Author: Umberto Eco File Type: pdf The idea that there once existed a language which perfectly and unambiguously expressed the essence of all possible things and concepts has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, mystics and others for at least two millennia. This is an investigation into the history of that idea and of its profound influence on European thought, culture and history. From the early Dark Ages to the Renaissance it was widely believed that the language spoken in the Garden of Eden was just such a language, and that all current languages were its decadent descendants from the catastrophe of the Fall and at Babel. The recovery of that language would, for theologians, express the nature of divinity, for cabbalists allow access to hidden knowledge and power, and for philosophers reveal the nature of truth. Versions of these ideas remained current in the Enlightenment, and have recently received fresh impetus in attempts to create a natural language for artificial intelligence. The story that Umberto Eco tells ranges widely from the writings of Augustine, Dante, Descartes and Rousseau, arcane treatises on cabbalism and magic, to the history of the study of language and its origins. He demonstrates the initimate relation between language and identity and describes, for example, how and why the Irish, English, Germans and Swedes - one of whom presented God talking in Swedish to Adam, who replied in Danish, while the serpent tempted Eve in French - have variously claimed their language as closest to the original. He also shows how the late eighteenth-century discovery of a proto-language (Indo-European) for the Aryan peoples was perverted to support notions of racial superiority. To this subtle exposition of a history of extraordinary complexity, Umberto Eco links the associated history of the manner in which the sounds of language and concepts have been written and symbolized. Lucidly and wittily written, the book is, in sum, a tour de force of scholarly detection and cultural interpretation, providing a series of original perspectives on two thousand years of European History. The paperback edition of this book is not available through Blackwell outside of North America.
Author: Alfredo Joignant
File Type: pdf
This edited volume examines malaise with democracy within three middle-income Latin American countries - Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. In particular, the book focuses on the gap within public opinion on democratic system within the context of crisis of representation and breakdowns of democracy. Based on a study using comparative and systematic survey data, the contributors of this volume provide a solid analysis on the state of democracy in three Latin American countries, whose lessons are useful for all types of democracy, in the north and the south. **From the Back Cover This edited volume examines malaise with democracy within three middle-income Latin American countries - Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. In particular, the book focuses on the gap within public opinion on democratic system within the context of crisis of representation and breakdowns of democracy. Based on a study using comparative and systematic survey data, the contributors of this volume provide a solid analysis on the state of democracy in three Latin American countries, whose lessons are useful for all types of democracy, in the north and the south. About the Author Alfredo Joignant is Professor of Political Science at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, and Principal Researcher of the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES). Mauricio Morales is Professor of Political Science at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, and Associate Researcher at the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES). Claudio Fuentes is Professor of Political Science at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile, and Associate Researcher at the Intercultural Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Studies (CIIR).
Author: Claire Maria Chambers
File Type: pdf
This book explores the intersection between apophaticism - negative theology - and performance. While apophaticism in literature and critical theory may have had its heyday in the heady debates about negative theology and deconstruction in the 1990s, negative ways of knowing and speaking have continued to structure conversations in theatre and performance studies around issues of embodiment, the non- and post-human, objects, archives, the ethics of otherness in intercultural research, and the unreadable and inaccessible in the work of minority artists. A great part of the history of apophaticism lies in mystic literature. With the rise of the New Age movement, which claimed historical mysticism as part of its genealogy, apophaticism has often been sidelined as spirituality rather than serious study. This book argues that the apophatic continues to exert a strong influence on the discourse and culture of Western literature and especially performance, and th at by reassessing this ancient form of negative epistemology, artists, scholars, students, and teachers alike can more deeply engage forms of unknowing through what cannot be said and cannot be represented in language, on the stage, and in every aspect of social life. **From the Back Cover This book explores the intersection between apophaticism - negative theology - and performance. While apophaticism in literature and critical theory may have had its heyday in the heady debates about negative theology and deconstruction in the 1990s, negative ways of knowing and speaking have continued to structure conversations in theatre and performance studies around issues of embodiment, the non- and post-human, objects, archives, the ethics of otherness in intercultural research, and the unreadable and inaccessible in the work of minority artists. A great part of the history of apophaticism lies in mystic literature. With the rise of the New Age movement, which claimed historical mysticism as part of its genealogy, apophaticism has often been sidelined as spirituality rather than serious study. This book argues that the apophatic continues to exert a strong influence on the discourse and culture of Western literature and especially performance, and th at by reassessing this ancient form of negative epistemology, artists, scholars, students, and teachers alike can more deeply engage forms of unknowing through what cannot be said and cannot be represented in language, on the stage, and in every aspect of social life. About the Author Claire Maria Chambers teaches modern American and British drama at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. Her articles have appeared in Theatre Journal, Performance Research, and Text and Performance Quarterly, among others.
Author: Rainer Maria Rilke
File Type: epub
For the past twenty-five years, North Point Press has been working with Edward Snow, Rilkes best contemporary translator (Brian Phillips, The New Republic), to bring into English Rilkes major poetic works. The Poetry of Rilkethe single most comprehensive volume of Rilkes German poetry ever to be published in Englishis the culmination of this effort. With more than two hundred and fifty selected poems by Rilke, including complete translations of the Sonnets to Orpheus and the Duino Elegies, The Poetry of Rilke spans the arc of Rilkes work, from the breakthrough poems of The Book of Hours to the visionary masterpieces written only weeks before his death. This landmark bilingual edition also contains all of Snows commentaries on Rilke, as well as an important new introduction by the award-winning poet Adam Zagajewski. The Poetry of Rilke will stand as the authoritative single-volume translation of Rilke into English for years to come.
Author: G. E. R. Lloyd
File Type: pdf
Geoffrey Lloyds pioneering book uses a study of ancient Greek and Chinese science and culture to throw light on fundamental problems, both intellectual and moral, that we still face today. The issues range from the debate about realism and relativism in philosophy of science to doubts concerning the universal applicability of the discourse of human rights. Lloyd provides compelling evidence that ancient civilizations have much to offer contemporary debates in many fields of study.**
Author: Michael Freeman
File Type: pdf
Originally published in 1991. The post-war period witnessed massive changes in the nature and operation of the world economy. This Atlas examines those changes under the headings of population, agriculture, energy, industry, national income, transport, trade, labour and multinationals. Not an atlas in the conventional sense of the term, this work is a heavily illustrated combination of diagram and description. Its approach is broad and consists of a sequence of self-contained modules which can be read independently or as part of a wider whole. One of the most prominent themes to emerge is the enormous force and influence of the capitalist economic system based in the West a host of economic indicators demonstrates vividly the remarkable producing and consuming power of the capitalist world. Many parts of the developing world are tied in to the web of capitalist relations, but many fail to benefit adequately, as the statistics on food supply and national income demonstrate.
Author: Robert Anton Wilson
File Type: pdf
Is history a vast conspiracy? A cosmic joke? Discover the truth - maybe - in the long-awaited new edition of Robert Anton Wilsons classic cult bestseller The Illuminati Papers. Created as a vehicle to amuse and enlighten, the story of the Illuminati has attracted devoted readers world-wide, who have found in it a perfect metaphor for our times. This edition has a new introduction, cover and layout. **
Author: Victoria Squire
File Type: pdf
Mapping Eclecticism Through Practice brings together a range of graphic designpractices and approaches that include the use of socially responsible design and persuasion, as well as collaboration with other disciplines, to improve safety framing theory and ideograms within architectural pedagogy to convey complex ideas and relationships literary analysis to explore graphic design authorship, narrative and viewer experience discursive dialogue and a non-linear presentation to interrogate and shed light on personal practice and cartographic metaphors as a means of visualising and investigating the topography of graphic design. **
Author: Peter Carruthers
File Type: pdf
ReviewThis is a terrific collection. Its not just a survey of the terrain, though it is that it also contains a number of papers that push the boundaries and make major new contributions to several hot debates in cognitive science ...I predict that the book will become a must-have collection, not just for all participants in these fields, but also for those not working in these areas and desiring a comprehensive and accessible guide to the issues.--Fiona Cowie, California Institute of TechnologyThe Innate Mind is a must-have book, precisely because it brings together theory and research over so much of cognitive science...--Thomas H. Leahey, PsycCritiquesAbout the AuthorPeter Carruthers is Professor and Chair in the Department of Philosophy at The University of Maryland.Stephen Laurence is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Co-Director at the Hang Seng Center for Cognitive Studies at University of Sheffield.Stephen Stich is Board of Governors Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University.