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The Oppositional Imagination: Feminism, Critique and Political Theory (Routledge Library Editions: Feminist Theory)
by Joan CocksThe Oppositional Imagination draws together elements from Marxism, analytical philosophy, post-structuralism, and post-colonial criticism to analyse the elusive interplay of culture and power. It focuses its attention on cultural domination, opposition and evasion in the realm of sex and gender. Joan Cocks reflects on questions crucial to both political theorists and feminists: the relationship between political theory and practical life; the possibility of bringing together a philosophical and a literary language to comprehend and evoke concrete experience; and the reconciliation of radical political commitment with an appreciation of shades of grey in the social world. She explores the variety of ways in which power and eroticism intersect; the liberating and tyrannical impulses of marginal cultures; and the place of the loyalist, the eccentric, the critic, the traitor, and the rebel in the sexual struggle. The Oppositional Imagination reaffirms the centrality of political theory and feminist practice while at the same time challenging certain of their key principles in thought-provoking ways.
The Oppressive Present: Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonial India
by Sudhir ChandraMarking a departure from studies on history and literature in colonial India, The Oppressive Present explores the emergence of social consciousness as a result of and in response to the colonial mediation in the late nineteenth century. In focusing on contemporary literature in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, it charts an epochal change in the gradual loss of the old pre-colonial self and the configuration of a new, colonized self. It reveals that the ‘oppressive present’ of generations of subjugated Indians remains so for their freed descendants: the consciousness of those colonized generations continues to characterize the ‘modern educated Indian’. The book proposes ambivalence rather than binary categories — such as communalism and nationalism, communalism and secularism, modernity and tradition — as key to understanding the making of this consciousness. This cross-disciplinary volume will prove essential to scholars and students of modern and contemporary Indian history and society, comparative literature and post-colonial studies.
The Optimum Utilization Of Knowledge: Making Knowledge Serve Human Betterment
by Kenneth E. Boulding Lawrence SeneshWe all have more knowledge than we use; even so, say the editors of this book, ignorance often governs our actions. Society continues to find ways to misuse knowledge–from manipulating information to gain political power to restricting what ideas are explored on university campuses. Thus, when some of the best minds in the country met to focus on the optimum utilization of knowledge, it was not an idle academic inquiry. In these proceedings from that conference, which was sponsored by the Academy of Independent Scholars, the contributors examine several of the key aspects of learning: the importance of knowledge in decision making, the role of our educational system and other systems in producing and disseminating knowledge, and the relationship between knowledge and the physiological, psychological, and cultural bases of the learning process. The misuse of knowledge–or the overuse of ignorance–the authors note, could threaten the existence of the entire planet, if the kind of thinking exemplified by the nuclear arms race prevails.
The Orange Trees of Marrakesh: Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Man
by Stephen Frederic DaleAn examination of Khaldun’s Islamic history of the premodern world, its philosophical underpinnings, and the author himself.In his masterwork Muqaddimah, the Arab Muslim Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), a Tunisian descendant of Andalusian scholars and officials in Seville, developed a method of evaluating historical evidence that allowed him to identify the underlying causes of events. His methodology was derived from Aristotelian notions of nature and causation, and he applied it to create a dialectical model that explained the cyclical rise and fall of North African dynasties. The Muqaddimah represents the world’s first example of structural history and historical sociology. Four centuries before the European Enlightenment, this work anticipated modern historiography and social science.In Stephen F. Dale’s The Orange Trees of Marrakesh, Ibn Khaldun emerges as a cultured urban intellectual and professional religious judge who demanded his fellow Muslim historians abandon their worthless tradition of narrative historiography and instead base their works on a philosophically informed understanding of social organizations. His strikingly modern approach to historical research established him as the premodern world’s preeminent historical scholar. It also demonstrated his membership in an intellectual lineage that begins with Plato, Aristotle, and Galen; continues with the Greco-Muslim philosophers al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes; and is renewed with Montesquieu, Hume, Adam Smith, and Durkheim.Praise for The Orange Trees of Marrakesh“Stephen Dale’s book contains a careful account of the dizzying ups and downs of Ibn Khaldun’s political and academic career at courts in North Africa, Andalusia and Egypt. For these and other reasons The Orange Trees of Marrakesh deserves careful and respectful attention.” —Robert Irwin, The Times Literary Supplement (UK)“Historian Stephen Frederic Dale argues that Ibn Khaldun’s work is a key milestone on the road from Greek to Enlightenment thought, chiming with the radical reasoning of philosophers such as Montesquieu and Adam Smith.” —Barbara Kiser, Nature“Dale’s interest in Greco-Islamic philosophy contributes to this biography’s uniqueness . . . This work provides indispensable background information to truly appreciate this single most influential Islamic historian.” —R. W. Zens, Choice“Excellent scholarship on a fascinating subject.” —Publishers Weekly
The Order of Things: An Archaeology Of The Human Sciences (Routledge Classics)
by Michel FoucaultWhen one defines "order" as a sorting of priorities, it becomes beautifully clear as to what Foucault is doing here. With virtuoso showmanship, he weaves an intensely complex history of thought. He dips into literature, art, economics and even biology in The Order of Things, possibly one of the most significant, yet most overlooked, works of the twentieth century. Eclipsed by his later work on power and discourse, nonetheless it was The Order of Things that established Foucault's reputation as an intellectual giant. Pirouetting around the outer edge of language, Foucault unsettles the surface of literary writing. In describing the limitations of our usual taxonomies, he opens the door onto a whole new system of thought, one ripe with what he calls "exotic charm". Intellectual pyrotechnics from the master of critical thinking, this book is crucial reading for those who wish to gain insight into that odd beast called Postmodernism, and a must for any fan of Foucault.
The Orderly Entrepreneur: Youth, Education, and Governance in Rwanda
by Catherine HoneymanThe first generation of children born after Rwanda's 1994 genocide is just now reaching maturity, setting aside their school uniforms to take up adult roles in Rwandan society and the economy. At the same time, Rwanda's post-war government has begun to shrug off international aid as it pursues an increasingly independent path of business-friendly yet strongly state-regulated social and economic development. The Orderly Entrepreneur tells the story of a new Rwanda now at the vanguard among developing countries, emulating the policies of Singapore, Korea, and China, and devoutly committed to entrepreneurship as a beacon for 21st century economic growth. Drawing on ethnographic research with nearly 500 participants, The Orderly Entrepreneur investigates the impact and reception of the Rwandan government's multiyear entrepreneurship curriculum, first implemented in 2007 as required learning in all secondary schools. As Honeyman shows, "entrepreneurship" is more than a benign buzzword or hopeful panacea for economic development, but a complex ideal with unique meanings across Rwandan society. She reveals how curriculum developers, teachers, and students all brought their own interpretations and influence to the new entrepreneurship curriculum, exposing how even a carefully engineered project of social transformation can be full of indeterminacies and surprising twists every step of the way.
The Ordinal Society
by Marion Fourcade Kieran HealyA sweeping critique of how digital capitalism is reformatting our world.We now live in an “ordinal society.” Nearly every aspect of our lives is measured, ranked, and processed into discrete, standardized units of digital information. Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy argue that technologies of information management, fueled by the abundance of personal data and the infrastructure of the internet, transform how we relate to ourselves and to each other through the market, the public sphere, and the state.The personal data we give in exchange for convenient tools like Gmail and Instagram provides the raw material for predictions about everything from our purchasing power to our character. The Ordinal Society shows how these algorithmic predictions influence people’s life chances and generate new forms of capital and social expectation: nobody wants to ride with an unrated cab driver anymore or rent to a tenant without a risk score. As members of this society embrace ranking and measurement in their daily lives, new forms of social competition and moral judgment arise. Familiar structures of social advantage are recycled into measures of merit that produce insidious kinds of social inequality.While we obsess over order and difference—and the logic of ordinality digs deeper into our behaviors, bodies, and minds—what will hold us together? Fourcade and Healy warn that, even though algorithms and systems of rationalized calculation have inspired backlash, they are also appealing in ways that make them hard to relinquish.
The Org
by Tim Sullivan Ray FismanWe create organizations because we need to get a job done--something we couldn't do alone--and join them because we're inspired by their missions (and our paycheck). But once we're inside, these organizations rarely feel inspirational. So where did it all go wrong?In The Org, Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan explain the tradeoffs that every organization faces, arguing that this everyday dysfunction is actually inherent to the very nature of orgs. The Org diagnoses the root causes of that malfunction, beginning with the economic logic of why organizations exist in the first place, then working its way up through the org's structure from the lowly cubicle to the CEO's office.You'll learn:The purpose of meetings and why they will never go awayWhy even members of al Qaeda are required to submit travel and expense reportsWhat managers are good forHow the army and other orgs balance marching in lockstep with fostering innovationWhy the hospital administration--not the heart surgeon--is more likely to save your lifeWhy CEOs often spend more than 80 percent of their time in meetings--and why that's exactly where they should be (and why they get paid so much)
The Org: How The Office Really Works
by Tim Sullivan Ray FismanWhy do members of Al Qaeda have to submit travel and expense reports?How do you create incentives for policemen, or priests?What are managers good for?We create organizations because they are an efficient way of doing something we couldn't do alone. We join organizations because we are inspired by their mission, or their payslip. But once we're inside, these organizations rarely feel efficient or inspiring.In The Org, Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan explain the trade-offs that every organization makes, arguing that this everyday dysfunction is in fact actually inherent in the very nature of orgs. Woven throughout The Org are fascinating stories of organizations ranging from Google and McDonald's, to Al Qaeda and the island nation of Samoa. The Org tells us how the office really works. As such it is required reading for anyone who wants to come to terms with the frustrations of their workplace, or to work their way up the org.
The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office
by Tim Sullivan Ray FismanIn THE ORG, Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan explain the tradeoffs that every organization faces, arguing that this everyday dysfunction is actually inherent to the very nature of orgs. THE ORG diagnoses the root causes of that malfunction, beginning with the economic logic of why organizations exist in the first place, then working its way up through the org's structure from the lowly cubicle to the CEO's office.Woven throughout with fascinating case studies-including McDonald's, al Qaeda, the Baltimore City Police Department, Procter and Gamble, the island nation of Samoa, and Google-THE ORG reveals why the give-and-take nature of organizations, while infuriating, nonetheless provides the best way to get the job done.You'll learn:The purpose of meetings and why they will never go awayWhy even members of al Qaeda are required to submit Travel & Expense reportsWhat managers are good forHow the army and other orgs balance marching in lockstep with fostering innovationWhy it's the hospital administration-not the heart surgeon-who is more likely to save your lifeThat CEOs often spend over 80% of their time in meetings-and why that's exactly where they should be (and why they get paid so much)Looking at life behind the red tape, THE ORG shows why the path from workshop to corporate behemoth is pockmarked with tradeoffs and competing incentives, but above all, demonstrates why organizations are central to human achievement.
The Organisation and Governance of Top Football Across Europe: An Institutional Perspective (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society)
by Hallgeir Gammelsæter BenoîtThis book aims to provide an extensive overview of how football is organized and managed on a European level and in individual European countries, and to account for the evolution of the national, international and transnational management of football over the last decades.
The Organisation of Tomorrow: How AI, blockchain and analytics turn your business into a data organisation
by Mark Van RijmenamThe Organisation of Tomorrow presents a new model of doing business and explains how big data analytics, blockchain and artificial intelligence force us to rethink existing business models and develop organisations that will be ready for human-machine interactions. It also asks us to consider the impacts of these emerging information technologies on people and society. Big data analytics empowers consumers and employees. This can result in an open strategy and a better understanding of the changing environment. Blockchain enables peer-to-peer collaboration and trustless interactions governed by cryptography and smart contracts. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence allows for new and different levels of intensity and involvement among human and artificial actors. With that, new modes of organising are emerging: where technology facilitates collaboration between stakeholders; and where human-to-human interactions are increasingly replaced with human-to-machine and even machine-to-machine interactions. This book offers dozens of examples of industry leaders such as Walmart, Telstra, Alibaba, Microsoft and T-Mobile, before presenting the D2 + A2 model – a new model to help organisations datafy their business, distribute their data, analyse it for insights and automate processes and customer touchpoints to be ready for the data-driven and exponentially-changing society that is upon us This book offers governments, professional services, manufacturing, finance, retail and other industries a clear approach for how to develop products and services that are ready for the twenty-first century. It is a must-read for every organisation that wants to remain competitive in our fast-changing world.
The Organization Design Guide: A Pragmatic Framework for Thoughtful, Efficient and Successful Redesigns
by Herman Vantrappen Frederic WirtzOrganization redesign exercises consume enormous time, resources and energy, and yet they so often get stuck midway or fail to deliver the aspired benefits. This groundbreaking book offers a comprehensive guide, enabling executives and their teams to have nuanced and in-depth discussions about substantive design choices. Once these choices are clear, the teams can confidently initiate the change process. The book brings together the building blocks of organization design thinking into a logical flow. It offers a high-quality framework, with each building block broken down into specific design questions. For each of the five categories of design variables – architecture, processes, culture, people and technology – the book enables executives to discover and weigh up a variety of situation-specific design alternatives. The book steers clear of academic abstractions, simplistic formulaic solutions, flavor-of-the-year debates and misleading anecdotes from today’s superstar firms. It is written for smart executives at mainstream companies who realize that organization design choices are contextual and influenced by their company’s specific history. The book presents a pragmatic framework that guides managers in search of a conclusive and efficient organization design process. It is relevant to C-suite executives and directors, as well as senior and middle managers, internal project leaders and organization design consultants.
The Organization Man
by William H. Whyte Joseph NoceraRegarded as one of the most important sociological and business commentaries of modern times, The Organization Man developed the first thorough description of the impact of mass organization on American society. During the height of the Eisenhower administration, corporations appeared to provide a blissful answer to postwar life with the marketing of new technologies--television, affordable cars, space travel, fast food--and lifestyles, such as carefully planned suburban communities centered around the nuclear family. William H. Whyte found this phenomenon alarming.As an editor for Fortune magazine, Whyte was well placed to observe corporate America; it became clear to him that the American belief in the perfectibility of society was shifting from one of individual initiative to one that could be achieved at the expense of the individual. With its clear analysis of contemporary working and living arrangements, The Organization Man rapidly achieved bestseller status.Since the time of the book's original publication, the American workplace has undergone massive changes. In the 1990s, the rule of large corporations seemed less relevant as small entrepreneurs made fortunes from new technologies, in the process bucking old corporate trends. In fact this "new economy" appeared to have doomed Whyte's original analysis as an artifact from a bygone day. But the recent collapse of so many startup businesses, gigantic mergers of international conglomerates, and the reality of economic globalization make The Organization Man all the more essential as background for understanding today's global market. This edition contains a new foreword by noted journalist and author Joseph Nocera. In an afterword Jenny Bell Whyte describes how The Organization Man was written.
The Organization from Within: A comparative study of social institutions based on a sociotherapeutic approach
by Cyril SoferTavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences. This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press. Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1961 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.
The Organization of Craft Work: Identities, Meanings, and Materiality (Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society)
by Scott Taylor Emma Bell Gianluigi Mangia Maria Laura ToraldoThis edited book focuses on the organization and meaning of craft work in contemporary society. It considers the relationship between craft and place and how this enables the construction of a meaningful relationship with objects of production and consumption. The book explores the significance of raw materials, the relationship between the body, the crafted object and the mind, and the importance of skill, knowledge and learning in the making process. Through this, it raises important questions about the role of craft in facing future challenges by challenging the logic of globalized production and consumption. The Organization of Craft Work encompasses international analyses from the United States, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, the UK and Japan involving a diverse range of sectors, including brewing, food and wine production, clothing and shoe making, and perfumery. The book will be of interest to students and academic researchers in organization studies, marketing and consumer behaviour, business ethics, entrepreneurship, sociology of work, human resource management, cultural studies, geography, and fashion and design. In addition, the book will be of interest to practitioners and organizations with an interest in the development and promotion of craft work.
The Organization of Journalism: Market Models and Practice in a Fraying Profession
by Patrick FerrucciNew business models have splintered journalists’ once-monolithic professional culture. Where the organization once had little sway in the newsroom, in today’s journalism ecosystem, owners and management influence newsgathering more than ever. Using rich interviews and participant observation, Patrick Ferrucci examines institutions with funding mechanisms that range from traditional mogul ownership and online-only nonprofits to staff-owned cooperatives and hedge fund control. The variations in market models have frayed the tenets of professionalization, with unique work cultures emerging from each organization’s focus on its mission and the implantation of its own processes and ethical guidelines. As a result, the field of American journalism no longer shares uniform newsgathering practices and a common identity, a break with the past that affects what information we consume today and what the press will become tomorrow. An inside look at a fracturing profession, The Organization of Journalism illuminates the institution’s expanding impact on newsgathering and the people who practice it.
The Organization of the Expert Society (Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society)
by Staffan Furusten Andreas WerrIt is often claimed that we live in an expert society, a society where more and more individuals take expert roles in increasingly narrow fields. In contrast to more traditional experts most of these new experts lack generally accepted mechanisms for the certification and legitimation of their expertise. This book focuses on these new as well as established experts and the efforts undertaken to secure and legitimate their expertise. We view these efforts as organizing attempts and study them on four different levels – the society, the market, the organization and the individual. Based on empirical studies on these four levels of analysis, The Organization of the Expert Society makes the argument that current organizing initiatives in the expert society are based in an objectifying view of expertise that risks concealing and downplaying key aspects of expertise. Well-intended organizing initiatives in the expert society thus run the risk of promoting ignorance rather than securing expertise. Focusing on a current, general and global phenomenon, the rise and organization of an expert society. The Organization of the Expert Society will be key reading for scholars, academics and policy makers in the management fields of Organizational Theory, Management Consulting, Organizations & Society, Critical Management Studies as well as the disciplines of Sociology, Political Science and Social Anthropology.
The Organization of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Insights on Managing in a New Era
by Marshall Goldsmith Frances HesselbeinWith 26 inspiring chapters, this book celebrates the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day: emerging and established experts who share their unique vision of what the organization of the future should look like and must do to survive in the turbulent 21st Century. <P><P> Outsmart Your Rivals by Seeing What Others Don't, Jim Champy Organization Is Not Structure but Capability, Dave Ulrich & Norm Smallwood The Leader's Mandate: Create a Shared Sense of Destiny, James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner A Different Kind of Company, Srikumar S. Rao Free to Choose: How American Managers Can Create Globally Competitive Workplaces, James O'Toole Managing the Whole Mandate for the Twenty-First Century: Ditching the Quick-Fix Approach to Management, Paul Borawski & Maryann Brennan The Values That Build a Strong Organization, Thomas J. Moran Revisiting the Concept of the Corporation, Charles Handy Mobilizing Emotions for Performance: Making the Most of the Informal Organization, Jon R. Katzenbach & Zia Khan Beyond Retirement: Mature Workers Are Essential Talent for Organizations of the Future, Richard J. Leider The Best Hope for Organizations of the Future: A Functioning Society, Ira A. Jackson Reframing Ethics, Spirit, and Soul, Lee G. Bolman &Terrence E. Deal Environment Drives Behavior and Expectations, Bill Strickland with Regina Cronin Dynamic Organizations for an Entrepreneurial Age, Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek Multidimensional, Multinational Organizations of the Future, Jay R. Galbraith Designing Organizations That Are Built to Change, Edward E. Lawler III & Christopher G. Worley Refounding a Movement: Preparing a One-Hundred- Year-Old Organization for the Future, Kathy Cloninger Three Challenges Facing Nonprofits of the Future: People, Funding, and Strategy, Roxanne Spillett Pioneering the College of the Future: Building as We Walk, Darlyne Bailey The Organization of the Future Will Foster an Inclusive Environment, Lee Cockerell The Leader as Subculture Manager, Edgar H. Schein The New High-Performance, Horizontal Organization, Howard M. Guttman The Leadership Blueprint to Achieve Exponential Growth, David G. Thomson Leadership Judgment: The Essence of a Good Leader, Noel M. Tichy & Christopher DeRose The Leader of the Future, William A. Cohen Leadership by Perpetual Practice, Debbe Kennedy
The Organizational Sweet Spot
by Charles EhinEmployee disengagement is one of the most pressing problems plaguing managers today hampering the innovation capacities of countless organizations. According to recent polls, some 20 percent of workers report feeling disconnected from their jobs, in an environment of stagnating wages, massive layoffs, rising health care costs, and other factors that contribute to alienation, distrust, and apathy. In The Organizational Sweet Spot, Dr. Charles Ehin takes a refreshing new look at what it will take to reengage disaffected workers and boost their resolve to advance novel ideas. Applying the latest research from such fields as evolutionary psychology, social neuroscience, organizational behavior, anthropology, and social network analysis, Ehin demonstrates how employee disengagement is rooted in a fundamental misalignment between people's instinctive drive to develop their personal and group identities through informal or "emergent" relationships and the ways in which organizational goals and profit motives are executed through formal bureaucracy. The challenge for today's organizations--which operate under constantly changing conditions--is to narrow this gap, that is, to find the "sweet spot", where the formal and informal elements of the organization overlap. Ehin provides practical tools for leaders to support this "shared access domain" to improve productivity, catalyze innovation, and inspire exceptional performance. His new model is likely to reverberate throughout current management thinking as we move toward creating more vital and meaningful workplaces.
The Organized and Engaged Supervisor: Optimizing Resources and Managing Employee Experiences (Successful Supervisory Leadership)
by William J. Rothwell Aileen G. Zaballero Behnam BakhshandehBalancing organization and engagement is the cornerstone of a workplace where supervisors and their teams can genuinely thrive. Effective organization goes beyond checking boxes and meeting quotas—it’s about creating an environment where clear direction and supportive leadership enable everyone to do their best work. Supervisors play a pivotal role in this dynamic, navigating their own tasks while guiding their teams and meeting the expectations of clients and higher management. The challenge is maintaining this balance, managing projects, and leading with limited time and resources. Success demands more than good intentions; it requires strong organizational skills to foster harmony, streamline efforts, and reduce stress.However, even the most meticulously organized supervisor can’t optimize their teams without veritable engagement. Lasting success comes from integrating structure with human connection. A great supervisor allocates resources effectively and builds an atmosphere where employees feel valued, motivated, and genuinely connected to their work. This book is your comprehensive guide to mastering this delicate balance. Packed with practical insights and proven strategies, this book will help elevate your leadership skills and team dynamics, creating a culture where productivity and commitment are seamlessly intertwined.
The Origin and Diversification of Language
by Morris SwadeshMorris Swadesh, one of this century's foremost scientific investigators of language, dedicated much of his life to the study of the origin and evolution of language. This volume, left nearly completed at his death and edited posthumously by Joel F. Sherzer, is his last major study of this difficult subject.Swadesh discusses the simple qualities of human speech also present in animal language, and establishes distinctively human techniques of expression by comparing the common features that are found in modern and ancient languages. He treats the diversification of language not only by isolating root words in different languages, but also by dealing with sound systems, with forms of composition, and with sentence structure. In so doing, he demonstrates the evidence for the expansion of all language from a single central area. Swadesh supports his hypothesis by ""exhibits"" that conveniently present the evidence in tabular form. Further clarity is provided by the use of a suggestive practical phonetic system, intelligible to the student as well as to the professional.The book also contains an Appendix, in which the distinguished ethnographer of language, Dell Hymes, gives a valuable account of the prewar linguistic tradition within which Swadesh did some of his most important work.
The Origin of Life
by Raymond AronTheoretical biology is still in its early stages as an academic discipline. There is even little agreement as to what topics it should deal with or in what manner it should precede; and it is only recently that philosophers felt called upon to notice the relevance of biological topics as evolution or perception to their traditional problems. This work is a publication of the International Union of Biological Sciences, the central organization of all the branches of biology. The main focus here is to explore the possibility of formulating some frame of concepts and methods around which theoretical biology can grow.The intention of this collective effort was that discussions would be concerned, not with the theory of particular biological processes, such as membrane permeability, genetics, and neural activity, but rather with an attempt to discover and formulate general concepts and logical relations characteristic of living as contrasted with inorganic systems. Further, this project is a consideration of implications these might have for general philosophy. Many well-known scientists contributed to this volume, such as J. Maynard Smith, Ernst Mayr, Brian Goodwin, and Renu Thom.The Origin of Life: Toward a Theoretical Biology explores the character of the problems facing any theory of general biology. It contains a series of chapters and exchanges discussing such topics as the origin of life, cellular differentiation, morphogensis, evolution, and indeterminacy in biological and physical systems, the organization of the brain, the statistical mechanics of non-linear oscillators, and many other topics. This is a pioneering volume by recognized leaders in an emerging field the first of four such works.
The Origin of Values: Reprint Edition: Sociology and Philosophy of Beliefs
by Raymond BoudonValues have always been a central topic in both philosophy and the social sciences. Statements about what is good or bad, fair or unfair, legitimate or illegitimate, express clear beliefs about human existence. The fact that values differ from culture to culture and century to century opens many questions. In The Origin of Values, Raymond Boudon offers empirical, data-based analysis of existing theories about values, while developing his own perspective as to why people accept or reject value statements.Boudon classifies the main theories of value, including those based on firm belief, social or biological factors, and rational or utilitarian attitudes. He discusses the popular and widely influential Rational Choice Model and critiques the postmodernist approach. Boudon investigates why relativism has become so powerful and contrasts it with the naturalism represented by the work of James Q. Wilson on moral sensibility. He follows with a constructive attempt to develop a new theory, beginning with Weber's idea of non-instrumental rationality as the basis for a more complex idea of rationality.Applying Boudon's own and existing theories of value to political issues and social ideas—the end of apartheid, the death penalty, multiculturalism, communitarianism—The Origin of Values is a significant work. Boudon fulfills a major task of social science: explanation of collective belief. His book will be of interest to sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, and political scientists.
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
by Friedrich EngelsThe most influential theory of the origins of women's oppression in the modern era, in a beautiful new editionIn this provocative and now-classic work, Frederick Engels explores the interrelated development of the family and the state from ancient society to the Victorian era. Drawing on new anthropological theories of his time, Engels argued that matriarchal communal societies had been overthrown by class society and its emphasis on private, not communal, property and monogamous, rather than polygamous, sexual organization. This historical development, Engels argued, constituted "the world-historic defeat of the female sex."A masterclass in the application of materialist thought to history and anthropology, and touching on love, monogamy, property, and the development of the human, this landmark work is still foundational in Marxist and socialist feminist theory.