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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy
In Everything Ancient Was Once New, Emalani Case explores
Indigenous persistence through the concept of Kahiki, a term that
is at once both an ancestral homeland for Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiians)
and the knowledge that there is life to be found beyond Hawai'i's
shores. It is therefore both a symbol of ancestral connection and
the potential that comes with remembering and acting upon that
connection. Tracing physical, historical, intellectual, and
spiritual journeys to and from Kahiki, Emalani frames it as a place
of refuge and sanctuary, a place where ancient knowledge can
constantly be made anew. It is in Kahiki, she argues, and in the
sanctuary it creates, that today's Kanaka Maoli can find safety and
reprieve from the continued onslaught of settler colonial violence,
while also confronting some of the often uncomfortable and
challenging realities of being Indigenous in Hawai'i, in the
Pacific, and in the world. Each chapter of the book engages with
Kahiki as a shifting term, employed by Kanaka Maoli to explain
their lives and experiences to themselves at different points in
history. In doing so, Everything Ancient Was Once New proposes and
argues for reactivated and reinvigorated engagements with Kahiki,
each supporting ongoing work aimed at decolonizing physical and
ideological spaces, and reconnecting Kanaka Maoli to other peoples
and places in the Pacific region and beyond in ways that are both
purposeful and meaningful. In the book, Kahiki is therefore traced
through pivotal moments in history and critical moments in
contemporary times, explaining that while not always mentioned by
name, the idea of Kahiki was, and is, always full of potential. In
writing that is both personal and theoretical, Emalani weaves the
past and the present together, reflecting on ancient concepts and
their continued relevance in movements to protect lands, waters,
and oceans; to fight for social justice; to reexamine our
responsibilities and obligations to each other across the Pacific
region; and to open space for continued dialogue on what it means
to be Indigenous both when at home and when away. Combining
personal narrative and reflection with research and critical
analysis, Everything Ancient Was Once New journeys to and from
Kahiki, the sanctuary for reflection, deep learning, and continued
dreaming with the past, in the present, and far into the future.
Traditional moral theory usually has either of two emphases:
virtuous moral character or principles for distributing duties and
goods. Zone Morality introduces a third focus: families and
businesses are systems created by the causal reciprocities of their
members. These relations embody the duties and permissions of a
system's moral code. Core systems satisfy basic interests and
needs; we move easily among them hardly noticing that moral demands
vary from system to system. Moral conflicts arise because of
discord within or among systems but also because morality has three
competing sites: self-assertive, self-regarding people; the moral
codes of systems; and regulative principles that enhance social
cohesion. Each wants authority to control the other two. Their
struggles make governance fragile. A strong church or authoritarian
government reduces conflict by imposing its rules, but democracy
resists that solution. Procedural democracy is a default position.
Its laws and equitable procedures defend people or systems having
diverse interests when society fails to create a public that would
govern for the common interest.
The notions of the cosmic city and the common law are central to
early Stoic political thought. As Vogt shows, together they make up
one complex theory. A city is a place governed by the law. Yet on
the law pervading the cosmos can be considered a true law, and thus
the cosmos is the only real city. A city is also a
dwelling-place--in the case of the cosmos, the dwelling-place of
all human beings. Further, a city demarcates who belongs together
as fellow-citizens. The thought that we should view all other human
beings as belonging to us constitutes the core of Stoic
cosmopolitanism. All human beings are citizens of the cosmic city
in the sense of living in the world. But the demanding task of
acquiring wisdom allows a person to become a citizen in the strict
sense: someone who lives according to the law, as the gods do. The
sage is the only citizen, relative, friend and free person; via
these notions, the Stoics explore the political dimensions of the
Stoic idea of wisdom. Vogt argues against two widespread
interpretations of the common law--that it consists of rules, and
that lawful action is what right reason prescribes. While she
rejects the rules-interpretation, she argues that the prescriptive
reason-interpretation correctly captures key ideas of the Stoics'
theory, but misses the substantive side of their conception of the
law. The sage fully understands what is valuable for human beings,
and this makes her actions lawful. The Stoics emphasize the
revisionary nature of their theory; whatever course of action
perfect deliberation commands, even if it be cutting off one's limb
and eating it, we should act on its command, and not be held back
by conventional judgments.
Strategy is the craft of a warrior - Miyamoto Musashi Written
around 1645, Miyamoto Musashi's Five Rings is a classic Japanese
work on mastery in swordsmanship, leadership and conflict. Musashi
was a swordsman, philosopher and strategist, and today his work
remains of influence not only in the realm of martial arts but in
the business world, too. Musashi's no-nonsense approach to the
martial arts and combat includes eliminating technical flourishes,
understanding that technique should simply be understood as
defeating your opponent, and appreciating that the same qualities
apply in both small- scale and large-scale conflicts. Repeatedly,
he stresses the importance of learning through practice, rather
than merely reading about them. Produced using beautiful
traditional Chinese bookbinding techniques, Five Rings Illustrated
is presented in an exquisite illustrated edition with a brand new
modern translation.
So long as large segments of humanity are suffering chronic poverty
and are dying from treatable diseases, organized giving can save or
enhance millions of lives. With the law providing little guidance,
ethics has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the
philanthropic practices of individuals, foundations, NGOs,
governments, and international agencies are morally sound and
effective. In Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy, an
accomplished trio of editors bring together an international group
of distinguished philosophers, social scientists, lawyers and
practitioners to identify and address the most urgent moral
questions arising today in the practice of philanthropy. The topics
discussed include the psychology of giving, the reasons for and
against a duty to give, the accountability of NGOs and foundations,
the questionable marketing practices of some NGOs, the moral
priorities that should inform NGO decisions about how to target and
design their projects, the good and bad effects of aid, and the
charitable tax deduction along with the water's edge policy now
limiting its reach. This ground-breaking volume can help bring our
practice of charity closer to meeting the vital needs of the
millions worldwide who depend on voluntary contributions for their
very lives.
![Play (Paperback): Dr Bill Thompson](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/224485787761179215.jpg) |
Play
(Paperback)
Dr Bill Thompson
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R175
Discovery Miles 1 750
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Between every intellect and an understanding of materiality there
is a zone of possible meaning. This is the common experience of the
human condition. We can call what appears in the zone of meaning -
phenomena. These are the closest we ever get to materiality. We
either make sense of phenomena or we fail. When we make sense of
phenomena we can share our ability to make phenomena in similar
ways because we are similar beings. In particular and uniquely on
the earth we make linguistic phenomena in a highly diverse and
developed manner. This we know. Unfortunately many intellects make
their propositional linguistic phenomena and impose them on other
intellects. In the UK we executed a despot in order to get at a
democratic process in which the only voices governing us were human
voices. We are still struggling with propositional linguistic
phenomena in that regard and I hope Play will help us with our
struggle
Montesquieu and the Spirit of Rome argues that the
eighteenth-century French author Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron
de La Brede et de Montesquieu (1689-1755) developed a novel,
comprehensive account of Roman history that framed his new
political science and grounded his political teachings. Rome's
legacy in early-modern thought turns on the work of Montesquieu,
and through Rome Montesquieu articulated the strengths and
weaknesses of the modern state-the moderation that can distinguish
it and sources of extremism that must haunt it. This book is the
first to unify Montesquieu's Roman thoughts; it is the first to
reconstruct the Rome that was one of his most powerful legacies in
the 18th and 19th centuries. Montesquieu and the Spirit of Rome
restores Rome to its proper place at the peak of Montesquieu's
thought and Montesquieu's thought to its proper place in the
history of classical study. It treats Montesquieu as what he
claimed to be-a jurist, a poet, a historian, and a political writer
of the first rank, and it revives his hard-nosed defence of
moderation.
![Voices (Paperback): Dr Bill Thompson](//media.loot.co.za/images/x80/700136638577179215.jpg) |
Voices
(Paperback)
Dr Bill Thompson
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R209
Discovery Miles 2 090
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Voices tells you how the body manages the understanding you have of
the world you live in. The text struggles with contemporary
philosophy relating the world of objects and the world of ideas
that Smile explained as the struggle to understand the world we are
immersed in. In effect Voices continues the work of Husserl and
Hegel and links to related chapters in Zizek's work when he deals
with liberalism and the issues of democracy. As we evolve from
deeply internalized superstitions to individual understandings that
must be reciprocated in order to manage living in the same way we
need to change our belief in truth and knowledge so that nature
becomes evolution for us.
Yitzhak Melamed here offers a new and systematic interpretation of
the core of Spinoza's metaphysics. In the first part of the book,
he proposes a new reading of the metaphysics of substance in
Spinoza: he argues that for Spinoza modes both inhere in and are
predicated of God. Using extensive textual evidence, he shows that
Spinoza considered modes to be God's propria. He goes on to clarify
Spinoza's understanding of infinity, mereological relations,
infinite modes, and the flow of finite things from God's essence.
In the second part of the book, Melamed relies on this
interpretation of the substance-mode relation and the nature of
infinite modes and puts forward two interrelated theses about the
structure of the attribute of Thought and its overarching role in
Spinoza's metaphysics. First, he shows that Spinoza had not one,
but two independent doctrines of parallelism. Then, in his final
main thesis, Melamed argues that, for Spinoza, ideas have a
multifaceted (in fact, infinitely faceted) structure that allows
one and the same idea to represent the infinitely many modes which
are parallel to it in the infinitely many attributes. Thought turns
out to be coextensive with the whole of nature. Spinoza cannot
embrace an idealist reduction of Extension to Thought because of
his commitment to the conceptual separation of the attributes. Yet,
within Spinoza's metaphysics, Thought clearly has primacy over the
other attributes insofar as it is the only attribute which is as
elaborate, as complex, and, in some senses, as powerful as God.
In Norms in the Wild, distinguished philosopher Cristina Bicchieri
argues that when it comes to human behavior, social scientists
place too much stress on rational deliberation. In fact, she says,
many choices occur without much deliberation at all. Two people
passing in a corridor automatically negotiate their shared space;
cars at an intersection obey traffic signals; we choose clothing
based on our instincts for what is considered appropriate.
Bicchieri's theory of social norms accounts for these automatic
components of coordination, where individuals react automatically
to cues that focus their attention on what the norm is in that
situation. Social norms thus act as rules for making choices in a
social world where people expect others - often unconsciously - to
follow the same rule. Some norms enable seamless social
co-operation, while others are less beneficial to human
flourishing. Bicchieri is famous for her interdisciplinary work on
game theory and most recently her work on social norms, and Norms
in the Wild represents her latest challenge to many of the
fundamental assumptions of the social sciences. Bicchieri's work
has broad implications not only for understanding human behavior,
but for changing it for better outcomes. People have a strongly
conditioned preference for following social norms, but that also
means that manipulating their expectations can cause major
behavioral changes. Bicchieri has been working recently with UNICEF
and other NGO's to explore the applicability of her views to issues
of human rights around the world. Is it possible to change social
expectations around forced marriage, genital mutilations, and
public health practices like vaccinations and sanitation? If so,
how? What tools might we use? This short book explores how social
norms work, and how changing them - changing preferences, beliefs,
and especially social expectations - can potentially improve lives
all around the world. It will appeal to an unusually broad range of
readers including philosophers, psychologists and others in
behavioral sciences, and anyone involved in public policy or at
NGOs.
For thousands of years, mathematicians have used the timeless art of logic to see the world more clearly. In The Art of Logic, Royal Society Science Book Prize nominee Eugenia Cheng shows how anyone can think like a mathematician - and see, argue and think better.
Learn how to simplify complex decisions without over-simplifying them. Discover the power of analogies and the dangers of false equivalences. Find out how people construct misleading arguments, and how we can argue back.
Eugenia Cheng teaches us how to find clarity without losing nuance, taking a careful scalpel to the complexities of politics, privilege, sexism and dozens of other real-world situations. Her Art of Logic is a practical and inspiring guide to decoding the modern world.
Beginning with a review of formal languages and their syntax and
semantics, Logic, Proof and Computation conducts a computer
assisted course in formal reasoning and the relevance of logic to
mathematical proof, information processing and philosophy. Topics
covered include formal grammars, semantics of formal languages,
sequent systems, truth-tables, propositional and first order logic,
identity, proof heuristics, regimentation, set theory, databases,
automated deduction, proof by induction, Turing machines,
undecidability and a computer illustration of the reasoning
underpinning Godel's incompleteness proof. LPC is designed as a
multidisciplinary reader for students in computing, philosophy and
mathematics.
This book tells you how you arrive at an understanding of the world
you live in. It doesn't tell you how to live that life. It just
tells you how you arrive at the understanding you become so
convinced is true that you throw away the life you could have
lived.
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