Author: Russell Hardin File Type: pdf Russell Hardin presents a new explication of David Humes moral and political theory. With Hume, he holds that our normative views can be scientifically explained but they cannot be justified as true. Hume argued for the psychological basis of such views. In particular, he argued for sympathy as the mirroring of the psychological sensations and emotions of others. By placing Hume in the developing tradition of social science, as a strong forerunner of his younger friend Adam Smith, Hardin demonstrates Humes strong strategic sense, his nascent utilitarianism, his powerful theory of convention as a main source of social and political order, and his recognition of moral and political theory as a single enterprise.

Author: Saud Joseph File Type: pdf The first decade of the 21st century witnessed an explosion in scholarly and public interest in women and Islamic cultures, globally. From misguided media representations, to politically motivated state manipulations, to agenda-driven Islamist movements, to feminist and international NGO projects - the subject and image of Muslim women has become iconic and riveting. This volume unpacks the representations, motivations, agendas, and projects by focusing on the advances in scholarly research on women and Islamic cultures in the first decade of the 21st century. The editors of the pioneering Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures bring together leading scholars, discipline by discipline, to critically analyze state of the art research on women and Islamic cultures from 2003-2013.

Author: Frederick Burwick File Type: pdf Starting with a new understanding of what Romantic-era literature isand who wrote itthe essays here reassess British Romanticism in light of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Alfieri, and contemporary Italian figures such as Paganini and the improvvisatore Tommaso Sgricci. The British absorption of Italian literature and culture was mediated by authors residing in Florence, Naples, Pisa, and Rome, including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hunt, Byron, the Shelleys, and Hemans. Providing insight on topics from the artistic practice of improvisation to the politics of nationalism, this learned volume breaks new ground and significantly extends our understanding of the relations between British and Italian culture. ReviewThis volume, which brings together several of the most authoritative scholars in the field, represents a landmark in the study of Anglo-Italian literary and cultural relations in the Romantic period. It succeeds brilliantly in combining two very different but complementary virtues. On the one hand it revisits, in unexpected and illuminating ways, well-chartered territory such as the Romantic poets reading of Dante, their experience of the Grand Tour, their perception of Italian history and of modern Italy. On the other hand it opens up new areas of cultural investigation reflecting recent approaches to the canons and contexts of British Romanticism these include the influence of Italian theatre, visual arts, grand opera, improvisational performance, not to mention the Italian language itself, on early nineteenth-century English literature and drama. Challenging new attention is paid to relatively non-canonical authors, among them hitherto little-discussed women writers and illegitimate dramatists. Dante and Italy in British Romanticism throws much-needed light on a crucial period of political and social transformation in Italy, as seen from the critical but sympathetic viewpoint of contemporary British intellectuals, reaffirming the centrality of Dantes role in the formation and interpretation of Italys late and contradictory identity as a nation.--Lilla Maria Crisafulli, University of Bologna About the AuthorFrederick Burwick is a Professor Emeritus at UCLA, where he taught courses on Romantic drama and directed student performances of a dozen plays. He is the author and editor of twenty-six books and over a hundred articles. His most recent publications are Romantic Drama Acting and Reacting and Playing to the Crowd London Popular Theatre, 1780-1830 (forthcoming). His study, Poetic Madness and the Romantic Imagination, won the Book of the Year Award of the International Conference on Romanticism and he was named Distinguished Scholar by both the British Academy (1992) and the Keats-Shelley Association (1998).Paul Douglass is a Professor of English and American Literature at San Jose State University, where he also directs the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies. His publications include Lady Caroline Lamb A Biography The Whole Disgraceful Truth Selected Letters of Lady Caroline Lamb, and The Collected Works of Lady Caroline Lamb (with Leigh Wetherall Dickson), among others. He was selected as a recipient of the Elma Dangerfield Award of the International Byron Society in 2007 and was named San Jose States Presidents Scholar in 2009.

Author: Michael Carrithers File Type: pdf In this valuable introduction, Michael Carrithers guides us through the complex and sometimes conflicting information that Buddhist texts give us about the life and teaching of the Buddha. He discusses the social and political background of India in the Buddhas time and traces the development of his thought. He also assesses the rapid and widespread assimilation of Buddhism and its contemporary relevance. Well-paced and informative, this introduction will enlighten not only those who study Buddhism and comparative religion but anyone intrigued by the remarkable philosophy of one of the greatest religious thinkers.Review`admirably well-paced and informative. Galen Strawson, Sunday Times --na About the AuthorMichael Carrithers is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Durham and author of The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka and Why Humans Have Cultures Explaining Anthropology and Social Diversity (both published by OUP).