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Connie Willis’s Science Fiction: Doomsday Every Day (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Literature)
by Carissa Turner SmithIn spite of Connie Willis’s numerous science fiction awards and her groundbreaking history as a woman in the field, there is a surprising dearth of critical publication surrounding her work. Taking Doomsday Book as its cue, this collection argues that Connie Willis’s most famous novel, along with the rest of her oeuvre, performs science fiction’s task of cognitive estrangement by highlighting our human inability to read the times correctly—and yet also affirming the ethical imperative to attempt to truly observe and record our temporal location. Willis’s fiction emphasizes that doomsdays happen every day, and they risk being forgotten by some, even as their trauma repeats for others. However, disasters also have the potential to upend accepted knowledge and transform the social order for the better, and this collection considers the ways that Willis pairs comic and tragic modes to reflect these uncertainties.
Conn's Biological Stains: A Handbook of Dyes, Stains and Fluorochromes for Use in Biology and Medicine
by Richard W. Horobin and John A. KiernanPublished on behalf of the Biological Stain CommissionFor 75 years Conn's Biological Stains has been a standard reference for all those who used dyes and colorants in the biological and medical sciences. This long awaited tenth edition appears 25 years after R.D. Lillie's ninth and has been completely rewritten to reflect the increase in range of uses. Although the staining of microscopical preparations continues to expand the uses of dyes and fluorochromes now extend far beyond this traditional application.This book provides the first critical overview of the whole range of low molecular weight fluorescent probes, outside the catalogue literature. The first ten chapters are essays, by leading experts, on the important aspects of colorants and their uses. Most of the remainder of the book consists of descriptions by Dr Horobin of the properties and recent applications of hundreds of individual compounds, in about twenty chemical classes. The last chapter reviews the procedures employed at the Biological Stain Commission's laboratory to assay and test dyes and certify them as suitable for their intended applications.
Conquering the Physics GRE (Third Edition)
by Yoni Kahn Adam AndersonThe Physics GRE plays a significant role in deciding admissions to nearly all US physics Ph.D. programs, yet few exam-prep books focus on the test's actual content and unique structure. Recognized as one of the best student resources available, this tailored guide has been thoroughly updated for the current Physics GRE. It contains carefully selected review material matched to all of the topics covered, as well as tips and tricks to help solve problems under time pressure. It features three full-length practice exams, revised to accurately reflect the difficulty of the current test, with fully worked solutions so that students can simulate taking the test, review their preparedness, and identify areas in which further study is needed. Written by working physicists who took the Physics GRE for their own graduate admissions to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this self-contained reference guide will help students achieve their best score.
Conquest of Body: Biopower with Biotechnology (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy)
by Polona TratnikThis book reflects on the phenomenon of biotechnology and how it affects the body and discusses a number of related issues, including visualization, mediation, and epistemology. The author offers a compelling thesis, arguing that the exploration of the human body has one ultimate aim: to gain knowledge of it and to conquer it. Exploration of body has an intrinsic link to power, since knowledge is constitutive for the power over the body. Ultimately the conquest of body means the power to intervene into life processes. The book breaks new ground with its study of body visualizations, from the Renaissance drawings to the medical imaging. In particular, it investigates their complex mediality. It also considers the extension and the reach of biopower that is now possible thanks to a wide range of engineering applications. The author originally questions the research approach by rethinking the relationship between mental and sensual examination. She takes into consideration the epistemological problem of the two modes of exploration: obtaining knowledge from empirical exploration and projecting that knowledge to the object of exploration.
Conquest of Mind: Phrenology and Victorian Social Thought (Routledge Library Editions: The Victorian World #13)
by David de GiustinoFirst published in 1975. This study examines one of the popular scientific philosophies of the nineteenth-century. The first part deals with the reception and diffusion of phrenology in Britain, its usefulness to various professions, and its challenge to traditional religion. The second part considers the application of phrenology in two separate social movements: prison reform and national education. This title will be of interest to students of history and philosophy.
The Conquest of Tuberculosis
by Selman A. WaksmanThis 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 1964.
The Conquest of Viruses: A History of Viral Vaccines
by Van G. WilsonThis book guides through the fascinating history of viral vaccines, from the first primitive smallpox vaccination in the 18th century to the cutting-edge RSV formulation approved in 2023. Each chapter delves into the scientific, clinical, and social forces that led to the development of these life-saving medical innovations, highlighting the scientists who played pivotal roles. With a focus on making complex science accessible and history engaging, this book offers a comprehensive portrayal of virology, vaccinology and the interplay between science and society in shaping public health. Readers will explore key concepts such as the evolution of vaccine technology over time, from cowpox material to mRNA vaccines, and a wide array of other topics, including the eradication of diseases through vaccines, the challenges of immunization against influenza, and the revolutionary impact of COVID-19 vaccination. The author, microbiologist Professor Wilson, provides expert analysis on how sociological factors influenced vaccine progress and gets to the bottom of the question of why there is still no vaccine for some critical diseases. This book is a must-read for anyone with an interest in viruses and vaccines. Whether you're a researcher or simply fascinated by medical history, this book promises to be both informative and entertaining.
Conscience: The Origins Of Moral Intuition
by Patricia ChurchlandHow do we determine right from wrong? Conscience illuminates the answer through science and philosophy. In her brilliant work Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands. All social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture. She looks to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. She shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace. Conscience delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals. Churchland then turns to philosophy—that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan—to explore why morality is central to all societies, how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to join ideas rarely put into dialogue brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.
Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education
by Neil PostmanIn a series of feisty and ultimately hopeful essays, one of America's sharpest social critics casts a shrewd eye over contemporary culture to reveal the worst -- and the best -- of our habits of discourse, tendencies in education, and obsessions with technological novelty. Readers will find themselves rethinking many of their bedrock assumptions: Should education transmit culture or defend us against it? Is technological innovation progress or a peculiarly American addiction? When everyone watches the same television programs -- and television producers don't discriminate between the audiences for Sesame Street and Dynasty -- is childhood anything more than a sentimental concept? Writing in the traditions of Orwell and H.L. Mencken, Neil Postman sends shock waves of wit and critical intelligence through the cultural wasteland.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind
by Annaka HarrisAs concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the self, free will, and felt experience.What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of being in the world for granted. But the very existence of consciousness raises profound questions: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious? How are we able to think about this? And why should we?In this wonderfully accessible book, Annaka Harris guides us through the evolving definitions, philosophies, and scientific findings that probe our limited understanding of consciousness. Where does it reside, and what gives rise to it? Could it be an illusion, or a universal property of all matter? As we try to understand consciousness, we must grapple with how to define it and, in the age of artificial intelligence, who or what might possess it. Conscious offers lively and challenging arguments that alter our ideas about consciousness—allowing us to think freely about it for ourselves, if indeed we can.
Conscious Business in Deutschland: Bewertung des Status quo und Ausblick auf ein neues Paradigma in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft
by Nicolas Josef Stahlhofer Christian Schmidkonz Patricia KraftDieses Buch stellt Conscious Business im Sinne eines bewussten Wirtschaftens als einen sich ständig erweiternden und kraftvollen Ansatz vor, um Organisationen neu zu erfinden und auf eine menschliche und nutzbringende Weise zu gestalten. Es untersucht insbesondere die Charakteristika, Haupttreiber und Herausforderungen von Conscious Businesses in Deutschland. Das Buch bietet einen strukturierten Überblick über die aktuelle Situation des Konzepts und skizziert wichtige Aspekte, die es zu beachten gilt, um eigenständige Entscheidungen zu treffen. Vier Fallstudien erfolgreicher bewusster Unternehmen - unterschiedlich in Größe, Branche, Rechtsform und internationaler Ausrichtung - zeigen konkrete Best-Practice-Beispiele auf und belegen die Fähigkeit des Ansatzes, zielführende und zugleich profitable Geschäftsmodelle zu entwickeln.
Conscious Business in Germany: Assessing the Current Situation and Creating an Outlook for a New Paradigm (CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance)
by Nicolas Josef Stahlhofer Christian Schmidkonz Patricia KraftThis book presents conscious business as a constantly expanding and powerful approach to reinvent and shape organizations in a human and beneficial manner. In particular it examines the core characteristics, main drivers and challenges of conscious businesses in Germany. The book offers a structured overview of the current situation of the concept and outlines important issues that need to be considered in order to make independent decisions. Four case studies of successful conscious companies - differing in terms of their size, industry, legal form and international orientation - reveal concrete best practices and provide evidence for the approach's ability to deliver business paradigms that are simultaneously purposeful and profitable.
Conscious Experience: A Logical Inquiry
by Anil GuptaHow, theorists ask, can our private experiences guide us to knowledge of a mind-independent reality? Exploring topics in logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, Anil Gupta proposes a new answer to this age-old question, explaining how conscious experience contributes to the rationality and content of empirical beliefs.
Conscious Mind in the Physical World
by E.J SquiresWe have seen remarkable progress in our detailed understanding of the physical world, from the smallest constituents of atoms to the remotest distances seen by telescopes. However, we have yet to explore the phenomenon of consciousness. Can physical things be conscious or is consciousness something else, forever outside the range of physics? And ho
Consciousness
by Rita CarterA guide to the hardest problem in science: the nature of consciousness.Is consciousness merely an illusion, a by-product of our brain's workings, or is it, as the latest physics may suggest, the basis for all reality? Your perception of the world around you, your consciousness, should be the one thing you could talk about with absolute confidence. But nothing about consciousness is clear-cut and understanding it is perhaps the hardest problem facing modern science. But some extraordinary insights gathered by the latest research suggest that the answers are within our grasp. Building on the success of her bestselling book MAPPING THE MIND, Rita Carter gathers these insights together to throw a new light on consciousness, its nature, its origins and its purpose.
Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Christof KochIn which a scientist searches for an empirical explanation for phenomenal experience, spurred by his instinctual belief that life is meaningful.What links conscious experience of pain, joy, color, and smell to bioelectrical activity in the brain? How can anything physical give rise to nonphysical, subjective, conscious states? Christof Koch has devoted much of his career to bridging the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the physics of the brain and phenomenal experience. This engaging book—part scientific overview, part memoir, part futurist speculation—describes Koch's search for an empirical explanation for consciousness. Koch recounts not only the birth of the modern science of consciousness but also the subterranean motivation for his quest—his instinctual (if "romantic") belief that life is meaningful.Koch describes his own groundbreaking work with Francis Crick in the 1990s and 2000s and the gradual emergence of consciousness (once considered a "fringy" subject) as a legitimate topic for scientific investigation. Present at this paradigm shift were Koch and a handful of colleagues, including Ned Block, David Chalmers, Stanislas Dehaene, Giulio Tononi, Wolf Singer, and others. Aiding and abetting it were new techniques to listen in on the activity of individual nerve cells, clinical studies, and brain-imaging technologies that allowed safe and noninvasive study of the human brain in action. Koch gives us stories from the front lines of modern research into the neurobiology of consciousness as well as his own reflections on a variety of topics, including the distinction between attention and awareness, the unconscious, how neurons respond to Homer Simpson, the physics and biology of free will, dogs, Der Ring des Nibelungen, sentient machines, the loss of his belief in a personal God, and sadness. All of them are signposts in the pursuit of his life's work—to uncover the roots of consciousness.
Consciousness and Mental Life
by Daniel N. RobinsonIn recent decades, issues that reside at the center of philosophical and psychological inquiry have been absorbed into a scientific framework variously identified as "brain science," "cognitive science," and "cognitive neuroscience." Scholars have heralded this development as revolutionary, but a revolution implies an existing method has been overturned in favor of something new. What long-held theories have been abandoned or significantly modified in light of cognitive neuroscience? Consciousness and Mental Life questions our present approach to the study of consciousness and the way modern discoveries either mirror or contradict understandings reached in the centuries leading up to our own. Daniel N. Robinson does not wage an attack on the emerging discipline of cognitive science. Rather, he provides the necessary historical context to properly evaluate the relationship between issues of consciousness and neuroscience and their evolution over time. Robinson begins with Aristotle and the ancient Greeks and continues through to René Descartes, David Hume, William James, Daniel Dennett, John Searle, Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, and Derek Parfit. Approaching the issue from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective, Robinson identifies what makes the study of consciousness so problematic and asks whether cognitive neuroscience can truly reveal the origins of mental events, emotions, and preference, or if these occurrences are better understood by studying the whole person, not just the brain. Well-reasoned and thoroughly argued, Consciousness and Mental Life corrects many claims made about the success of brain science and provides a valuable historical context for the study of human consciousness.
Consciousness and Mental Life
by Daniel N. RobinsonIn recent decades, issues that reside at the center of philosophical and psychological inquiry have been absorbed into a scientific framework variously identified as "brain science," "cognitive science," and "cognitive neuroscience." Scholars have heralded this development as revolutionary, but a revolution implies an existing method has been overturned in favor of something new. What long-held theories have been abandoned or significantly modified in light of cognitive neuroscience? Consciousness and Mental Life questions our present approach to the study of consciousness and the way modern discoveries either mirror or contradict understandings reached in the centuries leading up to our own. Daniel N. Robinson does not wage an attack on the emerging discipline of cognitive science. Rather, he provides the necessary historical context to properly evaluate the relationship between issues of consciousness and neuroscience and their evolution over time. Robinson begins with Aristotle and the ancient Greeks and continues through to René Descartes, David Hume, William James, Daniel Dennett, John Searle, Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, and Derek Parfit. Approaching the issue from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective, Robinson identifies what makes the study of consciousness so problematic and asks whether cognitive neuroscience can truly reveal the origins of mental events, emotions, and preference, or if these occurrences are better understood by studying the whole person, not just the brain. Well-reasoned and thoroughly argued, Consciousness and Mental Life corrects many claims made about the success of brain science and provides a valuable historical context for the study of human consciousness.
Consciousness and Science Fiction (Science and Fiction)
by Damien BroderickScience fiction explores the wonderful, baffling and wildly entertaining aspects of a universe unimaginably old and vast, and with a future even more immense. It reaches into that endless cosmos with the tools of rational investigation and storytelling. At the core of both science and science fiction is the engaged human mind--a consciousness that sees and feels and thinks and loves. But what is this mind, this aware and self-aware consciousness that seems unlike anything else we experience? What makes consciousness the Hard Problem of philosophy, still unsolved after millennia of probing? This book looks into the heart of this mystery - at the science and philosophy of consciousness and at many inspiring fictional examples - and finds strange, challenging answers.The book's content and entertaining style will appeal equally to science fiction enthusiasts and scholars, including cognitive and neuroscientists, as well as philosophers of mind. It is a refreshing romp through the science and science fiction of consciousness.
Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts
by Stanislas DehaeneA breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state. We can now pin down the neurons that fire when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information and understand the crucial role unconscious computations play in how we make decisions. The emerging theory enables a test of consciousness in animals, babies, and those with severe brain injuries. A joyous exploration of the mind and its thrilling complexities, Consciousness and the Brain will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifying consciousness.
Consciousness and the Philosophy of Signs: How Peircean Semiotics Combines Phenomenal Qualia And Practical Effects (Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind #19)
by Marc ChampagneIt is often thought that consciousness has a qualitative dimension that cannot be tracked by science. Recently, however, some philosophers have argued that this worry stems not from an elusive feature of the mind, but from the special nature of the concepts used to describe conscious states. Marc Champagne draws on the neglected branch of philosophy of signs or semiotics to develop a new take on this strategy. The term “semiotics” was introduced by John Locke in the modern period – its etymology is ancient Greek, and its theoretical underpinnings are medieval. Charles Sanders Peirce made major advances in semiotics, so he can act as a pipeline for these forgotten ideas. Most philosophers know Peirce as the founder of American pragmatism, but few know that he also coined the term “qualia,” which is meant to capture the intrinsic feel of an experience. Since pragmatic verification and qualia are now seen as conflicting commitments, Champagne endeavors to understand how Peirce could (or thought he could) have it both ways. The key, he suggests, is to understand how humans can insert distinctions between features that are always bound. Recent attempts to take qualities seriously have resulted in versions of panpsychism, but Champagne outlines a more plausible way to achieve this. So, while semiotics has until now been the least known branch of philosophy ending in –ics, his book shows how a better understanding of that branch can move one of the liveliest debates in philosophy forward.
Consciousness as a Scientific Concept: A Philosophy of Science Perspective (Studies in Brain and Mind #5)
by Elizabeth IrvineThe source of endless speculation and public curiosity, our scientific quest for the origins of human consciousness has expanded along with the technical capabilities of science itself and remains one of the key topics able to fire public as much as academic interest. Yet many problematic issues, identified in this important new book, remain unresolved. Focusing on a series of methodological difficulties swirling around consciousness research, the contributors to this volume suggest that 'consciousness' is, in fact, not a wholly viable scientific concept. Supporting this 'eliminativist' stance are assessments of the current theories and methods of consciousness science in their own terms, as well as applications of good scientific practice criteria from the philosophy of science. For example, the work identifies the central problem of the misuse of qualitative difference and dissociation paradigms, often deployed to identify measures of consciousness. It also examines the difficulties that attend the wide range of experimental protocols used to operationalise consciousness--and the implications this has on the findings of integrative approaches across behavioural and neurophysiological research. The work also explores the significant mismatch between the common intuitions about the content of consciousness, that motivate much of the current science, and the actual properties of the neural processes underlying sensory and cognitive phenomena. Even as it makes the negative eliminativist case, the strong empirical grounding in this volume also allows positive characterisations to be made about the products of the current science of consciousness, facilitating a re-identification of target phenomena and valid research questions for the mind sciences.
Consciousness, Attention, and Conscious Attention (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Carlos Montemayor Harry Haroutioun HaladjianA rigorous analysis of current empirical and theoretical work supporting the argument that consciousness and attention are largely dissociated.In this book, Carlos Montemayor and Harry Haladjian consider the relationship between consciousness and attention. The cognitive mechanism of attention has often been compared to consciousness, because attention and consciousness appear to share similar qualities. But, Montemayor and Haladjian point out, attention is defined functionally, whereas consciousness is generally defined in terms of its phenomenal character without a clear functional purpose. They offer new insights and proposals about how best to understand and study the relationship between consciousness and attention by examining their functional aspects. The book's ultimate conclusion is that consciousness and attention are largely dissociated. Undertaking a rigorous analysis of current empirical and theoretical work on attention and consciousness, Montemayor and Haladjian propose a spectrum of dissociation—a framework that identifies the levels of dissociation between consciousness and attention—ranging from identity to full dissociation. They argue that conscious attention, the focusing of attention on the contents of awareness, is constituted by overlapping but distinct processes of consciousness and attention. Conscious attention, they claim, evolved after the basic forms of attention, increasing access to the richest kinds of cognitive contents.Montemayor and Haladjian's goal is to help unify the study of consciousness and attention across the disciplines. A focused examination of conscious attention will, they believe, enable theoretical progress that will further our understanding of the human mind.
Consciousness-Based Evolution
by John S. TordayConsciousness is the key to understanding human existence. Many have attempted to determine the fundamental nature of consciousness based on deductive reasoning. In contrast to that, Consciousness-Based Evolution has exploited empiric evidence for the evolution of physiology from the unicell to man based on cell-cell communication as the origin of consciousness, each intermediary step representing an innate effort to maintain homeostasis by harnessing the energy flow initiated by The Big Bang. By tracing vertebrate evolution as development and phylogeny, focusing on specific emergent steps using a Bayesian approach, individual traits can be seen as exaptations of earlier ways in which existential threats were resolved over the course of evolution. You, the readers, are the beneficiary of those insights.
Consciousness Demystified (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Todd E. Feinberg Jon M. MallattDemystifying consciousness: how subjective experience can be explained by natural brain and evolutionary processes.Consciousness is often considered a mystery. How can the seemingly immaterial experience of consciousness be explained by the material neurons of the brain? There seems to be an unbridgeable gap between understanding the brain as an objectively observed biological organ and accounting for the subjective experiences that come from the brain (and life processes). In this book, Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt attempt to demystify consciousness—to naturalize it, by explaining that the subjective, experiencing aspects of consciousness are created by natural brain processes that evolved in natural ways. Although subjective experience is unique in nature, they argue, it is not necessarily mysterious. We need not invoke the unknown or unknowable to explain its creation.Feinberg and Mallatt flesh out their theory of neurobiological naturalism (after John Searle's biological naturalism) that recognizes the many features that brains share with other living things, lists the neural features unique to conscious brains, and explains the subjective–objective barrier naturally. They investigate common neural features among the diverse groups of animals that have primary consciousness—the type of consciousness that experiences both sensations received from the world and affects such as emotions. They map the evolutionary development of consciousness and find an uninterrupted progression over time, without inserting any mysterious forces or exotic physics. Finally, bridging the previously unbridgeable, they show how subjective experience, although different from objective observation, can be naturally explained.