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Playing as if the World Mattered: An Illustrated History of Activism in Sports
by Gabriel KuhnThe world of sports is often associated with commercialism, corruption, and reckless competition. Liberals have objected to sport being used for political propaganda, and leftists have decried its role in distracting the masses from the class struggle. Yet, since the beginning of organized sports, athletes, fans, and officials have tried to administer and play it in ways that strengthen, rather than hinder, progressive social change. From the workers' sports movement in the early 20th century to the civil rights struggle transforming sports in the 1960s to the current global network of grassroots sports clubs, there has been a glowing desire to include sports in the struggle for liberation and social justice. With the help of numerous full-color illustrations—from posters and leaflets to paintings and photographs—Playing as if the World Mattered makes this history tangible and introduces an understanding of sports beyond chauvinistic jingoism, corporate-media chat rooms, and multibillion-dollar business deals.
Playing Dead: How Meditation Brought Me Back to Life
by null Robert Sheehan'A wit and wisdom that harkens back to an age of enlightenment' – RON PERLMAN, ACTOR'A meditation guide from a man with a mind most unlikely to be conducive to meditation' – MANCHÁN MAGAN, WRITER AND BROADCASTER'In this beautifully written story, Robert Sheehan shares his journey from chaos to stillness and how meditation can lead us to a place of connection and calm' – DEB DANA, AUTHOR OF ANCHORED From Robert Sheehan, star of Misfits and The Umbrella Academy, and host of hit podcast The Earth Locker, comes a heartfelt journey to inner peace.In Playing Dead, Robert Sheehan shares intimate reflections on his search for purpose, looking back at the adventures – and misadventures – of his life so far, and sharing the profoundly transformative lessons he has learnt along the way.Meditation is at the heart of Robert's route to spiritual awakening. In Playing Dead he reveals the turbulence in his life that led him to seek calm and tranquility within. A beautiful, meandering memoir reflecting a rich tapestry of experience, uncovering how spirituality has become his anchor in the constant moving tide. Combining storytelling with letters, poetry, childhood memories and thoughtful musings on fame.Through this compelling description of his quest for inner stillness, Robert shows us how we can welcome a practice of meditation into our own lives, with tools for soothing your nervous system and focusing a fretful mind. In a world where our attention is constantly up for grabs, Playing Dead shows how we can give our souls the deep rest we crave.
Playing Games: An introduction to the philosophy of sport through dialogue
by Randolph FeezellWhat is sport? Why does sport matter? How can we use philosophy to understand what sport means today? This engaging and highly original introduction to the philosophy of sport uses dialogue – a form of philosophical investigation – to address the fundamental questions in sport studies and to explore key contemporary issues such as fair play, gender, drug use, cheating, entertainment and identity. Providing a clear, informative and accessible introduction to the philosophy of sport, every chapter includes current sporting examples as well as review questions and guides to further reading. The dialogue form enables students to engage in debate and raise questions, while encouraging them to think from the perspectives of athlete, coach, spectator and philosopher. The issues raised present real and complex ethical dilemmas that relate to a variety of sports from around the world such as soccer, athletics, baseball, basketball, hockey and tennis. No other book brings this rich subject to life through the use of dialogue, making this an indispensable companion to any course on the philosophy or ethics of sport.
Playing God?: Genetic Determinism and Human Freedon
by Ted PetersSince the original publication of Playing God? in 1996, three developments in genetic technology have moved to the center of the public conversation about the ethics of human bioengineering. Cloning, the completion of the human genome project, and, most recently, the controversy over stem cell research have all sparked lively debates among religious thinkers and the makers of public policy. In this updated edition, Ted Peters illuminates the key issues in these debates and continues to make deft connections between our questions about God and our efforts to manage technological innovations with wisdom.
Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death
by Susana MonsóHow animals conceive of death and dying—and what it can teach us about our own relationships with mortalityWhen the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. Playing Possum explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom.With humor and empathy, Susana Monsó tells the stories of ants who attend their own funerals, chimpanzees who clean the teeth of their dead, dogs who snack on their caregivers, crows who avoid the places where they saw a carcass, elephants obsessed with collecting ivory, and whales who carry their dead for weeks. Monsó, one of today&’s leading experts on animal cognition and ethics, shows how there are more ways to conceive of mortality than the human way, and challenges the notion that the only emotional reactions to death worthy of our attention are ones that resemble our own.Blending philosophical insight with new evidence from behavioral science and comparative psychology, Playing Possum dispels the anthropocentric biases that cloud our understanding of the natural world, and reveals that, when it comes to death and dying, we are just another animal.
Playing the Hand We Are Dealt: The Counterpoint of Fate and Freewill in Literature and Life
by Michael JacksonThe relationship between literature and life can be construed as a counterpoint of fate and freewill. Rather than equating fate to the ‘hand we are dealt’ which is reducible to the social or familial environments into which we are born, this book explores the idea of fate through the books that shape our lives and under whose influence we write. Writing in this sense is seen as beyond its utility of making meaning. It is a way of recovering agency in the face of overwhelming experiences. In juxtaposing factuality and fiction, the author makes a case for a radically empirical approach to human experience.
Playing with Infinity: Mathematical Explorations And Excursions (Dover Books on Mathematics)
by Rózsa PéterThis popular account of the many mathematical concepts relating to infinity is one of the best introductions to this subject and to the entire field of mathematics. Dividing her book into three parts -- The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Creative Role of Form, and The Self-Critique of Pure Reason -- Peter develops her material in twenty-two chapters that sound almost too appealing to be true: playing with fingers, coloring the grey number series, we catch infinity again, the line is filled up, some workshop secrets, the building rocks, and so on.Yet, within this structure, the author discusses many important mathematical concepts with complete accuracy: number systems, arithmetical progression, diagonals of convex polygons, the theory of combinations, the law of prime numbers, equations, negative numbers, vectors, operations with fractions, infinite series, irrational numbers, Pythagoras' Theorem, logarithm tables, analytical geometry, the line at infinity, indefinite and definite integrals, the squaring of the circle, transcendental numbers, the theory of groups, the theory of sets, metamathematics, and much more. Numerous illustrations and examples make all the material readily comprehensible.Without being technical or superficial, the author writes with complete clarity and much originality on the whole range of topics from counting to mathematical logic. Using little algebra and no mathematical formulas, she has written an unusual book that will interest even mathematicians and teachers. Beginning mathematics students and people in the humanities and other fields will find the book particularly outstanding for their purposes.
Playing with Scripture: Reading Contested Biblical Texts with Gadamer and Genre Theory (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism)
by Andrew JuddThis book puts a creative new reading of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and literary genre theory to work on the problem of Scripture. Reading texts as Scripture brings two hermeneutical assumptions into tension: that the text will continually say something new and relevant to the present situation, and that the text has stability and authority over readers. Given how contested the Bible’s meaning is, how is it possible to ‘read Scripture’ as authoritative and relevant? Rather than anchor meaning in author, text or reader, Gadamer’s phenomenological model of hermeneutical experience as Spiel (‘play’) offers a dynamic, intersubjective account of how understanding happens, avoiding the dead end of the subjective–objective dichotomy. Modern genre theory addresses some of the criticisms of Gadamer, accounting for the different roles played by readers in different genres using the new term Lesespiel (‘reading game’). This is tested in three case studies of contested texts: the recontextualization of psalms in the book of Acts, the use of Hagar’s story (Genesis 16) in nineteenth-century debates over slavery and the troubling reception history of the rape and murder in Gibeah (Judges 19). In each study, the application of ancient text to contemporary situation is neither arbitrary, nor slavishly bound to tradition, but playful.
Playlisting: Collecting Music, Remediated (Routledge Focus on Digital Media and Culture)
by Onur SesigürThis book examines the collection and curation of music, and the way digital streaming services are transforming the way we engage with the media. The study foregrounds personal digital curation techniques, rather than algorithms or technology, to acknowledge the sustaining human agency involved in playlisting. The author looks at Digital Service Providers such as Spotify, Apple and Deezer, which offer their users not just access to large collections of music, but also the opportunity to create and maintain personalised consumption subsets such as playlists. Positioning these current playlisting practices as a remediation of significant cultural practices of the 20th century – such as collecting records and mix-taping – the book highlights the continuity of culture through media change, and the implications for concepts of self and identity, society and sharing. Shedding new light on this contemporary cultural phenomenon, this book will be an important read for scholars who are interested in the area of digital music from different disciplines such as communication, digital humanities and social sciences in fields of media studies, digital cultures, personal information management, digital curation and popular music.
A Plea for Naturalistic Metaphysics: Why Analytic Metaphysics is Not Enough
by Ulrich SteinvorthIn this small book, Ulrich Steinvorth describes the reasons why analytic philosophy, which started as an anti-metaphysical project, has become a strong advocate of metaphysics, and why it must become synthetic, normative, and naturalistic. Steinvorth argues that self-regulation is the common property of all being, that we can talk of an increase or escalation of self-regulation in the evolution of being, and that self-regulation becomes self-determination in man. Considering objections to this view related to questions of free will, consciousness, the naturalistic fallacy, and teleology, he draws on cybernetics, dual process theory, physical cosmology, and Leibniz’s (“demiurgic”) idea of measuring the goodness of a world by the number of possibilities opened up by the world. To test his approach and show its political relevance, he applies it to political liberalism.
A Plea for Plausibility: Toward a Comparative Decision Theory (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by John R. WelchThis book develops an original theory of decision-making based on the concept of plausibility. The author advocates plausible reasoning as a general philosophical method and demonstrates how it can be applied to problems in argumentation theory, scientific theory choice, risk management, ethics, law, economics, and epistemology. Human decisions are conditioned by formidable uncertainty. The standard resource for dealing rationally with uncertainty is the mathematical concept of probability. The probability calculus is well-known, but since the numerical demands for applying it cannot usually be met, it is not widely applicable. By contrast, the concept of plausibility is widely applicable, but it is little known. This book relies on a generalized concept of plausibility whose strength is its adaptability. The adaptability is due to a novel form of decision theory that takes plausibilities as inputs. This form of decision theory remains applicable to decisions informed by sharp probabilities and utilities, but it can also be applied to decisions that must be made without them. It can aid in the rationally critical enterprise of discriminating good arguments from bad, and this can foster philosophical progress. A Plea for Plausibility will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in argumentation theory, philosophy of science, ethics, epistemology, economics, law, and risk management.
Please Will Someone Help Me?
by Sophie YoungSophie Young tells her shocking true story in Please Will Someone Help Me?Sophie Young was born into a dysfunctional family, with a violent mother and father. Sophie was routinely neglected and harmed, starved and left to fend for herself. Social workers were often involved but, despite numerous visits and extensive reports, nothing was ever done.When Sophie was six, her life took another horrible turn: her adored grandfather began to sexually abuse her.Please Will Someone Help Me? is Sophie Young's heartbreaking story about a young girl at the mercy of the adult world. With full access to her social work files, she shows how those who are meant to help children can be blind to the reality of their lives; but how, ultimately, love conquers all.Sophie Young was the eldest of three, born into a dysfunctional family that she fought for years to escape. Now forty years old, she lives in England with her husband and children, and works as a volunteer for a national children's charity.
Pleasure Erased: The Clitoris Unthought
by Catherine MalabouThe clitoris was absent in anatomy books, in paintings and sculptures, absent in spirit and even body; it has long been the organ of erased pleasure. We assume that this oversight has been repaired in our times: today, the clitoris is not forgotten but honoured. Conferences, books, manifestos, works of art are all devoted to it. The autonomy of clitoral jouissance is recognized. The boundaries of feminism have also moved: queer, intersex and trans approaches claim that the clitoris is perhaps no longer the exclusive preserve of the woman. And yet, there remains a wounded space. Because genital mutilation is still common practice. Because millions of women are still denied pleasure. The clitoris continues to mark the enigmatic space of the feminine. Constrained by the extreme difficulty and the extreme urgency of returning to this scorched earth, it is time to give voice to an organ of pleasure which has still not become an organ of thought.
Pleasure in Ancient Greek philosophy
by David WolfsdorfThe Key Themes in Ancient Philosophy series provides concise books, written by major scholars and accessible to non-specialists, on important themes in ancient philosophy that remain of philosophical interest today. In this volume Professor Wolfsdorf undertakes the first exploration of ancient Greek philosophical conceptions of pleasure in relation to contemporary conceptions. He provides broad coverage of the ancient material, from pre-Platonic to Old Stoic treatments; and, in the contemporary period, from World War II to the present. Examination of the nature of pleasure in ancient philosophy largely occurred within ethical contexts but in the contemporary period has, to a greater extent, been pursued within philosophy of mind and psychology. This divergence reflects the dominant philosophical preoccupations of the times. But Professor Wolfsdorf argues that the various treatments are complementary. Indeed, the Greeks' examinations of pleasure were incisive and their debates vigorous, and their results have enduring value for contemporary discussion.
The Pleasure in Drawing
by Jean-Luc NancyThe renowned philosopher contemplates the medium of drawing in &“a book full of dazzling insights, imaginative curves and provocative renewals&” (Sarah Clift, University of King&’s College). In 2007, philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy curated an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon. This book, originally written for that exhibition, explores the interplay between drawing and form—viewing the act of drawing as a formative force. Recalling that the terms &‘drawing&’ and &‘design&’ were once used interchangeably, Nancy notes that drawing designates a design that remains without project, plan, or intention. His argument offers a way of rethinking a number of historical terms (sketch, draft, outline, plan, mark, notation), which includes rethinking drawing in its graphic, filmic, choreographic, poetic, melodic, and rhythmic senses. For Nancy, drawing resists any kind of closure, and therefore never resolves a tension specific to itself. Drawing allows the gesture of a desire that remains in excess of all knowledge to come to appearance. Situating drawing in these terms, Nancy engages a number of texts in which Freud addresses the force of desire in the rapport between aesthetic and sexual pleasure, texts that also turn around questions concerning form in its formation. Between sections of his text, Nancy includes a series of &“sketchbooks&” on drawing, composed of quotations on art from different writers, artists, or philosophers.
The Pleasure Is All Yours: Reclaim Your Body’s Bliss and Reignite Your Passion for Life
by Rachel AllynReconnect to your inner sense of pleasure and joy through embodiment practices, which put you in touch with the natural wisdom of your body and enhance your ability to connect with others. In this time of increased fatigue, loneliness, and anxiety, disconnection from our bodies and from each other is at the core of our personal pain and our collective suffering. Women in particular are rewarded for, and expected to participate in self-denial. By weaving together historical and cultural commentary, humorous and poignant anecdotes, and experiential tools backed by science, The Pleasure Is All Yours is a step-by-step guide to help you release barriers to receiving life&’s pleasures and deeper connections with others. In this timely guide, holistic psychologist, relationship and sex therapist, and yoga teacher Dr. Rachel Allyn introduces bodyfulness, an embodiment method she developed to help you to awaken into your body's own capacity for healing and deeper connection. Allyn explains how bodyfulness can connect you to four essential and overlooked types of pleasure—sensual, playful, lively, and erotic— which overlap in many ways, and helps you identify what can inspire your own pleasure in each category. Through bodyful activities such as breathing exercises, mindfulness, yoga, auditory release, and dynamic movements, this book helps you reunite with your inherent wisdom and soulful delight.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
by Richard P. Feynman Jeffrey RobbinsA rich collection of interviews, articles and interesting writeups on quantum physics concepts by Richard Feynman.
The Pleasure of Pictures: Pictorial Experience and Aesthetic Appreciation (Routledge Research in Aesthetics)
by Jérôme Pelletier Alberto VoltoliniThe general aim of this volume is to investigate the nature of the relation between pictorial experience and aesthetic appreciation. In particular, it is concerned with the character and intimacy of this relationship: is there a mere causal connection between pictorial experience and aesthetic appreciation, or are the two relata constitutively associated with one another? The essays in the book’s first section investigate important conceptual issues related to the pictorial experience of paintings. In Section II, the essays discuss the notion of styles, techniques, agency, and facture, and also take into account the experience of photographic and cinematic pictures. The Pleasure of Pictures goes substantially beyond current debates in the philosophy of depiction to launch a new area of reflection in philosophical aesthetics.
Pleasure of Thinking: Essays
by Wang XiaoboA yet-untranslated essay collection on the importance of critical thought, from one of the foremost Chinese intellectuals of the 1990s. Wang Xiaobo&’s Pleasure of Thinking is an essay collection as riotous as it is contemplative. Between rollicking anecdotes about living between the East and West and serious musings on the intellectual situations at home and abroad, Xiaobo examines modern life with the levity missing from so much of today&’s politico-cultural discourse. In &“The Maverick Pig,&” he considers the existential differences between humans and livestock. In &“Tales From Abroad: Food,&” he recounts the culture shock of discovering American diets while studying at Carnegie Mellon. Several pieces focus on literature, with notable essays devoted to Italo Calvino, Bertrand Russell, and Ernest Hemingway, whom Xiaobo admired greatly. Others are more personal in nature, ranging from a meditation on getting mugged, to the consideration of the question: why do I write? Controversial, hilarious, and inimitable, Pleasure of Thinking is a delightful celebration of Wang Xiaobo&’s unique critical perspective.
The Pleasures of Pessimism (Re: CONSIDERING)
by Natasha MooreRe:CONSIDERING invites you to look at what’s familiar from an unfamiliar angle. To consider how we consider things – and how to do it better.Pandemic, supervolcano, late capitalism, transhumanism, populism, cancel culture, the post-antibiotic age, the gig economy, the surveillance state, the cascading effects of climate change …Whatever the specifics, do you ever feel like things are going off the rails - or are just about to?If you’ve read the news, watched a zombie movie, or gotten into an argument on Twitter lately, the answer is probably yes.And you’re not alone.What makes us such apocaholics?What’s so appealing about Armageddon? What are the pleasures - and also the perils of our pessimism?
The Pleasures of Reason in Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Hedonists
by James WarrenHuman lives are full of pleasures and pains. And humans are creatures that are able to think: to learn, understand, remember and recall, plan and anticipate. Ancient philosophers were interested in both of these facts and, what is more, were interested in how these two facts are related to one another. There appear to be, after all, pleasures and pains associated with learning and inquiring, recollecting and anticipating. We enjoy finding something out. We are pained to discover that a belief we hold is false. We can think back and enjoy or be upset by recalling past events. And we can plan for and enjoy imagining pleasures yet to come. This book is about what Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans and the Cyrenaics had to say about these relationships between pleasure and reason.
The Plebeian Experience: A Discontinuous History of Political Freedom (Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History)
by Martin BreaughHow do people excluded from political life achieve political agency? Through a series of historical events that have been mostly overlooked by political theorists, Martin Breaugh identifies fleeting yet decisive instances of emancipation in which people took it upon themselves to become political subjects. Emerging during the Roman plebs's first secession in 494 BCE, the plebeian experience consists of an underground or unexplored configuration of political strategies to obtain political freedom. The people reject domination through political praxis and concerted action, therefore establishing an alternative form of power. Breaugh's study concludes in the nineteenth century and integrates ideas from sociology, philosophy, history, and political science. Organized around diverse case studies, his work undertakes exercises in political theory to show how concepts provide a different understanding of the meaning of historical events and our political present. The Plebeian Experience describes a recurring phenomenon that clarifies struggles for emancipation throughout history, expanding research into the political agency of the many and shedding light on the richness of radical democratic struggles from ancient Rome to Occupy Wall Street and beyond.
Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities
by Alexandra RobbinsHere we find lushes, trollops, bigots, sadists, masochists, anorexics, and those made mad by unrequited lust for election as Prom Queen. Journalist Robbins takes a novelistic approach as she joins the "sisters" of a real-life sorority to prove that all that has been said about their entrance standards, rituals, systems of judgment and punishment, over-the-top lifestyle, and lifelong loyalty is true. She follows the stories of several women who could be considered ambitious, attractive, and intelligent as they make choices based on unhealthy regard for themselves and others. The subtext here is that these women will go on to be business and civic leaders.
Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities
by Alexandra RobbinsHere we find lushes, trollops, bigots, sadists, masochists, anorexics, and those made mad by unrequited lust for election as Prom Queen. Journalist Robbins takes a novelistic approach as she joins the "sisters" of a real-life sorority to prove that all that has been said about their entrance standards, rituals, systems of judgment and punishment, over-the-top lifestyle, and lifelong loyalty is true. She follows the stories of several women who could be considered ambitious, attractive, and intelligent as they make choices based on unhealthy regard for themselves and others. The subtext here is that these women will go on to be business and civic leaders. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
A Plentiful Harvest: Creating Balance and Harmony Through the Seven Living Virtues
by Terrie WilliamsSimple Abundance meets One Day My Soul Just Opened Up in Terrie Williams' inspirational guide for African American women seeking more from their lives.