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Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science (2nd edition)
by Richard DewittUpdated throughout and with three entirely new chapters, Worldviews: An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science, Second Edition furthers its reputation as the definitive introductory text on the historical developments and philosophical issues that inform our scientific view of the world around us. Represents an innovative introduction to the history and philosophy of science, designed especially for those coming to the subject for the first time Updated new edition features the addition of chapters focusing on scientific laws, evolutionary theory, and implications of evolution Covers the key historical developments and philosophical themes that have impacted our scientific view of the world around us Analyzes the transitions from the Aristotelian worldview to the Newtonian worldview to a new and currently developing worldview Explores challenges to the Western scientific worldview brought on by recent discoveries.
Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism
by Erwin ChemerinskyWhy originalism is a flawed, incoherent, and dangerously ideological method of constitutional interpretation Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Three of the Supreme Court&’s nine justices explicitly embrace the originalist approach, as do increasing numbers of judges in the lower courts. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know what the &“original intent&” of any particular provision was. Perhaps worst of all, though its supporters tout it as a politically neutral and objective method, originalist interpretation tends to disappear when its results fail to conform to modern conservative ideology.
Wort, das wir sind: Aspekte einer Ontologie des Logos (Colloquium Metaphysicum)
by Daniel SchmidtWie ist es möglich, dass im Erklingen einer komplexen Folge von Lauten ein Sinn offenbar wird, der mit der lautenden Gestalt selbst scheinbar wenig bis gar nichts zu tun hat? Das Buch nähert sich der Frage nach der Seinsweise des gesprochenen Wortes auf dem Wege zeitgenössischer Phänomenologie und Hermeneutik und erörtert sie vor dem Hintergrund etablierter Modelle der philosophischen Sprachauslegung. Es nimmt dabei die vielfältigen Ebenen des Bedeutens, die an die Verfasstheit des Wortes als leibhaft-lautender Akt gebunden sind, in den Blick. In Anknüpfung an die von Hans-Georg Gadamer angeregte Deutung vom Kerngedanken der Inkarnation her, entwickelt der Autor eine Philosophie der Sprache, die ihren Ausgang nimmt im Verständnis des Logos, wie es im Prolog des Johannes begründet und unter anderem von Augustinus, Thomas von Aquin und Nicolaus Cusanus entfaltet wird. Im Lichte dieser Zugänge erscheint das Wort – fernab jeder reduktionistischen Auslegung als bloßes Laut-Zeichen – in einem umfassenden Sinn als leibhaftes Symbol des Menschen in seiner Befindlichkeit und seinem Verhalten in der Welt.
Would You Eat Your Cat?: Key Ethical Conundrums and What They Tell You About Yourself
by Jeremy StangroomAre you authoritarian or libertarian? Are we morally obligated to end the world? And just what's wrong with eating your cat? Would You Eat Your Cat? challenges you to examine these and many other philosophical questions. This unique collection of classic and modern problems and paradoxes is guaranteed to test your preconceptions. Jeremy Stangroom creates contemporary versions of famous dilemmas that explore the morality of suicide and the ethics of retribution. He then delves into the background of each conundrum in detail and helps you discover what your responses reveal about yourself with a unique morality barometer. Are you ready to have your best ideas confronted and your ethical foundations shaken? If so, then Would You Eat Your Cat? is the book for you.
Would You Kill the Fat Man?: The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong
by David EdmondsFrom the bestselling coauthor of Wittgenstein's Poker, a fascinating tour through the history of moral philosophyA runaway train is racing toward five men who are tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. You are standing on a footbridge looking down on the unfolding disaster. However, a fat man, a stranger, is standing next to you: if you push him off the bridge, he will topple onto the line and, although he will die, his chunky body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man?The question may seem bizarre. But it's one variation of a puzzle that has baffled moral philosophers for almost half a century and that more recently has come to preoccupy neuroscientists, psychologists, and other thinkers as well. In this book, David Edmonds, coauthor of the bestselling Wittgenstein's Poker, tells the riveting story of why and how philosophers have struggled with this ethical dilemma, sometimes called the trolley problem. In the process, he provides an entertaining and informative tour through the history of moral philosophy. Most people feel it's wrong to kill the fat man. But why? After all, in taking one life you could save five. As Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex—and important—than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong.
Wrestling With an Angel: Power, Morality, and Jewish Identity
by Michael Swirsky Ehud LuzAfter the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 CE) and the eradication of all trace of Jewish political independence in Palestine, Jews gave little thought to questions of war. Long exile freed them from the sharp moral dilemmas con¬fronted by any polity that is compelled to use force to defend itself. Jews considered warfare to be the ''craft of Esau,'' that is, a matter for the gentiles, at least until such time as the Messiah would come. The Jews --''Jacob'' -- took no interest in armed conflict except insofar as it might impinge upon their fate as a minority living under foreign rule.
Wrestling with Democracy
by Dennis PilonThough sharing broadly similar processes of economic and political development from the mid-to-late nineteenth century onward, western countries have diverged greatly in their choice of voting systems: most of Europe shifted to proportional voting around the First World War, while Anglo-American countries have stuck with relative majority or majority voting rules. Using a comparative historical approach, Wrestling with Democracy examines why voting systems have (or have not) changed in western industrialized countries over the past century.In this first single-volume study of voting system reform covering all western industrialized countries, Dennis Pilon reviews national efforts in this area over four timespans: the nineteenth century, the period around the First World War, the Cold War, and the 1990s. Pilon provocatively argues that voting system reform has been a part of larger struggles over defining democracy itself, highlighting previously overlooked episodes of reform and challenging widely held assumptions about institutional change.
Wrestling with the Angel
by Tracy McnultyWrestling with the Angel is a meditation on contemporary political, legal, and social theory from a psychoanalytic perspective. It argues for the enabling function of formal and symbolic constraints in sustaining desire as a source of creativity, innovation, and social change.The book begins by calling for a richer understanding of the psychoanalytic concept of the symbolic and the resources it might offer for an examination of the social link and the political sphere. The symbolic is a crucial dimension of social coexistence but cannot be reduced to the social norms, rules, and practices with which it is so often collapsed. As a dimension of human life that is introduced by language-and thus inescapably "other" with respect to the laws of nature-the symbolic is an undeniable fact of human existence. Yet the same cannot be said of the forms and practices that represent and sustain it. In designating these laws, structures, and practices as "fictions," Jacques Lacan makes clear that the symbolic is a dimension of social life that has to be created and maintained and that can also be displaced, eradicated, or rendered dysfunctional. The symbolic fictions that structure and support the social tie are therefore historicizable, emerging at specific times and in particular contexts and losing their efficacy when circumstances change. They are also fragile and ephemeral, needing to be renewed and reinvented if they are not to become outmoded or ridiculous. Therefore the aim of this study is not to call for a return to traditional symbolic laws but to reflect on the relationship between the symbolic in its most elementary or structural form and the function of constraints and limits.McNulty analyzes examples of "experimental" (as opposed to "normative") articulations of the symbolic and their creative use of formal limits and constraints not as mere prohibitions or rules but as "enabling constraints" that favor the exercise of freedom. The first part examines practices that conceive of subjective freedom as enabled by the struggle with constraints or limits, from the transference that structures the "minimal social link" of psychoanalysis to constrained relationships between two or more people in the context of political and social movements. Examples discussed range from the spiritual practices and social legacies of Moses, Jesus, and Teresa of Avila to the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. The second part is devoted to legal and political debates surrounding the function of the written law. It isolates the law's function as a symbolic limit or constraint as distinct from its content and representational character. The analysis draws on Mosaic law traditions, the political theology of Paul, and twentieth-century treatments of written law in the work of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Pierre Legendre, and Alain Badiou. In conclusion, the study considers the relationship between will and constraint in Kant's aesthetic philosophy and in the experimental literary works of the collective Oulipo.
Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy: On Being an American Citizen
by Susan GriffinWhat does is it mean to be a citizen of the United States? Susan Griffin's provocative investigation of that question takes us from the Declaration of Independence to the Iraq War, with many stops in between. Her conclusion: democracy is nothing less than a revolution of consciousness, and the revolution has just begun.
Wrestling with the Angel: Experiments in Symbolic Life (Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture)
by Tracy McNultyWrestling with the Angel is a meditation on contemporary political, legal, and social theory from a psychoanalytic perspective. It argues for the enabling function of formal and symbolic constraints in sustaining desire as a source of creativity, innovation, and social change.The book begins by calling for a richer understanding of the psychoanalytic concept of the symbolic and the resources it might offer for an examination of the social link and the political sphere. The symbolic is a crucial dimension of social coexistence but cannot be reduced to the social norms, rules, and practices with which it is so often collapsed. As a dimension of human life that is introduced by language—and thus inescapably "other" with respect to the laws of nature—the symbolic is an undeniable fact of human existence. Yet the same cannot be said of the forms and practices that represent and sustain it. In designating these laws, structures, and practices as "fictions," Jacques Lacan makes clear that the symbolic is a dimension of social life that has to be created and maintained and that can also be displaced, eradicated, or rendered dysfunctional. The symbolic fictions that structure and support the social tie are therefore historicizable, emerging at specific times and in particular contexts and losing their efficacy when circumstances change. They are also fragile and ephemeral, needing to be renewed and reinvented if they are not to become outmoded or ridiculous. Therefore the aim of this study is not to call for a return to traditional symbolic laws but to reflect on the relationship between the symbolic in its most elementary or structural form and the function of constraints and limits.McNulty analyzes examples of "experimental" (as opposed to "normative") articulations of the symbolic and their creative use of formal limits and constraints not as mere prohibitions or rules but as "enabling constraints" that favor the exercise of freedom. The first part examines practices that conceive of subjective freedom as enabled by the struggle with constraints or limits, from the transference that structures the "minimal social link" of psychoanalysis to constrained relationships between two or more people in the context of political and social movements. Examples discussed range from the spiritual practices and social legacies of Moses, Jesus, and Teresa of Avila to the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. The second part is devoted to legal and political debates surrounding the function of the written law. It isolates the law's function as a symbolic limit or constraint as distinct from its content and representational character. The analysis draws on Mosaic law traditions, the political theology of Paul, and twentieth-century treatments of written law in the work of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Pierre Legendre, and Alain Badiou. In conclusion, the study considers the relationship between will and constraint in Kant's aesthetic philosophy and in the experimental literary works of the collective Oulipo.
Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination
by Adam ShatzWhat does it mean to be a politically committed writer?Through a close reading of the lives and works of some of the greatest intellectuals of recent times, Adam Shatz asks: do writers have an ethical imperative to question injustice? How can one remain a dispassionate thinker when involved in the cut and thrust of politics? And, in an age of horror and crisis, what does it mean to be a committed writer?Shatz interrogates the major figures of twentieth and twenty-first century thought and finds within their lives and work the roots of our present intellectual and geopolitical situation. Charting the role of the committed intellectual through the work of Jean-Paul Sartre on the Algerian War and Edward Said's lifelong solidarity with the Palestinian people, to Fouad Ajami's role as the "native informant" for pro-intervention cause in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, alongside philosophers and critics Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and Claude Lévi-Strauss and the novelists Michel Houllebecq and Richard Wright, each struggled to reconcile their writing and their politics, their thought and their commitments. Writers and Missionaries is an erudite and incisive work of intellectual elucidation and biographical enquiry that demands that we interrogate anew the relation of thought and action in the struggle for a more just world.
Writers and Revolution: Intellectuals and the French Revolution of 1848
by Jonathan BeecherThe revolution of 1848 has been described as the revolution of the intellectuals. In France, the revolution galvanised the energies of major romantic writers and intellectuals. This book follows nine writers through the revolution of 1848 and its aftermath: Alphonse de Lamartine, George Sand, Marie d'Agoult, Victor Hugo, Alexis de Tocqueville, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Alexander Herzen, Karl Marx, and Gustave Flaubert. Conveying a sense of the experience of 1848 as these writers lived it, this fresh and engaging study captures the sense of possibility at a time when it was not yet clear that the Second French Republic had no future. By looking closely at key texts in which each writer attempted to understand, judge, criticise, or intervene in the revolution, Jonathan Beecher shows how each endeavoured to answer the question posed explicitly by Tocqueville: Why, within the space of two generations, did democratic revolutions twice culminate in the dictatorship of a Napoleon?
Writing Conscience and the Nation in Revolutionary England
by Giuseppina Iacona LoboExamining works by well-known figures of the English Revolution, including John Milton, Oliver Cromwell, Margaret Fell Fox, Lucy Hutchinson, Thomas Hobbes, and King Charles I, Giuseppina Iacono Lobo presents the first comprehensive study of conscience during this crucial and turbulent period. Writing Conscience and the Nation in Revolutionary England argues that the discourse of conscience emerged as a means of critiquing, discerning, and ultimately reimagining the nation during the English Revolution. Focusing on the etymology of the term conscience, to know with, this book demonstrates how the idea of a shared knowledge uniquely equips conscience with the potential to forge dynamic connections between the self and nation, a potential only amplified by the surge in conscience writing in the mid-seventeenth-century. Iacono Lobo recovers a larger cultural discourse at the heart of which is a revolution of conscience itself through her readings of poetry, prose, political pamphlets and philosophy, letters, and biography. This revolution of conscience is marked by a distinct and radical connection between conscience and the nation as writers struggle to redefine, reimagine, and even render anew what it means to know with as an English people.
Writing Degree Zero
by Colin Smith Roland Barthes Adam Thirlwell Annette LaversIs there any such thing as revolutionary literature? Can literature, in fact, be political at all? These are the questions Roland Barthes addresses inWriting Degree Zero, his first published book and a landmark in his oeuvre. The debate had engaged the European literary community since the 1930s; with this fierce manifesto, Barthes challenged the notion of literature's obligation to be socially committed. Yes, Barthes allows, the writer has a political and ethical responsibility. But the history of French literature shows that the writer has often failed to meet it--and from Barthes's perspective, literature is committed to little more than the myth of itself. Expert and uncompromising,Writing Degree Zero introduced the themes that would soon establish Barthes as one of the leading voices in literary criticism.
Writing Logically, Thinking Critically (6th Edition)
by Sheila Cooper Rosemary PattonThis concise, accessible text teaches students how to write logical, cohesive arguments and how to evaluate the arguments of others. Integrating writing skills with critical thinking skills, this practical book teaches students to draw logical inferences, identify premises and conclusions and use language precisely. Students also learn how to identify fallacies and to distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning. Ideal for any composition class that emphasizes argument, this text includes coverage of writing style and rhetoric, logic, literature, research and documentation.
Writing Neoliberal Values: Rhetorical Connectivities and Globalized Capitalism (Rhetoric, Politics and Society)
by Rachel C. RiednerThis book examines human-interest stories, unpacking from them violence inherent to neoliberalism, and considers if it is possible to find in these stories hints of people and labour that suggest other narratives.
Writing Philosophy Papers
by Andrew Kania Zachary SeechThis sixth edition of Writing Philosophy Papers updates and expands one of the most popular guides to philosophical writing assignments for undergraduate students. Written in a clear, straightforward style, the book covers everything from time management to the difference between “i.e.” and “e.g.”The heart of the book is devoted to how to write a thesis-defense paper, with chapters on the structure of a strong paper, the process of writing and revising, matters of style and usage, and scholarly citation. This advice is illustrated with concrete examples throughout, including a complete thesis-defense paper written and formatted according to the book’s recommendations.The book also covers how to take good notes from various kinds of philosophical sources, how to write other commonly assigned kinds of papers, and how to study for and take a philosophy exam. A chapter on doing philosophical research contains practical advice on how to discover and access the most helpful sources for a philosophical research paper or annotated bibliography. Because virtually every philosophy assignment requires a basic grasp of arguments, the book ends with a chapter introducing some basic concepts and skills for reasoning well.The heart of the sixth edition has been revised and restructured to lead students even more clearly through the process of drafting, revising, and formatting a thesis-defense paper. This new edition also includes:• an updated, completely revised, and expanded chapter on citing sources, giving equal consideration to print and online sources;• an updated, completely revised, and expanded chapter on doing philosophical research, focused on how to find the most helpful sources for completing a philosophical research paper or annotated bibliography;• updated, revised, and greatly expanded advice on writing style and usage;• a completely revised and expanded treatment of good reasoning, with a new discussion of inductive and abductive reasoning; and• new advice on how to take good notes and how to study for and take philosophy exams.
Writing Philosophy: A Student's Guide to Reading and Writing Philosophy Essays
by Lewis VaughnThis second edition of Writing Philosophy, aspires to help philosophy teachers address a big problem--the conflict between trying to teach course content and dealing with students who are ill prepared to write papers on that content. The dilemma is acute because writing is both a valuable teaching tool and a vehicle for assessing understanding. Using class time to explain the unique demands of philosophical writing, however, can divert time and attention from the real meat of a course. This book tries to come as close as possible to the ideal of a brief, self-guided manual that covers the basics of argumentative essay writing and encourages rapid learning with minimal teacher input.
Writing Plague: Language and Violence from the Black Death to COVID-19 (The New Middle Ages)
by Alfred ThomasWriting Plague: Language and Violence from the Black Death to COVID-19 brings a holistic and comparative perspective to “plague writing” from the later Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. It argues that while the human “hardware” has changed enormously between the medieval past and the present (urbanization, technology, mass warfare, and advances in medical science), the human “software” (emotional and psychological reactions to the shock of pandemic) has remained remarkably similar across time. Through close readings of works by medieval writers like Guillaume de Machaut, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century, select plays by Shakespeare, and modern “plague” fiction and film, Alfred Thomas convincingly demonstrates psychological continuities between the Black Death and COVID-19. In showing how in times of plague human beings repress their fears and fantasies and displace them onto the threatening “other,” Thomas highlights the danger of scapegoating vulnerable minority groups such as Asian Americans and Jews in today’s America. This wide-ranging study will thus be of interest not only to medievalists but also to students of modernity as well as the general reader.
Writing Politics: Studies in Compositional Method
by Michael J ShapiroWriting Politics is a methods book designed to instruct on politically focused literary inquiry. Exploring the political sensibilities that arise from the way literary fiction re-textualizes historical periods and events, the book features a series of violence-themed inquiries that emphasize forms of writing as the vehicles for politically attuned historiography. Each investigation treats the way the literary genre, within historiographic metafiction, enables political inquiry. It’s a form of writing that inter-articulates history and fiction to rework a textual past and unsettle dominant understandings of events and situations. Central to the diverse chapters are fictional treatments of authoritarian, fascist, or zealous mentalities. Featured, for example, are Radovan Karadzic (the architect of the Bosnian genocide), Reinhard Heydrich (the architect of the Holocaust’s "final solution"), and the Trotsky assassin Ramon Mercader. Michael J. Shapiro has produced another original and sophisticated bookshelf staple; the only contemporary investigation in Political Studies that instructs on method in this way.
Writing Program and Writing Center Collaborations
by Alice Johnston Myatt Lynée Lewis GailletThis book demonstrates how to develop and engage in successful academic collaborations that are both practical and sustainable across campuses and within local communities. Authored by experienced writing program administrators, this edited collection includes a wide range of information addressing collaborative partnerships and projects, theoretical explorations of collaborative praxis, and strategies for sustaining collaborative initiatives. Contributors offer case studies of writing program collaborations and honestly address both the challenges of academic collaboration and the hallmarks of successful partnerships.
Writing Proofs in Analysis
by Jonathan M. KaneThis is a textbook on proof writing in the area of analysis, balancing a survey of the core concepts of mathematical proof with a tight, rigorous examination of the specific tools needed for an understanding of analysis. Instead of the standard "transition" approach to teaching proofs, wherein students are taught fundamentals of logic, given some common proof strategies such as mathematical induction, and presented with a series of well-written proofs to mimic, this textbook teaches what a student needs to be thinking about when trying to construct a proof. Covering the fundamentals of analysis sufficient for a typical beginning Real Analysis course, it never loses sight of the fact that its primary focus is about proof writing skills. This book aims to give the student precise training in the writing of proofs by explaining exactly what elements make up a correct proof, how one goes about constructing an acceptable proof, and, by learning to recognize a correct proof, how to avoid writing incorrect proofs. To this end, all proofs presented in this text are preceded by detailed explanations describing the thought process one goes through when constructing the proof. Over 150 example proofs, templates, and axioms are presented alongside full-color diagrams to elucidate the topics at hand.
Writing Resistance and the Question of Gender: Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion
by Lara R. CurtisThis book presents the first comparative study of the works of Charlotte Delbo, Noor Inayat Khan, and Germaine Tillion in relation to their vigorous struggles against Nazi aggression during World War II and the Holocaust. It illuminates ways in which their early lives conditioned both their political engagements during wartime and their extraordinary literary creations empowered by what Lara R. Curtis refers to as modes of ‘writing resistance.’ With skillful recourse to a remarkable variety of genres, they offer compelling autobiographical reflections, vivid chronicles of wartime atrocities, eyewitness accounts of victims, and acute perspectives on the political implications of major events. Their sensitive reflections of gendered subjectivity authenticate the myriad voices and visions they capture. In sum, this book highlights the lives and works of three courageous women who were ceaselessly committed to a noble cause during the Holocaust and World War II.
Writing and Difference
by Jacques DerridaFirst published in 1967, Writing and Difference, a collection of Jacques Derrida's essays written between 1959 and 1966, has become a landmark of contemporary French thought. In it we find Derrida at work on his systematic deconstruction of Western metaphysics. The book's first half, which includes the celebrated essay on Descartes and Foucault, shows the development of Derrida's method of deconstruction. In these essays, Derrida demonstrates the traditional nature of some purportedly nontraditional currents of modern thought—one of his main targets being the way in which "structuralism" unwittingly repeats metaphysical concepts in its use of linguistic models. The second half of the book contains some of Derrida's most compelling analyses of why and how metaphysical thinking must exclude writing from its conception of language, finally showing metaphysics to be constituted by this exclusion. These essays on Artaud, Freud, Bataille, Hegel, and Lévi-Strauss have served as introductions to Derrida's notions of writing and différence—the untranslatable formulation of a nonmetaphysical "concept" that does not exclude writing—for almost a generation of students of literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Writing and Difference reveals the unacknowledged program that makes thought itself possible. In analyzing the contradictions inherent in this program, Derrida foes on to develop new ways of thinking, reading, and writing,—new ways based on the most complete and rigorous understanding of the old ways. Scholars and students from all disciplines will find Writing and Difference an excellent introduction to perhaps the most challenging of contemporary French thinkers—challenging because Derrida questions thought as we know it.
Writing and the Moral Self
by Berel LangOriginally published in 1991, this book analyses the relation between writing and ethics in a number of social contexts – in politics, as language discloses its connections to the institutions of totalitarianism and democracy; in the university, as contemporary scholarly ideals find an uncomfortably accurate representation in the stylistic forms of academic writing; in daily social practice, ranging from the status of truth in journalistic writing to the connection between pronouns and affirmative action; and finally in the ethical structure of language itself.