind-blowing conclusion that all living beings are one unitary consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Infinite Mindfield
by Anthony PeakeUsing information from the cutting edge of modern science, Peake presents startling evidence that the inner worlds of our mystics and shamans are as real, or possibly even more real, than the reality we experience in waking life. As his starting point, Peake examines the widespread historical belief that the mid-brain's pine-cone shaped pineal gland activates the third eye described by mystics and seers. Through careful analysis of ancient religious texts and artifacts, he gives evidence that the spiritual properties of the pineal gland have been embedded in myths and cultures across the globe. (Why else would the Buddha so often be found wearing a pine cone hat?) Peake then shows that it is through this small organ that we experience lucid dreaming, out-of-body experiences, hypnagogic imagery, near-death experiences, astral travel and the kundalini experience. The book ends with the mind-blowing conclusion that all living beings are one unitary consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Infinite Mobilization
by Peter SloterdijkThe core of what we refer to as ‘the project of modernity’ is the idea that human beings have the power to bring the world under their control, and hence it is based on a ‘kinetic utopia’: the movement of the world as a whole reflects the implementation of our plans for it. But as soon as the kinetic utopia of modernity is exposed, its seemingly stable foundation cracks open and new problems appear: things don’t happen according to plan because as we actualize our plans, we set in motion other things that we didn’t want as unintended side-effects. We watch with mounting unease as the self-perpetuating side-effects of modern progress overshadow our plans, as a foreign movement breaks off from the very core of the modern project supposedly guided by reason and slips away from us, spinning out of control. What looked like a steady march towards freedom turns out to be a slide into an uncontrollable and catastrophic syndrome of perpetual mobilization. And precisely because so much comes about through our actions, these developments turn out to have explosive consequences for our self-understanding, as we begin to realize that, so far from bringing the world under our control, we are instead the agents of our own destruction.In this brilliant and insightful book Sloterdijk lays out the elements of a new critical theory of modernity understood as a critique of political kinetics, shifting the focus of critical theory from production to mobilization and shedding new light on a world facing the growing risk of humanly induced catastrophe.
Infinite Nature
by R. Bruce HullYou would be hard-pressed to find someone who categorically opposes protecting the environment, yet most people would agree that the environmentalist movement has been ineffectual and even misguided. Some argue that its agenda is misplaced, oppressive, and misanthropic—a precursor to intrusive government, regulatory bungles, and economic stagnation. Others point out that its alarmist rhetoric and preservationist solutions are outdated and insufficient to the task of galvanizing support for true reform. In this impassioned and judicious work, R. Bruce Hull argues that environmentalism will never achieve its goals unless it sheds its fundamentalist logic. The movement is too bound up in polarizing ideologies that pit humans against nature, conservation against development, and government regulation against economic growth. Only when we acknowledge the infinite perspectives on how people should relate to nature will we forge solutions that are respectful to both humanity and the environment. Infinite Nature explores some of these myriad perspectives, from the scientific understandings proffered by anthropology, evolution, and ecology, to the promise of environmental responsibility offered by technology and economics, to the designs of nature envisioned in philosophy, law, and religion. Along the way, Hull maintains that the idea of nature is social: in order to reach the common ground where sustainable and thriving communities are possible, we must accept that many natures can and do exist. Incisive, heartfelt, and brimming with practical solutions, Infinite Nature brings a much-needed and refreshing voice to the table of environmental reform.