This edited volume seeks to contest prevailing assumptions about torture and to consider why, despite its illegality, torture continues to be widely employed and misrepresented. The resurgence of torture and public justifications of it led to the central questions that this inter-disciplinary volume seeks to address: How is it possible for torture to be practiced when it is legally prohibited? What kinds of moves do agents make that render torture palatable? Why do so many ignore the evidence that torture is ineffective as an intelligence-gathering technique? Who are the victims of torture? The various contributors in the book look to history, the practices of interrogators, artistic representations, documentary films, rendition policies, political campaigns, diplomatic discourses, international legal rules, refugee practices, and cultural representations of death and the body to illuminate how torture becomes permissible. Building from the personal to the communal, and from the practical to the conceptual, the volume reflects the multivalence of torture itself. This framework enables readers at all levels better appreciate how and why torture is open to so many interpretations and applications. This book will be of much interest to students of International Relations, Security Studies, Terrorism Studies, Ethics, and International Legal Studies.

Hannah Arendt’s 1958 The Human Condition was an impassioned philosophical reconsideration of the goals of being human. In its arguments about the kind of lives we should lead and the political engagement we should strive for, Arendt’s interpretative skills come to the fore, in a brilliant display of what high-level interpretation can achieve for critical thinking. Good interpretative thinkers are characterised by their ability to clarify meanings, question accepted definitions and posit good, clear definitions that allow their other critical thinking skills to take arguments deeper and further than most. In many ways, The Human Condition is all about definitions. Arendt’s aim is to lay out an argument for political engagement and active participation in society as the highest goals of human life; and to this end she sets about defining a hierarchy of ways of living a “vita activa,” or active life. The book sets about distinguishing between our different activities under the categories of “labor”, “work”, and “action” – each of which Arendt carefully redefines as a different level of active engagement with the world. Following her clear and careful laying out of each word’s meaning, it becomes hard to deny her argument for the life of “action” as the highest human goal.

Spectral Methods Using Multivariate Polynomials on the Unit Ball is a research level text on a numerical method for the solution of partial differential equations. The authors introduce, illustrate with examples, and analyze 'spectral methods' that are based on multivariate polynomial approximations. The method presented is an alternative to finite element and difference methods for regions that are diffeomorphic to the unit disk, in two dimensions, and the unit ball, in three dimensions. The speed of convergence of spectral methods is usually much higher than that of finite element or finite difference methods. Features Introduces the use of multivariate polynomials for the construction and analysis of spectral methods for linear and nonlinear boundary value problems Suitable for researchers and students in numerical analysis of PDEs, along with anyone interested in applying this method to a particular physical problem One of the few texts to address this area using multivariate orthogonal polynomials, rather than tensor products of univariate polynomials.

Beside The Still Waters: Having Faith Even When....... is a book that helps anyone struggling with their faith when they are losing or have lost a loved one. We have been taught that our faith must be unmovable yet in the midst of grieving our faith must be fluid like water so that we can adjust to our current situation. This book will help you move from "rock faith" to "fluid faith" as you walk through your grieving process. If you have ever felt lost in your grief this book will help you learn that there are some things you will never get over ....yet by fluid faith you will get through.

Visual observation of patients is crucial in the diagnosis of movement disorders. Such observation can be subject to many pitfalls. The powerful lessons in this case-based book will help the reader appreciate diagnoses missed or wrongly attributed, movements difficult to characterize, tests inappropriately ordered or interpreted, and treatments incorrectly chosen or dosed. The wisdom of hindsight thus generated becomes an invaluable and enduring lesson. Organized in nine chapters according to the categories of errors and oversights, each case conveys a specific set of clinical pearls on diagnostic or therapeutic issues. The text is written in a coaching style, buttressed by the strong pedagogic wisdom of the authors. The 'hard questions' after each case are meant to steer the discussion straight into the pitfalls - and how they could have been avoided. Video segments on the accompanying CD-ROM are important complementary data, critical to a field so intimately dependent on phenomenological clues.

Hans J. Morgenthau is primarily considered a theorist of power politics, often associated with the six principles of realism and the national interest. This book sheds a new light on the theorist by digging into his archives to show his wide-ranging views on politics. These selected lectures demonstrate the broad set of political themes that were important to Morgenthau and his ability to engage classical political philosophy in a contemporary setting. In contrast to his reputation in the field of international relations, this book reveals a scholar who drew on Aristotelian insights to understand the politics of the Mafia in New York City, regime change in Latin America, and the foreign policy of the United States. Based on Aristotle's The Politics, these lectures discuss a wide spectrum of history and theory in order to examine the realm of politics. This is the only published collection of seminars from Morgenthau, revealing him as both a teacher and a thinker. Topics include: Equality to Freedom; Ethics and Politics; Justice and Revolution.

Hans J. Morgenthau is primarily considered a theorist of power politics, often associated with the "six principles of realism" and "the national interest." This book sheds a new light on the theorist by digging into his archives to show his wide-ranging views on politics. These selected lectures demonstrate the broad set of political themes that were important to Morgenthau and his ability to engage classical political philosophy in a contemporary setting. Unlike his reputation in the field of International Relations, this book reveals a scholar who drew on Aristotelian insights to understand the politics of the Mafia in New York City, regime change in Latin America, and the foreign policy of the United States. Based on Aristotle's The Politics, these lectures discuss a wide spectrum of history and theory in order to examine the realm of politics. This collection serves as the only published seminars from Morgenthau, revealing him as both a teacher and a thinker. Topics include: Equality to Freedom; Ethics and Politics; Justice and Revolution.