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Smoke Hole: Looking to the Wild in the Time of the Spyglass
by Martin Shaw"A modern-day bard."—Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles"Shaw has so much wisdom and knowledge about the old stories, it emanates from his pores."—John Densmore, The Doors"Through feral tales and poetic exegesis, Martin Shaw makes you re-see the world, as a place of adventure and of initiation, as perfect home and as perfectly other. What a gift."—David Keenan, author of Xstabeth"I can still remember the first time I heard Martin Shaw tell a story. The tale that emerged was like a living thing, bounding around, throwing itself at us there listening. I had never heard anything like it before."—Paul Kingsnorth, Booker shortlisted author of The WakeToday, as we are confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our lives – identity, technology, love, seduction, politics – celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole – three ancient myths that serve as metaphors for our world today. Assailed by the seductive promises of social media and shadowed by a pandemic that brought loneliness to an all-time high, Martin argues that we are losing our sense of direction, our sense of self.He invites us to use these stories to help find &‘a commons for the imagination, a place to breathe deeper, feel steadier and become acquainted with rapture.&’ Smoke Hole is a passionate call to arms and an invitation to use these stories to face the complexities of contemporary life, from fake news to parenthood, climate crises, addictive technology and more.
Smoke and Mirrors: How Science Reflects Reality (Philosophical Issues in Science)
by James Robert BrownRealism is an enlightening story, a tale which enriches our experience and makes it more intelligible. Yet this wonderful picture of humanity's best efforts at knowledge has been badly bruised by numerous critics. James Robert Brown in Smoke and Mirrors fights back against figures such as Richard Rorty, Bruno Latour, Michael Ruse and Hilary Putnam who have attacked realist accounts of science. But this volume is not wholly devoted to combating Rorty and others who blow smoke in our eyes; the second half is concerned with arguing that there are some amazing ways in which science mirrors the world. The role of abstraction, abstract objects and a priori ways of getting at reality are all explored in showing how science reflects reality. Smoke and Mirrors is a defence of science and knowledge in general as well as a defence of a particular way of understanding science. It is of interest to all those who wish or need to know how science works.
Smoother Pebbles: Essays in the Sociology of Science
by Jonathan R. ColeUntil the middle of the twentieth century, few thought of science as a social system, instead seeing scientific discovery as the work of individual geniuses. Columbia University’s Department of Sociology played a pivotal role in advancing the social study of science. Researchers of the “Columbia Program” analyzed how science works as a social institution, exploring its norms, values, and structure.Smoother Pebbles presents a collection of essays authored or coauthored by Jonathan R. Cole, a leading Columbia Program figure, that trace the development and institutionalization of the sociology of science. Spanning from the 1960s to the 2020s and including both empirical and theoretical studies of science, the book is at once wide-ranging and united by core questions. Are scientists rewarded for the merits of their work or for other reasons? How does the system of social stratification in science operate? Has the funding of scientists been the result of an “old boys’ network”? How fair is the peer review process? In what ways does science fall short of its universalistic ideals? What factors have constrained opportunities for women in science? How has science fared amid attacks on academic freedom and free inquiry at universities? Cole’s introduction contextualizes both individual essays and the major concerns of the Columbia Program. Smoother Pebbles is essential reading for those interested in the growth and crucial questions of the sociology and social studies of science.
Snapshots (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)
by Claudio MagrisA collection of brief, but intimate meditations on life and culture ranging from controversial matters to private moments The internationally acclaimed author Claudio Magris offers a collection of brief “snapshots” reflecting on life and culture from 1999 to 2013 through his very personal lens. Some pieces portray private, intimate moments, while others offer views on public, sometimes controversial matters; the tone is sometimes serious, sometimes humorous, sometimes ironic, but always engaging. The panoramic nature of the vignettes is broad in scope, encompassing a variety of subjects rendered in quick, decisive brushstrokes. It is a little like leafing through a photo album of our times and our society while a learned companion seated beside us offers a perceptive running commentary. Magris’s wit—at times pungent, at times self‑deprecating, always keen—is refreshingly affable. A continuing adventure by the author who has reinvented “travel literature.”
Snarl: In Defense of Stalled Traffic and Faulty Networks
by Ruth A. MillerRuth A. Miller excavates a centuries-old history of nonhuman and nonbiological constitutional engagement and outlines a robust mechanical democracy that challenges existing theories of liberal and human political participation. Drawing on an eclectic set of legal, political, and automotive texts from France, Turkey, and the United States, she proposes a radical mechanical re-articulation of three of the most basic principles of democracy: vitality, mobility, and liberty. Rather than defending a grand theory of materialist or posthumanist politics, or addressing abstract concepts or "things" writ large, Miller invites readers into a self-contained history of constitutionalism situated in a focused discussion of automobile traffic congestion in Paris, Istanbul, and Boston. Within the mechanical public sphere created by automotive space, Snarl finds a model of democratic politics that transforms our most fundamental assumptions about the nature, and constitutional potential, of life, movement, and freedom.
Sobering Wisdom: Philosophical Explorations of Twelve Step Spirituality
by Nicholas Plants Jerome A. MillerOriginally developed by Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Step program now provides life direction for the millions of people worldwide who are recovering from addiction and undergoing profound personal transformation. Yet thus far it has received surprisingly little attention from philosophers, despite the fact that, like philosophy, the program addresses all-important questions regarding how we ought to live. In Sobering Wisdom, Jerome A. Miller and Nicholas Plants offer a unique approach to the Twelve Step program by exploring its spirituality from a philosophical point of view. Drawing on a variety of thinkers from Aristotle to William James and from Nietzsche to Foucault, as well as a diverse range of philosophical perspectives including naturalism, Buddhism, existentialism, Confucianism, pragmatism, and phenomenology, the contributors to this volume address such questions as the relation of personal responsibility to an acknowledgment of powerlessness, the existence of a "higher power," and the role of virtue in recovery. Ranging in tone from deeply scholarly to intensely personal, their essays are written in an accessible way for a broad audience that includes not only philosophers, theologians, and psychologists but also spiritual directors, health professionals, and addiction counselors. Perhaps most important, the book is also conceived for those involved in Twelve Step programs whose lives are being transformed by the experience.
Sobre la educación: La necesidad de la literatura y la vigencia de la filosofía
by Emilio LledóLa defensa a ultranza de una educación moderna y emancipadora, de enfoque humanista y con un papel clave reservado a la Filosofía. <P><P>Emilio Lledó, uno de los más relevantes pensadores españoles de nuestro tiempo, ha situado la educación en el centro de su filosofía, y el ideal pedagógico que defiende se alimenta, por supuesto, de unos sólidos cimientos filosóficos con especial atención en la filosofía griega clásica, al lenguaje y a la memoria, pero también de una larga experiencia en las aulas. <P>Lledó, a favor de una educación pública «que haga desaparecer las azarosas e injustas diferencias que necesariamente impone la sociedad», defiende también una organización moderna e interdisciplinaria -no asignaturesca- de los conocimientos, reflexiona sobre la identidad, la necesidad de cultivar el lenguaje, los peligros de la obsesión tecnológica, de la escuela y la universidad, y de la paulatina desaparición de las Humanidades. <P>«En la raíz de la palabra "educación" está un verbo latino que significa "guiar", "conducir"; pero también sacar algo de alguien: guiar, pues, y desarrollar lo que yace en el fondo originario de cada naturaleza que es dinamismo, posibilidad, evolución, progreso.»Emilio Lledó
Sobre la voluntad en la Naturaleza
by Arthur SchopenhauerEl filósofo alemán Arthur Schopenhauer (Danzing, 1788-1860) tuvo más influencia sobre los escritores que sobre los pensadores. Los motivos: su forma de escribir, clara y sencilla, algo muy difícil de encontrar en cualquier filósofo, y su manera de reflexionar, despiadadamente crítica, cercana al sin salida ontológico. Los pensamientos -y contribuciones- de Schopenhauer giran entre la representación del objeto y el objeto mismo, en esa zona metafísica que él denomina voluntad.
Sobre las ruinas de la clase media
by Christophe GuilluyUn ensayo imprescindible para entender la sociedad actual en su totalidad. Este ensayo, que forma parte de la obra No society (Taurus), muestra como la desaparición de la clase media está estrechamente relacionada con la globalización y el drástico crecimiento del populismo. Así pues, fenómenos como el Brexit o Trump no son fruto de la irracionalidad, sino una consecuencia directa del modelo económico y social que, desde la segunda mitad del siglo XX, ha estado acabando la clase media. Esta ha sido sustituida por el mundo de las periferias, que actualmente abarca a la gran mayoría de grupos de la sociedad: desde los jubilados a los estudiantes. «La suma de los márgenes acaba por formar un todo: la sociedad.»
Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro: Uma breve história de cinco séculos
by Lilia M. SchwarczDe uma das historiadoras brasileiras mais influentes e premiadas da actualidade, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, chega-nos uma viagem urgente e esclarecedora aos subterrâneos da história brasileira. Um dos 10 melhores e mais vendidos livros brasileiros de 2019 Tal como os portugueses, também os brasileiros gostam de se crer mais diversos, tolerantes, abertos, pacíficos e acolhedores do que aquilo que realmente são. Esta mitologia, que domina ambas as narrativas nacionais, tem consequências muito visíveis e diretas na história destes dois países tão umbilicalmente ligados. Ao longo de oito capítulos, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, uma das mais conceituadas historiadoras do Brasil contemporâneo, explora temas tão determinantes quando fraturantes na história do Brasil: o racismo, a desigualdade social, a corrupção, a violência, a escravatura, a intolerância. Aqui seencontram algumas das raízes do autoritarismo brasileiro, na sua maioria originárias dos tempos coloniais e frequentemente mascaradas por uma mitologia nacional construída ad hoc e que obscurece uma realidade marcada pela lógica da dominação. Para a construção de uma sociedade mais justa e igualitária, no Brasil e no mundo, é urgente analisar e compreender as origens da desigualdade e do descontentamento, destrinçar a história de uma nação dos seus mitos fundadores e lançar a escada para a via da educação e da cidadania activa. «História não é bula de remédio nem produz efeitos rápidos de curta ou longa duração. Ajuda, porém, a tirar do véu do espanto e a produzir uma discussão mais crítica sobre nosso passado, nosso presente e sonho de futuro.» Da introdução de Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro, breve história de cinco séculos
Soccer and Philosophy
by Ted RichardsThis collection of incisive articles gives a leading team of international philosophers a free kick toward exploring the complex and often hidden contours of the world of soccer. What does it really mean to be a fan (and why should we count Aristotle as one)? Why do great players such as Cristiano Ronaldo count as great artists (up there alongside Picasso, one author argues)? From the ethics of refereeing to the metaphysics of bent (like Beckham) space-time, this book shows soccer fans and philosophy buffs alike new ways to appreciate and understand the world's favorite sport.
Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity
by Hartmut Rosa Jonathan Trejo-MathysHartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal realtionships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time. According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match the future. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slippery slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.
Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity (New Directions in Critical Theory)
by Hartmut RosaHartmut Rosa advances an account of the temporal structure of society from the perspective of critical theory. He identifies three categories of change in the tempo of modern social life: technological acceleration, evident in transportation, communication, and production; the acceleration of social change, reflected in cultural knowledge, social institutions, and personal relationships; and acceleration in the pace of life, which happens despite the expectation that technological change should increase an individual's free time.According to Rosa, both the structural and cultural aspects of our institutions and practices are marked by the "shrinking of the present," a decreasing time period during which expectations based on past experience reliably match the future. When this phenomenon combines with technological acceleration and the increasing pace of life, time seems to flow ever faster, making our relationships to each other and the world fluid and problematic. It is as if we are standing on "slipping slopes," a steep social terrain that is itself in motion and in turn demands faster lives and technology. As Rosa deftly shows, this self-reinforcing feedback loop fundamentally determines the character of modern life.
Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment: Pleasure, Reflection and Accountability
by Jennifer A. McMahonThis edited collection sets forth a new understanding of aesthetic-moral judgment organized around three key concepts: pleasure, reflection, and accountability. The overarching theme is that art is not merely a representation or expression like any other, but that it promotes shared moral understanding and helps us engage in meaning-making. This volume offers an alternative to brain-centric and realist approaches to aesthetics. It features original essays from a number of leading philosophers of art, aesthetics, ethics, and perception, including Elizabeth Burns Coleman, Garrett Cullity, Cynthia A. Freeland, Ivan Gaskell, Paul Guyer, Jane Kneller, Keith Lehrer, Mohan Matthen, Jennifer A. McMahon, Bence Nanay, Nancy Sherman, and Robert Sinnerbrink. Part I of the book analyses the elements of aesthetic experience—pleasure, preference, and imagination—with the individual conceived as part of a particular cultural context and network of other minds. The chapters in Part II explain how it is possible for cultural learning to impact these elements through consensus building, an impulse to objectivity, emotional expression, and reflection. Finally, the chapters in Part III converge on the role of dissonance, difference, and diversity in promoting cultural understanding and advancement. Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment will appeal to philosophers of art and aesthetics, as well as scholars in other disciplines interested in issues related to art and cultural exchange.
Social Agency: Dilemmas and Education (Praxiology Ser. #Vol. 4)
by Wojciech W. GasparskiPraxiology deals with doing and working from the point of view of effectiveness. It has three components: analysis of concepts involving purposive actions; critique of models of action from the viewpoint of efficiency; and normative advisory aspects in recommendations for increasing human efficiency. This fourth volume of the Praxiology series is devoted to the very special topic of social agency. It focuses on two important praxiological concepts: rationality and preparation as preconditions for human action to be effective and efficient.The question of efficiency was raised by Anatol Rapoport over three decades ago in his lecture to the audience at the Praxiological Seminar in Warsaw in 1961. Social Agency begins with an article written by this same famous scholar on the topic of decision theory, "Social Dilemmas: A Historical Overview." Social dilemmas is the subject of the first part of this volume, a question related to studies on human action guided by two types of rationality: individual and collective rationality. The intersection of the two, in which individuals meet collectives, creates the situation in which social agency emerges, generating dilemmatic circumstances for the actors involved.The articles collected in the second part explore praxiological dimensions of education aimed toward the knowledge society, because of knowledge possessed and produced by educated persons. Chapters and contributors to volume 4 include: "Five Questions on the Research on Social Dilemmas" by Marek K. Mlicki; "Psychological Processes Underlying Cooperation in Social Dilemmas" by Paul A. M. Van Lange and David M. Messick; "Designing a System for Design Learning: Designers and/or Learners?" by Arne Collen; "Creating an Evolutionary Image of New Systems of Learning and Human Development" by Janet A. Khan; and "A Study Program Design in Retrospect" by Stig C. Holmberg. Social Agency continues the trend of original research done in a little-known, but important area. Social scientists, policymakers, and educators will benefit from this work.
Social Analysis of Education: After the new sociology (Routledge Library Editions: Sociology of Education #57)
by Philip WexlerFirst published in 1987, this book offers an ideological critique of the new sociology of education, with the aim to redeem understanding of the social and historical character of knowledge. It argues that with an historical and social grasp, university knowledge can be understood as a collective product and can become a useful resource for encountering and transforming the social present. To reach this objective, the book reviews the history of the new sociology of education and shows how it is limited by earlier times and social conflicts. In doing so, it aims to continue the unrealized critical analysis that was promised by the new sociology of education and remained contained.
Social Appearances: A Philosophy of Display and Prestige (Columbia Themes in Philosophy, Social Criticism, and the Arts)
by Barbara CarnevaliPhilosophers have long distinguished between appearance and reality, and the opposition between a supposedly deceptive surface and a more profound truth is deeply rooted in Western culture. At a time of obsession with self-representation, when politics is enmeshed with spectacle and social and economic forces are intensely aestheticized, philosophy remains moored in traditional dichotomies: being versus appearing, interiority versus exteriority, authenticity versus alienation. Might there be more to appearance than meets the eye?In this strikingly original book, Barbara Carnevali offers a philosophical examination of the roles that appearances play in social life. While Western metaphysics and morals have predominantly disdained appearances and expelled them from their domain, Carnevali invites us to look at society, ancient to contemporary, as an aesthetic phenomenon. The ways in which we appear in public and the impressions we make in terms of images, sounds, smells, and sensations are discerned by other people’s senses and assessed according to their taste; this helps shape our ways of being and the world around us. Carnevali shows that an understanding of appearances is necessary to grasp the dynamics of interaction, recognition, and power in which we live—and to avoid being dominated by them. Anchored in philosophy and traversing sociology, art history, literature, and popular culture, Social Appearances develops new theoretical and conceptual tools for today’s most urgent critical tasks.
Social Bodies: Science, Reproduction, and Italian Modernity (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History)
by David G. HornUsing as his example post-World War I Italy and the government's interest in the size, growth rate, and "vitality" of its national population, David Horn suggests a genealogy for our present understanding of procreation as a site for technological intervention and political contestation. Social Bodies looks at how population and reproductive bodies came to be the objects of new sciences, technologies, and government policies during this period. It examines the linked scientific constructions of Italian society as a body threatened by the "disease" of infertility, and of women and men as social bodies--located neither in nature nor in the private sphere, but in that modern domain of knowledge and intervention carved out by statistics, sociology, social hygiene, and social work.Situated at the intersection of anthropology, cultural studies, and feminist studies of science, the book explores the interrelated factors that produced the practices of reason we call social science and social planning. David Horn draws on many sources to analyze the discourses and practices of "social experts," the resistance these encountered, and the often unintended effects of the new objectification of bodies and populations. He shows how science, while affirming that maternity was part of woman's "nature," also worked to remove reproduction from the domain of the natural, making it an object of technological intervention. This reconstitution of bodies through the sciences and technologies of the social, Horn argues, continues to have material consequences for women and men throughout the West.
Social Capital, Lifelong Learning and the Management of Place: An International Perspective
by Bruce Wilson Michael Osborne Kate SankeyWith contributions from around the world, this book brings together inter-related research from three fields: social capital, place management and lifelong learning regions. Providing valuable insight into the management of place and the development of learning at a regional level, the book presents international research that underpins the development and implementation of policies and practices that improve the quality of living and working circumstances at both local and regional levels. International in scope and at the cutting edge of research into this growing field that links lifelong learning to place, the book will appeal both to academics undertaking research in this burgeoning field and to those involved in lifelong learning at local, national and international level.
Social Changes and Yuwen Education in Post-Mao China: Control, Conformity and Contradiction (Education and Society in China)
by Min TaoInspired by the author’s observations of the language curriculum as a practising teacher for the past 20 years, this book addresses how the high school Chinese language and literacy (Yuwen) curriculum in China was controlled and directed in the post-Mao era. Examining the social and political domination from 1980 to 2010, the book offers insights into how teachers and schools responded to the top-down curriculum change in their teaching practice. This book discusses some of the most important questions concerning China and its education system: What changes have occurred in the Chinese language and literacy curricula; how and why the changes have occurred; who has been in control of the process and outcome; and what impacts the curriculum changes may bring not only to China but to the international sectors that "export" education and degrees to China and Chinese students. The author provides answers to these questions crucial to both the contemporary Chinese society and the students who come out of that system. This critical inquiry of the Yuwen curriculum and its implementation provides a valuable and timely showcase for understanding the ideology of China's future generation and the social and political transformation in the past three decades. In addition to researchers, this book is expected to have impact on policymakers in China and beyond, where Chinese migrants and international students constitute a substantial learning population.
Social Choice and Legitimacy
by John W. Patty Elizabeth Maggie PennGoverning requires choices, and hence trade-offs between conflicting goals or criteria. This book asserts that legitimate governance requires explanations for such trade-offs and then demonstrates that such explanations can always be found, though not for every possible choice. In so doing, John W. Patty and Elizabeth Maggie Penn use the tools of social choice theory to provide a new and discriminating theory of legitimacy. In contrast with both earlier critics and defenders of social choice theory, Patty and Penn argue that the classic impossibility theorems of Arrow, Gibbard, and Satterthwaite are inescapably relevant to, and indeed justify, democratic institutions. Specifically, these institutions exist to do more than simply make policy - through their procedures and proceedings, these institutions make sense of the trade-offs required when controversial policy decisions must be made.
Social Choreography: Ideology as Performance in Dance and Everyday Movement
by Andrew HewittThrough the concept of "social choreography" Andrew Hewitt demonstrates how choreography has served not only as metaphor for modernity but also as a structuring blueprint for thinking about and shaping modern social organization. Bringing dance history and critical theory together, he shows that ideology needs to be understood as something embodied and practiced, not just as an abstract form of consciousness. Linking dance and the aesthetics of everyday movement--such as walking, stumbling, and laughter--to historical ideals of social order, he provides a powerful exposition of Marxist debates about the relation of ideology and aesthetics. Hewitt focuses on the period between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth and considers dancers and social theorists in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States. Analyzing the arguments of writers including Friedrich Schiller, Theodor Adorno, Hans Brandenburg, Ernst Bloch, and Siegfried Kracauer, he reveals in their thinking about the movement of bodies a shift from an understanding of play as the condition of human freedom to one prioritizing labor as either the realization or alienation of embodied human potential. Whether considering understandings of the Charleston, Isadora Duncan, Nijinsky, or the famous British chorus line the Tiller Girls, Hewitt foregrounds gender as he uses dance and everyday movement to rethink the relationship of aesthetics and social order.
Social Class and Educational Inequality: The Impact of Parents and Schools
by Iram Siraj Aziza MayoSocial class is often seen as an intractable barrier to success, yet a number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds still manage to show resilience and succeed against the odds. This book presents the findings from fifty Child and Family Case Studies (CFCS) conducted with 13–16 year olds. The authors look specifically at the roles that people and experiences - at home, in schools and in the wider community - have played in the learning life-courses of these children; how these factors have affected their achievement; and explanations and meanings given by respondents to the unique characteristics, experiences and events in their lives. Featuring the voices of real parents and children, and backed up by a decade of quantitative data, this is a compelling record that will help readers to understand the complex nature of social disadvantage and the interplay between risk and protective factors in homes and schools that can make for a transformational educational experience.
Social Class, Social Action, and Education
by Aaron SchutzSchutz demonstrates that progressive ideas of democracy emerged out of the practices of a new middle class, reacting, in part, against the more conflictive social struggles of the working-class. The volume traces two distinct branches of democratic progressivism: collaborative and personalist.
Social Cohesion in the Western World
by Jan Delhey Georgi Dragolov Zsófia S. Ignácz Jan Lorenz Klaus Boehnke Kai UnzickerMany people in the Western world are concerned that the social fabric ofsocieties is fraying. This book constitutes the first-of-its-kind systematicaccount of social cohesion, from theory through methodology to empiricalevidence. Readers are introduced to the academically developed Social CohesionRadar of Bertelsmann Stiftung, a globally active non-governmental organization. The Social Cohesion Radar defines and measures cohesion as characterized bythree core aspects: resilient social relations, positive emotionalconnectedness between people and the community, and a pronounced focus on thecommon good. Using high-quality academic and institutional data sources, theSocial Cohesion Radar provides insights into the level and development ofsocial cohesion over a period of almost 25 years internationally, among 34European Union and OECD members, and regionally, among the 16 federal states ofGermany. It further provides insights into what influences cohesion, and whatcohesion is good for. One of the key findings is that social cohesion promotesa happier life for everyone.