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Who Am I?: And If So, How Many?
by Shelley Frisch Richard David Precht#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERTRANSLATED INTO 23 LANGUAGES, WITH MORE THAN ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD What is truth? What is love? Does life have meaning? Bestselling author Richard David Precht, "the Mick Jagger of the nonfiction book" (Tagesanzeiger Zürich), has traveled the globe searching for answers--and his odyssey has become one of the most talked-about books around the world. Combining classic philosophy and cutting-edge neuroscience, Precht guides readers through the thickest jungles of academic discourse with the greatest of ease, taking on subjects as challenging and divisive as abortion, cloning, the eating of animals, euthanasia, the ethics of reproductive science, and the very future of humanity.Who knows? By the end of this wildly entertaining journey, you just might be able to answer, Who Am I?From the Trade Paperback edition.
Who Are You, Really?: A Philosopher's Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Persons
by Joshua RasmussenWhat does it mean to be human? What is a person? Where did we come from? Many answers have been offered throughout history in response to these perennial questions, including those from biological, anthropological, sociological, political, and theological approaches. And yet the questions remain. Philosopher Joshua Rasmussen offers his own step-by-step examination into the fundamental nature and ultimate origin of persons. Using accessible language and clear logic, he argues that the answer to the question of what it means to be a person sheds light not only on our own nature but also on the existence of the one who gave us life.
Who Cares?: How to Reshape a Democratic Politics (Brown Democracy Medal)
by Joan C. TrontoThe 2015 winner of the Brown Democracy Medal, Joan C. Tronto, argues in Who Cares? that we need to rethink American democracy, as well as our own fundamental values and commitments, from a caring perspective. Asserting that Americans are facing a "caring deficit"—that there are simply too many demands on our time to care adequately for children, elderly people, and ourselves—she asks us to reconsider how we allocate care responsibilities. At the same time, while democratic politics should help citizens to care better, most people see caring as unsupported by public life and deem the concerns of politics as too remote from their lives to make a difference in this sphere. Tronto traces the reasons for this disconnect and argues for the need to make care, not economics, the central concern of democratic political life.
Who Counts as an American? The Boundaries of National Identity
by Elizabeth Theiss-MorseWhy is national identity such a potent force in people's lives? And is the force positive or negative? In this thoughtful and provocative book, Elizabeth Theiss-Morse develops a social theory of national identity and uses a national survey, focus groups, and experiments to answer these important questions in the American context. Her results show that the combination of group commitment and the setting of exclusive boundaries on the national group affects how people behave toward their fellow Americans. Strong identifiers care a great deal about their national group. They want to help and to be loyal to their fellow Americans. By limiting who counts as an American, though, these strong identifiers place serious limits on who benefits from their pro-group behavior. Help and loyalty are offered only to 'true Americans,' not Americans who do not count and who are pushed to the periphery of the national group.
Who Elected Oxfam?
by Laura MontanaroNon-elected actors, such as non-governmental organizations and celebrity activists, present themselves as representatives of others to audiences of decision-makers, such as state leaders, the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. These actors are increasingly included in the deliberation and decision-making processes of such institutions. To take one well-known example, the non-governmental organization, Oxfam, presses decision-makers and governments for fair trade rules on behalf of the world's poor. What entitles such 'self-appointed representatives' to speak and act for the poor? As The Economist asked, 'Who elected Oxfam?'. Montanaro claims that such actors can, and should, be conceptualized as representatives, and that they can - though do not always - represent others in a manner that we can recognize as democratic. However, in order to do so, we must stretch our imaginations beyond the standard normative framework of elections.
Who Governs Britain? (Pelican Books)
by Anthony King'Jaw-dropping' Daily Telegraph'A timely examination of how the distribution of power has shifted' GuardianWhere does power lie in Britain today? Is our system of government still fit for purpose? A revelatory guide from the esteemed expert in British government and politicsThe British system has been radically transformed in recent decades, far more than most of us realize. As acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Anthony King shows, this transformation lies at the heart of British politics today. Imagining - or pretending - that the British political system and Britain's place in the world have not greatly changed, our political leaders consistently promise more than they can perform. Political and economic power is now widely dispersed both inside and outside the UK, but Westminster politicians still talk the language of Attlee and Churchill. How exactly has the British system changed? Where does power now lie? In Who Governs Britain?, King offers the first assessment in many years of Britain's governing arrangements as a whole, providing much needed context for the upcoming election.
Who Is My Self?
by Ayya KhemaSelf-transformation is an essential element in all forms of Buddhist meditation--from Tantra to Zen. Ayya Khema, author of the best-selling Being Nobody, Going Nowhere, uses one of the earliest Buddhist suttas to guide us along the path of the oldest Buddhist meditative practice for understanding the nature of "self." By following the Buddha's explanation with clear, insightful examples from her years of teaching meditation, she guides us back and forth between the relative understanding and higher realizations of the Buddhist concept of "self." Her thoughtful contemplation of the Buddha's radical understanding of "self" and her practical advice for achieving insight offer the reader a profound understanding of the "self." Both beginning and advanced practitioners will greatly benefit from Ayya Khema's warm and down-to-earth exposition of the Buddha's meditation on "self."
Who is the Scientist-Subject?: Affective History of the Gene (Science and Technology Studies)
by Esha ShahThis book explores two disparate sets of debates in the history and philosophy of the life sciences: the history of subjectivity in shaping objective science and the history of dominance of reductionism in molecular biology. It questions the dominant conception of the scientist-subject as a neo-Kantian ideal self – that is, the scientist as a unified and wilful, self-determined, self-regulated, active and autonomous, rational subject wilfully driven by social and scientific ethos – in favour of a narrative that shows how the microcosm of reductionism is sustained, adopted, questioned, or challenged in the creative struggles of the scientist-subject. The author covers a century-long history of the concept of the gene as a series of "pioneering moments" through an engagement with life-writings of eminent scientists to show how their ways of being and belonging relate with the making of the science. The scientist-self is theorized as fundamentally a feeling, experiencing, and suffering subject split between the conscious and unconscious and constitutive of personality aspects that are emotional/psychological, "situated" (cultural and ideological), metaphysical, intersubjective, and existential at the same time. An engaging interdisciplinary interpretation of the dominance of reductionism in genetic science, this book will be of major interest to scholars and researchers of science, history, and philosophy alike.
Who Needs a World View?
by Raymond GeussOne of the world’s most provocative philosophers attacks the obsession with comprehensive intellectual systems—the perceived need for a world view. We live in a unitary cosmos created and cared for in all its details by a benevolent god. That, for centuries, was the starting point for much philosophical and religious thinking in the West. The task was to accommodate ourselves to that view and restrict ourselves to working out how the pieces fit together within a rigidly determined framework. In this collection of essays, one of our most creative contemporary philosophers explores the problems and pathologies of the habit of overly systematic thinking that we have inherited from this past. Raymond Geuss begins by making a general case for flexible and skeptical thinking with room for doubt and unresolved complexity. He examines the ideas of two of his most influential teachers—one systematic, the other pragmatic—in light of Nietzsche’s ideas about appearance and reality. The chapters that follow concern related moral, psychological, and philosophical subjects. These include the idea that one should make one’s life a work of art, the importance of games, the concept of need, and the nature of manifestoes. Along the way, Geuss ranges widely, from ancient philosophy to modern art, with his characteristic combination of clarity, acuity, and wit. Who Needs a World View? is a provocative and enlightening demonstration of what philosophy can achieve when it abandons its ambitions for completeness, consistency, and unity.
Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?
by Ajahn BrahmThe 108 pieces in the international bestseller Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung? offer thoughtful commentary on everything from love and commitment to fear and pain. Drawing from his own life experience, as well as traditional Buddhist folk tales, author Ajahn Brahm uses over thirty years of spiritual growth as a monk to spin delightful tales that can be enjoyed in silence or read aloud to friends and family. Featuring titles such as "The Two-Finger Smile" and "The Worm and His Lovely Pile of Dung," these wry and witty stories provide playful, pithy takes on the basic building blocks of everyday life. Suitable for children, adults, and anyone in between, this eloquent volume wraps insight and inspiration inside of a good old yarn.
Who Owns Democracy?: The Real Deep State and the Struggle Over Class and Caste in America
by Charles Derber Yale R. MagrassThis book uniquely reverses today’s MAGA conspiratorial concept of the deep state to reveal how a very real “deeper state” is evident throughout history, back to the founding of American democracy.Class and caste-based elites and their political allies have held dominant power in the US. Large corporations, Wall Street, and other sectors of the capitalist class outsource day-to-day governance to the mainstream political parties, which can compete vigorously and create a credible veneer of civil liberties and electoral democracy, disguising and legitimating the deep state. But it is a “shallow democracy,” since the deep state sets boundaries on policies and choices to serve itself. It also denies a universal franchise and obstructs the voting rights of people of color, the poor, and other communities threatening to the deep state. Moreover, the deep state constrains civic governance in the workplace and community, denying virtually all working people democratic control over their economic and social life.Shallow democracy has a long history. Two embryonic deep states – a Northern capitalist deep state and a Southern slave-based deep state – came together in a tense and unstable union to create and govern the US. While the Confederate deep state, which we call proto-American fascism, was defeated in the Civil War, it left a deep imprint on the culture and politics of millions of Americans, and has resurged again in Trumpism. The shallow democracy of the capitalist deep state has survived previous challenges, but it lacks the deep roots that guarantees its survival.The authors point to prospects for meaningful change arising from the extreme economic chasm dividing the nation economically and racially, and from existential crises of the survival of democracy and of a sustainable planet. They discuss strategy that might finally move the nation beyond MAGA toward deep democracy.
Who Owns Religion?: Scholars and Their Publics in the Late Twentieth Century
by Laurie L. PattonWho Owns Religion? focuses on a period—the late 1980s through the 1990s—when scholars of religion were accused of scandalizing or denigrating the very communities they had imagined themselves honoring through their work. While controversies involving scholarly claims about religion are nothing new, this period saw an increase in vitriol that remains with us today. Authors of seemingly arcane studies on subjects like the origins of the idea of Mother Earth or the sexual dynamics of mysticism have been targets of hate mail and book-banning campaigns. As a result, scholars of religion have struggled to describe their own work to their various publics, and even to themselves. Taking the reader through several compelling case studies, Patton identifies two trends of the ’80s and ’90s that fueled that rise: the growth of multicultural identity politics, which enabled a form of volatile public debate she terms “eruptive public space,” and the advent of the internet, which offered new ways for religious groups to read scholarship and respond publicly. These controversies, she shows, were also fundamentally about something new: the very rights of secular, Western scholarship to interpret religions at all. Patton’s book holds out hope that scholars can find a space for their work between the university and the communities they study. Scholars of religion, she argues, have multiple masters and must move between them while writing histories and speaking about realities that not everyone may be interested in hearing.
Who Owns the Moon?: In Defence of Humanity's Common Interests in Space
by A. C. GraylingSilicon for microchips; manganese for batteries; titanium for missiles. The moon contains a wealth of natural resources. So, as the Earth&’s supplies have begun to dwindle, it is no surprise that the world&’s superpowers and wealthiest corporations have turned their eyes to the stars. As this new Space Race begins, A.C. Grayling asks: who, if anyone, owns the moon? Or Mars? Or other bodies in near space? And what do those superpowers and corporations owe to Planet Earth and its inhabitants as a whole? From feudal common land, through the rules of the sea, to the vast, nationless expanse of Antarctica, Grayling explores the history of the places which no one, and therefore everyone, owns. Examining the many ways this so-called terra nullius has fallen victim to &‘the tragedy of the commons&’ – the tendency for communal resources to be exploited by a few individuals for personal gain at the expense of everyone else – Who Owns the Moon? puts forward a compelling argument for a bold new global consensus, one which recognises and defends the rights of everyone who lives on this planet.
Who Really Runs Britain?: The Private Companies Taking Control of Benefits, Prisons, Asylum, Deportation, Security, Social Care and the NHS
by Alan White&‘Outsourcing&’ – when will the horror stories stop coming? Every year the government gives private companies like G4S, Serco, Capita and ATOS £80 billion of taxpayers&’ money to handle some of our most sensitive and important services – but where is their transparency? Immigration is perhaps the most challenging and divisive issue of our time – so why has our government abdicated responsibility? As privatisation looms over an NHS in crisis, how do we hold these companies to account? Now, White speaks to campaigners, Whitehall insiders – and the companies themselves. Who Really Runs Britain? is a shocking compendium of what happens when outsourcing goes wrong – and what we do now.
Who Speaks for Nature?: On the Politics of Science
by Laura EphraimWhen natural scientists speak up in public about the material phenomena they have observed, measured, and analyzed in the lab or the field, they embody a distinctive version of political authority. Where does science derive its remarkably resilient, though often contested, capacity to give voice to nature? What efforts on the part of scientists and nonscientists alike determine who is regarded as a legitimate witness to material reality and whose speech is discounted as idle chatter, mere opinion, or noise?In Who Speaks for Nature?, Laura Ephraim reveals the roots of scientific authority in what she calls "world-building politics": the collection of practices through which scientists and citizens collaborate with and struggle against each other to engage natural things and events and to construct a shared yet heterogeneous world. Through innovative readings of some of the most important thinkers of science and politics of the near and distant past, including René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Giambattista Vico, and Hannah Arendt, Ephraim argues that the natural sciences are political because they are crucial sites in which the worldly relationships that bind together the human and nonhuman are inherited, augmented, and reconstructed.Who Speaks for Nature? opens a novel conversation between political theory, science, and technology studies and augments existing efforts by feminists, environmentalists, and democratic theorists to challenge the traditional binary separating nature and politics. In an age of climate change and climate-change denial, Ephraim brings theoretical understandings of politics to bear on real-world events and decisions and uncovers fresh insights into the place of scientists in public life.
Who Stole My Church: What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century
by Gordon MacdonaldHas your church been hijacked? Millions of people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies feel their churches have been hijacked by church-growth movements characterized by loud praise bands, constant PowerPoint presentations, and cavernous megachurches devoid of any personal touch. They are bewildered by the changes, and are dropping out after thirty, forty, or fifty years in a congregation. It's a crisis! In this fictional story, pastor and author Gordon MacDonald uses topical examples and all-too-familiar characters to reassure readers that it is possible to embrace change, and to demonstrate how that change can actually be a positive influence in their church. The church, he says, has always been in a state of change; it has been changing for the last two thousand years. It is time to embrace that change and use it further the Kingdom of God.
Who Wants to be a Millionaire - The Quiz Book
by Sony Pictures Television UK Rights LtdHave you got what it takes? Sharpen your mind with Who Wants to be a Millionaire - The Quiz Book and see if you would win the £1,000,000 jackpotAnd remember, no cheating . . .__________Sir Seretse Khama was the first president of which country?A: BotswanaB: TanzaniaC: GhanaD: Zambia...For £1,000,000, what is your final answer?__________Only five people on UK screens have ever answered their way to the top and taken home the full cash prize.The question is, could you become a winner?Whether you're confident quizzer or trivial about trivia, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire - The Quiz Book is perfect for a solo test of knowledge or the ultimate at-home quiz with family and friends.Complete with all four life-lines and over 1,000 brand new questions, and written by brains behind the classic show, you can recreate Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from your home. Now there's only one question that really matters . . .Do you have what it takes?
Who Was Confucius? (Who Was?)
by Michael Burgan Who HQLearn more about China's most famous teacher and philosopher, whose ideas are still influential today.Born in 551 BC, Confucius was a young man when he set his heart and mind on learning as much as he could. By his thirties, he'd become a brilliant teacher who shared his knowledge of several subjects, including arithmetic, history, and poetry, with his students. Confucius wanted to make sure that everyone in China had access to an education and devoted his whole life to learning and teaching so he could transform and improve society. His lessons--now known as Confucianism--are practiced by over six million people in the world. They focus on loving humanity, worshiping ancestors, respecting elders, and self-discipline. Confucianism has become the system that governs a total way of life in East Asia.
Who Will Build the Ark?: Debates on Climate Strategy from New Left Review
by Benjamin Kunkel Lola SeatonWhat ecological politics should the left propose? In Who Will Build the Ark?, leading radical thinkers debate left alternatives to runaway global heating, capitalist crisis and wider environmental breakdown, clarifying the stakes in today&’s key disputes between Green New Deal supporters and proponents of &“degrowth.&” In a series of landmark texts first published by New Left Review, Herman Daly and Benjamin Kunkel discusses the possibility of an egalitarian, steady-state economy, while Robert Pollin warns against the worldwide slump &“degrowth&” could bring and calls instead for a single-issue campaign—2 per cent of global GDP dedicated to the switch to renewable energy—as the swiftest solution to the emissions crisis.Nancy Fraser envisages an eco-socialist exit from capitalism&’s multifold crises, while Troy Vettese advocates eco-austerity and half-earth rewilding. Lola Seaton draws out the strategic implications of these contested perspectives, in a set of unavoidable &“green questions.&” In the realm of contemporary politics, Alyssa Battistoni writes on the dead-end of COP diplomacy, Cédric Durand asks whether energy shortages will derail the transition away from fossil fuels, and Thomas Meaney compares Green New Deal proposals to the pinched reality of Biden&’s Inflation Reduction Act.The world&’s major powers accept the likelihood of dangerous climate change, yet seem incapable of averting it. Can radical green models generate the social leverage needed to do so? Or, as Mike Davis puts it: Who will build the Ark?
Who Would Jesus Kill?: War, Peace, And The Christian Tradition
by Mark J. AllmanA concise, provocative look at the continuum of approaches to war and peace within the Christian tradition and beyond: pacifism, holy war and just war. In Who Would Jesus Kill? War, Peace, and the Christian Tradition, Dr. Mark J. Allman asks a provocative, timely, and timeless question. Readable and thought-provoking, Who Would Jesus Kill? Provides an overview of approaches to war and peace within the Christian tradition. The author invites students to reflect on their own views as he examines in detail the topics of holy war, just war, and pacifism. An appendix further explores the issues of war and peace from Jewish and Muslim perspectives.
Who Wrote This?: How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing
by Naomi S. BaronWould you read this book if a computer wrote it? Would you even know? And why would it matter? Today's eerily impressive artificial intelligence writing tools present us with a crucial challenge: As writers, do we unthinkingly adopt AI's time-saving advantages or do we stop to weigh what we gain and lose when heeding its siren call? To understand how AI is redefining what it means to write and think, linguist and educator Naomi S. Baron leads us on a journey connecting the dots between human literacy and today's technology. From nineteenth-century lessons in composition, to mathematician Alan Turing's work creating a machine for deciphering war-time messages, to contemporary engines like ChatGPT, Baron gives readers a spirited overview of the emergence of both literacy and AI, and a glimpse of their possible future. As the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and fluent, it's tempting to take the easy way out and let AI do the work for us. Baron cautions that such efficiency isn't always in our interest. As AI plies us with suggestions or full-blown text, we risk losing not just our technical skills but the power of writing as a springboard for personal reflection and unique expression. Funny, informed, and conversational, Who Wrote This? urges us as individuals and as communities to make conscious choices about the extent to which we collaborate with AI. The technology is here to stay. Baron shows us how to work with AI and how to spot where it risks diminishing the valuable cognitive and social benefits of being literate.
Who You Are: The Science of Connectedness (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Michael J. SpiveyWhy you are more than just a brain, more than just a brain-and-body, and more than all your assumptions about who you are.Who are you? Are you just a brain? A brain and a body? All the things you have done and the friends you have made? Many of us assume that who we really are is something deep inside us, an inner sanctuary that contains our true selves. In Who You Are, Michael Spivey argues that the opposite is true: that you are more than a brain, more than a brain-and-body, and more than all your assumptions about who you are. Rather than peeling layers away to reveal the inner you, Spivey traces who you are outward. You may already feel in your heart that something outside your body is actually part of you—a child, a place, a favorite book. Spivey confirms this intuition with scientific findings.With each chapter, Spivey incrementally expands a common definition of the self. After (gently) helping you to discard your assumptions about who you are, he draws on research in cognitive science and neuroscience to explain the back-and-forth among all the regions of the brain and the interaction between the brain and body. He then makes the case for understanding objects and locations in your environment as additional parts of who we are. Going even further, he shows that, just as interaction links brain, body, and environment, ever-expanding systems of interaction link humans to other humans, to nonhuman animals, and to nonliving matter. This may seem an interaction or two too far. But you don't have to take his word for it—just consider the evidence he presents.
Whole School Character and Virtue Education: 192
by David Aldridge Carole Jones David Moran Amanda Wyatt Edith Iwobi Angela Flux Jean-Michel Ballay Elenor PaulUsing the successful implementation achieved at Yeading Junior School, this book provides strategies and advice about how to widely implement character education in schools. This helpful guide answers the following questions schools and teachers have when considering how to develop character education:· What character virtues are important in primary education? · How can these be cultivated within the formal and informal curricula? · How do we know if strategies are working and successful? · What constitutes evidence of best practice? With contributions from professional practitioners ranging from building partnerships in the community, intergenerational learning, using character virtues in work with vulnerable children and children with SEND, financial literacy and the diverse religious context of primary education, the book explores the opportunities for developing character virtues and virtue literacy with the purpose of supporting pupils to flourish in society. With the help of this book, schools can create an environment and ethos where learners are not only successful but can make a real difference to the world.
The Whole Truth: A Cosmologist’s Reflections on the Search for Objective Reality
by P. J. PeeblesFrom the Nobel Prize–winning physicist, a personal meditation on the quest for objective reality in natural scienceA century ago, thoughtful people questioned how reality could agree with physical theories that keep changing, from a mechanical model of the ether to electric and magnetic fields, and from homogeneous matter to electrons and atoms. Today, concepts like dark matter and dark energy further complicate and enrich the search for objective reality. The Whole Truth is a personal reflection on this ongoing quest by one of the world’s most esteemed cosmologists.What lies at the heart of physical science? What are the foundational ideas that inform and guide the enterprise? Is the concept of objective reality meaningful? If so, do our established physical theories usefully approximate it? P. J. E. Peebles takes on these and other big questions about the nature of science, drawing on a lifetime of experience as a leading physicist and using cosmology as an example. He traces the history of thought about the nature of physical science since Einstein, and succinctly lays out the fundamental working assumptions. Through a careful examination of the general theory of relativity, Einstein’s cosmological principle, and the theory of an expanding universe, Peebles shows the evidence that we are discovering the nature of reality in successive approximations through increasingly rigorous scrutiny.A landmark work, The Whole Truth is essential reading for anyone interested in the practice of science.
Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression – 1955-1972
by Aaron LeonardHow the radical music of the 1960s was birthed amid unprecedented upheaval and systemic repression.Seventy years since the radical music of the 1960s first hit the airwaves, the anthems of the era continue to resonate with our current times. Through studying these musicians and the political contexts in which their pioneering songs were birthed; amidst paranoia, psychedelic delusions, desire and civil unrest; Aaron Leonard&’s Whole World in an Uproar is an important new critical history of countercultural music from the Summer of Love to the unwelcome arrival of Bob Dylan.