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Confessions of a Sinner (Penguin Great Ideas)
by Saint AugustineThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.One of the greatest explorations of sin, epiphany and redemption ever written, the Confessions of Saint Augustine continue to shape our ideas with their passionate declaration of the life-changing power of faith.
Confessions of a Young Novelist (The Richard Ellmann lectures in modern literature)
by Umberto EcoUmberto Eco published his first novel, The Name of the Rose, in 1980, when he was nearly fifty. In these “confessions,” the author, now in his late seventies, looks back on his long career as a theorist and his more recent work as a novelist, and explores their fruitful conjunction. He begins by exploring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction—playfully, seriously, brilliantly roaming across this frontier. Good nonfiction, he believes, is crafted like a whodunnit, and a skilled novelist builds precisely detailed worlds through observation and research. Taking us on a tour of his own creative method, Eco recalls how he designed his fictional realms. He began with specific images, made choices of period, location, and voice, composed stories that would appeal to both sophisticated and popular readers. The blending of the real and the fictive extends to the inhabitants of such invented worlds. Why are we moved to tears by a character’s plight? In what sense do Anna Karenina, Gregor Samsa, and Leopold Bloom “exist”? At once a medievalist, philosopher, and scholar of modern literature, Eco astonishes above all when he considers the pleasures of enumeration. He shows that the humble list, the potentially endless series, enables us to glimpse the infinite and approach the ineffable. This “young novelist” is a master who has wise things to impart about the art of fiction and the power of words.
Confessions of an AI Brain
by Elena Fersman Paul Pettersson Athanasios KarapantelakisHave you thought of how it feels to be an AI brain in the world of humans? This book allows such a brain to tell us how it takes on its mission of helping humans to develop a more efficient, sustainable, diverse and inclusive society.This book explains the principles and applications of artificial intelligence for a broad audience. Artificial intelligence, as part of computer science, is often inspired by human intelligence. At the same time, there is still reluctance in the applications and usability of artificial intelligence among citizens. Industries are deploying AI in their products and processes but the level of maturity is varying. The book is written as a first person narrative, from an AI perspective, having the AI brain tell the story.
Confessions of an Interest Group: The Catholic Church and Political Parties in Europe
by Carolyn M. WarnerFollowing World War II, the Catholic Church in Europe faced the challenge of establishing political influence with newly emerging democratic governments. The Church became, as Carolyn Warner pointedly argues, an interest group like any other, seeking to attain and solidify its influence by forming alliances with political parties. The author analyzes the Church's differing strategies in Italy, France, and Germany using microeconomic theories of the firm and historical institutionalism. She demonstrates how only a strategic perspective can explain the choice and longevity of the alliances in each case. In so doing, the author challenges earlier work that ignores the costs to interest groups and parties of sustaining or breaking their reciprocal links. Confessions of an Interest Group challenges the view of the Catholic Church as solely a moral force whose interests are seamlessly represented by the Christian Democratic parties. Blending theory, cultural narrative, and archival research, Warner demonstrates that the French Church's superficial and brief connection with a political party was directly related to its loss of political influence during the War. The Italian Church's power, on the other hand, remained stable through the War, so the Church and the Christian Democrats more easily found multiple grounds for long-term cooperation. The German Church chose yet another path, reluctantly aligning itself with a new Catholic-Protestant party. This book is an important work that expands the growing literature on the economics of religion, interest group behavior, and the politics of the Catholic Church.
The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau J. M. CohenWidely regarded as the first modern autobiography, The Confessionsis an astonishing work of acute psychological insight. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) argued passionately against the inequality he believed to be intrinsic to civilized society. In his Confessions he relives the first fifty-three years of his radical life with vivid immediacy - from his earliest years, where we can see the source of his belief in the innocence of childhood, through the development of his philosophical and political ideas, his struggle against the French authorities and exile from France following the publication of Emile. Depicting a life of adventure, persecution, paranoia, and brilliant achievement, The Confessionsis a landmark work by one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment, which was a direct influence upon the work of Proust, Goethe and Tolstoy among others.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint AugustineThe world’s most famous spiritual autobiography Written between 397 and 398 CE, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is the story of Augustine of Hippo’s childhood in Numidia, his youth and early adulthood in Carthage, Rome, and Milan, and his conversion to Christianity. As he struggled to liberate himself from his sinful past, Augustine embarked on a quest that would transform him into one of the most influential religious thinkers of all time. A moving testament to the power of faith and an inspirational guide to a fulfilled life, The Confessions of Saint Augustine is a masterwork of Western literature. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint AugustineConfessions of Augustine written by legendary philosopher and theologian Saint Augustine is an autobiographical work which is widely considered to be one of the greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, Confessions of Augustine is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Saint Augustine is highly recommended. Published by Classic Books America and beautifully produced, Confessions of Augustine would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone's personal library.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by Saint Augustine R. S. Pine-CoffinIn his 1500-year-old Confessions, Augustine of Hippo tells the story of his remarkable life, interwoven with his insights of endless wisdom. Noted Paul VI: 'all of antiquity's philosophy converges in his work.'
The Confessions of Saint Augustine
by St. Augustine"The reader who has never met Augus-tine before ought to go first of all to the Confessions," reflected the Trappist monk and scholar Thomas Merton. "Augustine lived the theology that he wrote. . . . He experienced the reality of Christ living in his own soul." Saint Augustine, the celebrated theologian who served as Bishop of Hippo from a.d. 396 until his death in a.d. 430, is widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the Western world. Written in the form of a long prayer addressed directly to God, Augustine's Confessions, the remarkable chronicle of his conversion to Christianity, endures as the greatest spiritual autobiography of all time. "Augustine possessed a strong, capacious, argumentative mind," wrote Edward Gibbon. "He boldly sounded the dark abyss of grace, predestination, free-will, and original sin." And the eminent historian Jaroslav Pelikan remarked: "There has, quite literally, been no century of the sixteen centuries since the conversion of Augustine in which he has not been a major intellectual, spiri-tual, and cultural force."From the Hardcover edition.
The Confessions of St. Augustine (Dover Thrift Editions)
by St. AugustineMore than an autobiography, The Confessions of St. Augustine is one of the most influential religious books in the Christian tradition. A great work of Western literature, it recalls crucial events and episodes in the author's life, in particular, life with his devoutly Christian mother and his origins in rural Algeria in the mid-fourth century A.D.; the rise to a lavish life at the imperial court in Milan; his struggle with sexual desires; eventual renunciation of secular ambitions and marriage; and recovery of his Catholic faith.This intensely personal narrative — among the first in which self-analysis was used to describe spiritual and emotional experiences — provides a detailed, classic recounting of one man's internal struggles and religious conversion. The book will be useful to anyone interested in the impact made by one of the foremost leaders in the development of Christian thought.
Confessions of the Flesh: The History of Sexuality, Volume 4
by Michel FoucaultThe fourth and final volume in Michel Foucault&’s acclaimed History of Sexuality, completed just before his death in 1984 and finally available to the public One of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault made an indelible impact on Western thought. The first three volumes in his History of Sexuality—which trace cultural and intellectual notions of sexuality, arguing that it has been profoundly shaped by the power structures applied to it—constitute some of Foucault&’s most important work. This fourth volume posits that the origins of totalitarian self-surveillance began with the Christian practice of confession. The manuscript had long been secreted away, in accordance with Foucault&’s stated wish that there be no posthumous publication of his unpublished work. With the sale of the Foucault archives in 2013, Foucault&’s nephew felt that the time had come to publish this final volume in Foucault&’s seminal history. Philosophically, it is a chapter in his hermeneutics of the desiring subject. Historically, it focuses on the remodeling of subjectivity carried out by the early Christian Fathers, who set out to transform the classical Logos of truthful human discourse into a theologos—the divine Word of a pure sovereign. What did God will in the matter of righteous sexual practice? Foucault parses out the logic of the various responses proffered by theologians over the centuries, culminating with Saint Augustine&’s fascinating discussion of the libido. Sweeping and deeply personal, Confessions of the Flesh is a tour de force from a philosophical master
Confidence: Holding Your Seat through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds
by Ethan NichternHow do we stand firm amid the ups and downs of existence? In today’s culture of polarization and constant change, how do we find the confidence to navigate challenges? Is now really the time for meditation, for looking inward? What do we do with mindfulness? Meditation teacher Ethan Nichtern tackles these questions, taking contemporary considerations of power, identity, ethics, and confidence to new heights in this essential guide to self-discovery. Ethan examines the Buddhist concept of the Eight Worldly Winds, the four paired opposites of praise and blame, pleasure and pain, fame and insignificance, and success and failure. Delving into these dichotomies reveals invaluable insights into our relationships with others (including teachers, friends, leaders, the disgraced, and the adored) and ourselves. With transformative meditation exercises, Confidence empowers us to cultivate and access our innate wisdom.
The Confidence Trap
by David RuncimanWhy do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. The Confidence Trap shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them--and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything--a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present
by David RuncimanWhy do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving through Deep Difference
by John D. InazuIn recent years, the United States has become increasingly polarized and divided. This fissure is evident across the nation in conflict over LGBTQ rights; in challenges to religious liberty; in clashes over abortion; in tensions between law enforcement and minority communities. With all of this physical and emotional violence enacted by our legal system and such seemingly irresolvable differences in beliefs, values, and identities across the country, we are forced to ask--how can the people of this nation ever live in peace together? In Confident Pluralism, John D. Inazu analyzes the current state of the country, orients the contemporary United States within its broader history, and explores the ways that Americans can--and must--live together peaceably despite these deeply engrained differences. Pluralism is one of the founding creeds of the United States--yet America's society and legal system continues to face deep, unsolved structural problems in dealing with differing cultural anxieties, and minority viewpoints. Inazu not only argues that it is possible to cohabitate peacefully in this country, but also lays out realistic guidelines for our society and legal system to achieve the new American dream through civic practices that value toleration over protest, humility over defensiveness, and persuasion over coercion. An essential clarion call during one of the most troubled times in US history, Confident Pluralism offers a refreshing argument for how the legal system can protect peoples' personal beliefs and differences and shows how we can build toward a healthier future of tolerance, patience, and empathy.
Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving through Deep Difference
by John D. InazuIn the three years since Donald Trump first announced his plans to run for president, the United States seems to become more dramatically polarized and divided with each passing month. There are seemingly irresolvable differences in the beliefs, values, and identities of citizens across the country that too often play out in our legal system in clashes on a range of topics such as the tensions between law enforcement and minority communities. How can we possibly argue for civic aspirations like tolerance, humility, and patience in our current moment? In Confident Pluralism, John D. Inazu analyzes the current state of the country, orients the contemporary United States within its broader history, and explores the ways that Americans can—and must—strive to live together peaceably despite our deeply engrained differences. Pluralism is one of the founding creeds of the United States—yet America’s society and legal system continues to face deep, unsolved structural problems in dealing with differing cultural anxieties and differing viewpoints. Inazu not only argues that it is possible to cohabitate peacefully in this country, but also lays out realistic guidelines for our society and legal system to achieve the new American dream through civic practices that value toleration over protest, humility over defensiveness, and persuasion over coercion. With a new preface that addresses the election of Donald Trump, the decline in civic discourse after the election, the Nazi march in Charlottesville, and more, this new edition of Confident Pluralism is an essential clarion call during one of the most troubled times in US history. Inazu argues for institutions that can work to bring people together as well as political institutions that will defend the unprotected. Confident Pluralism offers a refreshing argument for how the legal system can protect peoples’ personal beliefs and differences and provides a path forward to a healthier future of tolerance, humility, and patience.
Confidentiality and Its Discontents: Dilemmas of Privacy in Psychotherapy (Psychoanalytic Interventions)
by Paul W. Mosher Jeffrey BermanFreud promised his patients absolute confidentiality, regardless of what they revealed, but privacy in psychotherapy began to erode a half-century ago. Psychotherapists now seem to serve as “double agents” with a dual and often conflicting allegiance to patient and society. Some therapists even go so far as to issue Miranda-type warnings, advising patients that what they say in therapy may be used against them.Confidentiality and Its Discontents explores the human stories arising from this loss of confidentiality in psychotherapy. Addressing different types of psychotherapy breaches, Mosher and Berman begin with the the story of novelist Philip Roth, who was horrified when he learned that his psychoanalyst had written a thinly veiled case study about him. Other breaches of privacy occur when the so-called duty to protect compels a therapist to break confidentiality by contacting the police. Every psychotherapist has heard about “Tarasoff,” but few know the details of this story of fatal attraction. Nor are most readers familiar with the Jaffee case, which established psychotherapist-patient privilege in the federal courts. Similiarly, the story of Robert Bierenbaum, a New York surgeon who was brought to justice fifteen years after he brutally murdered his wife, reveals how privileged communication became established in a state court. Meanwhile, the story of New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler, convicted of harassing a former lover and her daughter, shows how the fear of the loss of confidentiality may prevent a person from seeking treatment, with potentially disastrous results.While affirming the importance of the psychotherapist-patient privilege, Confidentiality and Its Discontents focuses on both the inner and outer stories of the characters involved in noteworthy psychotherapy breaches and the ways in which psychiatry and the law can complement but sometimes clash with each other.
Conflagration: How the Transcendentalists Sparked the American Struggle for Racial, Gender, and Social Justice
by John A. BuehrensA dramatic retelling of the story of the Transcendentalists, revealing them not as isolated authors but as a community of social activists who shaped progressive American values.Conflagration illuminates the connections between key members of the Transcendentalist circle--including James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody, Caroline Healey Dall, Elizabeth Stanton, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, and Margaret Fuller--who created a community dedicated to radical social activism. These authors and activists laid the groundwork for democratic and progressive religion in America.In the tumultuous decades before and immediately after the Civil War, the Transcendentalists changed nineteenth-century America, leading what Theodore Parker called "a Second American Revolution." They instigated lasting change in American society, not only through their literary achievements but also through their activism: transcendentalists fought for the abolition of slavery, democratically governed churches, equal rights for women, and against the dehumanizing effects of brutal economic competition and growing social inequality.The Transcendentalists' passion for social equality stemmed from their belief in spiritual friendship--transcending differences in social situation, gender, class, theology, and race. Together, their fight for justice changed the American sociopolitical landscape. They understood that none of us can ever fulfill our own moral and spiritual potential unless we care about the full spiritual and moral flourishing of others.
Conflict: Violence and Nonviolence (Controversy Ser.)
by Joan V. BondurantFocusing on central issues in the study of conflict and conflict resolution, this volume sets forth the views of eminent scholars on the forms, uses, and limitations of violence, nonviolence, and symbolic violence. Joan V. Bondurant, as editor of this compilation, defines the important issues, places the often contradictory contributions into perspective, and calls for a new conceptual framework within which workable techniques for the active conduct of conflict can be fashioned.Each of the carefully chosen contributions deal with the most familiar modes of nonviolence--pacifism and civil disobedience. Several experts raise basic questions about pacifism, point out new developments in today's peace movements, and discuss vital topics such as the political implications of the pacifist position, revolution as political change, and the risks of engaging in civil disobedience. For example, H. L. Niebury contradicts popularly held opinion that ""violence settles nothing,"" and argues that the threat of violence induces flexibility and stability in democratic institutions. In ""Violence and the Process of Terror,"" E. V. Walter gives a critical view of the limits of irrational violence and underscores the need to uncover the psychological mechanisms that account for the effectiveness of terror. Exploring the differences between symbolic violence and creative conflict, Ernest Jones details his unique investigation into revolutionaries' styles and their respective degrees of destructiveness.Bondurant concludes with an elaboration of the Gandhian technique of satyagraha to show that, in most instances, nonviolence is actually symbolic violence and that familiar nonviolent techniques cannot meet contemporary imperatives. Ideally suited to a wide range of readers, Conflict: Violence and Nonviolence can be especially useful in studies of politics and political and social philosophy.
Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics (Routledge Advances in European Politics #Vol. 32)
by Johannes LindnerWhy did the European Union experience a stark variation in the levels of conflict between the late 1970s, when budgetary disputes dominated European politics, and the 1990s, when political actors were able to settle upon budgetary agreements without major conflicts? This book responds to this key question with a two-step argument: Its first part shows that decision-making rules can be regarded as a key determinant of the level of conflict in EU budgetary politics. It details far-reaching reform in 1988 reduced conflict, because it introduced an institutional setting for multiannual budget planning that corrected the deficiencies of the original budget treaty. Having identified institutional change as the trigger for the reduction of conflict, the second part of this study focuses on the 1988 reform. It shows how a number of ‘reproduction mechanisms’ prevented major institutional change in the 1970s and early 1980s. When these ‘reproduction mechanisms’ lost force, a reform became possible and a new institutional setting emerged in 1988. These findings deliver a sharp insight into the interplay between rules and conflict in the still evolving political system of the EU. Moreover, by identifying precise conditions for the occurrence of institutional change, and by linking political performance of institutions to their stability this is a significant contribution to institutionalist research in social science. This book is an excellent resource for students and scholars of the European Union, Political Science, International Relations, Public Policy and Public Finance.
Conflict and Resolution: The Ethics of Forgiveness, Revenge, and Punishment
by Paula Satne Krisanna M. ScheiterGiven the current climate of political division and global conflict it is not surprising that there has been an increasing interest in how we ought to respond to perceived wrongdoing, both personal and political. In this volume, top scholars from around the world contribute all new original essays on the ethics of forgiveness, revenge, and punishment. This book draws on both historical and contemporary debates in order to answer important questions about the nature of forgiveness, the power of apology, the relationship between punishment and revenge, the path to reconciliation, the morality of blame, and the role of forgiveness in political conflict.Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Conflict, Culture, Change
by Sulak SivaraksaFrom Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sulak Sivaraksa comes this look at Buddhism's innate ability to help change life on the global scale. Conflict, Culture, Change explores the cultural and environmental impacts of consumerism, nonviolence, and compassion, giving special attention to the integration of mindfulness and social activism, the use of Buddhist ethics to confront structural violence, and globalization's threat to traditional identity.
Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy (SUNY series in Ancient Greek Philosophy)
by Steven C. SkultetyDo only modern thinkers like Machiavelli and Hobbes accept that conflict plays a significant role in the origin and maintenance of political community? In this book, Steven Skultety argues that Aristotle not only took conflict to be an inevitable aspect of political life, but further recognized ways in which conflict promotes the common good. While many scholars treat Aristotelian conflict as an absence of substantive communal ideals, Skultety argues that Aristotle articulated a view of politics that theorizes profoundly different kinds of conflict. Aristotle comprehended the subtle factors that can lead otherwise peaceful citizens to contemplate outright civil war, grasped the unique conditions that create hopelessly implacable partisans, and systematized tactics rulers could use to control regrettable, but still manageable, levels of civic distrust. Moreover, Aristotle conceived of debate, enduring disagreement, social rivalries, and competitions for leadership as an indispensable part of how human beings live well together in successful political life. By exploring the ways in which citizens can be at odds with one another, Conflict in Aristotle's Political Philosophy presents a dimension of ancient Greek thought that is startlingly relevant to contemporary concerns about social divisions, constitutional crises, and the range of acceptable conflict in healthy democracies.
The Conflict of the Faculties
by Immanuel Kant Mary J. Gregor<p>It is in the interest of the totalitarian state that subjects not think for themselves, much less confer about their thinking. Writing under the hostile watch of the Prussian censorship, Immanuel Kant dared to argue the need for open argument, in the university if nowhere else. In this heroic criticism of repression, first published in 1798, he anticipated the crises that endanger the free expression of ideas in the name of national policy. <p>Composed of three sections written at different times, <i>The Conflict of the Faculties</i> dwells on the eternal combat between the "lower" faculty of philosophy, which is answerable only to individual reason, and the faculties of theology, law, and medicine, which get "higher" precedence in the world of affairs and whose teachings and practices are of interest to the government. Kant makes clear, for example, the close alliance between the theological faculty and the government that sanctions its teachings and can resort to force and censorship. All the more vital and precious, then, the faculty of philosophy, which encourages independent thought before action. The first section, "The Conflict of the Philosophy Faculty with the Theology Faculty," is essentially a vindication of the right of the philosophical faculty to freedom of expression. In the other sections the philosopher takes a long and penetrating look at medicine and law, the one preserving the physical "temple" and the other regulating its actions.</p>
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas SowellIn this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power. The "constrained" vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the "unconstrained" vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. He describes how these two radically opposed views have manifested themselves in the political controversies of the past two centuries, including such contemporary issues as welfare reform, social justice, and crime. Updated to include sweeping political changes since its first publication in 1987, this revised edition of A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.