Author: Bernard Williams File Type: pdf Descartes has often been called the father of modern philosophy.His attempts to find foundations for knowledge, and to reconcile the existence of the soul with the emerging science of his time, are among the most influential and widely studied in the history of philosophy.This is a classic and challenging introduction to Descartes by one of the most distinguished modern philosophers. Bernard Williams not only analyzes Descartes project of founding knowledge on certainty, but uncovers the philosophical motives for his search. With acute insight, he demonstrates how Descartes Meditations are not merely a description but the very enactment of philosophical thought and discovery. Williams covers all of the key areas of Descartes thought, including God, the will, the possibility of knowledge, and the mind and its place in nature. He also makes profound contributions to the theory of knowledge, metaphysics and philosophy generally. This is essential reading for any student of philosophy.This reissue includes a new foreword by John Cottingham.ReviewHis biographical digest is as succinct as his philosophical analysis is thorough. - The Sunday TimesBernard Williams is arguably the greatest philosopher of his era. - The GuardianDescartes - The Project of Pure Enquiry, first published in 1978 and repackaged here with a foreword by the Cartesian scholar John Cottingham, is a good deal more than just a survey of one of the landmarks in the history of philosophy. It is itself a work of substantive philosophical analysis and a reminder of just what British philosophy lost when Williams died in 2003. - New Humanist[Bernard Williams] brought philosophical reflection to an opulent array of subjects, with more imagination and with greater cultural and historical understanding than anyone else of his time Thomas Nagel, London Review of BooksBernard Williams has a greater force of thought, deployed over a wider horizon, than anyone else I have ever listened to. John Dunn - The Times Higher Education SupplementAbout the AuthorBernard Williams died in 2003. He taught at the Universities of London, Cambridge, Oxford and the University of California at Berkeley, and was one of the leading philosophers of his generation. He wrote many influential books including Problems of the Self and Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. His last work was Truth and Truthfulness An Essay in Genealogy (2002).
Author: Paul J. J. M. Bakker
File Type: pdf
Ibn Rushd (11261198), or Averroes, is widely known as the unrivalled commentator on virtually all works by Aristotle. His commentaries and treatises were used as manuals for understanding Aristotelian philosophy until the Enlightenment. Both Averroes and the movement commonly known as Latin Averroism have attracted considerable attention from historians of philosophy and science. Most studies focus on Averroes psychology, particularly on his doctrine of the unity of the intellect, Averroes natural philosophy as a whole and its influence still remain largely unexplored. This volume aims to fill the gap by considering various aspects of Averroes natural philosophical thought and evaluating its impact on the history of philosophy and science between the late middle ages and the early modern period. **
Author: David J. Code
File Type: pdf
French composer Claude Debussy (18621918) created music that was revolutionary, with a distinctly modern sound that highlighted the intersection of art and life. Here, in this unique biography, David J. Code explores the important moments in the development of Debussys literary interests that shaped his musicand in the process brings to life Debussys sardonic personality.Claude Debussy presents an in-depth look at how Debussys love for poetry influenced his musical compositions. Code explores both Debussys earlier years, filled with student cantatas inspired by Verlaine and Baudelaire, as well as his later works, dominated by nationalistic pieces inspired by French Renaissance poets and composed in the lead-up to World War I. Along the way, Code looks at Debussys orchestral compositions and operas, inspired by Stephane Mallarme and Maurice Maeterlinck.This book will give readers a fresh way of listening to Debussys classic music by offering the most up-to-date critical analysis of the intersection of Debussys literary interests and musical compositions and will appeal to any reader with a love of Debussy, as well as modern music, literature, and the arts.**
Author: John Sanbonmatsu
File Type: pdf
Critical Theory and Animal Liberation is the first collection to approach our relationship with other animals from the critical or left tradition in political and social thought. Breaking with past treatments that have framed the problem as one of animal rights, the authors instead depict the exploitation and killing of other animals as a political question of the first order. The contributions highlight connections between our everyday treatment of animals and other forms of social power, mass violence, and domination, from capitalism and patriarchy to genocide, fascism, and ecocide.Contributors include well-known writers in the field as well as scholars in other areas writing on animals for the first time. Among other things, the authors apply Freuds theory of repression to our relationship to the animal, debunk the Locavore movement, expose the sexism of the animal defense movement, and point the way toward a new transformative politics that would encompass the human and animal alike.
Author: Sally-Ann Treharne
File Type: pdf
div id=description_1 margin padding orphans 2 text-align left text-indent widows 2h4 margin 1 padding A unique insight into one of the most controversial political relationships in recent historyh4p margin padding The Falklands War, the US invasion of Grenada, the Anglo-Guatemalan dispute over Belize and the US involvement in Nicaragua in the 1980s, these crises threatened to overwhelm a renewal in USUK relations. US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatchers efforts to normalise relations, during and after these crises, reveal a mutual desire to strengthen Anglo-American ties and safeguard individual foreign policy objectives. At the same time, they cultivated a close political and personal bond that lasted well beyond their terms in office.div id=description_2 margin 1em padding orphans 2 text-align left text-indent widows 2p margin 1em padding Sally-Ann Treharne vividly portrays the role of personal diplomacy in overcoming obstacles to AngloAmerican relations emanating from the turbulent Latin American region in the final years of the Cold War. Drawing on recently declassified documents and elite interviews with key protagonists that reveal candid recollections, she highlights the pivotal moments in Reagan and Thatchers shared history from a new vantage point.h4 margin 1 padding Key Featuresh4ul margin 1 padding list-style discli margin 25px padding Based on strong documentary analysis including new, revealing primary documents from both British and American archival sourceslli margin 25px padding Draws on recent interviews with former aidesadvisers to the Prime Minister, members of the Thatcher government and a member of the FCOlli margin 25px padding Interviewees include Lord Geoffrey Howe, Lord Michael Heseltine, Lord Cecil Parkinson, Sir John Nott, Sir Bernard Ingham, Lord Charles Powell, Baroness Gloria Hooper, Sir Adrian Beamish, Lord Peter Carrington, Lord Neil Kinnock and Lord Timothy Belllul
Author: Sally Smith Hughes
File Type: pdf
In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 in the first few minutes of trading, at that point the largest gain in stock market history. Coming at a time of economic recession and declining technological competitiveness in the United States, the event provoked banner headlines and ignited a period of speculative frenzy over biotechnology as a revolutionary means for creating new and better kinds of pharmaceuticals, untold profit, and a possible solution to national economic malaise. Drawing from an unparalleled collection of interviews with early biotech players, Sally Smith Hughes offers the first book-length history of this pioneering company, depicting Genentechs improbable creation, precarious youth, and ascent to immense prosperity. Hughes provides intimate portraits of the people significant to Genentechs science and business, including cofounders Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson, and in doing so sheds new light on how personality affects the growth of science. By placing Genentechs founders, followers, opponents, victims, and beneficiaries in context, Hughes also demonstrates how science interacts with commercial and legal interests and university research, and with government regulation, venture capital, and commercial profits. Integrating the scientific, the corporate, the contextual, and the personal, Genentech tells the story of biotechnology as it is not often told, as a risky and improbable entrepreneurial venture that had to overcome a number of powerful forces working against it.
Author: Matthew Mason
File Type: pdf
Known today as the other speaker at Gettysburg, Edward Everett had a distinguished and illustrative career at every level of American politics from the 1820s through the Civil War. In this new biography, Matthew Mason argues that Everetts extraordinarily well-documented career reveals a complex man whose shifting political opinions, especially on the topic of slavery, illuminate the nuances of Northern Unionism. In the case of Everett--who once pledged to march south to aid slaveholders in putting down slave insurrections--Mason explores just how complex the question of slavery was for most Northerners, who considered slavery within a larger context of competing priorities that alternately furthered or hindered antislavery actions. By charting Everetts changing stance toward slavery over time, Mason sheds new light on antebellum conservative politics, the complexities of slavery and its related issues for reform-minded Americans, and the ways in which secession turned into civil war. As Mason demonstrates, Everetts political and cultural efforts to preserve the Union, and the response to his work from citizens and politicians, help us see the coming of the Civil War as a three-sided, not just two-sided, contest. **Review Explores in full Everetts life in politics, with special concentration on his stances on weighty national issues related to slavery and Union.--Civil War Books and Authors [An] eloquent biography. . . . A solid choice for American history buffs and those with a penchant for politics in the antebellum era.--Library Journal starred review Anyone who thinks traditional political history is dead should read Matthew Masons magnificent biography of Edward Everett. Deeply researched and skillfully written.--New England Quarterly Highly recommended for both a general and an academic audience.--Gettysburg Magazine Decisively restores the political significance of Everett. . . . Political historians and scholars of culture and nationalism will learn much from this superbly crafted, intensely researched, engagingly written, and thoughtful book.--Journal of American History Brings Everett back into focus with the fullest political biography of Everett since 1925.--Journal of Southern History Review This is an excellent, revelatory, and rare scholarly work that operates at many levels and in ways that give us new perspectives on events, people, and sectional issues that remain problematic for historians. By looking at a political moderate, Mason tells us as much about extremists North and South as he does about Everetts sense of political compromise and moderation. By arguing that slavery (or antislavery) was a persistent, consistent, and divisive political issue in national politics and political discourse, Mason gives us a much better sense of the shifting nature of the spirit and persistence of Unionism from the early Republic to the sectional crisis.--Michael A. Morrison, Purdue University Matthew Mason has written a critical book on a key figure in the pantheon of nineteenth-century politics. This is a well-crafted, well-written account of a seeming paradox why was a conciliatory, doughface Whig invited to speak with Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863? In answering this question, Mason opens a window onto a wide swath of public opinion in the 1850s and 1860s. Apostle of Unionwill be an essential contribution to the new and the classic literature on the origins of the American Civil War.--John Brooke, The Ohio State University
Author: Annie Potts
File Type: epub
No creature has been subject to such extremes of reverence and exploitation as the chicken. Hens have been venerated as cosmic creators and roosters as solar divinities. Many cultures have found the mysteries of birth, healing, death and resurrection encapsulated in the hens egg. Yet today, most of us have nothing to do with chickens as living beings, although billions are consumed around the world every year.In Chicken Annie Potts introduces us to the vivid and astonishing world of Gallus gallus. The book traces the evolution of jungle fowl and the domestication of chickens by humans. It describes the ways in which chickens experience the world, form families and friendships, communicate with each other, play, bond, and grieve. Chicken explores cultural practices like egg-rolling, the cockfight, alectromancy, wishbone-pulling and the chicken-swinging ritual of Kapparot discovers depictions of chickenhood in ancient and modern art, literature and film and also showcases bizarre supernatural chickens from around the world including the Basilisk, Kikimora and Pollio Maligno. Chicken concludes with a detailed analysis of the place of chickens in the world today, and a tribute to those who educate and advocate on behalf of these birds.Numerous beautiful illustrations show the many faces (and feathers and combs and tails) of Gallus, from wild roosters in the jungles of Southeast Asia to quirky Naked-Necks and majestic Malays. There are chickens painted by Chagall and Magritte, chickens made of hair-rollers, and chickens shaped like mountains. The reader of Chicken will encounter a multitude of intriguing facts and ideas, including why the largest predator ever to walk the earth is considered the ancestor of the modern chicken, how mother hens communicate with their chicks while theyre still in the egg, why Charlie Chaplins masterpiece required him to play a chicken, whether its safe to take eggs on a sea-voyage, and how chicken therapy can rejuvenate us all. This book will fascinate those already familiar with and devoted to the Gallus species, and it will open up a whole new gallinaceous world for future admirers of the intelligent and passionate chicken. **
Author: Gregg Lambert
File Type: pdf
The Non-Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze takes up Deleuzes most powerful argument on the task of contemporary philosophy in the West. Deleuze argues that it is only through a creative engagement with the forms of non-philosophynotably modern art, literature and cinemathat philosophy can hope to attain the conceptual resources to restore the broken links of perception, language and emotion. In short, this is the only future for philosophy if it is to repair its fragile relationship to immanence to the world as it is.A sequence of dazzling essays analyze Deleuzes investigations into the modern arts. Particular attention is paid to Deleuzes exploration of Liebniz in relation to modern painting and of Borges to an understanding of the relationship between philosophy, literature and language. By illustrating Deleuzes own approach to the arts, and to modern literature in particular, the book demonstrates the critical significance of Deleuzes call for a future philosophy defined as an art of inventing concepts.