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Little Black Book der Berühmten Gedankenspiele: Philosophische Rätsel und Experimente für helle Köpfe (Little Black Books (Deutsche Ausgabe))
by Martin CohenGedankenexperimente haben im Laufe der Jahrtausende eine entscheidende Rolle als Mittel der Wahl sowohl in der Philosophie als auch in der Naturwissenschaft gespielt. Im Gegensatz zu echten Experimenten kann im "gedanklichen Labor" auch Fragen nachgegangen werden, die man sonst nicht empirisch untersuchen kann (oder will). Gedankenexperimente lösen damit zwar sicher nicht die akuten Probleme der Menschheit, aber sie zeigen auf, wie schon leichte Veränderungen der Perspektive oder alltäglicher Grundannahmen zu verblüffenden Lösungen oder zu ganz neuen, spannenden Fragen führen können. Dieses Buch nimmt den Leser mit auf eine Reise durch alle Epochen philosophischen Denkens und stellt, in prägnanter Auflistung von A bis Z, 26 besonders interessante Gedankenexperimente berühmter Philosophen vor. Durchaus anspruchsvoll, aber doch sehr unterhaltsam geschrieben, lädt es nicht nur zum Lesen, sondern vor allem zum Miträtseln und philosophieren ein. Anschauliche, teils auch abwegige Beispiele aus den unterschiedlichsten Gebieten der Wissenschaft lassen keine Langweile aufkommen. Dazu gibt es Hinweise zur Durchführung eigener Gedankenexperimente und kurze Erläuterungen zu den wichtigsten der angeführten Denker von Aristoteles bis Wittgenstein.
Little Did I Know
by Stanley CavellAn autobiography in the form of a philosophical diary, Little Did I Know's underlying motive is to describe the events of a life that produced the kind of writing associated with Stanley Cavell's name. Cavell recounts his journey from early childhood in Atlanta, Georgia, through musical studies at UC Berkeley and Julliard, his subsequent veering off into philosophy at UCLA, his Ph.D. studies at Harvard, and his half century of teaching. Influential people from various fields figure prominently or in passing over the course of this memoir. J.L. Austin, Ernest Bloch, Roger Sessions, Thomas Kuhn, Robert Lowell, Rogers Albritton, Seymour Shifrin, John Rawls, Bernard Williams, W. V. O. Quine, and Jacques Derrida are no longer with us; but Cavell also pays homage to the living: Michael Fried, John Harbison, Rose Mary Harbison, Kurt Fischer, Milton Babbitt, Thompson Clarke, John Hollander, Hilary Putnam, Sandra Laugier, Belle Randall, and Terrence Malick. The drift of his narrative also registers the decisiveness of the relatively unknown and the purely accidental. Cavell's life has produced a trail of some eighteen published books that range from treatments of individual writers like Wittgenstein, Austin, Emerson, Thoreau, Heidegger, Shakespeare, and Beckett to studies in aesthetics, epistemology, moral and political philosophy, cinema, opera, and religion.
Little Platoons: A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age
by Matt FeeneyThis eye-opening book brilliantly explores the true roots of over-parenting, and makes a case for the vital importance of family life.Parents naturally worry about the future. They want to prepare their children to compete in an uncertain world. But often, argues political philosopher and father of three Matt Feeney, today's worried parents surrender their family's autonomy to gain a leg up in this competition.In the American ideal, family life is a sacred and private sphere, distinct from the outside world. But in our hypercompetitive times, Feeney shows, parents have become increasingly willing to let the inner life of the family be colonized by outside forces that promise better futures for their kids: prestigious preschools, "educational" technologies, youth sports leagues, a multitude of enrichment activities, and -- most of all -- college. A provocative, eye-opening book for any parent who suspects their kids' stuffed schedules are not serving their best interests, Little Platoons calls us to rediscover the distinctive, profound solidarity of family life.
Little Rock
by Karen AndersonThe desegregation crisis in Little Rock is a landmark of American history: on September 4, 1957, after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in public schools, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called up the National Guard to surround Little Rock Central High School, preventing black students from going in. On September 25, 1957, nine black students, escorted by federal troops, gained entrance. With grace and depth, Little Rock provides fresh perspectives on the individuals, especially the activists and policymakers, involved in these dramatic events. Looking at a wide variety of evidence and sources, Karen Anderson examines American racial politics in relation to changes in youth culture, sexuality, gender relations, and economics, and she locates the conflicts of Little Rock within the larger political and historical context. Anderson considers how white groups at the time, including middle class women and the working class, shaped American race and class relations. She documents white women's political mobilizations and, exploring political resentments, sexual fears, and religious affiliations, illuminates the reasons behind segregationists' missteps and blunders. Anderson explains how the business elite in Little Rock retained power in the face of opposition, and identifies the moral failures of business leaders and moderates who sought the appearance of federal compliance rather than actual racial justice, leaving behind a legacy of white flight, poor urban schools, and institutional racism. Probing the conflicts of school desegregation in the mid-century South, Little Rock casts new light on connections between social inequality and the culture wars of modern America.
Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve
by Lenora ChuNew York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ PickIn the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and educationWhen students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting: Ancient Chinese Philosophy And The Art Of Raising Mindful, Resilient, And Compassionate Kids
by Erin ClineA philosopher and mother mines classic Daoist and Confucian texts of Chinese philosophy for wisdom relevant to today’s parents. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius compared children to tender sprouts, shaped by soil, sunlight, water, and, importantly, the efforts of patient farmers and gardeners. At times children require our protection, other times we must take a step back and allow them to grow. Like sprouts, a child’s character, tendencies, virtues, and vices are at once observable and ever-changing. A practical parenting manual, philosophical reflection on the relationship between parent and child, and necessary response to modern stereotypes of Eastern parenting, Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting reconsiders cultural definitions of success and explores how we might support and nourish young people. Engaging deeply with foundational Daoist and Confucian thinkers, Georgetown philosopher Erin Cline offers accessible, provocative musings on key parenting issues. She reveals how ancient Chinese philosophers encourage surprisingly modern values—a love of nature and of learning, mindfulness in everyday interactions, an embrace of disabilities and diversity, and the power of performing rituals with reflection—and relates these to concrete parenting practices, whether celebrating special occasions or finding a child’s unique talents and gifts. Little Sprouts shows how—through the nurturing efforts of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and teachers—we can strengthen innate virtues of compassion, generosity, and individuality in our own tender sprouts. With an engaging and intuitive approach, Cline offers a balanced philosophy that helps us grow into better parents of joyful, fulfilled children.
Liturgical Power: Between Economic and Political Theology (Commonalities)
by Nicholas HeronIs Christianity exclusively a religious phenomenon, which must separate itself from all things political, or do its concepts actually underpin secular politics? To this question, which animated the twentieth-century debate on political theology, Liturgical Power advances a third alternative. Christian anti-politics, Heron contends, entails its own distinct conception of politics. Yet this politics, he argues, assumes the form of what today we call “administration,” but which the ancients termed “economics.” The book’s principal aim is thus genealogical: it seeks to understand our current conception of government in light of an important but rarely acknowledged transformation in the idea of politics brought about by Christianity.This transformation in the idea of politics precipitates in turn a concurrent shift in the organization of power; an organization whose determining principle, Heron contends, is liturgy—understood in the broad sense as “public service.” Whereas until now only liturgy’s acclamatory dimension has made the concept available for political theory, Heron positions it more broadly as a technique of governance. What Christianity has bequeathed to political thought and forms, he argues, is thus a paradoxical technology of power that is grounded uniquely in service.
Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur (Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought)
by Brian A. ButcherWhile only rarely reflecting explicitly on liturgy, French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) gave sustained attention to several themes pertinent to the interpretation of worship, including metaphor, narrative, subjectivity, and memory. Inspired by his well-known aphorism, “The symbol gives rise to thought,” Liturgical Theology after Schmemann offers an original exploration of the symbolic world of the Byzantine Rite , culminating in a Ricoeurian analysis of its Theophany “Great Blessing of Water.” . The book examines two fundamental questions: 1) what are the implications of the philosopher’s oeuvre for liturgical theology at large? And 2)how does the adoption of a Ricoeurian hermeneutic shape the study of a particular rite? Taking the seminal legacy of Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983) as its point of departure, Butcher contributes to the renewal of contemporary Eastern Christian thought and ritual practice by engaging a spectrum of current theological and philosophical conversations.
Live Carefully: The Importance of Caring in a Life of Significance
by Jerry TraylorLive CAREfully is a glimpse into the life of the author, Jerry Traylor. Born with cerebral palsy, Jerry faced physical pain and loneliness that few children ever know. Yet it was this early difficulty that drew others to Jerry in caring and love. The stories included in this book are a powerful example of how caring can mold a life and change a world. Others empowered Jerry to set goals and achieve greatness even in his imperfection. His example compels many to look at their own lives and take positive action.
Live Life Like a Kung Fu Master
by Paul Volponi William MoyLive Life Like a Kung Fu Master is William Moy&’s personal invitation to become your teacher or &“sifu,&” as he presents over twenty attributes/techniques that will contribute to living a life made better by possessing Kung Fu. Attributes such as balance, structure, distance awareness, relaxation and traveling the shortest route between two points are presented both in terms of self-defense and in making an impact on your daily life—at home, school, work, business and social encounters. The text also features positional sketches drawn by William, as well as links to a number of videos in which William demonstrates physical techniques for students to model. William is joined on this literary Kung Fu journey by this long-time student and disciple, multi-award-winning author Paul Volponi. In turn, the co-authors are joined by several renowned martial artists, including Sammo Huang, Karen Sheperd, Grandmaster Tak Wah Eng, Grandmaster Doc-Fei Wong and Sifu Leo Imamura. A score of contributors such as basketball Hall of Famer Dave Cowens, two-time Olympic Gold medalist Kayla Harrison, glass-ceiling breaking baseball pitcher Ila Borders, famed tightrope walker Denis Josselin and World Scrabble Champion Joel Wapnick discuss how the attributes of Kung Fu relate to their many successes. The term &“Kung Fu&” actually translates as "time and effort equals a skill." That's why you see establishments with names such as Kung Fu Bread and Kung Fu Tea. These proprietors are not trumpeting their ability to fight. Rather, they're saying, we put in the time to study and learn our craft, and the result is that we are masters in our own arena—baking bread or brewing tea. In Asian culture, people who are said to have "good Kung Fu" have a handle on their lives. They are honest, direct, kindly and self-assured. These are values more highly prized than the ability to fight. What&’s the parallel between these prized qualities and the ability to physically defend yourself like a martial arts Kung Fu master? Kung Fu, especially Wing Chun Kung Fu, is based on a center-line theory of taking the shortest path, a straight line between two points, in defending yourself. It is also based on calmness and relaxation, enabling the practitioner to feel and quickly interpret incoming forces—therefore, bringing about a swifter and more focused reaction. Cultivating such abilities will allow you to transfer their martial benefits onto daily situations in your personal, social, and business interactions. William Moy&’s view of the teacher/student relationship is a simple one: &“Your sifu&’s role is to help you find your own Kung Fu.&” Hence, there are no cookie-cutter students. Each journey will be inherently different depending upon the individual student&’s physical attributes, personality and goals. In this very patient art, there are no failures, just students continuing on a path to their desired destination.
Live Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life
by Massimo Pigliucci Gregory Lopez Meredith Alexander KunzA wide-ranging philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers into daily modern life.What does life truly mean? Who do I want to become? And how do I get there? These are some of life's biggest questions that can be hard to think through. Fortunately, a group of philosophers from ancient Greece and Rome have already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Drawing on the philosophies, life lessons and experiences of key thinkers, Live Like a Philosopher will help you navigate these existential waters with invaluable insights for modern life.From finding balance with Aristotle and embracing uncertainty with Cicero to avoiding pain with Epicurus and learning how to rebel with Cynic Hipparchia, this is a powerful toolkit to help you navigate the highs and lows of modern life. Organized around three main themes of pleasure, virtue, and doubt, there's something to learn from each master in this philosophical quest. Live Like a Philosopher is the helping hand we all need to make life better.
Live Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life
by Massimo Pigliucci Gregory Lopez Meredith Alexander KunzA wide-ranging philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers into daily modern life.What does life truly mean? Who do I want to become? And how do I get there? These are some of life's biggest questions that can be hard to think through. Fortunately, a group of philosophers from ancient Greece and Rome have already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Drawing on the philosophies, life lessons and experiences of key thinkers, Live Like a Philosopher will help you navigate these existential waters with invaluable insights for modern life.From finding balance with Aristotle and embracing uncertainty with Cicero to avoiding pain with Epicurus and learning how to rebel with Cynic Hipparchia, this is a powerful toolkit to help you navigate the highs and lows of modern life. Organized around three main themes of pleasure, virtue, and doubt, there's something to learn from each master in this philosophical quest. Live Like a Philosopher is the helping hand we all need to make life better.
Live and Let Live: A Critique of Intellectual Tolerance
by Dominik BalgTolerance - desired by many and often demanded: By UNESCO, by the Pope, by Angela Merkel and Barack Obama. But what exactly does it mean to be tolerant? Does tolerance imply rejection? Or is tolerance merely the opposite of dogmatism? And how does a tolerant attitude differ from an indifferent one? Dominik Balg, starting from a well-founded explication of the concept of tolerance, subjects a tolerant attitude as an intellectual attitude toward conflicting opinions to a detailed critique and discusses the plausibility of general tolerance claims in specific domains such as politics, religion, or ethics. He considers possible alternatives to a tolerant attitude and presents with intellectual open-mindedness and humility two substantial attitudes that can be clearly distinguished from a tolerant attitude and - in contrast to tolerance - can also be easily demanded on a general level. - With a foreword by Thomas Grundmann. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Leben und leben lassen by Dominik Balg, published by J.B. Metzler, an imprint of Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.
Lives Entrusted: An Ethic of Trust for Ministry (Prisms Series)
by Barbara J. BlodgettThis book is about communities of faith and their leaders, and it argues that they should better learn how to practice trust. The book comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 defines trust and explains how it works between individuals and within communities. Chapter 2 takes up the issue of confidentiality in the ministry. Chapter 3 draws upon the work of Michael Power on the proliferation of "audit societies." Chapter 4 addresses gossip, and Chapter 5 deals with the temptation of clergy to bullshit.
Lives in Education: A Narrative of People and Ideas
by Joan K. SmithThis volume presents the history of Western education through the biographies of some 70 individuals, past and present, who exemplify the education of their times or have made important contributions to the development of educational theory or practice. In so doing, it links major issues and ideas in education to key historical personalities. Each chapter includes substantive background information, a summary, and chapter notes.
Lives of Confucius: Civilization’s Greatest Sage Through the Ages
by Michael Nylan Thomas WilsonIn a biography that fills in gaps in the life of Confucius/Kongzi (551-479 BC), Nylan (early Chinese history, U. of California at Berkeley) and Wilson (history, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York) trace the life and evolution of thought of the Middle Way philosopher from his inauspicious beginnings to veneration as a sage whose ideas on personal and government morality are still influential. They also discuss his critics and followers, and include a summary chart of American perceptions of the Chinese...
Lives of a Cell: Notes Of A Biology Watcher
by Lewis ThomasElegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us."
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
by Diogenes Laertius<p>Everyone wants to live a meaningful life. Long before our own day of self-help books offering twelve-step programs and other guides to attain happiness, the philosophers of ancient Greece explored the riddle of what makes a life worth living, producing a wide variety of ideas and examples to follow. This rich tradition was recast by Diogenes Laertius into an anthology, a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes, that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since the Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the third century AD, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece, covering a longer period of time and a larger number of figures-from Pythagoras and Socrates to Aristotle and Epicurus-than any other ancient source. <p>This new edition of the Lives, in a faithful and eminently readable translation by Pamela Mensch, is the first rendering of the complete text into English in nearly a century. Lavishly illustrated with a vast array of artwork that attests to the profound impact of Diogenes on the Western imagination, this edition also includes detailed notes and a variety of newly commissioned essays by leading scholars that shed light on the work's historical and intellectual contexts as well as its rich legacy. The result is a capacious, fascinating, and charming compendium of ancient inspiration and instruction.</p>
Lives of the Great Romantics, Part III, Volume 1: Godwin, Wollstonecraft And Mary Shelley By Their Contemporaries
by Pamela ClemitThis volume sheds light on contemporary perception of William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, a biographically and intellectually compelling literary family of the Romantic period. The writings reveal the personalities of the subjects, and the motives and agendas of the biographers.
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius
by Ryan Holiday Stephen HanselmanFor millennia, Stoicism has been the ancient philosophy that attracts those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. And no wonder: its embrace of self-mastery, virtue and indifference to that which we cannot control has much to offer those grappling with today's chaotic world. But who were the Stoics?In this book, Ryan Holiday and Steohen Hanselman offer a fresh approach to understanding Stoicism through the lives of the people who practiced it. Through short biographies of all the famous, and lesser-known, Stoics, this book will show what it means to live stoically, and reveal the lessons to be learned from their struggles and successes. The result is a treasure trove of insights for anyone in search of living a good life.
Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius
by Ryan Holiday Stephen HanselmanFrom the bestselling authors of The Daily Stoic comes an inspiring guide to the lives of the Stoics, and what the ancients can teach us about happiness, success, resilience and virtue.Nearly 2,300 years after a ruined merchant named Zeno first established a school on the Stoa Poikile of Athens, Stoicism has found a new audience among those who seek greatness, from athletes to politicians and everyone in between. It's no wonder; the philosophy and its embrace of self-mastery, virtue, and indifference to that which we cannot control is as urgent today as it was in the chaos of the Roman Empire. In Lives of the Stoics, Holiday and Hanselman present the fascinating lives of the men and women who strove to live by the timeless Stoic virtues of Courage. Justice. Temperance. Wisdom. Organized in digestible, mini-biographies of all the well-known--and not so well-known--Stoics, this book vividly brings home what Stoicism was like for the people who loved it and lived it, dusting off powerful lessons to be learned from their struggles and successes. More than a mere history book, every example in these pages, from Epictetus to Marcus Aurelius--slaves to emperors--is designed to help the reader apply philosophy in their own lives. Holiday and Hanselman unveil the core values and ideas that unite figures from Seneca to Cato to Cicero across the centuries. Among them are the idea that self-rule is the greatest empire, that character is fate; how Stoics benefit from preparing not only for success, but failure; and learn to love, not merely accept, the hand they are dealt in life. A treasure of valuable insights and stories, this book can be visited again and again by any reader in search of inspiration from the past.
Lives of the Voice: An Essay on Closeness
by Hans Ulrich GumbrechtWhen it comes to understanding the ontology of individual existence—that is, the everyday behaviors that we all perform and hardly ever think about—the voice has a particularly complicated status. Together with writing, voice is the medium expressing ideas that, broadly speaking, we have previously formed in our minds. At the same time, voices trigger vague images and associations that do not have determinate forms. Writing in both a personal and philosophical register, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht explores the complexity of the voice as an understudied philosophical, social, and existential phenomenon. He starts out with a focus on its core intellectual problem as "the knot of the voice" —referring to the inseparable proximity between meanings, images, and the physical perceptions on which they depend. In conversation with Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida, Lyotard, Luhmann, and above all Roland Barthes, Gumbrecht addresses topics that range from the social functions of the voice to its status in different historical contexts, and to the ways in which the perception of voices animates imagination. Throughout, incisive analyses of moments such as Julius Caesar's purportedly high-pitched voice, the surprisingly fragile authority of God's voice in the Torah and in the Gospel, and Gumbrecht's own personal attachment to the voices of popular singers such as Edith Piaf, Elvis Presley, and Adele, create a portrait of the voice that is both philosophically challenging and entertaining to read.
Lives on the Left
by Noam Chomsky Luciana Castellina Giovanni Arrighi Francis Mulhern Akira AsadaThe extended critical interview is especially flexible as a form, by turns tenacious and glancing, elliptical or sustained, combining argument and counter-argument, reflection, history and memoir with a freedom normally denied to its subjects in conventional writing formats. Lives on the Left brings together sixteen such interviews from New Left Review in a group portrait of intellectual engagement in the twentieth century and since.Four generations of intellectuals discuss their political histories and present perspectives, and the specialized work for which they are, often, best known. Their recollections span the century from the Great War and the October Revolution to the present, ranging across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Psychoanalysis, philosophy, the gendering of private and public life, capital and class formation, the novel, geography, and language are among the topics of theoretical discussion. At the heart of the collection, in all its diversity of testimony and judgement, is critical experience of communism and the tradition of Marx, relayed now for a new generation of readers.Lives on the Left includes interviews with Georg Lukács, Hedda Korsch, Jean-Paul Sartre, Dorothy Thompson, Jiri Pelikan, Ernest Mandel, Luciana Castellina, Lucio Colletti, K. Damodaran, Noam Chomsky, David Harvey, Adolfo Gilly, João Pedro Stédile, Asada Akira, Wang Hui and Giovanni Arrighi.New Left Review was founded in 1960 in London, which has remained its base ever since. In fifty years of publication, it has won an international reputation as an independent journal of socialist politics and ideas, attracting readers and contributors from every part of the world. A Spanish-language edition is published bi-monthly from Madrid.
Livestock and Literature: Reimagining Postanimal Companion Species (Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature)
by Liza B. BauerThis book explores the past and current traces that cows, pigs, chickens, and other animals used by humans have left in Anglophone literary fiction. In times of accelerated global warming, an acute pandemic, and breakthroughs in bioengineering practices, discussions on how to rethink the relationships to these animals have become as heated as perhaps never before. Livestock and Literature examines what literature has to contribute to these debates. In particular, it draws on counter-narratives to so-called livestock animals’ commodification in selected science- and speculative fiction (SF) works from the twenty-first century. These texts imagine ‘what if’ scenarios where “livestock” practice resistance, transform into biotechnologically modified, postanimal beings, or live in close companionship to humans. Via these three points of access, the study delineates the formal and thematic strategies SF authors apply to challenge anthropocentric and speciesist thought patterns. The aim is to shed light on how these alternative storyworlds expand readers’ understanding of the lives of farmed animals; seeking insight into how literature shapes human-animal relationships beyond the page.
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
by David EaglemanYou will never think about your brain in the same way again. The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself. If you were to zoom into the living, microscopic cosmos inside the skull, you would witness tentacle-like extensions grasping, bumping, sensing, searching for the right connections to establish or forego, like denizens of a country establishing friendships, marriages, neighbourhoods, political parties, vendettas, and social networks. It's a mysterious kind of computational material, an organic three-dimensional textile that adjusts itself to operate with maximum efficiency. The brain is not hardwired, David Eagleman contends--it is livewired. With his new theory of infotropism, Eagleman demonstrates why the fundamental principle of the brain is information maximization: in the same way that plants grow toward light, brains reconfigure to boost data from the outside world. Follow Eagleman on a thrilling journey to discover how a child can function with one half of his brain removed, how a blind man can hit a baseball via a sensor on his tongue, how new devices and body plans can enhance our natural capacities, how paralyzed people will soon be able to dance in thought-controlled robotic suits, how we can build the next generation of devices based on the principles of the brain, and what all this has to do with why we dream at night.