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Let's Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education
by Jonathan MarksA conservative college professor's compelling defense of liberal educationNot so long ago, conservative intellectuals such as William F. Buckley Jr. believed universities were worth fighting for. Today, conservatives seem more inclined to burn them down. In Let's Be Reasonable, conservative political theorist and professor Jonathan Marks finds in liberal education an antidote to this despair, arguing that the true purpose of college is to encourage people to be reasonable—and revealing why the health of our democracy is at stake.Drawing on the ideas of John Locke and other thinkers, Marks presents the case for why, now more than ever, conservatives must not give up on higher education. He recognizes that professors and administrators frequently adopt the language and priorities of the left, but he explains why conservative nightmare visions of liberal persecution and indoctrination bear little resemblance to what actually goes on in college classrooms. Marks examines why advocates for liberal education struggle to offer a coherent defense of themselves against their conservative critics, and demonstrates why such a defense must rest on the cultivation of reason and of pride in being reasonable.More than just a campus battlefield guide, Let's Be Reasonable recovers what is truly liberal about liberal education—the ability to reason for oneself and with others—and shows why the liberally educated person considers reason to be more than just a tool for scoring political points.
Letter To D'Alembert And Writings For The Theater (The Collected Writings of Rousseau Volume #10)
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Christopher Kelly Allan Bloom Charles ButterworthIn 1758, Jean Le Rond d'Alembert proposed the public establishment of a theater in Geneva--and Jean-Jacques Rousseau vigorously objected. Their exchange, collected in volume ten of this acclaimed series, offers a classic debate over the political importance of the arts. As these two leading figures of the Enlightenment argue about censorship, popular versus high culture, and the proper role of women in society, their dispute signals a declaration of war that divided the Enlightenment into contending factions. These two thinkers confront the contentious issues surrounding public support for the arts through d'Alembert's original proposal, Rousseau's attack, and the first English translation of d'Alembert's response as well as correspondence relating to the exchange. The volume also contains Rousseau's own writings for the theater, including plays and libretti for operas, most of which have never been translated into English. Among them, Le Devin du village was the most popular French opera of the eighteenth century while his late work Pygmalion is a profound meditation on the relation between an artist and his creation. This volume offers English readers a unique opportunity to appreciate Rousseau's writings for the theater as well as his attack on the theater as a public institution.
Letters On Education: With Observations On Religious And Metaphysical Subjects (Cambridge Library Collection)
by Catharine MacaulayFirst published in 1790, this collection of letters presents the mature views of Catharine Macaulay (1731-91) on education and related topics. Famed as an impassioned writer on history and politics, she defied eighteenth-century preconceptions of what it was possible and appropriate for women to achieve. Ranging across a broad spectrum of subjects, from diet and reading to pastimes, religion and discipline, this work reflects her enlightened thinking. She compares the educational situation in England to the contemporary French and American systems, and even those of ancient Rome and Sparta. Championing equality in education regardless of gender, Macaulay argues for the instruction of girls within a co-educational system, seeing this as the only way to improve female standing in society. Also reissued in this series is her eight-volume History of England (1763-83), which traces the upheavals of the seventeenth century.
Letters from America: Alexis de Tocqueville
by Alexis De Tocqueville Frederick BrownYoung Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in the United States for the first time in May 1831, commissioned by the French government to study the American prison system. For the next nine months he and his companion, Gustave de Beaumont, traveled and observed not only prisons but also the political, economic, and social systems of the early republic. Along the way, they frequently reported back to friends and family members in France. This book presents the first translation of the complete letters Tocqueville wrote during that seminal journey, accompanied by excerpts from Beaumont’s correspondence that provide details or different perspectives on the places, people, and American life and attitudes the travelers encountered. These delightful letters provide an intimate portrait of the complicated, talented Tocqueville, who opened himself without prejudice to the world of Jacksonian America. Moreover, they contain many of the impressions and ideas that served as preliminary sketches for Democracy in America, his classic account of the American democratic system that remains an important reference work to this day. Accessible, witty, and charming, the letters Tocqueville penned while in America are of major interest to general readers, scholars, and students alike.
Letters from Rousseau: Selected Correspondence (Agora Editions)
by Eve Grace Christopher KellyLetters from Rousseau is the first extensive collection of translations of Rousseau's correspondence into English in more than eighty years. Many of the letters have not been translated before, while others address substantive issues in his thought and complement his published writings. Although these letters went through the post as ordinary letters, once Rousseau became famous, he knew that they might be opened by the police and that they were very likely to be circulated and even published. Indeed, he wrote some of them with a view to their ultimate publication.Rousseau's enormous "private" correspondence extends into all periods of his life, including intimate letters to friends, letters to famous individuals, and responses to readers who posed philosophic questions to him. Thus, Eve Grace and Christopher Kelly also share his responses to readers who had been moved by his books. Further, this volume includes letters written to or about major intellectual figures, such as Diderot, Voltaire, Hume, and Mirabeau.
Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium
by Seneca'It is philosophy that has the duty of protecting us ... without it no one can lead a life free of fear or worry'For several years of his turbulent life, in which he was dogged by ill health, exile and danger, Seneca was the guiding hand of the Roman Empire. This selection of Seneca's letters shows him upholding the ideals of Stoicism - the wisdom of the self-possessed person immune to life's setbacks - while valuing friendship and courage, and criticizing the harsh treatment of slaves and the cruelties in the gladiatorial arena. The humanity and wit revealed in Seneca's interpretation of Stoicism is a moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.Selected and translated with an Introduction by Robin Campbell
Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium
by Seneca Robin CampbellSelected from the Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, Seneca's Letters from a Stoicare a set of 'essays in disguise' from one of the most insightful philosophers of the Silver Age of Roman literature. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the Latin with an introduction by Robin Campbell. A philosophy that saw self-possession as the key to an existence lived 'in accordance with nature', Stoicism called for the restraint of animal instincts and the severing of emotional ties. These beliefs were formulated by the Athenian followers of Zeno in the fourth century BC, but it was in Seneca that the Stoics found their most eloquent advocate. Stoicism, as expressed in the Letters, helped ease pagan Rome's transition to Christianity, for it upholds upright ethical ideals and extols virtuous living, as well as expressing disgust for the harsh treatment of slaves and the inhumane slaughters witnessed in the Roman arenas. Seneca's major contribution to a seemingly unsympathetic creed was to transform it into a powerfully moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind. Robin Campbell's lucid translation captures Seneca's humour and tautly aphoristic style. In his introduction, he discusses the tensions between Seneca's philosophy and his turbulent career as adviser to the tyrannical emperor Nero. Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4BC - AD65) was born in Spain but was raised according to the traditional values of the republic of Rome. In AD48 he became tutor to the future emperor Nero and became his principal civil advisor when he took power. His death was eventually ordered by Nero in AD65, but Seneca anticipated the emperor's decree and committed suicide.
Letters from a Stoic: The Ancient Classic (Capstone Classics)
by Seneca Donald RobertsonDISCOVER THE ENDURING LEGACY OF ANCIENT STOICISM Since Roman antiquity, Lucius Annaeus Seneca&’s Letters have been one of the greatest expressions of Stoic philosophy. In a highly accessible and timeless way, Seneca reveals the importance of cultivating virtue and the fleeting nature of time, and how being clear sighted about death allows us to live a life of meaning and contentment. Letters from a Stoic continues to fascinate and inspire new generations of readers, including those interested in mindfulness and psychological techniques for well-being. This deluxe hardback selected edition includes Seneca&’s first 65 letters from the Richard M. Gummere translation. An insightful introduction by Donald Robertson traces Seneca&’s busy life at the centre of Roman power, explores how he reconciled his Stoic outlook with vast personal wealth, and highlights Seneca&’s relevance for the modern reader.
Letters from the Edge: Outrider Conversations
by Margaret RandallBy excerpting from letters she exchanged with five irreverent writers and artists, Margaret Randall constructs conversations that open windows on four pivotal moments in her life and on world events. This correspondence touches on important themes, such as social change, identity, art, and creative integrity—issues that were relevant then and remain so today. The letters are sometimes philosophical, sometimes intimate, and deal with family life as well as major creative projects, including literary political publishing, often taken on against daunting odds. Society continuously tries to subsume or shape influential rebel minds to its interests. Every generation has those who will not allow themselves to be silenced or controlled. This book is exciting evidence of this.Chapters:I.Walter Lowenfels: A Poet Who Laughed at TimeII.Laurette Séjourné: A Woman with Pick and Shovel and Arnaldo Orfila: A Man Who Filled a CenturyIII.Susan Sherman: A Woman Before Her TimeIV.Greg Smith: A Painter Who Listens to Silence
Letters of Frithjof Schuon: Reflections on the Perennial Philosophy
by Frithjof SchuonThis collection of letters by Frithjof Schuon, the foremost spokesman of the perennial philosophy, contains nearly 200 newly translated letters from Schuon&’s youth to old age as written to friends, spiritual seekers, scholars, and others. Among the letters are those that address, in a simpler and more accessible manner, the same metaphysical subjects that continually recur in Schuon&’s published works. Other letters relate to the spiritual life in its simple and concrete aspects, by answering such fundamental questions as &“Why is there evil in the world?&”, &“How can I recognize if I am on a wrong path?&”, and &“What should I do to be saved?&” Finally, there are letters that relate to various aspects of Schuon&’s life, most of which were written to his closest friends. While not a comprehensive autobiography, these letters offer an intimate view of certain key moments in his life. Taken as a whole, the present collection of letters offers insights into the content of Frithjof Schuon&’s message—his exposition of the perennial philosophy—as well as a glimpse into his life as messenger of that philosophy.
Letters on England
by VoltaireFrançois Marie Arouet, who called himself Voltaire, was the son of François Arouet of Poitou, who lived in Paris, had given up his office of notary two years before the birth of this his third son, and obtained some years afterwards a treasurer’s office in the Chambre des Comptes. Voltaire was born in the year 1694. He lived until within ten or eleven years of the outbreak of the Great French Revolution, and was a chief leader in the movement of thought that preceded the Revolution. Though he lived to his eighty-fourth year, Voltaire was born with a weak body. His brother Armand, eight years his senior, became a Jansenist.
Letters on Ethics: To Lucilius (The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca A. A. Long Margaret GraverThe Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) recorded his moral philosophy and reflections on life as a highly original kind of correspondence. Letters on Ethics includes vivid descriptions of town and country life in Nero's Italy, discussions of poetry and oratory, and philosophical training for Seneca's friend Lucilius. This volume, the first complete English translation in nearly a century, makes the Letters more accessible than ever before. Written as much for a general audience as for Lucilius, these engaging letters offer advice on how to deal with everything from nosy neighbors to sickness, pain, and death. Seneca uses the informal format of the letter to present the central ideas of Stoicism, for centuries the most influential philosophical system in the Mediterranean world. His lively and at times humorous expositions have made the Letters his most popular work and an enduring classic. Including an introduction and explanatory notes by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long, this authoritative edition will captivate a new generation of readers.
Letters to Friend and Foe
by Baruch SpinozaLetters that appear in this volume cover only the last two decades of Spinoza&’s life and represent a mere fraction of the immense correspondence he carried on during his lifetime.
Letters to Friend and Foe
by Baruch SpinozaLetters that appear in this volume cover only the last two decades of Spinoza&’s life and represent a mere fraction of the immense correspondence he carried on during his lifetime.
Letters to Power: Public Advocacy Without Public Intellectuals (Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation #2)
by Samuel McCormickAlthough the scarcity of public intellectuals among today’s academic professionals is certainly a cause for concern, it also serves as a challenge to explore alternative, more subtle forms of political intelligence. Letters to Power accepts this challenge, guiding readers through ancient, medieval, and modern traditions of learned advocacy in search of persuasive techniques, resistant practices, and ethical sensibilities for use in contemporary democratic public culture. At the center of this book are the political epistles of four renowned scholars: the Roman Stoic Seneca the Younger, the late-medieval feminist Christine de Pizan, the key Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant, and the Christian anti-philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Anticipating much of today’s online advocacy, their letter-writing helps would-be intellectuals understand the economy of personal and public address at work in contemporary relations of power, suggesting that the art of lettered protest, like letter-writing itself, involves appealing to diverse, and often strictly virtual, audiences. In this sense, Letters to Power is not only a nuanced historical study but also a book in search of a usable past.
Letters to Sartre
by Simone De Beauvoir Quintin HoareLetters written by Simone de Beauvoir to one of the world's most acclaimed philosophers shed light on their relationship and her obsessive need to communicate with him.
Letters to Solovine, 1906–1955
by Albert EinsteinA provocative collection of letters to his longtime friend and translator that spans Einstein&’s career and reveals the inner thoughts and daily life of a transformative geniusFrom their early days as tutor and scholar discussing philosophy over Spartan dinners to their work together to publish Einstein&’s books in Europe, in Maurice Solovine, Albert Einstein found both an engaged mind and a loyal friend. While Einstein frequently shared his observations on science, politics, philosophy, and religion in his correspondence with Solovine, he was just as likely to express his feelings about everyday life—his health and the effects of aging and his experiences in the various places where he settled and visited in his long career. The letters are both funny and frank, and taken together, reflect the changes—large and small—that took place over a half century and in the remarkable life of the world&’s foremost scientist. Published in English alongside the German text and accompanied by facsimile copies of the original letters, the collected Letters to Solovine offers scholar and interested reader alike unprecedented access to the personal life of Albert Einstein. This authorized ebook features a new introduction by Neil Berger, PhD, and an illustrated biography of Albert Einstein, which includes rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Letters to Solovine, 1906–1955: 1906–1955 (Paperback Ser.)
by Albert EinsteinA provocative collection of letters to his longtime friend and translator that spans Einstein&’s career and reveals the inner thoughts and daily life of a transformative geniusFrom their early days as tutor and scholar discussing philosophy over Spartan dinners to their work together to publish Einstein&’s books in Europe, in Maurice Solovine, Albert Einstein found both an engaged mind and a loyal friend. While Einstein frequently shared his observations on science, politics, philosophy, and religion in his correspondence with Solovine, he was just as likely to express his feelings about everyday life—his health and the effects of aging and his experiences in the various places where he settled and visited in his long career. The letters are both funny and frank, and taken together, reflect the changes—large and small—that took place over a half century and in the remarkable life of the world&’s foremost scientist. Published in English alongside the German text and accompanied by facsimile copies of the original letters, the collected Letters to Solovine offers scholar and interested reader alike unprecedented access to the personal life of Albert Einstein. This authorized ebook features a new introduction by Neil Berger, PhD, and an illustrated biography of Albert Einstein, which includes rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen
by Brad WarnerThe night Brad Warner learns that his childhood friend Marky has died, Warner is about to speak to a group of Zen students in Hamburg, Germany. It’s the last thing he feels like doing. What he wants to do instead is tell his friend everything he never said, to explain Zen and what he does for a living and why he spends his time “Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. Meditating my life away as it all passes by. Lighting candles and incense. Bowing to nothing.” So, as he continues his teaching tour through Europe, he writes to his friend all the things he wishes he had said. Simply and humorously, he reflects on why Zen provided him a lifeline in a difficult world. He explores grief, attachment, and the afterlife. He writes to Marky, “I’m not all that interested in Buddhism. I’m much more interested in what is true,” and then proceeds to poke and prod at that truth. The result for readers is a singular and winning meditation on Zen — and a unique tribute to both a life lost and the one Warner has found.
Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series)
by Alex de LaceyGrime music has been central to British youth culture since the beginning of the 21st century. Performed by MCs and DJs, it is an Afrodiasporic form that developed on street corners, on pirate radio and at raves. Level Up: Live Performance and Creative Process in Grime Music offers the first long-form ethnographic study of grime practice; it questions how and why artists do what they do; and it asks what this can tell us about creative process and improvisation more widely. Based on research conducted in London’s grime scene—facilitated by the author’s long-standing role as a DJ and broadcaster—this book explores the form’s emergence before taking a magnifying glass to the contemporary scene and its performance protocol, exploring the practice of key artists and their crews living and working in the city. The resultant model of creative interaction provides a comprehensive mapping of collective social learning in London’s informal cityscape, offering new ways to conceptualise improvisatory practice within ensembles.
Levels of Infinity: Selected Writings on Mathematics and Philosophy (Dover Books on Mathematics)
by Hermann Weyl Peter PesicThis original anthology collects 10 of Weyl's less-technical writings that address the broader scope and implications of mathematics. Most have been long unavailable or not previously published in book form. Subjects include logic, topology, abstract algebra, relativity theory, and reflections on the work of Weyl's mentor, David Hilbert. 2012 edition.
Levels of Organic Life and the Human: An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology (Forms of Living)
by Helmuth PlessnerThe most important work by a key figure in German thought, Helmuth Plessner’s Levels of Organic Life and the Human, originally published in 1928, appears here for the first time in English, accompanied by a substantial Introduction by J. M. Bernstein, after having served for decades as an influence on thinkers as diverse as Merleau-Ponty, Peter Berger, Habermas, and the new naturalists.The Levels, as it has long been known, draws on phenomenological, biological, and social scientific sources as part of a systematic account of nature, life, and human existence. The book considers non-living nature, plants, non-human animals, and human beings in turn as a sequence of increasingly complex modes of boundary dynamics—simply put, interactions between a thing’s insides and surrounding world. On Plessner’s unique account, living things are classed and analyzed by their “positionality,” or orientation to and within an environment. “Life” is thereby phenomenologically defined, and its universal yet internally variable features such as metabolism, reproduction, and death are explained.The approach provides a foundation not only for philosophical biology but philosophical anthropology as well. According to Plessner’s radical view, the human form of life is excentric—that is, the relation between body and environment is something to which humans themselves are positioned and can take a position. This “excentric positionality” enables human beings to take a stand outside the boundaries of their own body, a possibility with significant implications for knowledge, culture, religion, and technology.Plessner studied zoology and philosophy with Hans Driesch in the 1910s before embarking on a highly productive philosophical career. His work was initially obscured by the superficially similar views of Max Scheler and Martin Heidegger and by his forced exile during World War II. Only in recent decades, as scholarship has moved more squarely into engagement with issues like animality, embodiment, human dignity, social theory, the philosophy of technology, and the philosophy of nature, has the originality and depth of Plessner’s vision been appreciated.A powerful and sophisticated account of embodiment, the Levels shows, with reference both to science and to philosophy, how life can be seen on its own terms to establish its own boundaries, and how, from the standpoint of life, the human establishes itself in relation to the nonhuman. As such, the book is not merely a historical monument but a source for invigorating a range of vital current conversations around the animal, posthumanism, the material turn, and the biology and sociology of cognition.This modern philosophical classic, long-awaited in English translation, is a key book both historically and for today’s interest in understanding philosophy and social theory together with science, without reducing the former to the latter.
Levels of Reality in Science and Philosophy: Re-examining the Multi-level Structure of Reality (Jerusalem Studies in Philosophy and History of Science)
by Meir Hemmo Orly Shenker Stavros Ioannidis Gal VishneThis book offers a unique perspective on one of the deepest questions about the world we live in: is reality multi-leveled, or can everything be reduced to some fundamental ‘flat’ level? This deep philosophical issue has widespread implications in philosophy, since it is fundamental to how we understand the world and the basic entities in it. Both the notion of ‘levels’ within science and their ontological implications are issues that are underexplored in the philosophical literature. The volume reconsiders the view that reality contains many levels and opens new ways to understand the ontological status of the special sciences. The book focuses on major open questions that arise at the foundations of cognitive science, cognitive psychology, brain science and other special sciences, in particular with respect to the physical foundations of these sciences. For example: Is the mental computational? Do brains compute? How can the special sciences be autonomous from physics, grounded in, or based on, physics and at the same time irreducible to physics? The book is an important read for scientists and philosophers alike. It is of interest to philosophers of science, philosophers of mind and biology interested in the notion of levels, but also to psychologists, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists investigating such issues as the precise relation of the mental to the underlying neural structures and the appropriate approach to study it.
Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation: 9th International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, ISoLA 2020, Rhodes, Greece, October 20–30, 2020, Proceedings, Part III (Lecture Notes in Computer Science #12478)
by Tiziana Margaria Bernhard SteffenThe three-volume set LNCS 12476 - 12478 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, ISoLA 2020, which was planned to take place during October 20–30, 2020, on Rhodes, Greece. The event itself was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. Each volume focusses on an individual topic with topical section headings within the volume:Part I, Verification Principles: Modularity and (De-)Composition in Verification; X-by-Construction: Correctness meets Probability; 30 Years of Statistical Model Checking; Verification and Validation of Concurrent and Distributed Systems. Part II, Engineering Principles: Automating Software Re-Engineering; Rigorous Engineering of Collective Adaptive Systems. Part III, Applications: Reliable Smart Contracts: State-of-the-art, Applications, Challenges and Future Directions; Automated Verification of Embedded Control Software; Formal methods for DIStributed COmputing in future RAILway systems.
Leveraging Distortions: Explanation, Idealization, and Universality in Science
by Collin RiceAn examination of how scientists deliberately and justifiably use pervasive distortions of relevant features to explain and understand natural phenomena.A fundamental rule of logic is that in order for an argument to provide good reasons for its conclusion, the premises of the argument must be true. In this book, Collin Rice shows how the practice of science repeatedly, pervasively, and deliberately violates this principle. Rice argues that scientists strategically use distortions that misrepresent relevant features of natural phenomena in order to explain and understand--and that they use these distortions deliberately and justifiably in order to discover truths that would be otherwise inaccessible. Countering the standard emphasis on causation, accurate representation, and decomposition of science into its accurate and inaccurate parts, Rice shows that science's epistemic achievements can still be factive despite their being produced through the use of holistically distorted scientific representations. Indeed, he argues, this distortion is one of the most widely employed and fruitful tools used in scientific theorizing. Marshalling a range of case studies, Rice contends that many explanations in science are noncausal, and he presents an alternate view of explanation that captures the variety of noncausal explanations found across the sciences. He proposes an alternative holistic distortion view of idealized models, connecting it to physicists' concept of a universality class; shows how universality classes can overcome some of the challenges of multiscale modeling; and offers accounts of explanation, idealization, modeling, and understanding.