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A Perspective On U.s. Farm Problems And Agricultural Policy
by Lance McKinzieA Perspective on U.S. Farm Problems and Agricultural Policy provides a framework for evaluating national policy alternatives and attempts to improve our understanding of the nature of U.S. farm sector and its problems.
A Phenomenological Inquiry into Science Teachers’ Case Method Learning (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Sye Foong YeeThis book illustrates a practical application of the Case Method as a teaching technique in teacher education, and examines how learning takes place in a teacher professional development activity. It also describes teachers’ lived experience of the activity based on Clark Moustakas' 1994 guidelines for organizing and presenting a phenomenological study.
A Phenomenological Revision of E. E. Harris's Dialectical Holism
by James SchofieldThe purpose of this work is to critically assess Errol E. Harris’s process philosophy in the face of contemporary research in the special sciences. Harris devoted his life to grappling with the big questions concerning the relationships between nature, mind, and knowledge. His 70-plus year career was distinguished, his texts on the history of philosophy, philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and consciousness were widely published, and yet his metaphysics has until now remained excluded from mainstream discussions. This book’s contention is that Harris’s work reveals as yet unnoticed connections between theories in numerous scientific disciplines ranging from psychology to cosmology and that an examination of certain theories within these disciplines may serve to strengthen his original arguments. This work maintains that the resulting metaphysics frames a transdisciplinary paradigm shift and provides a viable solution to the hard problem of consciousness.
A Philosopher Looks at Human Beings (A Philosopher Looks At)
by Michael RuseWhy do we think ourselves superior to all other animals? Are we right to think so? In this book, Michael Ruse explores these questions in religion, science and philosophy. Some people think that the world is an organism - and that humans, as its highest part, have a natural value (this view appeals particularly to people of religion). Others think that the world is a machine - and that we therefore have responsibility for making our own value judgements (including judgements about ourselves). Ruse provides a compelling analysis of these two rival views and the age-old conflict between them. In a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion, he draws on Darwinism and existentialism to argue that only the view that the world is a machine does justice to our humanity. This new series offers short and personal perspectives by expert thinkers on topics that we all encounter in our everyday lives.
A Philosopher Looks at Science
by Nancy CartwrightWhat is science and what can it do? Nancy Cartwright here takes issue with three common images of science: that it amounts to the combination of theory and experiment; that all science is basically reducible to physics; and that science and the natural world which it pictures are deterministic. The author's innovative and thoughtful book draws on examples from the physical, life, and social sciences alike, and focuses on all the products of science – not just experiments or theories – and how they work together. She reveals just what it is that makes science ultimately reliable, and how this reliability is nevertheless still compatible with a view of nature as more responsive to human change than we might think. Her book is a call for greater intellectual humility by and within scientific institutions. It will have strong appeal to anyone who thinks about science and how it is practised in society.
A Philosophical Analysis of Chaos Theory
by Lena C. ZuchowskiThis book provides an analysis of the construction, diagnosis (as chaotic) and evaluation of models in chaos theory. It contains a detailed look at the interaction of the different models used in chaos theory and analyses how these models influence the way chaos is defined. Furthermore, the book discusses the conditions for the occurrence of chaos and the detection of chaos in nature.
A Philosophical Approach to MOND: Assessing the Milgromian Research Program in Cosmology
by David MerrittDark matter is a fundamental component of the standard cosmological model, but in spite of four decades of increasingly sensitive searches, no-one has yet detected a single dark-matter particle in the laboratory. An alternative cosmological paradigm exists: MOND (MOdified Newtonian Dynamics). Observations explained in the standard model by postulating dark matter are described in MOND by proposing a modification of Newton's laws of motion. Both MOND and the standard model have had successes and failures – but only MOND has repeatedly predicted observational facts in advance of their discovery. In this volume, David Merritt outlines why such predictions are considered by many philosophers of science to be the 'gold standard' when it comes to judging a theory's validity. In a world where the standard model receives most attention, the author applies criteria from the philosophy of science to assess, in a systematic way, the viability of this alternative cosmological paradigm.
A Philosophical Approach to Quantum Field Theory
by Hans Christian ÖttingerThis text presents an intuitive and robust mathematical image of fundamental particle physics based on a novel approach to quantum field theory, which is guided by four carefully motivated metaphysical postulates. In particular, the book explores a dissipative approach to quantum field theory, which is illustrated for scalar field theory and quantum electrodynamics, and proposes an attractive explanation of the Planck scale in quantum gravity. Offering a radically new perspective on this topic, the book focuses on the conceptual foundations of quantum field theory and ontological questions. It also suggests a new stochastic simulation technique in quantum field theory which is complementary to existing ones. Encouraging rigor in a field containing many mathematical subtleties and pitfalls this text is a helpful companion for students of physics and philosophers interested in quantum field theory, and it allows readers to gain an intuitive rather than a formal understanding. Applies philosophical ideas to develop a new and unique perspective on various approaches to quantum field theory. Challenges and supports the reader in recognizing the conceptual foundations of quantum field theory. Formulates quantum field theory in the setting of irreversible dynamics to account for particle creation and annihilation processes that are completely beyond our control.
A Philosophical Critique of Empirical Arguments for Postmortem Survival (Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion)
by Michael SudduthSudduth provides a critical exploration of classical empirical arguments for survival arguments that purport to show that data collected from ostensibly paranormal phenomena constitute good evidence for the survival of the self after death. Utilizing the conceptual tools of formal epistemology, he argues that classical arguments are unsuccessful.
A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities
by Marquis De LaplaceThis classic introduces the concepts and uses of probability theory. It demonstrates, without the use of higher mathematics, the application of probability to games of chance, physics, reliability of witnesses, astronomy, insurance, democratic government, and many other areas. It also shows how scientists can express complex ideas in simple terms.
A Philosophical View of the Ocean and Humanity (Springerbriefs In Environmental Science Ser.)
by Anders OmstedtThis book is about the ocean and about the future. It is written in two modes, a concerned analytical scientific mode and an intuitive artistic mode in which the ocean is given a voice. The disconnect in the relationship between human dependency on and feelings about the ocean is examined in a dialogue between these two modes. The book illustrates how science and the arts can be connected to increase our awareness of the state of the ocean and support behavioural change. This book is intended for everyone who would like to contribute to the sustainable use of the ocean. Includes forewords by Alice Newton, University of Algarve, Portugal and Martin Visbeck, GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany.
A Philosophical View of the Ocean and Humanity: Second Edition
by Anders OmstedtThis book provides an overview of major threats to our blue planet. But also tools for connecting facts and values to change our often destructive behavior towards nature. The solutions to achieving an ocean in harmony with man are within us, where compassion, curiosity, empathy, courage, and creativity are needed for sustainable change. Therefore, with this book, I want to arouse your curiosity and give the reader, the courage to face the future better by introducing tools for deep diving into our outer and inner world with many hidden resources. The book brings the reader into humans' challenges with the ocean and its future. It addresses some of the main questions in the United Nations Ocean Decade initiative that aims to change how humans deal with the ocean. This unique book will stimulate a broad way of thinking by connecting analytical science thinking and intuition. In the book's first part, art and dreams are used to connect science and art. This knowledge is then applied in part II of the book, written in two modes: a concerned science mode and an intuitive, artistic mode in which the ocean is given a voice. Part III illustrates how science and art can be connected to increase our awareness of the state of the ocean and support behavioral change.
A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness
by Walter VeitThis book attempts to advance Donald Griffin's vision of the "final, crowning chapter of the Darwinian revolution" by developing a philosophy for the science of animal consciousness. It advocates a Darwinian bottom-up approach that treats consciousness as a complex, evolved, and multidimensional phenomenon in nature rather than a mysterious all-or-nothing property immune to the tools of science and restricted to a single species. The so-called emergence of a science of consciousness in the 1990s has at best been a science of human consciousness. This book aims to advance a true Darwinian science of consciousness in which its evolutionary origin, function, and phylogenetic diversity are moved from the field’s periphery to its very centre, thus enabling us to integrate consciousness into an evolutionary view of life. Accordingly, this book has two objectives: (i) to argue for the need and possibility of an evolutionary bottom-up approach that addresses the problem of consciousness in terms of the evolutionary origins of a new ecological lifestyle that made consciousness worth having and (ii) to articulate a thesis and beginnings of a theory of the place of consciousness as a complex evolved phenomenon in nature that can help us to answer the question of what it is like to be a bat, an octopus, or a crow. A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness will appeal to researchers and advanced students interested in advancing our understanding of animal minds as well as anyone with a keen interest in how we can develop a science of animal consciousness.
A Philosophy of the Insect
by Jean-Marc DrouinThe world of insects is at once beneath our feet and unfathomably alien. Small and innumerable, insects surround and disrupt us even as we scarcely pay them any mind. Insects confront us with the limits of what is imaginable, while at the same time being essential to the everyday functioning of all terrestrial ecosystems.In this book, the philosopher and historian of science Jean-Marc Drouin contends that insects pose a fundamental challenge to philosophy. Exploring the questions of what insects are and what scientific, aesthetic, ethical, and historical relationships they have with humanity, he argues that they force us to reconsider our ideas of the animal and the social. He traces the role that insects have played in language, mythology, literature, entomology, sociobiology, and taxonomy over the centuries. Drouin emphasizes the links between humanistic and scientific approaches—how we have projected human roles onto insects and seen ourselves in insect form. Caught between the animal and plant kingdoms, insects force us to confront and reevaluate our notions of gender, family, society, struggle, the division of labor, social organization, and individual and collective intelligence. A remarkably original and thought-provoking work, A Philosophy of the Insect is an important book for animal studies, environmental ethics, and the history and philosophy of science.
A Photographic Atlas of Flood Basalt Volcanism
by Hetu ShethThis unique book presents hundreds of spectacular photographs of large-scale to small-scale field geological features of flood basalt volcanism from around the world. Major flood basalt provinces covered in this book include the British Palaeogene, Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, Columbia River, Deccan, East Greenland, Emeishan, Ethiopian, Ferrar-Karoo-Tasmania, Iceland, Indo-Madagascar, Paran#65533;, Siberian, West Greenland, and others. Intermediate- to small-sized flood basalts (such as Saudi Arabia and South Caucasus) are also included. Different chapters of the book illustrate varied features of flood basalts, including landscapes, lava flow morphology and stacking, structures formed during lava flow transport, inflation and degassing, structures produced during lava solidification, subaqueous volcanism and volcanosedimentary associations, explosive volcanism, intrusions, igneous processes and magmatic diversity, tectonic deformation, secondary mineralization, and weathering and erosion. This book will be valuable for a large audience: specialists studying flood basalt volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, geophysics, and environmental impact and mass extinction links; nonspecialists who want to know more about flood basalts; field geologists (such as those working in geological surveys); students of volcanology and igneous petrology, and even people employed in the industry, such as those working on flood basalt-hosted groundwater or petroleum reservoirs.
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia
by Morten StrangeA Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia is the first comprehensive photographic guide to the birds of mainland Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Borneo. It covers important bird species found in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.Of an estimated 10,000 living bird species in the world, Southeast Asia is home to over 3,000 of them-making this one of the most diverse avifaunal regions on the planet and a bird-watcher's paradise. This comprehensive guide covers over 660 species and has more than 700 color photographs. It is an invaluable guide to anyone planning a visit to Asia who is interested in birds. It gives a distribution map for each species and a checklist at the back.Many of the photographs in this book appear for the first time and have been carefully selected to illustrate the most important species and their key features. The text provides vital information to ensure accurate identifications. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia is indispensable reading for bird lovers everywhere.
A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Southeast Asia
by Morten StrangePeriplus is proud to present the very first comprehensive photographic guide to the birds of mainland Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Borneo. Included are the birds of Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Indochina, as well as those found in South China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.This book covers 668 species and contains more than 700 color photographs. There is a distribution map for each species.Many of the photographs in this magnificent volume appear for the first time and have been carefully selected to show the most important species. The concise text provides vital information that will ensure accurate identification of species in one of the most diverse avifauna regions. Indispensable reading for all bird lovers.
A Picture Book Of Thomas Alva Edison
by David A. Adler Alexandra Wallner John WallnerAn introduction to the genius with a curious mind who loved to experiment and who invented the phonograph, light bulb, movie camera, and numerous other items.
A Picture Book of Amelia Earhart
by David A. AdlerDiscusses the life of the pilot who was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by herself in a plane.
A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin (Picture Book Biography)
by David A. AdlerWriter, printer, scientist, inventor, statesman, and youngest son in a family of seventeen children, Benjamin Franklin is considered one of our greatest Americans.Supported by colorful illustrations, Adler's biography brings to life one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. Adler highlights Franklin's stunning accomplishments and his day-to-day life from his time as a young boy in Boston, Massachusetts through his role as the oldest delegate to the Constitutional Congress at the age of 81.A lifelong book lover and printer, Franklin poularized famous sayings like "haste makes waste" and "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise" in his annual Poor Richard's Almanack. An energetic inventor and public servant, he created the Franklin stove and bifocal glasses and established the first lending library and hospital in America.Young readers looking for insight into one of America's greatest founders, will find inspiration while gaining understanding and appreciation of US colonial history.
A Picture Book of George Washington Carver
by David A. AdlerA brief biography of the African American scientist who overcame tremendous hardship to make unusual and important discoveries in the field of agriculture.
A Piece of the Sun: The Quest for Fusion Energy
by Daniel CleryHow physicists are trying to solve our energy problems—by unlocking the secrets of the sun: &“Explain[s] cutting-edge science with remarkable lucidity.&” —Booklist This revelatory book tells the story of the scientists who believe the solution to the planet&’s ills can be found in the original energy source: the Sun itself. There, at its center, the fusion of 620 million tons of hydrogen every second generates an unfathomable amount of energy. By replicating even a tiny piece of the Sun&’s power on Earth, we can secure all the heat and energy we would ever need. The simple yet extraordinary ambition of nuclear-fusion scientists has garnered many skeptics, but, as A Piece of the Sun makes clear, large-scale nuclear fusion is scientifically possible—and perhaps even preferable to other options. Clery argues passionately and eloquently that the only thing keeping us from harnessing this cheap, clean and renewable energy is our own shortsightedness. &“Surprisingly sprightly…Clery walks readers through the history of fusion study, from Lord Kelvin, Albert Einstein and a large cast of peculiar physicists, to all manner of international politics—e.g., the darts and feints of the Cold War, the braces applied by OPEC in the wake of the 1973 war among Israel, Egypt and Syria. Clery negotiates the hard science with aplomb.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“A timely perspective on truly urgent science.&” —Booklist &“Ultimately, Clery argues that developing a source of energy that won&’t damage the climate—or ever run out—is worth striving for.&” —Publishers Weekly
A Pig Called Alice: The Story of One Man and His Hog
by Paul Heiney‘To call Alice “just another pig” would be the gravest insult.’ Alice the Large Black pig was Paul Heiney’s best friend, his confidante and his therapist. This is the story of their tempestuous relationship with all its ups-and-downs, from her arrival as a ‘large, black and expensive’ Christmas present for his wife to her last days as the matriarch of his traditional farm. In A Pig Called Alice, Heiney walks us through why lop-eared pigs are the best to raise (they can’t see you coming), how to escape a sow that’s decided you’re her next mate (throw a bucket and run), and how, actually, pigs might have just got this whole ‘life’ situation sorted out.
A Place like No Other: Discovering the Secrets of Serengeti
by Anthony R. SinclairFrom famed zoologist Anthony Sinclair, an account of his decades-long quest to understand one of Earth's most spectacular ecosystemsWith its rich biodiversity, astounding wildlife, and breathtaking animal migrations, Serengeti is like no other ecosystem on the planet. A Place like No Other is Anthony Sinclair's firsthand account of how he and other scientists discovered the biological principles that regulate life in Serengeti and how they rule all of the natural world.When Sinclair first began studying this spectacular ecosystem in 1965, a host of questions confronted him. What environmental features make its annual migration possible? What determines the size of animal populations and the stunning diversity of species? What factors enable Serengeti to endure over time? In the five decades that followed, Sinclair and others sought answers. What they learned is that seven principles of regulation govern all natural processes in the Serengeti ecosystem. Sinclair shows how these principles can help us to understand and overcome the challenges facing Serengeti today, and how they can be used to repair damaged habitats throughout the world.Blending vivid storytelling with invaluable scientific insights from Sinclair's pioneering fieldwork in Africa, A Place like No Other reveals how Serengeti holds timely lessons for the restoration and conservation of our vital ecosystems.
A Place to Start a Family: Poems About Creatures That Build
by David L. HarrisonA poetry collection introducing animal architects that build remarkable structures in order to attract a mate and have babies.Many animals build something--a nest, tunnel, or web--in order to pair up, lay eggs, give birth, and otherwise perpetuate their species. Organized based on where creatures live--underground, in the water, on land, or in the air--twelve poems bring fish, insects, reptiles, mammals, and birds to life. Back matter includes more information about each animal."A fine synthesis of poetry and science" — Kirkus Reviews"An inviting introduction to a dozen industrious creatures" — Publishers Weekly "A natural for classroom use, with eye-catching art that will lure little ones in" — Booklist ILA Teachers' Choices