Vital insights and wisdom on the perennial question of why we fight

This book explores how some of the greatest minds of civilization have tackled a question that continues to play a vital part in our lives today. In "Why We Fight," Simon Van Booy curates an enlightening collection of excerpts, passages, and paintings, presenting works by Sophocles, Tacitus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, William Shakespeare, Emily BrontE, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Walt Whitman, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde, James Tissot, James Joyce, General George Patton, and others.

"Why We Fight" will engage both the serious philosopher and the eternally curious.

Splitsville USA argues that it’s time for us to break up to save representative democracy, proposing a mutually negotiated, peaceful dissolution of the current United States of America into several new nations. Zurn begins by examining the United States’ democratic predicament, a road most likely headed for electoral authoritarianism, with distinct possibilities of ungovernability and violent civil strife. Unlike others who share this diagnosis, Zurn presents a realistic picture of how we can get to reform and what it would involve. It is argued that "Splitsville" represents the most plausible way for American citizens to continue living under a republican form of government. Despite recent talk of secession and civil war, this book offers the most extensive treatment yet of the issues we need to think through to enable a peacefully negotiated political divorce. Splitsville USA is a provocative conversation opener about the problems that have gotten us into our current political pickle and how to get out of it by seizing the reins of our own constitutional destiny. The book will appeal to readers of political science, American politics, history, political philosophy, and law, along with all general readers interested in the future of democracy in the United States.

The Rise of the Radical Right in the Global South is the first academic study—adopting an interdisciplinary and international perspective—to offer a comprehensive and groundbreaking framework for understanding the emergence and consolidation of different radical-right movements in Global South countries in the twenty-first century. From deforestation and the anti-vaccine movement in Bolsonaro’s Brazil to the massacre of religious minorities in Modi’s India, the rise of the radical right in the Global South is in the news every day. Not long ago, some of these countries were globally celebrated as emerging economies that consolidated vibrant democracies. Nonetheless, they never overcame structural problems including economic inequality, social violence, cultural conservatism, and political authoritarianism. Featuring case studies from Brazil, India, the Philippines, and South Africa, and more generally from Africa and Latin America, this book analyses future scenarios and current alternatives to this political movement to the radical right. It proposes a shift of focus in examining such a trend, adopting a view from the Global South; conventional theoretical tools developed around the experience in Global North countries are not enough. The authors show that the radical right in the Global South should be analysed through specific lenses, considering national historical patterns of political and economic development and instability. They also warn that researching these countries may differ from contexts where democratic institutions are more reliable. This does not mean abandoning a transnational understanding of the radical right; rather, it calls for the opposite: the chapters examine how the radical right is invented, adapted, modified, and resisted in specific regions of the globe. This volume will be of interest to all those researching the radical right and the politics of development and the Global South.

This timely collection of essays by leading international scholars across religious studies and the environmental humanities advances a lively discussion on materialism in its many forms. While there is little agreement on what ‘materialism’ means, it is evident that there is a resurgence in thinking about matter in more animated and active ways. The volume explores how debates concerning the new materialisms impinge on religious traditions and the extent to which religions, with their material culture and beliefs in the Divine within the material, can make a creative contribution to debates about ecological materialisms. Spanning a broad range of themes, including politics, architecture, hermeneutics, literature and religion, the book brings together a series of discussions on materialism in the context of diverse methodologies and approaches. The volume investigates a range of issues including space and place, hierarchy and relationality, the relationship between nature and society, human and other agencies, and worldviews and cultural values. Drawing on literary and critical theory, and queer, philosophical, theological and social theoretical approaches, this ground-breaking book will make an important contribution to the environmental humanities. It will be a key read for postgraduate students, researchers and scholars in religious studies, cultural anthropology, literary studies, philosophy and environmental studies.

This book addresses tourism and its development in the post-communist context of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Although it has been over 30 years since many countries of Central and Eastern Europe embarked on the path of transition from state socialism to capitalism and liberal democracy, the ongoing atrocious events in Ukraine bluntly remind us that the perception of CEE as a ‘transition’ region may have been done away with too early and that the legacies of communism continue to influence the reality of the region. Tourism is no exception here. While on the one hand, tourism has significantly contributed to the post-communist restructuring of CEE, on the other, the communist heritage has played (and still plays) an important role in shaping the tourism geographies of the CEE region. The book consists of 14 chapters (divided into two sections), a new introduction and a reflective concluding section. All 14 main chapters in this book were originally published in the Tourism Geographies journal. The aim of the book is two-fold. First, it summarises, distils and highlights the important and often ground-breaking contributions Tourism Geographies has made over the years to the debate on tourism in CEE. Second, it lays foundations for further research on tourism in the post-communist states of CEE. This book will be of great interest to upper-level students, researchers, and academics in various disciplines – human geography, politics, sociology, and tourism studies in general.

Idiocy is all around us, whether it's the uncle spouting conspiracy theories, the colleagues who repeat your point but louder, or the commuters who still don't know how to use an escalator. But what is the answer to this perpetual scourge? Here, philosopher Maxime Rovere turns his attention to the murkiest of intellectual corners. With warmth, wit and wisdom, he illuminates a new understanding of idiots, one which examines our relations to others and our own ego, offers tools and strategies to dismantle the most desperate of idiotic situations, and even reveals how to stop being the idiots ourselves (because we're always someone else's idiot). Expertly translated by David Bellos, this is an erudite, enjoyable and much-needed solution to a most familiar vexation..

Theological thought has long been focused on the meaning to be found in our existence, but it has tended to neglect what it might offer to those seeking how to prolong and improve our physical existence in this world. In conversation with twentieth-century materialist art and thought, this book presents a radical theology that engages directly with the political and ecological issues of our time. The book introduces a new thinker to the theological sphere, Russian avantgarde artist Liubov Popova (1889-1924). She was a woman acknowledged for her artistic and intellectual talent and yet is never discussed in relation to the twentieth-century thinkers with whom her ideas have obvious connections. Popova's art and thought are discussed together with thinkers like Walter Benjamin, Donna Haraway, Gilles Deleuze and Paul Tillich, along with ecotheological and theopolitical perspectives. Inspired by the activist creativity of avantgarde art, the book's final chapter, playfully yet with deadly seriousness, presents a manifesto for radical theology today. This is a work of theological activism that demonstrates the benefit of allowing new voices into the conversations around art, spirituality and our planet. As such, it will be of keen interest to academics in Theology, Religion and the Arts and the Philosophy of Religion.

This book explores the life and work of Omar Khayyam as a provocateur of peace. While Khayyam is known for his poetry, he was foremost a prominent mathematician who looked at the world from a unique perspective. Using the transformative power of mathematics, he brought together seemingly irreconcilable concepts in his work. Through his art, philosophy, and mathematics, Khayyam sought to create harmony between what on the surface looks like a clash between his scientific view, romantic and often provocative poetry, and philosophy. The book sheds light on his spiritual and philosophical journey through a cross-sectional account of his poetry, philosophical view, and mathematics and science. It explores the complex inner life of a multidimensional scholar as he negotiated between faith and science, constructing a framework for peace by looking at the world as it presents itself to us, contemplating the temporality of life and enriching it with wisdom and joy. Historically and culturally informed, this book will be indispensable to readers of Omar Khayyam's poetry and philosophy. It will also be of interest to students and researchers of peace and conflict studies, mathematics, science, Middle East literature, history, and popular culture.

Thomas Hodgskin (1787-1869) is today a largely unknown figure, sometimes considered to be a forerunner of Karl Marx. Yet a closer look at Hodgskin's works reveals that he was actually a committed advocate of laissez-faire economics and enthusiastic about labor-saving machinery and the Industrial Revolution, with a genuine interest in the well-being of the working classes. This book places him in the tradition of classical liberalism, where he belongs-as a disciple of Adam Smith, but even less tolerant of government power than Smith was. Classical Liberalism and the Industrial Working Class: The Economic Thought of Thomas Hodgskin will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in the history of economic thought, economic history and the history of political thought.

This book offers an exciting look at the important and often uneasy place of philosophy in cultural theory today. In the United States and Britain, cultural studies has taken a largely non-philosophical form. Yet, in its hostility to disciplinary boundaries and its search for theoretical generality, cultural studies has much in common with a philosophical tradition of totalization from which it has historically distanced itself. Throughout, Osborne shows how and why concepts currently popular in cultural theory have brought philosophical questions to center stage. He discusses many important thinkers who have straddled the philosophy-cultural divide such as Benjamin, Adorno, Jameson, and Clement Greenberg.

Crude materialism, reduction of mind to body, extreme individualism. All products of a 17th century scientific inheritance which looks at the parts of our existence at the expense of the whole.
Cutting through myths of scientific omnipotence, Mary Midgely explores how this inheritance has so powerfully shaped the way we are, and the problems it has brought with it. She argues that poetry and the arts can help reconcile these problems, and counteract generations of 'one-eyed specialists', unable and unwilling to look beyond their own scientific or literary sphere.
Dawkins, Atkins, Bacon and Descartes all come under fire as Midgely sears through contemporary debate from Gaia to memes and organic food to greenhouse gases. After years of unquestioned imperialism, science is finally forced to take a step back and acknowledge the arts.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203187946

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. This is Volume VI of seven in the Library of Philosophy series on Philosophy of Religion and General Philosophy. Written around 1925, This book entitled Psyche, offers an account of the opinions held by the Greeks about the life of the human soul after death, and is thus intended as a contribution to the history of Greek religion.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. This is Volume IV of six in the Library of Philosophy series on the Philosophy of Science. Written in 1930, this volume looks at the nature of vital phenomena, which has been for so long the subject of dispute between vitalists and mechanists. It discusses the concepts of purpose, explanation and phenomena, the attitudes around and differences of categorisation.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book focuses on transnationalism as a key concept to evaluate how Europe experiences, perceives and responds to current cross-border security challenges from a legal and political perspective. The chapters in this volume specifically provide state-of-the-art accounts on several legal and political developments that have recently taken place in relation to transnational issues, such as terrorism, irregular migration and human rights violations. It specifically discusses how Europe experiences, perceives and responds to security challenges with the expectation to identify those facets of transnationalism that would ‘equally’ concern political scientists and legal scholars, especially those working on subjects pertaining to the EU governance. Through a timely analysis of the specificities of these cases, the book contributes to a much wider debate on whether and to what extent the changes and practices identified are still in accordance with cornerstones of the EU governance project, such as fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law. Overall, the book provides a fresh reading on the current status of security across Europe and the way it is understood and practiced from a multidisciplinary perspective With a revised introduction and a new conclusion, this edited volume this is the ideal companion for students, researchers and practitioners interested in law, public policy and administration, and security. This book was originally published in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.

For better and worse, the future is often conceived in technological terms. Technology is supposed to meet the challenge of climate change or resource depletion. And when one asks about the world in 20 or 100 years, answers typically revolve around AI, genome editing, or geoengineering. There is great demand to speculate about the future of work, the future of mobility, Industry 4.0, and Humanity 2.0. The humanities and social sciences, science studies, and technology assessment respond to this demand but need to seek out a responsible way of taking the future into account. This collection of papers, interviews, debates grew out of disagreements about technological futures, speculative ethics, plausible scenarios, anticipatory governance, and proactionary and precautionary approaches. It proposes Hermeneutic Technology Assessment as a way of understanding ourselves through our ways of envisioning the future. At the same time, a hermeneutic understanding of technological projects and prototypes allows for normative assessments of their promises. Is the future an object of design? This question can bring together and divide policy makers, STS scholars, social theorists, and philosophers of history, and it will interest also the scientists and engineers who labor under the demand to deliver that future.

1) Original book with chapters written by Brazilian researchers and colleagues from Universities in the Global North; 2) New and interdisciplinary interpretations of democracy, development, and sustainability; 3) Word Political Economy theoretical frontier linking class, race, and gender conflicts; 4) Challenges’ diagnoses and proposal of solutions for the future of the World Political Economy after the Covid-19 crisis.

Originally published in 1995, The Selected Works of George McCready Price is the seventh volume in the series, Creationism in Twentieth Century America, reissued in 2021. The volume brings together the original writings and pamphlets of George McCready Price, a leading creationist of the early antievolution crusade of the 1920s. McCready Price labelled himself the ‘principal scientific authority of the Fundamentalists’ and as a self-taught scientist he enjoyed more scientific repute amongst fundamentalists of the time. This interesting and unique collection of original source material includes five of his writings between 1906 and 1924, challenging the new Darwinian theory of evolution and natural selection through his writings on the natural sciences. His literature covers the topics of evolution and biology and critiques biological arguments for evolution. He also wrote widely on geology offering his own alternative argument of ‘flood geography’ in opposition to the Darwinian theory concerning palaeontology and geology. This volume will be of interest to historians of natural history and the creationism movement, as well as scholars of religion and American history.