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Books > 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.
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 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.
Projecting a global interdisciplinary vision, this insightful book develops a peer-to-peer learning methodology to facilitate reconciling religion and human rights, both in multilateral contexts and at the national level. Written by leading human rights practitioners, the book illuminates the tension zones between religion and rights, exploring how the 'faith' elements in both disciplines can create synergies for protecting equal human dignity. Ibrahim Salama and Michael Wiener analyse the place of religion in multilateral practice, including lessons learned from the 'Faith for Rights' framework. Based on the jurisprudence of international human rights mechanisms, the book clarifies ambiguities of human rights law on religion. It also unpacks the potential positive role of non-State actors in the religious sphere, demonstrating that the relationship between religion and human rights is not a zero-sum game. Ultimately, the book empowers actors on both sides of the ideological fence between religion and human rights to deconstruct this artificial, politically instrumentalized dichotomy. This innovative book will be a vital resource for faith-based actors, human rights defenders and policymakers working at the intersection between religion, culture and human rights. With the co-authors' commentary on the #Faith4Rights toolkit, it will also be invaluable for peer-to-peer learning facilitators, scholars and students of human rights law, public international law and religious studies.
Informed by co-author Debby Hutchins' extensive teaching experience and research on logic education, The Art of Reasoning is the most effective text for teaching logic today. The Fifth Edition features a new chapter on cognitive biases, along with a new learning framework and newly designed problem sets that encourage incremental learning. Supporting resources are enhanced by InQuizitive, an award-winning adaptive learning tool that facilitates mastery of core concepts.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. |
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