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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > History of ideas, intellectual history
This is a concise introductory textbook for a one semester course in the history and philosophy of mathematics. It is written for mathematics majors, philosophy students, history of science students and secondary school mathematics teachers. The only prerequisite is a solid command of pre-calculus mathematics. It is shorter than the standard textbooks in that area and thus more accessible to students who have trouble coping with vast amounts of reading. Furthermore, there are many detailed explanations of the important mathematical procedures actually used by famous mathematicians, giving more mathematically talented students a greater opportunity to learn the history and philosophy by way of problem solving. Several important philosophical topics are pursued throughout the text, giving the student an opportunity to come to a full and consistent knowledge of their development. These topics include infinity, the nature of motion, and Platonism. This book offers, in fewer pages, a deep penetration into the key mathematical and philosophical aspects of the history of mathematics.
The present study, which investigates the influence of the Scottish Enlightenment on Hegel's account of 'civil society' or "biirgerliche Gesellschaft," is based on my PhD thesis, submitted to the University of Cambridge in September 1983. Its publication provides me with a welcome opportunity to acknowledge the help and encouragement I have received over the years from scholars, friends, and relations. At the Ruhr University of Bochum where I began my studies, I am indebted to Professor Otto Poggeler (Director of the Hegel Archives), to the other, past and present members of staff at the Hegel Archives, and to Professors Jiirgen Gebhardt, Jiirgen von Kempski, Heinz Kim merle; and Leo Kofler. It was my time at Bochum under the guidance of these scholars that kindled my love for the study of Hegel, which proved to be a lasting romance. In Scotland, where I continued my studies and spent two fruitful and happy years, I am indebted to George Elder Davie and Richard Gunn, who first introduced me to the Scottish Enlightenment, and to Professors R. H. Campbell and T. D. Campbell, who supervised my research in that field. At Cambridge, where most of this study was prepared, my greatest debt is to Duncan Forbes. I am grateful for his supervision of my research, but also, beyond the scope of my research, for what I have learned, genuinely learned, from the man."
Quantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al-Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at what physics reveals about the world Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al-Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucially important science tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. Al-Khalili begins by introducing the fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, and matter, and then describes the three pillars of modern physics-quantum theory, relativity, and thermodynamics-showing how all three must come together if we are ever to have a full understanding of reality. Using wonderful examples and thought-provoking analogies, Al-Khalili illuminates the physics of the extreme cosmic and quantum scales, the speculative frontiers of the field, and the physics that underpins our everyday experiences and technologies, bringing the reader up to speed with the biggest ideas in physics in just a few sittings. Physics is revealed as an intrepid human quest for ever more foundational principles that accurately explain the natural world we see around us, an undertaking guided by core values such as honesty and doubt. The knowledge discovered by physics both empowers and humbles us, and still, physics continues to delve valiantly into the unknown. Making even the most enigmatic scientific ideas accessible and captivating, this deeply insightful book illuminates why physics matters to everyone and calls one and all to share in the profound adventure of seeking truth in the world around us.
Oh, if there were someone to tell us the history of that subtle feeling called solitude, mused the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In The Greatest Escape, David Balcom answers that call, showing that solitude is an inevitable--yet vital and exciting--facet of our existence with a long, tumultuous past. He travels back in time to trace the spirit flights of shamans; wanders in the mountains of China, listening to the poetry of recluse scholars; visits the forests of India to participate in the dialogues of ancient sages; explores the wisdom of early Greek philosophers, Christian hermits, and Sufi mystics; and illuminates the role of solitude in the lives and writings of modern poets and intellectuals from Petrarch to Thoreau. Covering a broad swath of history, Balcom introduces us to powers and resources in solitude that are drowned in the clamor of modern life. He concludes that the experience of solitude can be creative, joyful, enlightening, sometimes all three at once--and that the perennial fruits of solitude are open to everyone. Here, he writes, is an apology for and a guide to the greatest of all escapes.
In the early modern period, a crucial transformation occurred in the classical conception of number and magnitude. Traditionally, numbers were merely collections of discrete units that measured some multiple. Magnitude, on the other hand, was usually described as being continuous, or being divisible into parts that are infinitely divisible. This traditional idea of discrete number versus continuous magnitude was challenged in the early modern period in several ways. This detailed study explores how the development of algebraic symbolism, logarithms, and the growing practical demands for an expanded number concept all contributed to a broadening of the number concept in early modern England. An interest in solving practical problems was not, in itself, enough to cause a generalisation of the number concept. It was the combined impact of novel practical applications together with the concomitant development of such mathematical advances as algebraic notation and logarithms that produced a broadened number concept.
As we face new global challenges - from climate change to the international political order - the need to re-examine the historical roots of cosmopolitanism and liberal principles on a global scale has become increasingly central to the political conversation. Cosmopolitanism and the Enlightenment brings together leading scholars in cultural history, the history of ideas and global politics in order to reassess the complexity of cosmopolitanism during the Enlightenment and its various interpretations over time. Through a fresh and revisionist perspective, the volume explores issues of universalism and cultural diversity, the idea of civilization, race, gender, empire, colonialism, global inequality, national patriotism, international and civil conflict, and other forms of political discourse, challenging the simple negative stereotype that the Enlightenment was inevitably hierarchical and Eurocentric. This timely intervention into the debate about the legacy of the Enlightenment highlights both the plurality and the continuing relevance of Enlightened cosmopolitanism to contemporary global concerns.
In Britain, the resistance to popular determination allowed by the financial construct of the public has been so successful that this term, public, must be re-read as politically paralyzing. The problem, our problem, is the public - which we are so often told will bring us together and provide for us - and it is this we must move beyond.
This volume includes radicals of the Chartist and earlier periods and trade unionists and other radicals after 1850, but it is especially concerned with 20th-century activists and intellectuals, notably those whose formative years or main political life was spent during the period between the two World Wars. The ninth of a many-volumed project, with each volume on a self-contained basis, the book contains entries including all persons active in the organization and institutions of the British labour movement as well as those who influenced the development of radical and socialist ideas. Biographical sources, including writings, are attached to individual entries, and each volume includes a consolidated list of names already published to date and a comprehensive subject index. Other books by Joyce M. Bellamy include "A Hundred Years of Pharmacy in Hull in Commemoration of the Centenary of the Hull Chemists' Association 1868-1968", "Yorkshire Business Histories: A Bibliography" and "The Trade and Shipping of Nineteeth-Century Hull". John Saville has also written "Ernest Jones: Chartist", "Rural Depopulation in England and Wales, 1851-1951", three volumes of "Essays in Labour History"
This book presents formalizations of three important medieval logical theories: supposition, consequence and obligations. These are based on innovative vantage points: supposition theories as algorithmic hermeneutics, theories of consequence analyzed with tools borrowed from model-theory and two-dimensional semantics, and obligations as logical games. The analysis of medieval logic is relevant for the modern philosopher and logician. This is the first book to render medieval logical theories accessible to the modern philosopher.
Transformative learning is a process in which we question all the assumptions about the world and ourselves that make up our worldview, visualize alternative assumptions, and then test them in practice. The author describes the process, offering a critique of contemporary assumptions, and suggests alternatives to illustrate the process. The primary focus of the book is on transformative learning in mainstream global culture, but the special problems and opportunities for people of post-colonial societies are also dealt with. Practical suggestions for conducting transformative learning exercises are given.
Millions of us suffer from addiction, including psychiatrist and recovering alcoholic Carl Erik Fisher. But where does this centuries-old behaviour come from and how should we treat it? As a young doctor, Carl Erik Fisher came face to face with his own addiction crisis, one that nearly cost him everything. Now, in The Urge, he investigates the history of this condition; how we have struggled to define, treat, and control it; and how broader understanding and compassion could change people's lives. The Urge is at once an eye-opening history of ideas, a riveting personal story of addiction and recovery, and a clinician's urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced view of one of society's most intractable challenges.
This timely book provides new insights into debates around the relationship between women and film by drawing on the work of philosopher Luce Irigaray. Arguing that female-directed cinema provides new ways to explore ideas of representation and spectatorship, it also examines the importance of contexts of production, direction and reception.
Applying ideas drawn from contemporary critical theory this book historicizes psychoanalysis through a new, and significant, theorization of the Gothic. The central premise is that the nineteenth-century Gothic produced a radical critique of accounts of sublimity and Freudian psychoanalysis. This book makes a major contribution to an understanding of both the nineteenth century and the Gothic discourse which challenged the dominant ideas of that period. Writers explored include Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker.
Through a collection of critical essays, this work explores twelve keywords central in Latin American and Caribbean Studies: indigenismo, Americanism, colonialism, criollismo, race, transculturation, modernity, nation, gender, sexuality, testimonio, and popular culture. The central question motivating this work is how to think-epistemologically and pedagogically-about Latin American and Caribbean Studies as fields that have had different historical and institutional trajectories across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States.
In studies of psychology's role in modernism, Carl Jung is usually relegated to a cameo appearance, if he appears at all. This book rethinks his place in modernist culture during its formative years, mapping Jung's influence on a surprisingly vast transatlantic network of artists, writers, and thinkers. Jay Sherry sheds light on how this network grew and how Jung applied his unique view of the image-making capacity of the psyche to interpret such modernist icons as James Joyce and Pablo Picasso. His ambition to bridge the divide between the natural and human sciences resulted in a body of work that attracted a cohort of feminists and progressives involved in modern art, early childhood education, dance, and theater.
War is Hell is a study of the philosophy of war and peace, ranging critically from ancient peace thinking to today. The author uses a Socratic method, focused on political philosophy rather than on cultural or psychological aspects of war and peace making. The book is not a treatise on ethics, but rather an analysis of some aspects of the nature of war and peace.
The Impact of Keynes on Economics in the 20th Century reconsiders the nature and significance of Keynes's theories and economic policies. It provides important contrasting interpretations of Keynesian thought, and illustrates the diversity of Keynesianism in different European countries throughout the century. The book provides a blend of theoretical and historical discussions to evaluate the contents and implications of Keynesianism. It includes reappraisals of modern interpretations of Keynes's thought, the extent to which Keynesian ideas were anticipated in different European countries and the reactions to the Keynesian revolution. In addition the authors consider the impact of Keynesian thought on institutions which embraced, rejected or developed alternatives to this school of thought. The book is divided into three main parts. The first addresses Keynesian theory. The second part presents an overall picture of Keynesian-type policies and theories throughout Europe; many of these were not necessarily stimulated by Keynes but were the outcome of national traditions and on-going debates. The third part is devoted to how Keynesian policy has been used by government and non-governmental organizations in an attempt to deal with unemployment and deflation during the twentieth century. The Impact of Keynes on Economics in the 20th Century will be welcomed by historians of economic thought, economic historians and those interested in Keynesian and post-Keynesian developments in Europe during this century.
The present volume seeks to inaugurate a new discussion of two schools of historical thought by social scientists, economists, and phi- losophers in the English language. The tradition of the "Historical and Ethical School of Economics" established by Friedrich List, Wilhelm Roscher, and Gustav Schmollerand the tradition of historism in the hu- manities represented by Wilhelm Dilthey are examined not so much for their own historical interest as for their potential systematic contribu- tion to the contemporary debates on business ethics, economics, sociol- ogy, and philosophy. The book contains the proceedings of the 1994 SEEP-Conference on Economics and Ethics held under the title "Economics and Ethics in the Historical School of Economics. Achievements and Present Relevance. Part A: The Older Historical School, Schmoller, Dilthey, and Others" with the financial support of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Cologne, at Kloster Marlenrode near Hitdesheim and Hannover, Gennany, on March 23rd to 27th, 1994. The SEEP-Conferences on Economics and Ethics are organised an- nually by the editor and the editorial board of Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy (SEEP). The 1994 SEEP-Conference was the frrst of two conferences on the Historical School and will be followed by a conference in 1996 on the topic "Economics and Ethics in the His- torical School of Economics. Achievements and Present Relevance. Part B: Heinrich Rickert, Max Weber, Werner Sombart, and Others", concen- trating on the discussion in the 20th century.
In the pages that follow, an attempt is made to examine those sections of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion which deal with the Argument from Design - the argument which purports to prove that certain observed similarities between the design of the world and machines of human contrivance countenance reasoning by analogy to the conclusion that the cause of the design of the world resembles human intelligence. The sections which deal with the Argument from Design, and with which I am therefore concerned, are Parts I through VIII and Part XII. I argue that a clue to Hume's discussion of the Argument from Design is to be found in Section XII of the first Enquiry, in which Hume presents his most thorough analysis of philosophic dogmatism and scepticism. The Dialogues, as will be shown, follows precisely Hume's recommendations in this Section for bringing the dogmatist to the position which Hume himself endorses - 'mitigated scepticism. ' It is, then, the position of the mitigated sceptic which is elaborated in Part XII of the Dialogues. The belief in an intelligent designer of the world is shown to be akin to certain other beliefs discussed by Hume - causality, physical objects, a continuing self - which are usually referred to in the literature as 'natural beliefs. ' The mitigated sceptic's defense of the unknowability of the divine nature is seen to be in accordance with Hume's view that whatever is believed naturally cannot be known or understood.
This study is an attempt to examine the relationships between religious belief and the humanism of the Enlightenment in the philosophy of Hegel and of a group of thinkers who related to his thought in various ways during the 1840's. It begins with a study of the ways in which Hegel attempted to evolve a genuinely Christian humanism by his demonstration that the modern understanding of man as a free and rational subject derived its strength and validity from the union of God and human existence in the incarnation. The rest of this study is con cerned with two different forms of opposition to Hegel: first, the criti cal discipleship of the Young Hegelians and Moses Hess, who insisted that Hegel's notion of Christian humanism was false because religious belief was necessarily inimical to a clear consciousness of social evil and the determination to abolish it; second, the religious opposition to the Enlightenment in the thought of Schelling and Kierkegaard, which emphasized God's transcendence to human reason and the insig nificance of secular history. In the years leading up to the revolution of 1848, Hegel's synthesis was rejected in favour of the assertion of atheistic humanism or religious otherworldliness. Chapter One, after discussing the young Hegel's critique of the social and political effects of Christianity, examines the union of religi ous belief, speculative philosophy and the rational state in Hegel's mature system."
This new and expanded edition of a classic work draws our attention to the often neglected role women have played in the development of economics. The work and intellectual history of eight prominent women economists of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries are studied to reveal how they strove to become successful contributors to economic science.These women economists had vastly different lives and philosophies. Jane Marcet, Harriet Martineau and Millicent Fawcett followed the goal of free enterprise and individualism and wrote on the subject when economics was still in its infancy. Rosa Luxemburg, Beatrice Webb and Joan Robinson were all believers in some form of collective government, and Barbara Bergmann and Irma Adelman concern themselves with income distribution, in both developed and developing countries. The authors examine the respective backgrounds and discuss the intellectual histories of these remarkable women to throw light on the development of economics since the time of Adam Smith. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in the contribution women have made to the advancement of economic science.
Irish culture is obsessed with the past, and this book asks why and how. In an innovative reading of Irish culture since 1980, Emilie Pine provides a new analysis of theatre, film, television, memoir and art, and interrogates the anti-nostalgia that characterizes so much of contemporary Irish culture. |
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