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The Significance of Indeterminacy: Perspectives from Asian and Continental Philosophy (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Robert H. Scott Gregory S. MossWhile indeterminacy is a recurrent theme in philosophy, less progress has been made in clarifying its significance for various philosophical and interdisciplinary contexts. This collection brings together early-career and well-known philosophers—including Graham Priest, Trish Glazebrook, Steven Crowell, Robert Neville, Todd May, and William Desmond—to explore indeterminacy in greater detail. The volume is unique in that its essays demonstrate the positive significance of indeterminacy, insofar as indeterminacy opens up new fields of discourse and illuminates neglected aspects of various concepts and phenomena. The essays are organized thematically around indeterminacy’s impact on various areas of philosophy, including post-Kantian idealism, phenomenology, ethics, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and East Asian philosophy. They also take an interdisciplinary approach by elaborating the conceptual connections between indeterminacy and literature, music, religion, and science.
The Significance of the Lvov-Warsaw School in the European Culture
by Friedrich Stadler Anna Brożek Jan WoleńskiThis volume is a result of the international symposium "The Tradition of the Lvov-Warsaw School in European Culture," which took place in Warsaw, Poland, September 2015. It collects almost all the papers presented at the symposium as well as some additional ones. The contributors include scholars from Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Poland. The papers are devoted to the history and reception of the Lvov-Warsaw School, a Polish branch of analytic philosophy. They present the School's achievements as well as its connections to other analytic groups. The contributors also show how the tradition of the School is developed contemporarily. The title will appeal to historians of analytic philosophy as well as historians of philosophy in Central Europe.
The Significance of the New Logic
by Walter Carnielli Willard Van Quine Frederique Janssen-Lauret William PickeringW. V. Quine was one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century American analytic philosophy. Although he wrote predominantly in English, in Brazil in 1942 he gave a series of lectures on logic and its philosophy in Portuguese, subsequently published as the book O Sentido da Nova Lógica. The book has never before been fully translated into English, and this volume is the first to make its content accessible to Anglophone philosophers. Quine would go on to develop revolutionary ideas about semantic holism and ontology, and this book provides a snapshot of his views on logic and language at a pivotal stage of his intellectual development. The volume also includes an essay on logic which Quine also published in Portuguese, together with an extensive historical-philosophical essay by Frederique Janssen-Lauret. The valuable and previously neglected works first translated in this volume will be essential for scholars of twentieth-century philosophy.
The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths
by John GrayA searching, captivating look at the persistence of myth in our modern world"By nature volatile and discordant, the human animal looks to silence for relief from being itself while other creatures enjoy silence as their birthright."In a book by turns chilling and beautiful, John Gray continues the thinking that made his Straw Dogs such a cult classic. Gray draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction, and philosophy to re-imagine our place in the world. Writers as varied as Ballard, Borges, Conrad, and Freud have been mesmerized by forms of human extremity—experiences that are on the outer edge of the possible or that tip into fantasy and myth. What happens to us when we starve, when we fight, when we are imprisoned? And how do our imaginations leap into worlds way beyond our real experiences?The Silence of Animals is consistently fascinating, filled with unforgettable images and a delight in the conundrum of human existence—an existence that we decorate with countless myths and ideas, where we twist and turn to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals, separated from the others perhaps only by our self-conceit. In the Babel we have created for ourselves, it is the silence of animals that both reproaches and bewitches us.
The Silence of Constitutions: Gaps, 'Abeyances' and Political Temperament in the Maintenance of Government (Routledge Revivals)
by Michael FoleyFirst published in 1989, Michael’s Foley’s book deals with the ‘abeyances’ present in both written and unwritten constitutions, arguing that these gaps in the explicitness of a constitution, and the various ways they are preserved, provide the means by which constitutional conflict is continually postponed. Abeyances are valuable, therefore, not in spite of their obscurity, but because of it.
The Silent Guns of Two Octobers: Kennedy and Khrushchev Play the Double Game
by Theodore VoorheesThe Silent Guns of Two Octobers uses new as well as previously under-appreciated documentary evidence to link the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Checkpoint Charlie tank standoff to achieve the impossible—craft a new, thoughtful, original analysis of a political showdown everyone thought they knew everything about. Ultimately the book concludes that much of the Cold War rhetoric the leaders employed was mere posturing; in reality neither had any intention of starting a nuclear war. Theodore Voorhees reexamines Khrushchev’s and Kennedy’s leadership, decision, and rhetoric in light of the new documentary evidence available. Voorhees examines the impact of John F. Kennedy's domestic political concerns about his upcoming first midterm elections on his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis through his use of back-channel dealings with Khrushchev during the lead-up to the crisis and in the closing days when the two leaders managed to reach a settlement.
The Silent Guns of Two Octobers: Kennedy and Khrushchev Play the Double Game
by Theodore VoorheesThe Silent Guns of Two Octobers uses new as well as previously under-appreciated documentary evidence to link the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Checkpoint Charlie tank standoff to achieve the impossible—craft a new, thoughtful, original analysis of a political showdown everyone thought they knew everything about. Ultimately the book concludes that much of the Cold War rhetoric the leaders employed was mere posturing; in reality neither had any intention of starting a nuclear war. Theodore Voorhees reexamines Khrushchev’s and Kennedy’s leadership, decision, and rhetoric in light of the new documentary evidence available. Voorhees examines the impact of John F. Kennedy's domestic political concerns about his upcoming first midterm elections on his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis through his use of back-channel dealings with Khrushchev during the lead-up to the crisis and in the closing days when the two leaders managed to reach a settlement.
The Simone Weil Reader
by Simone WeilAs a book The Simone Weil Reader has its own special and autonomous identity, containing the essence of Simone Weil's thought in its representative scope, range, focus.
The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings
by Ken WilberThe author of nineteen books of philosophy and psychology, Ken Wilber is a pioneering thinker who has developed an integral "theory of everything" that embraces the truths of both Eastern spirituality and Western science. Yet while he is best known for his scholarly research into the world's contemplative traditions, Wilber is also an accomplished spiritual practitioner and mystic in his own right. In order to highlight the personal wisdom of this popular author, the editors of The Simple Feeling of Being have assembled a collection of inspirational, mystical, and instructional passages drawn from his publications. These heartfelt writings, born of Ken's own meditation practice and inner experiences, include:Poetic passages of contemplative insights and reflectionsInspired descriptions of Spirit, Nondual Awareness, the Witness, One Taste, and other topicsCommentary on the spiritual contributions of figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Saint Teresa of Ávila, Meister Eckhart, and Ramana MaharshiAnecdotes of personal experience and glimpses into Wilber's inner worldPractical spiritual instructions and guided meditations
The Simpsons and Philosophy
by William Irwin Mark T. Conard Aeon J. SkobleThis unconventional and lighthearted introduction to the ideas of the major Western philosophers examines The Simpsons - TV's favorite animated family. The authors look beyond the jokes, the crudeness, the attacks on society - and see a clever display of irony, social criticism, and philosophical thought. The writers begin with an examination of the characters. Does Homer actually display Aristotle's virtues of character? In what way does Bart exemplify American pragmatism? The book also examines the ethics and themes of the show, and concludes with discussions of how the series reflects the work of Aristotle, Marx, Camus, Sartre, and other thinkers.
The Singing Guru: Legends and Adventures of Guru Nanak, the First Sikh
by Kamla K. KapurPart fiction, history, and mythology, this unconventional retelling of the life of divine spiritual master Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion and revered by Muslims and Hindus alike, provides an intimate look at the enlightened Guru while bringing his ancient wisdom to a modern audience.From the best-selling author of Ganesha Goes to Lunch and Rumi&’s Tales from the Silk Road comes an original novel about the life and travels of Guru Nanak, a musician, enlightened thinker, and one of the most beloved figures in Eastern spirituality. In this fascinating book, Kamla K. Kapur weaves together facts, legends, folktales, myths, and over forty of Guru Nanak&’s poems—preserved in the Sikh holy book, the Granth Sahib—to form this captivating depiction of the leader&’s life. From being seduced by deadly women to almost getting eaten by cannibals, the exciting account presented in The Singing Guruincludes moral tales without being proselytizing. Factual details are intermingled with fantasy to produce a symbolic portrait in which humor and imagination combine to convey a profound and entertaining spiritual narrative.
The Single-Minded Animal: Shared Intentionality, Normativity, and the Foundations of Discursive Cognition (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Preston StovallThis book provides an account of discursive or reason-governed cognition, by synthesizing research in the philosophy of language, the philosophy of mind, and evolutionary anthropology. Using the grasp of a natural language as a model for the autonomous or self-governed rationality of discursive cognition, the author uses a semantics for individual intentions, shared intentions, and normative attitudes as a framework for understanding what it is to be a rational animal. This semantics interprets claims about shared intentions and claims about what people ought and may do as the expression of plans of action that involve taking the points of view of other people within a community. This has important consequences for our understanding of both the natural basis and the social relevance of intentional and normative mental states. In order to distinguish the strong and weak modal force, which characterizes normativity but not shared intentionality, the author argues that a notion of single-minded practical cognition is necessary. This account of single-mindedness is then used to shed light on the autonomy or self-government characteristic of discursive cognition, as manifest in a linguistic community whose members are able to adopt the standpoints of others. Drawing together research in philosophy and the related sciences, the formal account of the semantic content of the claims we use to give expression to shared intentional and normative mental states integrates well with research in cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, and social psychology concerning the ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of shared intentionality and norm psychology in human beings and other primates. The Single-Minded Animal will appeal to researchers and advanced students working on shared intentionality, normativity, rationality, cognitive science, social and developmental psychology, and evolutionary anthropology.
The Single-Neuron Theory
by Steven SevushThis book presents an engaging account of a provocative new theory which explores how our brain generates conscious experience and where this occurs. It suggests that conscious experience happens not at the whole brain level but at the level of individual nerve cells. The notion that the brain as a whole is sentient is an illusion created by the exquisite organization of the individually conscious neurons. Despite appearances to the contrary, conscious behavior that seems to be the product of a single macroscopic mind is actually the integrated output of a chorus of microscopic minds, each associated with an individual neuron. The result is a theory that revolutionizes our conception of who and what we are.
The Singular Politics of Derrida and Baudrillard
by Mihail EvansRecent years have seen the rise of anti-politics as a political phenomenon. Beyond this new rejection of the political class there has long existed a deeper challenge to the political itself. Identifying the work of Derrida as 'a politics' and that of Baudrillard as 'transpolitics' this book charts convergences and divergences in their approaches.
The Singular Voice of Being: John Duns Scotus and Ultimate Difference (Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies)
by Andrew T. LaZellaThe Singular Voice of Being reconsiders John Duns Scotus’s well-studied theory of the univocity of being in light of his less explored discussions of ultimate difference. Ultimate difference is a notion introduced by Aristotle and known by the Aristotelian tradition, but one that, this book argues, Scotus radically retrofits to buttress his doctrine of univocity. Scotus broadens ultimate difference to include not only specific differences, but also intrinsic modes of being (e.g., finite/infinite) and principles of individuation (i.e., haecceitates). Furthermore, he deepens it by divorcing it from anything with categorical classification, such as substantial form. Scotus uses his revamped notion of ultimate difference as a means of dividing being, despite the longstanding Parmenidean arguments against such division. The book highlights the unique role of difference in Scotus’s thought, which conceives of difference not as a fall from the perfect unity of being but rather as a perfective determination of an otherwise indifferent concept. The division of being culminates in individuation as the final degree of perfection, which constitutes indivisible (i.e., singular) degrees of being. This systematic study of ultimate difference opens new dimensions for understanding Scotus’s dense thought with respect to not only univocity, but also to individuation, cognition, and acts of the will.
The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method
by Jeffrey K. OlickNational identity and political legitimacy always involve a delicate balance between remembering and forgetting. All nations have elements in their past that they would prefer to pass over--the catalog of failures, injustices, and horrors committed in the name of nations, if fully acknowledged, could create significant problems for a country trying to move on and take action in the present. Yet denial and forgetting carry costs as well. Nowhere has this precarious balance been more potent, or important, than in the Federal Republic of Germany, where the devastation and atrocities of two world wars have weighed heavily in virtually every moment and aspect of political life. The Sins of the Fathers confronts that difficulty head-on, exploring the variety of ways that Germany's leaders since 1949 have attempted to meet this challenge, with a particular focus on how those approaches have changed over time. Jeffrey K. Olick asserts that other nations are looking to Germany as an example of how a society can confront a dark past--casting Germany as our model of difficult collective memory.
The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
by Chris HayesFrom the New York Times bestselling author and MSNBC and podcast host, a powerful wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society. <p> We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. <p> Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Because there is a breaking point. <p> Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, “Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human.” <p> The Sirens’ Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future. <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Six Bardos of the Tibetan Book of the Dead: Dzogchen Teachings on the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities
by Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche• Shares ancient Tibetan wisdom to help readers break through the process of &“ego-clinging&” to find deeper freedom and escape from feelings of lack and scarcity• Offers authentic guidance and support for confidence in overcoming challenges, bravery in caring for the self and others, as well as fearlessness in the face of dying• Examines key concepts and history in Dzogchen Buddhism, including a guide to the Vajrayana teachings, the Bardo teachings, and the role of the five elementsAccording to the Buddha, all sentient beings are naturally enlightened and have been pure since the beginning. However, in waking life, grasping and fear develop into ego-clinging and a cyclic state of delusion. This interval from the beginning of delusion until we return to our primordial nature is known as the bardo. Until we rediscover enlightenment, everything we feel, know, and experience is bardo phenomena.Exploring this understanding, so essential to the myriad schools of Buddhism, in rich and practical detail, renowned Dzogchen masters Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche offer a guide to implementing the teachings of the bardos of life and death from the Bardo Thodrol, commonly known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Drawing on their Dzogchen background—a Buddhist lineage focused on resting and abiding in our true nature—the authors explore key ideas from the famous Tibetan text, including the Vajrayana teachings, the five elements, peaceful and wrathful deities, and the nature of the six bardos (with particular emphasis on the bardo of dying). The authors provide practical advice for deeper self-awareness, improved care of the self and others, and confronting challenges fearlessly, especially the process of dying.The teachings offered by the authors in this guide are truly universal, offering a path out of delusion and allowing us all to &“ignite our inner light&” and rediscover our inner buddha nature as we move forward on the path to enlightenment.
The Six Healing Sounds: Taoist Techniques for Balancing Chi
by Mantak ChiaThe Six Healing Sounds that keep the vital organs in optimal condition • Presents vocalizations and accompanying postures that dissolve the tensions at the root of unhealthy chi flow and organ malfunction • Shows how to release excess heat trapped around the organs and redistribute it to cooler regions of the body to bring balance, health, and calmness to the entire system Thousands of years ago Taoist masters discovered that a healthy organ vibrates at a particular frequency. They found six sounds with the correct frequencies to keep each organ in optimal condition. To accompany these Six Healing Sounds, six postures were developed to activate the acupuncture meridians, or energy channels, of the corresponding organs. In The Six Healing Sounds Master Mantak Chia explains how the pressures of modern life can cause excess heat to become trapped around the organs, causing energy blockages and sickness. He shows readers how the vibrations of the Six Healing Sounds and their accompanying postures redistribute this excess heat to the cooler regions of the body, thereby stimulating and balancing chi energy and restoring the vital organs. Regular practice of the Six Healing Sounds promotes optimal health for the organs, increased sexual pleasure, emotional balance, and the prevention of illness.
The Six Perfections
by Geshe Sonam Rinchen Ruth SonamThe Six Perfection (generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort, concentration, and wisdom) are practiced by Bodhisattvas who have the supreme intention of attaining enlightenment for the sake of all living beings.
The Six Perfections: The Practice of the Bodhisattvas
by Lama Zopa RinpocheA practical and actionable guide to the six perfections, a backbone of the Buddhist path, by an internationally beloved teacher. The six perfections are the actions of the bodhisattvas—holy beings who have transcended selfless concerns. But they&’re also skills we can and should develop right now, in our messy, ordinary lives. In this clear, comprehensive guide to the backbone of Mahayana Buddhist practice, Lama Zopa Rinpoche walks us through each of the six perfections: -charity -morality -patience -perseverance -concentration -wisdom As he carefully describes each perfection, he not only reveals the depth of its meaning and how it intertwines with each other perfection, but he also explains how to practice it fully in our everyday lives—offering concrete ways for us to be more generous, more patient, more wise. With the guidance he gives us, we can progress in our practice of the perfections until we, like the bodhisattvas, learn to cherish others above ourselves.
The Sixties in Canada
by M. Athena PalaeologuEverywhere the 1960s are being examined and debated. Universities hold international conferences that bring together scholars and activists. Very little has been published about the sixties in Canada, however. This anthology is meant to close that gap. The essays in this volume reflect a minefield of research material that has been brought together from a rich reservoir of sources, heretofore little known.Contributors include Bryan Palmer, Jonathan Thompson, Anne Hoefnagels, Pat Smart, Sean Mills, Gillian Helfield, Myrna Kostash, John Cleveland, Paul Jackson, Carrie Dickenson, Eric Morton, Barbara Goddard, Laurence Davis, Kristin Ireland, Chris Harris, Kevin Brushett, and Dimitrios Roussopoulos.
The Sixties: Diaries 1960–1969
by Christopher IsherwoodThis second volume of Christopher Isherwood's remarkable diaries opens on his fifty-sixth birthday, as the fifties give way to the decade of social and sexual revolution. Isherwood takes the reader from the bohemian sunshine of Southern California to a London finally swinging free of post-war gloom, to the racy cosmopolitanism of New York and to the raw Australian outback. He charts his ongoing quest for spiritual certainty under the guidance of his Hindu guru, and he reveals in reckless detail the emotional drama of his love for the American painter Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior and struggling to establish his own artistic identity.The diaries are crammed with wicked gossip and probing psychological insights about the cultural icons of the time—Francis Bacon, Richard Burton, Leslie Caron, Marianne Faithfull, David Hockney, Mick Jagger, Hope Lange, W. Somerset Maugham, John Osborne, Vanessa Redgrave, Tony Richardson, David O. Selznick, Igor Stravinsky, Gore Vidal, and many others. But the diaries are most revealing about Isherwood himself—his fiction (including A Single Man and Down There on a Visit), his film writing, his college teaching, and his affairs of the heart. He moves easily from Beckett to Brando, from arthritis to aggression, from Tennessee Williams to foot powder, from the opening of Cabaret on Broadway (which he skipped) to a close analysis of Gide.In the background run references to the political and historical events of the period: the anxieties of the Cold War, Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight, de Gaulle and Algeria, the eruption of violence in America's inner cities, the Vietnam War, the Summer of Love, the moon landing, and the raising and lowering of hemlines. Isherwood is well known for his prophetic portraits of a morally bankrupt Europe on the eve of World War II; in this unparalleled chronicle, The Sixties, he turns his fearless eye on the decade that more than any other has shaped the way we live now.
The Size of Others' Burdens: Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of Helping Others
by Erik SchneiderhanAmericans have a fierce spirit of individualism. We pride ourselves on self-reliance, on bootstrapping our way to success. Yet, we also believe in helping those in need, and we turn to our neighbors in times of crisis. The tension between these competing values is evident, and how we balance between these competing values holds real consequences for community health and well-being. In his new book, The Size of Others' Burdens, Erik Schneiderhan asks how people can act in the face of competing pressures, and explores the stories of two famous Americans to develop present-day lessons for improving our communities. Although Jane Addams and Barack Obama are separated by roughly one hundred years, the parallels between their lives are remarkable: Chicago activists-turned-politicians, University of Chicago lecturers, gifted orators, crusaders against discrimination, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams was the founder of Hull-House, the celebrated American "settlement house" that became the foundation of modern social work. Obama's remarkable rise to the presidency is well known. Through the stories of Addams's and Obama's early community work, Erik Schneiderhan challenges readers to think about how many of our own struggles are not simply personal challenges, but also social challenges. How do we help others when so much of our day-to-day life is geared toward looking out for ourselves, whether at work or at home? Not everyone can run for president or win a Nobel Prize, but we can help others without sacrificing their dignity or our principles. Great thinkers of the past and present can give us the motivation; Addams and Obama show us how. Schneiderhan highlights the value of combining today's state resources with the innovation and flexibility of Addams's time to encourage community building. Offering a call to action, this book inspires readers to address their own American dilemma and connect to community, starting within our own neighborhoods.
The Skeptical Dynamis and Its Pragmatic Possibilities (Synthese Library #455)
by Rodrigo Pinto de BritoThis monograph reevaluates a school of thought concerned with truth and inquiry. It examines the critique which asserts that it's not possible to live this Early Greek philosophy in practice. The investigation also details new discoveries on the reception of Skepticism by Empiricist Doctors, Early Greek Fathers, Medieval Arabic Thinkers, and Renaissance Thinkers.The author takes a careful look at the apraxia argument and how critics used it. He shows how anti-skeptical arguments rose in different stages of the development of the Skepticism. Coverage also details how the skeptics replied and gave more pragmatic coherence to their philosophy, starting with the proto-skeptics and continuing with the works of Sextus Empiricus. Readers will learn how skepticism endured despite the criticisms, becoming a coherent response to dogmatic philosophies such as Stoicism.The investigation also analyzes the two common approaches that philosophers have used to interpret Sextan philosophy. It considers their benefits as well as defects. In the process, the author presents an original way of interpreting Sextan thought, which the author calls the “suburban interpretation”. He then applies this "middle way" to two works: Against the Grammarians and Against the Rhetoricians. Overall, the book provides readers with an insightful look at how this school of thought survived and spread throughout the ages.