Taste is recognized as one of the most evocative senses. The flavors of food play an important role in identity, memory, emotion, desire, and aversion, as well as social, religious and other occasions. Yet despite its fundamental role, taste is often mysteriously absent from discussions about food. Now in its second edition, The Taste Culture Reader examines the sensuous dimensions of eating and drinking and highlights the centrality of taste in human experience. Combining both classic and contemporary sources from anthropology, philosophy, sociology, history, science, and beyond, the book features excerpts from texts by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Pierre Bourdieu, Brillat-Savarin, Marcel Proust, Sidney Mintz, and M.F.K. Fisher as well as original essays by authors such as David Sutton, Lisa Heldke, David Howes, Constance Classen, and Amy Trubek. This edition has been revised substantially throughout to include the latest scholarship on the senses and features new introductions from the editor as well as 10 new chapters. The perfect introduction to the study of taste, this is essential reading for students in food studies, anthropology, sensory studies, philosophy, and culinary arts.

The pursuit of knowledge has remained perennial since mankind's earliest days. A born thinker, philosopher, scientist, and discoverer, man has addressed many questions at the very center of life. In attempting to answer such questions, thinkers and philosophers have set forth many convincing (and conflicting) hypotheses, but all agree that achieving knowledge is the route to answering them.

In "Introduction to World Philosophies: A Chronological Progression," Mirza I. Ashraf describes perplexing philosophies in a simple style. He presents the central ideas of prominent philosophers of the East and West from Zoroaster and Thales to Foucault and Derrida. He attempts to show that without these mentors of societies and civilizations, mankind would never have become what it is today and would not realize its potential for tomorrow.

At a time in world history when the global exchange of information is often instantaneous, Ashraf's detailed presentations lead us toward a unified understanding of thought and culture. At this juncture, when the subject of world religions, traditions, and ideologies is at the heart of so much bitterness, these thinkers encourage us to think globally and generate a common approach to humankind's philosophical quest.

The World is Around You, but You are in Your Car is a work of fiction wrapped around an essay that describes an American problem-the relentless pursuit of the perfect life-and its negative consequences that adversely affect progress and behavior toward the rest of the world. I want it, and I want it now, with its shortage of self-restraint, has been taken to levels not reached before, and the insidious ramifications are eye-opening: the easy disposability of people or principles if these should obstruct the path to the perfect life, the mental depression from the strains of struggling to keep up with neighbors, or the isolation from reality as people become more and more comfortable in their plush living rooms and cars.
The tale brings history's great philosophers together to sound an alarm and talk about ways to slow the relentless pursuit. They have already debated the relevant issues with each other; here in this story, their role is only to inform us of their conclusions. They discuss the external and internal controls that restrain the pursuit, agreeing that internal control, involving individual self-regulation, is more effective and desired than external control, primarily because of its greater conduciveness to freedom, the crown jewel of this civilization.