Author: Johannes Feichtinger
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The worlds of positivism were an unintended creation. Positivists imagined one world, but their efforts spawned many. Universalist by ambition and design, positivism was contingent upon local and cultural circumstances. This volume connects and compares the variegated con- cepts, scientific cultures, and sociopolitical contexts of positivism on a global scale. This inquiry results in an overdue reappraisal of what was, together with Marxism and historicism, one of the three major intel- lectual formations of the nineteenth century. Today positivism may seem passe, evoking the skirmishes of the 1960s, when the Frankfurt School opened fire on Popperian critical rationalism, or recalling Marxist anti-positivist diatribes. Other than in the realm of international et it seems too early to bury positivism. Positivists unraveled the rules nature and society obeyed and they claimed that social progress and moral regeneration across the planet depended on the success of their doctrines. The key epistemic and political problem nineteenth- century positivism raised has lost nothing of its urgency. The universality of knowledge about the world remains a burning issue wherever global theories surreptitiously arbitrate between, adjust to, or repudiate rival knowledge and validity claims, and particularly so when it comes to the sprawling debates on human rights, cultural relativism, and constructiv- ism. The practitioners of positivism aspired to universality, but their sharp disagreement about wherein universality was to be based cut to the very heart of their project Are there discoverable, general laws of nature and society, or does universality reside in a set of methods whose applicability extends to all cultures and disciplines? Or is there no such universality at all, given the increasingly widespread contention that not only knowledge but also its very claim to universal validity are culturally conditioned? What have scientists since made of this pledge, and how do they deliver on their promise in present-day societies?It is time for a reappraisal of positivism that situates it in its global intellectual and political frameworks.
Author: Ronald Loeffler
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Robert Brandom is one of the most renowned contemporary American philosophers, discussed widely in analytic as well as continental philosophical communities on both sides of the Atlantic. His innovative approach to language and rationality combines the philosophies of language and mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and logic with intriguing interpretations of historical figures such as Kant, Hegel, and Wittgenstein. Yet, due to its boldly unorthodox and highly technical nature, Brandoms work can also be daunting for the beginner. In this accessible book, Ronald Loeffler provides a critical and clear-headed guide through the maze of Brandoms philosophy. He conveys the pioneering nature of Brandoms approach to language and communication, with its unabashed appropriation of the German Idealistic tradition, and offers focused, sure-footed introductions to all major aspects of Brandoms thought, including his normative pragmatics and inferential role semantics and his theories of empirical knowledge, logic, linguistic representation, and objectivity. This book will be essential reading for students of philosophy, as well as those in related fields with interests in language, communication, and the nature of norm-governed social interaction.ReviewRonald Loefflers outstanding introduction to Robert Brandoms thought covers all the bases from situating the newcomer in Brandoms grounding appropriations of Kant and Hegel, through crystal clear explanations of the more technical but essential inferentialist semantics, to more critical reflections on how it all hangs together as a groundbreaking outlook on our rational nature. Highly recommended at all levels. **James R. OShea, University College Dublin Loefflers new introduction to Brandoms work provides a very valuable guide to many of Brandoms key ideas and relations among those ideas. It will be especially helpful to the beginning student, but useful also for more advanced readers looking for a synoptic view of Brandoms corpus. Danielle Macbeth, Haverford College **About the Author Ronald Loeffler is Associate Professor in Philosophy at Grand Valley State University.
Author: W. Joseph Campbell
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A hinge moment in recent American history, 1995 was an exceptional year. Drawing on interviews, oral histories, memoirs, archival collections, and news reports, W. Joseph Campbell presents a vivid, detail-rich portrait of those memorable twelve months. This book offers fresh interpretations of the decisive moments of 1995, including the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in mainstream American life the bombing at Oklahoma City, the deadliest attack of domestic terrorism in U.S. history the sensational Trial of the Century, at which O.J. Simpson faced charges of double murder the U.S.-brokered negotiations at Dayton, Ohio, which ended the Bosnian War, Europes most vicious conflict since the Nazi era and the first encounters at the White House between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a liaison that culminated in a stunning scandal and the spectacle of the presidents impeachment and trial. As Campbell demonstrates in this absorbing chronicle, 1995 was a year of extraordinary events, a watershed at the turn of the millennium. The effects of that pivotal year reverberate still, marking the close of one century and the dawning of another.**
Author: Joyce Tyldesley
File Type: epub
From Herodotus to The Mummy, Western civilization has long been fascinated with the exotic myths and legends of Ancient Egypt but they have often been misunderstood. Here acclaimed Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley guides us through 3000 years of changing stories and, in retelling them, shows us what they mean. Gathered from pyramid friezes, archaological finds and contemporary documents, these vivid and strange stories explain everything from why the Nile flooded every year to their beliefs about what exactly happened after death and shed fascinating light on what life was like for both rich and poor. Lavishly illustrated with colour pictures, maps and family trees, helpful glossaries explaining all the major gods and timelines of the Pharoahs and most importantly packed with unforgettable stories, this book offers the perfect introduction to Egyptian history and civilization.
Author: Edmund Burke
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To make a revolution is to subvert the ancient state of our country and no common reasons are called for to justify so violent a proceeding Burkes seminal work was written during the early months of the French Revolution, and it predicted with uncanny accuracy many of its worst excesses, including the Reign of Terror. A scathing attack on the revolutions attitudes to existing institutions, property and religion, it makes a cogent case for upholding inherited rights and established customs, argues for piecemeal reform rather than revolutionary change - and deplores the influence Burke feared the revolution might have in Britain. Reflections on the Revolution in France is now widely regarded as a classic statement of conservative political thought, and is one of the eighteenth centurys great works of political rhetoric. Conor Cruise OBriens introduction examines the contemporary political situation in England and Ireland and its influence on Burkes point of view. He highlights Burkes brilliant grasp of social and political forces and discusses why the book has remained so significant for over two centuries. Reflections on the Revolution in France was written in 1790 and has remained in print ever since. Edmund Burkes analysis of revolutionary change established him as the chief framer of modern European conservative political thought. This new edition of the Reflections presents Burkes famous text along with a historical introduction by Frank Turner and four critical essays by leading scholars. The volume sets the Reflections in the context of Western political thought, highlights its ongoing relevance to contemporary debates, and provides abundant critical notes, a glossary and a glossary-index to ensure its accessibility. Contributors to the book examine various provocative aspects of Burkes thought. Conor Cruise OBrien explores Burkes hostility to theory, Darrin McMahon considers Burkes characterization of the French Enlightenment, Jack Rakove contrasts the views of Burke and American constitutional framers on the process of drawing up constitutions, and Alan Wolfe investigates Burke, the social sciences, and liberal democracy. **
Author: Nolen Gertz
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An examination of the meaning of meaninglessness why it matters that nothing matters.When someone is labeled a nihilist, its not usually meant as a compliment. Most of us associate nihilism with destructiveness and violence. Nihilism means, literally, an ideology of nothing. Is nihilism, then, believing in nothing? Or is it the belief that life is nothing? Or the belief that the beliefs we have amount to nothing? If we can learn to recognize the many varieties of nihilism, Nolen Gertz writes, then we can learn to distinguish what is meaningful from what is meaningless. In this addition to the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Gertz traces the history of nihilism in Western philosophy from Socrates through Hannah Arendt and Jean-Paul Sartre. Although the term nihilism was first used by Friedrich Jacobi to criticize the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, Gertz shows that the concept can illuminate the thinking of Socrates, Descartes, and others. It is Nietzsche, however, who is most associated with nihilism, and Gertz focuses on Nietzsches thought. Gertz goes on to consider what is not nihilismpessimism, cynicism, and apathyand why he explores theories of nihilism, including those associated with Existentialism and Postmodernism he considers nihilism as a way of understanding aspects of everyday life, calling on Adorno, Arendt, Marx, and prestige television, among other sources and he reflects on the future of nihilism. We need to understand nihilism not only from an individual perspective, Gertz tells us, but also from a political one. **
Author: William J. Reese
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Written tests to evaluate students were a radical and controversial innovation when American educators began adopting them in the 1800s. Testing quickly became a key factor in the political battles during this period that gave birth to Americas modern public school system. William J. Reese offers a richly detailed history of an educational revolution that has so far been only partially told. Single-classroom schools were the norm throughout the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century. Pupils demonstrated their knowledge by rote recitation of lessons and were often assessed according to criteria of behavior and discipline having little to do with academics. Convinced of the inadequacy of this system, the reformer Horace Mann and allies on the Boston School Committee crafted Americas first major written exam and administered it as a surprise in local schools in 1845. The embarrassingly poor results became front-page news and led to the first serious consideration of tests as a useful pedagogic tool and objective measure of student achievement. A generation after Manns experiment, testing had become widespread. Despite critics ongoing claims that exams narrowed the curriculum, ruined childrens health, and turned teachers into automatons, once tests took root in American schools their legitimacy was never seriously challenged. Testing Wars in the Public Schools puts contemporary battles over scholastic standards and benchmarks into perspective by showcasing the historic successes and limitations of the pencil-and-paper exam. **
Author: Stewart Smith
File Type: pdf
Reconfiguring Nietzsches seminal impact on modernist literature and culture, this book presents a distinctive new reading of modernism by exploring his sustained philosophical engagement with nihilism and its inextricable tie to pain and sickness. Arguing that modernist texts dramatize the frailty of the ill, the impotent, and the traumatised modern subject denuded of the traditional means to justify or redeem ones suffering, it uses the Nietzschean diagnoses of nihilism and what he calls ressentiment, the entwined feelings of powerlessness and vindictiveness, as heuristic tools to remap the fictional landscapes of Lawrence, Kafka, and Beckett. Lucid, authoritative and accessible, this book will appeal internationally to literature and philosophy scholars and undergraduates as well as to readers in medical and sociological fields. *
Author: Giordano Bruno
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Giordano Brunos The Ash Wednesday Supper is the first of six philosophical dialogues in Italian that he wrote and published in London between 1584 and 1585. It presents a revolutionary cosmology founded on the new Copernican astronomy that Bruno extends to infinite dimensions, filling it with an endless number of planetary systems. As well as opening up the traditional closed universe and reducing earth to a tiny speck in an overwhelmingly immense cosmos, Bruno offers a lively description of his clash of opinions with the conservative academics and theologians he argued with in Oxford and London.This volume, containing what has recently been claimed as the final version of Brunos Ash Wednesday Supper, presents a new translation based on a newly edited text, with critical comment that takes account of the most current discussion of the textual, historical, cosmological and philosophical issues raised in this dialogue. It considers Brunos work as a seminal text of the late European renaissance.ReviewHilary Gatti deserves much praise for the difficult undertaking of a new English translation of Giordano Brunos Ash Wednesday Supper. Most happily, this English rendition is lively and accurate.(Sherry Roush, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Penn State) Hilary Gatti brings all the depth of her specialized expertise on Brunos science, his philosophy and his relationship with the English court to bear on this translation. Gatti transmits the sparkle of Brunos wit in a vibrant English that is a delight to read. The poetic translations capture Brunos combination of lightness and seriousness of tone in crystal-clear language that runs true to the original text.(Ingrid Rowland, University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway)About the Author Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and cosmological theorist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the then-novel Copernican model. In addition to cosmology, Bruno also wrote extensively on the art of memory, a loosely organized group of mnemonic techniques and principles. Other studies of Bruno have focused on his qualitative approach to mathematics and his application of the spatial concepts of geometry to language.Hilary Gatti is a retired professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Rome, La Sapienza.