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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Impact of science & technology on society
This book provides a critical philosophical analysis of the claim that contemporary cognitive approaches to religion undermine theistic beliefs. Recent scientific work into the evolution and cognition of religion has been driven by and interpreted in terms of a certain kind of philosophical and methodological naturalism. The book argues that such naturalism is not necessary for the cognitive study of religion and develops an alternative philosophical and methodological framework. This alternative framework opens the cognitive study of religion to theological and philosophical considerations and clarifies its relationship to other approaches to religious phenomena. This unique contribution to discussions regarding the philosophical and theological implications of the cognitive study of religion summarizes the so far fragmentary discussion, exposes its underlying assumptions, and develops a novel framework for further discussion.
Whether it's widely promoted debates streamed over the internet or a big-budget documentary series on TV, the supposed "conflict" between science and faith remains as prominent as ever. In this accessible guide for students, a well-regarded science professor introduces readers to the natural sciences from a distinctly Christian perspective. Starting with the classical view of God as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, this book lays the biblical foundation for the study of the natural world and explores the history of scientific reflection from Kepler to Darwin. This informative resource argues that the Christian worldview provides the best grounds for scientific investigation, offering readers the framework they need to think and speak clearly about this important issue.
This edited volume provides a convenient entry point to the cutting-edge field of the international politics of technology, in an interesting and informative manner. Technology and World Politics introduces its readers to different approaches to technology in global politics through a survey of emerging fusions of Science and Technology Studies and International Relations. The theoretical approaches to the subject include the Social Construction of Technology, Actor-Network Theory, the Critical Theory of Technology, and New Materialist and Posthumanist approaches. Considering how such theoretical approaches can be used to analyse concrete political issues such as the politics of nuclear weapons, Internet governance, shipping containers, the revolution in military affairs, space technologies, and the geopolitics of the Anthropocene, the volume stresses the socially constructed and inherently political nature of technological objects. Providing the theoretical background to approach the politics of technology in a sophisticated manner alongside a glossary and guide to further reading for newcomers, this volume is a vital resource for both students and scholars focusing on politics and international relations.
Foundations of Mobile Media Studies gathers some of the most important texts in this emerging field, offering readers key approaches to understanding our moment and our media. The impact of mobile media is far reaching and this book discusses topics such as human intimacy, social space, political uprisings, labor, mobile phones in the developing world, gender, the mobile device's impact on reading, mobile television, and mobile photography, among others. This carefully curated collection will serve as the central text to introduce this field to anyone eager to understand the rise of mobile technology, its impact on our relationships, and how these media have transformed the ways we understand the world around us.
This collection explores the effects of new technologies on women's employment and on the nature of women's work in the Third World. The challenges women face in less affluent communities in adjusting to new technologies are discussed along with their responses and organizing strategies. Contributors outline the roles that family, ideology, state policies and trade union structures can play in distributing information on technology-related employment between women and men. The differences in the interests and needs of different groups of women are highlighted, challenging the concept of a monolithic, specifically feminine vision of technology and science. A critique of postmodernism and ecofeminism is also provided. In looking at the impact of information technology on the working lives of women in the Third World, this volume lays a foundation for further debate and research in this area.
The first volume in a major series, "Technology, Culture and
Competitiveness" will be an essential read for all those who need
to deal with the causes and consequences of rapid technological
change in an increasingly globalized world, whether they be
government policy-makers, managers of multi-national corporations,
commentators on the international scene or specialists in and
students of international politics, economics and business studies.
The authors discuss three related areas: how we think about
technology and international relations/international political
economy; in what sense technology is a fundamental component of
national competitive advantage and what national, local and
corporate policy should be in light of this; and what the
relationship is between technological innovation and global and
political economics change.
Though the current political climate might lead one to suspect that religion and medicine make for uncomfortable bedfellows, the two institutions have a long history of alliance. From religious healers and religious hospitals to religiously informed bioethics and research studies on the impact of religious and spiritual beliefs on physical and mental well-being, religion and medicine have encountered one another from antiquity through the present day. In Religion and Medicine, Dr. Jeff Levin outlines this longstanding history and the multifaceted interconnections between these two institutions. The first book to cover the full breadth of this subject, it documents religion-medicine alliances across religious traditions, throughout the world, and over the course of history. Levin summarizes a wide range of material in the most comprehensive introduction to this emerging field of scholarship to date.
The rise of proxy wars, the Space Race, and cybernetics during the Cold War marked science and technology as vital sites of social and political power. Women artists, historically excluded from these domains, responded critically, while simultaneously redeploying the products of "Technological Society" into works that promoted ideals of progress and alternative concepts of human community. In this innovative book, author Christine Filippone offers the first focused examination of the conceptual use of science and technology by women artists during and just after the women's movement. She argues that artists Alice Aycock, Agnes Denes, Martha Rosler and Carolee Schneemann used science and technology to mount a critique on Cold War American society as they saw it-conservative and constricting. Motivated by the contemporary American Women's Movement, these artists transformed science and technology into new modes of artmaking that transgressed modernist, heroic, painterly styles and subverted the traditional economic structures of the gallery, the museum and the dealer. At the same time, the artists also embraced these domains of knowledge and practice as expressions of hope for a better future. Many found inspiration in the scientific theory of open systems, which investigated "problems of wholeness, dynamic interaction and organization", enabling consideration of the porous boundaries between human bodies and their social, political and nonhuman environments. Filippone also establishes that the theory of open systems not only informed feminist art, but also continued to influence women artists' practice of reclamation and ecological art through the twenty-first century.
E-Governance as a field of study is relatively new when considered within the broader historical context of US democracy. The advent of the modern Internet in the early 1990s yielded new technologies that began to shift citizen expectations of how government can -- and in many cases should -- govern. Though innovations continue to emerge at a rapid pace, these technologies may be used to reinforce long-held deliberative democracy principles, including transparency, accountability and flexibility. Advances in E-Governance offers a comprehensive exploration of the role that technological innovation plays in facilitating government action and citizen participation. In this timely book, author Anthony Trotta differentiates e-governance from e-government and examines the increasingly important role social media and crowdsourcing have come to play in our democracy, and the interactions between technology, polling, voting, and outcomes. Including practical cases ranging from DMV registration to online tax filing and markers of successful implementation, Advances in E-Governance carefully addresses how the adoption and expansion of electronic platforms align with new government paradigms and looks to future trends in this rapidly expanding field.
The Social Meaning of Modern Biology analyzes the cultural significance of recurring attempts since the time of Darwin to extract social and moral guidance from the teachings of modern biology. Such efforts are often dismissed as ideological defenses of the social status quo, of the sort wrongly associated with nineteenth-century social Darwinism. Howard Kaye argues they are more properly viewed as culturally radical attempts to redefine who we are by nature and thus rethink how we should live. Despite the scientific and philosophical weaknesses of arguments that "biology is destiny," and their dehumanizing potential, in recent years they have proven to be powerfully attractive. They will continue to be so in an age enthralled by genetic explanations of human experience and excited by the prospect of its biological control. In the ten years since the original edition of The Social Meaning of Modern Biology was published, changes in both science and society have altered the terms of debate over the nature of man and human culture. Kaye's epilogue thoroughly examines these changes. He discusses the remarkable growth of ethology and sociobiology in their study of animal and human behavior and the stunning progress achieved in neuropsychology and behavioral genetics. These developments may appear to bring us closer to long-sought explanations of our physical, mental, and behavioral "machinery." Yet, as Kaye demonstrates, attempts to use such explanations to unify the natural and social sciences are mired in self-contradictory accounts of human freedom and moral choice. The Social Meaning of Modern Biology remains a significant study in the field of sociobiology and is essential reading for sociologists, biologists, behavioral geneticists, and psychologists.
We live in an age when the dominant technologically utilitarian worldview is undergoing a transformation. To increase our awareness of this change, Turning Toward Technology introduces readers to the possibility of an alternative technological worldview by examining foundational concepts to Asian thought. The early Eastern philosophical treatment of technology was not ethical, but ontological, exhibiting sensitivity to how human existence was defined and determined in its relation to technology and to reality as a whole. Within the Eastern cultural orientation, technological development was guided by a singular aesthetic sensibility to the useful, the good, the beautiful, the true, and the holy. Instead of controlling the shape of future technology by systems of rational management, George Teschner and Alessandro Tomasi recommend a view of technology that arises from questioning fundamental assumptions within Western culture about knowledge, reality, and human nature. Turning Toward Technology aims to stimulate awareness of an alternative technological paradigm, and thus a different mode of social action that can establish an optimistic future for global civilization.
This volume presents articles which focus on the ethical evaluation of performance-enhancing technologies in sport. The collection considers whether drug doping should be banned; the rationale of not banning ethically contested innovations such as hypoxic chambers; and the implications of the prospects of human genetic engineering for the notion of sport as a development of 'natural' talent towards human excellence. The essays demonstrate the significance of the principles of preventing harm, ensuring fairness and preserving meaning to appraise whether a particular performance enhancer is acceptable in the context of sport. Selected essays on various forms of human enhancement outside of sport that highlight other principles and concepts are included for comparative purpose. Sport enhancement provides a useful starting point to work through the ethics of enhancement in other human practices and endeavors, and sport enhancement ethics should track broader bioethical debates on human enhancement. As a whole, the volume points to the need to consider the values and meanings that people seek in a given sphere of human activity and their associated principles to arrive at a morally grounded and reasonable approach to enhancement ethics.
Herman Bavinck, the premier theologian of the Kuyper-inspired, neo-Calvinistic revival in the late-nineteenth-century Netherlands, is an important voice in the development of Protestant theology. This volume, now in paper, is the capstone of his distinguished career. These seminal essays offer an outworking of Bavinck's systematic theology as presented in his "Reformed Dogmatics" and engage enduring issues from a biblical and theological perspective. The collection presents his mature reflections on issues relating to ethics, education, politics, psychology, natural science and evolution, aesthetics, and philosophy of religion. Pastors, students, and scholars of Reformed theology will value this work.
Modern cosmology tells us that the universe is remarkably 'fine-tuned' for life. If the constants of physics or the initial conditions at the Big Bang were different by the smallest of margins then the universe would have been dull and lifeless. Why should the universe be so accommodating to life? Many cosmologists believe that the existence of many universes can explain why ours is so special. In this book Rodney Holder subjects this 'multiverse' hypothesis to rigorous philosophical critique. A multitude of problems is exposed. Going substantially further than existing treatments, Holder argues that divine design is the best explanation for cosmic fine-tuning, specifically that design by God is a superior explanation in terms of both initial plausibility and explanatory power, and is therefore the most rational position to take on the basis of the cosmological data.
This collection examines the political conditions affecting science and technology capability building in Latin America. In a comparative discussion centering on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, the work discusses the capacity Latin American governments have shown in building national systems for the support of innovation in industry. It looks at how state capacities for the design and implementation of science and technology policies have evolved and examines how political factors, such as military rule and authoritarianism, have shaped such capabilities and the pattern of development. In looking ahead to the future economic and social development in Latin America, contributors suggest that selective but active state intervention in favour of technological change will be needed to ensure implementation of realistic technology policies.
Digital technology has transformed global culture, connecting and empowering users on a hitherto unknown scale. Existing paradigms from intellectual property rights to cultural diversity and telecommunications regulation seem increasingly obsolete, confounding policymakers and provoking wide-ranging debate. Transnational Culture in the Internet Age draws on a range of disciplines to examine new approaches to regulating communications and cultural production. The insightful contributions shed new light on insufficiently examined issues and highlight connections that cut across the many different domains in which such regulations operate. Building upon the framework presented by David Post - one of the first and most prominent scholars of cyber law and a contributor to this volume - the authors address the implications and economics of the Internet's astronomical scale, jurisdiction and enforcement of the web as it relates to topics including libel tourism and threats to free speech, and the power of global communication to dissolve and recreate identities. Ideal for students and scholars of innovation, technology, cyber law and communication, Transnational Culture in the Internet Age will be a valuable addition to any library. Contributors: M. Burri, A. Candeub, K. Christen, W.W. Fu, J.M. Garon, D.J. Gervais, C.B. Graber, S.Y. Lee, L. Levi, L. Mann, M. Mueller, P.M. Napoli, S.A. Pager, D.G. Post, K.W. Saunders, M.F. Schultz, M. Shur-Ofry, H. Travis, S.S. Wildman
First published in 1932, this book, based on an address delivered in 1931, presents a concise and lucid summary of the philosophy of the author of The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler. It was his conviction that the technical age - the culture of the machine age - which man had created in virtue of his unique capacity for individual as well as racial technique, had already reached its peak, and that the future held only catastrophe. He argued it lacked progressive cultural life and instead was dominated by a lust for power and possession. The triumph of the machine led to mass regimentation rather than fewer workers and less work - spelling the doom of Western civilization.
Science is continually confronted by new and difficult social and ethical problems. Some of these problems have arisen from the transformation of the academic science of the prewar period into the industrialized science of the present. Traditional theories of science are now widely recognized as obsolete. In Scientific Knowledge and Its Social Problems (originally published in 1971), Jerome R. Ravetz analyzes the work of science as the creation and investigation of problems. He demonstrates the role of choice and value judgment, and the inevitability of error, in scientific research. Ravetz's new introductory essay is a masterful statement of how our understanding of science has evolved over the last two decades.
Provides a wide-ranging survey of the sociolinguistic issues raised by the impact of information technology. The author demonstrates how and in which ways the new technologies both affect human communication and are in turn affected by the way people communicate using the technologies.
Tsukuba Science City is the world's most ambitious attempt to `turbocharge' scientific collaboration. James W. Dearing looks at the political and economic context within which the plans for Tsukuba were laid, how those plans changed during the process of implementation, and at the functioning of Tsukuba today. Tsukuba is vitally important to Japan's basic scientific research . Its history, its failures and successes need to be understood by governments and businesses planning for scientific research and economic growth.
This volume explores how a number of developing countries -- including India, Malaysia, Columbia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia -- are responding to the pressures of the information society. Infrastructural development, policies, and social systems are investigated, and models of information technologies and society are proposed in order to better reference the differences and similarities among the nations profiled. The authors identify the social technology perspective via the assimilation of technology in lifestyles and social systems. From this perspective, the diffusion of technologies is analyzed with a critical eye for theories of culture lag, diffusion and innovation, and technological determinism and liberalism. The social perspective is a new addition to development studies, and the reader may see how, as the global information society comes into focus, the social dimensions are more important than some theorists originally envisioned.
First Published in 1989. There is still much concern over social problems. Invasion of privacy, computer crime, control of information, information inequity, and unemployment due to automation continue to be studied as their existence is no longer a matter of speculation. The emphasis of this book is less on the consequences of information technology than on understanding the nature of information societies. |
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