- Table View
- List View
The Philosophy of Marx
by Gregory Elliott Chris Turner Étienne BalibarA rich and accessible introduction to Marx’s fundamental concepts from a key intellectual—now updatedWritten by one of political theory’s leading thinkers, The Philosophy of Marx examines all the key areas of Marx’s writings in their wider historical and theoretical context—including the concepts of class struggle, ideology, humanism, progress, determinism, commodity fetishism, and the state. Etienne Balibar opens a gateway into the thought of one of history’s great minds. In this updated edition to this now classic work, Balibar has added a substantial introduction and new material. Complete with key “information boxes” for the student to make the most challenging areas of theory easy to understand, this remains the best available introduction to the most important thinker of the past 200 years.
The Philosophy of Marx (Routledge Library Editions: Marxism #23)
by William Leon McBrideThis book, first published in 1977, presents for the first time a serious and systematic assessment of Marx primarily as a philosopher. It considers all major aspects of Marx’s theory – its methodology, its ontological dimensions, its approaches to the descriptions of history and of societies and their economic structures, its alleged predictions and its vision of the future – as well as some of its intellectual antecedents and twentieth-century heirs. The presentation of Marx’s ideas attempts to be at once faithful to them, as distinguished from their reinterpretations by later ‘Marxists’, and yet novel in form and language. From this unique standpoint, the book aims to bring the student of philosophy and of political ideas to a closer understanding of the intellectual foundations of Marx’s Capital and his writings in collaboration with Engels.
The Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott (G - Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects)
by Terry NardinThis is the first comprehensive study of Michael Oakeshott as a philosopher rather than a political theorist, which is how most commentators have regarded him. Indeed, the careful reading of his published and unpublished writings that Terry Nardin provides here shows that Oakeshott's concerns have been primarily philosophical, not political. These writings go far beyond politics to offer a critical philosophy of human activity and of the disciplines that interpret and explain it. Oakeshott argues that inquiry can be independent of practical concerns, even when its subject is the thought and action of human beings.Although the book considers Oakeshott's views on morality, law, and government, it is primarily concerned with his ideas about the character of knowledge, especially knowledge of intelligent human conduct, and focuses attention on the concepts of modality, contingency, and civility that are central to Oakeshott's philosophy as a whole. Nardin seeks to show how Oakeshott's critique of scientism and other forms of foundationalism supports a powerful version of the argument that history is the proper mode for understanding human choice and action.The book thus provides the fullest discussion available of Oakeshott's antifoundationalist view of epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of history and the human sciences. It examines his arguments concerning the criteria of truth, the forms of knowledge, the relationship between theory and practice, the place of interpretation in the social sciences, the nature and importance of historical explanation, and the definition of philosophy itself. And it is the first study to look at Oakeshott's relationship to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and other movements in twentieth-century Continental philosophy.
The Philosophy of Outer Space: Explorations, Controversies, Speculations (Routledge Research in Anticipation and Futures)
by Mirko Daniel Garasic Marcello Di PaolaThis volume provides a rigorous philosophical investigation of the rationales, challenges, and promises of the coming Space Age.Over the past decade, space exploration has made significant and accelerating progress, and its potential has attracted growing attention from science, states, businesses, innovators, as well as the media and society more generally. Yet philosophical theorizing concerning the premises, values, meanings, and impacts of space exploration is still in its infancy, and this potentially immense field of study is far from mainstream yet. This book advances outer space philosophy by integrating key scientific and societal debates sparked by recent developments in space research and activities with conceptual, existential, ethical, aesthetic, and political themes and concerns. It maps various regions of philosophical exploration, reflection, and speculation regarding humanity’s present and future emanations into outer space, to promote a broad, rich, and nuanced societal debate regarding this transformative enterprise, which is as stimulating as it can be disorienting.This book will be a fascinating read for academics, researchers, and students interested in philosophy, space studies, science and technology studies, future studies, and sustainability.
The Philosophy of Parochialism
by Radomir KonstantinovicThe Philosophy of Parochialism is Radomir Konstantinovic’s (1928–2011) most celebrated and reviled book. First published in Belgrade as Filosofija palanke in 1969, it attracted keen attention and controversy through its unsparing critique of Serbian and any other nationalism in Yugoslavia and beyond. The book was prophetic, seeming to anticipate not only the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, but also the totalitarian turn in politics across the globe in the first decades of the new century. With this translation, English-speaking audiences can at last discover one of the most original writers of eastern European late modernism, and gain an important and original perspective into contemporary politics and culture in the West and beyond. This is a book that seems to age in reverse, as its meanings become deeper and more universal with the passage of time. Konstantinovic’sbookresists easy classification, mixing classical, Montaigne-like essay, prose poetry, novel, and literary history. The word “philosophy” in the book’s title refers to the solitary activity of reflection and critical thinking, and is also paradoxical: according to the author, a defining characteristic of parochialism is precisely its intolerance toward this kind of self-reflexivity. In Konstantinovic’s analysis, parochialism is not a simply a characteristic of a geographical region or a cultural, political, and historical formation—these are all just manifestations of the parochial spirit as the spirit of insularity. His book illuminates the current moment, in which insularity undergirds not only ethnic and national divisions, but also dictates the very structure of everyday life, and where individuals can easily find themselves locked in an echo chamber of social media. The Philosophy of Parochialism can help us understand better not only the dead ends of ethnic nationalism and other atavistic ideologies, but also of those cultural forces such as digital technologies that have been built on the promise of overcoming those ideologies.
The Philosophy of Science and Economics
by Robert A. SoloThe philosophy of science proposes criteria to delineate true science and a theory to explain its progress. As a graduate student under the supervision of Lionel Robbins and Karl Popper, Solo first challenged the viability of those criteria and that theory in relation to economics and the social sciences. Here he explains how the foundations of that philosophy have been eroded through the advent of quantum mechanics and through Kuhn's "Structures of Scientific Revolution", and demonstrates its irrelevance to a social science that would comprehend social reality and contribute to the formation of social policy. He proposes a different mode of perception, and different rules for determining the acceptability of statement, a different language of discourse, and a different structure of organization than presently prevails.
The Philosophy of Social Research (Longman Social Research Series)
by John A. Hughes W. W. SharrockThis fully revised, updated and extended edition of a successful text, introduces some of the important philosophical issues arising from social research practices and historical research in the social sciences. Since its initial publication the field of social research and philosophy has been widely debated, and this expanded version incorporates the most recent discussion and theories. In this edition John Hughes and Wes Sharrock carefully analyse the research implications of the great sociological thinkers, and stress that depending upon the researcher's philosophical leanings, there are a range of possible interpretations of the 'facts' uncovered by the researcher.
The Philosophy of Space Policy: With a Case Study of India
by G. S. SachdevaSpace activities by governmental agencies require considerable state funding and bear long gestation periods with uncertainty in results. This necessitates the development of a directional policy defining long-term goals, embodying national aspirations, and envisaging techno-possibilities for manufacturing and operations. This book offers hints for such policy-making and also explores other alternatives to enable clarity for internal constituency and international posturingThe first section of this work discusses philosophical perspectives, namely – theoretical, theological, ethical and auditorial. The second section offers options and initiatives as alternatives or adjuncts to space policy. The subject matter in this book also includes a case study of India. It narrates a brief history of national space activities and the journey of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), besides providing a futuristic vision for India and its global stance.Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)
The Philosophy of Transformative Experience (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy)
by Michael CampbellThis volume examines the nature and significance of transformative experiences as they occur across a variety of contexts in human life. By treating these events as social as well as individual phenomena, the essays bring to light the various ways in which cultural and institutional forces influence narratives of personal change. The ease with which we identify transformative experiences shows their importance for our sense of the potentialities inherent in human life, even while their disruptive character threatens confidence in our capability to make rational decisions concerning our future well-being. Yet, narratives of transformation are not just individual artefacts, but are also given support and structure through social forces including shared languages, practices, and institutions. What are the cultural and institutional contexts which enable this form of self-conceptualisation, and what happens when social changes undermine the cogency of these narratives? The chapters in this volume investigate these issues through a blend of philosophical theory and applied cases, working across the disciplinary boundaries of philosophy and social anthropology. Contributors investigate topics including recovery from trauma; the role of narratives in gender transition; climate activism; the ethical ramifications of war; the role of media in framing narratives of ethical change; and the university as a site of transformative experience. The Philosophy of Transformative Experience will be of interest to philosophers working in ethics, political philosophy, and decision theory, as well as scholars and advanced students in anthropology, sociology, and literary studies.
The Philosophy of Utopia
by Barbara GoodwinThis collection addresses the important function of utopianism in social and political philosophy and includes debate on what its future role will be in a period dominated by dystopian nightmare scenarios.
The Philosophy of War and Exile
by Nolen GertzArguing that the suffering of combatants is better understood through philosophy than psychology, as not trauma, but exile, this book investigates the experiences of torturers, UAV operators, cyberwarriors, and veterans to reveal not only the exile at the core of becoming a combatant, but the evasion from exile at the core of being a noncombatant.
The Philosophy of the Austrian School
by Raimondo CubedduThe Austrian School has made some of the most significant contributions to the social sciences in recent times but attempts to understand it have remained locked in a polemical frame. In contrast, The Philosphy of the Austrian School presents a philosophically grounded account of the School's methodological, political and economic ideas. Whilst acknowledging important differences between the key figures in the School - Menger, Mises, and Hayek - Raimondo Cubeddu finds that they also have significant things in common. Paramount amongst these are theories of subjective value and notions of spontaneous order, both of which rest on theories of seminal avenues of research in the social sciences and a major reformulation of liberal ideology.
The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam (Forbidden Bookshelf #3)
by Douglas Valentine&“This shocking expose of the CIA operation aimed at destroying the Vietcong infrastructure thoroughly conveys the hideousness of the Vietnam War&” (Publishers Weekly). In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America&’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the &“Viet Cong.&” The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were &“neutralized,&” as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies. Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine&’s startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA&’s history. The ebook edition includes &“The Phoenix Has Landed,&” a new introduction that addresses the &“Phoenix-style network&” that constitutes America&’s internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.
The Phoenix Years: Art, Resistance, And The Making Of Modern China
by Madeleine O'DeaAt once a fascinating account of the birth of modern China and a moving chronicle of courage, creativity, and resistance. The riveting story of China's rise from economic ruin to global giant in the past four decades is illuminated by another, equally fascinating, narrative beneath its surface—the story of the country's emerging artistic avant-garde and the Chinese people's ongoing struggle for freedom of expression. By following the stories of nine contemporary Chinese artists, The Phoenix Years shows how China's rise unleashed creativity, thwarted hopes, and sparked tensions between the individual and the state that continue to this day. It relates the heady years of hope and creativity in the 1980s, which ended in the disaster of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Following that tragedy comes China's meteoric economic rise, and the opportunities that emerged alongside the difficult compromises artists and others have to make to be citizens in modern China. Foreign correspondent Madeleine O'Dea has been an eyewitness for over thirty years to the rise of China, the explosion of its contemporary art and cultural scene, and the long, ongoing struggle for free expression. The stories of these artists and their art mirror the history of their country. The Phoenix Years is vital reading for anyone interested in China today.
The Photographic Invention of Whiteness: The Visual Cultures of White Atlantic Worlds (Routledge History of Photography)
by Stephanie PolskyFocusing on the creation of the concept of Whiteness, this study links early photographic imagery to the development and exploitation that were common in the colonial Atlantic World of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. With the advent of the daguerreotype in the mid-nineteenth century, White European settlers could imagine themselves as a supra-national community, where the attainment of wealth was rapidly becoming accessible through colonisation. Their dispersal throughout the colonial territories made possible the advent of a new representative type of Whiteness that eventually merged with the portrayal of modernity itself. Over time, the colonisation of the Atlantic World became synonymous with fascination itself within a European mind fixated upon both a racially subordinated world and the technical media through which it was represented. In the intervening centuries, images have acted as a medium of the imaginary, allowing for ideas around classification and the measurement of value to travel and to situate themselves as universal means. Contemporary societies still grapple with the residues of race, gender, class, and sexuality first established by the contrived mores of this representational medium, and those who were racialised by the camera as objects of fascination, curiosity, or concern have remained so well into the post-digital era. The book will be of interest to scholars working in history of photography, art history, colonialism, and critical race theory.
The Picky Eagle: How Democracy and Xenophobia Limited U.S. Territorial Expansion
by Richard W. MaassThe Picky Eagle explains why the United States stopped annexing territory by focusing on annexation's domestic consequences, both political and normative. It describes how the U.S. rejection of further annexations, despite its rising power, set the stage for twentieth-century efforts to outlaw conquest. In contrast to conventional accounts of a nineteenth-century shift from territorial expansion to commercial expansion, Richard W. Maass argues that U.S. ambitions were selective from the start.By presenting twenty-three case studies, Maass examines the decision-making of U.S. leaders facing opportunities to pursue annexation between 1775 and 1898. U.S. presidents, secretaries, and congressmen consistently worried about how absorbing new territories would affect their domestic political influence and their goals for their country. These leaders were particularly sensitive to annexation's domestic costs where xenophobia interacted with their commitment to democracy: rather than grant political representation to a large alien population or subject it to a long-term imperial regime, they regularly avoided both of these perceived bad options by rejecting annexation. As a result, U.S. leaders often declined even profitable opportunities for territorial expansion, and they renounced the practice entirely once no desirable targets remained.In addition to offering an updated history of the foundations of U.S. territorial expansion, The Picky Eagle adds important nuance to previous theories of great-power expansion, with implications for our understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international relations.
The Picnic: A Rush for Freedom and the Collapse of Communism
by Matthew LongoWinner of the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Writing A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews and Slate "A terrific work of history." —Dan Kois, Slate "A vivid, fast-paced narrative." —Andrew Meier, New York Times Book Review The gripping story of a collective passion for freedom that shook the world. In August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists organized a picnic on the border of Hungary and Austria. But this was not an ordinary picnic—it was located on the dangerous militarized frontier known as the Iron Curtain. Tacit permission from the highest state authorities could be revoked at any moment. On wisps of rumor, thousands of East German “vacationers” packed Hungarian campgrounds, awaiting an opportunity, fearing prison, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The Pan-European Picnic set the stage for the greatest border breach in Cold War history: hundreds crossed from the Communist East to the longed-for freedom of the West. Drawing on dozens of original interviews—including Hungarian activists and border guards, East German refugees, Stasi secret police, and the last Communist prime minister of Hungary—Matthew Longo tells a gripping and revelatory tale of the unraveling of the Iron Curtain and the birth of a new world order. Just a few months after the Picnic, the Berlin Wall fell, and the freedom for which the activists and refugees had abandoned their homes, risked imprisonment, sacrificed jobs, family, and friends, was suddenly available to everyone. But were they really free? And why, three decades since the Iron Curtain was torn down, have so many sought once again to build walls? Cinematically told, The Picnic recovers a time when it seemed possible for the world to change. With insight and panache, Longo explores the opportunities taken—and the opportunities we failed to take—in that pivotal moment.
The Pig Book: How Government Wastes Your Money
by Citizens Against Government WasteThe federal government wastes your tax dollars worse than a drunken sailor on shore leave. The 1984 Grace Commission uncovered that the Department of Defense spent $640 for a toilet seat and $436 for a hammer. Twenty years later things weren't much better. In 2004, Congress spent a record-breaking $22.9 billion dollars of your money on 10,656 of their pork-barrel projects. The war on terror has a lot to do with the record $413 billion in deficit spending, but it's also the result of pork over the last 18 years the likes of:- $50 million for an indoor rain forest in Iowa- $102 million to study screwworms which were long ago eradicated from American soil- $273,000 to combat goth culture in Missouri- $2.2 million to renovate the North Pole (Lucky for Santa!)- $50,000 for a tattoo removal program in California- $1 million for ornamental fish researchFunny in some instances and jaw-droppingly stupid and wasteful in others, The Pig Book proves one thing about Capitol Hill: pork is king!
The Pig War: How a Porcine Tragedy Taught England and America to Share
by Emma Bland SmithHere is a true story of how the great nations of America and England almost went to war in 1859 over a pig--but learned to share instead.In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms--until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer's land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out . . . all because of a pig! Emma Bland Smith's humorous text and Alison Jay's folksy illustrations combine in this whimsical nonfiction picture book that models the principles of peaceful conflict resolution.
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life
by John Le Carré“Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur — by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy.” -Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesThe New York Times bestselling memoir from John le Carré, the legendary author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; and The Night Manager, now an Emmy-nominated television series starring Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie. From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels. Whether he's writing about the parrot at a Beirut hotel that could perfectly mimic machine gun fire or the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth; visiting Rwanda’s museums of the unburied dead in the aftermath of the genocide; celebrating New Year’s Eve 1982 with Yasser Arafat and his high command; interviewing a German woman terrorist in her desert prison in the Negev; listening to the wisdoms of the great physicist, dissident, and Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov; meeting with two former heads of the KGB; watching Alec Guinness prepare for his role as George Smiley in the legendary BBC TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People; or describing the female aid worker who inspired the main character in The Constant Gardener, le Carré endows each happening with vividness and humor, now making us laugh out loud, now inviting us to think anew about events and people we believed we understood. Best of all, le Carré gives us a glimpse of a writer’s journey over more than six decades, and his own hunt for the human spark that has given so much life and heart to his fictional characters.From the Hardcover edition.
The Pigeon Wars of Damascus
by Marius KociejowskiMarius Kociejowski follows up his now classic The Street Philosopher and the Holy Fool with The Pigeon Wars of Damascus. A metaphysical journalist in search of echoes rather than analogies, hints as opposed to verities, Kociejowski discovers once again at the periphery of Damascene society-for the outcast is often made of the very thing that rejects him-a way to understand the challenges and changes refashioning post-9/11 Syria and the Middle East, reminding us once again of the deeper purpose of travel: to absorb and understand the spirit of a place, and to return changed.
The Pillsburys of Minnesota
by Lori Sturdevant George S. PillsburyThe Pillsburys of Minnesota "Pillsbury" is a household word in many parts of the world, but in Minnesota it has carried a special import ever since the arrival of John S. Pillsbury, his brother George, and nephews Charles and Fred at the Falls of st. Anthony in the mid-nineteenth century. Here Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant chronicles the family's pioneering role in making Minneapolis the milling capitol of the world. she explores the career of Minnesota governor "Honest John "Pillsbury, and also highlights the instrumental part he played in the growth of the University of Minnesota. Alfred Pillsbury's impact on the Minneapolis Institue of Arts, Philip's remarkable success at reviving a moribund milling giant through the introduction of new food products and George's efforts to fashion a more inclusive Republican Party, are only a few of the many strands woven into the Pillsbury story. From mining camps and insurance companies to arts organizations and charitable concerns, the family's imprint on Minnesota runs deep and wide. Book jacket.
The Pinch Runner Memorandum
by Kenzaburo Oe Michiko N. Wilson Oe Kenzaburo Michael K. WilsonThis novel offers a contemporary and explosive picture of the nuclear family, which pivots on the bizarre odyssey of a Japanese father and son.
The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World's Queer Frontiers
by Mark GevisserOne of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Longlisted for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Prize. "[Mark] Gevisser is clear-eyed and wise enough to have a sharp sense of how tough the struggle has been, and how hard it will be now for those who have not succeeded in finding shelter from prejudice." --Colm Tóibín, The GuardianA groundbreaking look at how the issues of sexuality and gender identity divide and unite the world todayMore than seven years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is an exploration of how the conversation around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition are celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. As new globalized queer identities are adopted by people across the world—thanks to the digital revolution—fresh culture wars have emerged. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the globe, and he takes readers to its frontiers.Between sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered along the Pink Line, Gevisser offers sharp analytical chapters exploring identity politics, religion, gender ideology, capitalism, human rights, moral panics, geopolitics, and what he calls “the new transgender culture wars.” His subjects include a Ugandan refugee in flight to Canada, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, a lesbian couple campaigning for marriage equality in Mexico, genderqueer high schoolers coming of age in Michigan, a gay Israeli-Palestinian couple searching for common ground, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies”—who run a temple in an Indian fishing village. What results is a moving and multifaceted picture of the world today, and the queer people defining it.Eye-opening, heartfelt, expertly researched, and compellingly narrated, The Pink Line is a monumental—and urgent—journey of unprecedented scope into twenty-first-century identity, seen through the border posts along the world’s new LGBTQ+ frontiers.
The Pink Wave: Women Running for Office After Trump
by William W. Parsons Regina M. MathesonHow and why the election of Donald Trump inspired more women to enter politicsDonald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election shocked and dismayed many women, and motivated many to run for office at all levels of government. In The Pink Wave, Regina M. Matheson and William W. Parsons explore this inspiring phenomenon and its impact on women’s representation.Drawing on national surveys and in-depth interviews of over 900 women, across almost every state, Matheson and Parsons show us why more women decided to run for state legislature during the Trump administration, the obstacles they faced on the campaign trail, and whether they ultimately succeeded or failed in their bid for office. Candidates share valuable lessons they learned from their recent campaign experiences, providing future insight for women—on both sides of the aisle—who may be inspired to follow in their footsteps.Matheson and Parsons examine the impact Donald Trump had on women candidates—both positive and negative—and women’s ambitions to pursue political office. The Pink Wave celebrates the hundreds of trailblazing women creating new political opportunities for representation, now and in the future.