David Lee Thompson has produced a caring and introspective personal account of the vanishing Appalachian culture. This way of life existed for over twelve generations, teaching its people the importance of family, community, and religion. Thompson s old home place, now empty and lonely, holds faint whispers of what was once alive with laughter and reminiscences. His boyhood memories of life on Bowen Creek represent the last vestiges of a time and place now nearly extinct.

This book offers an introduction to and overview of Dennett's ideas, his writings and his contributions to the various fields of philosophy. Daniel Dennett is one of America's most important and influential contemporary philosophers. He has made considerable contributions to the philosophy of mind and to evolutionary thought. While he has clarified his ideas considerably, his fundamental philosophical approach has remained largely unchanged throughout his career. This book offers an introduction to Dennett's ideas, his key writings and his contributions to the various fields of philosophy. Thematically organised, the book presents a consistent and accessible philosophy. David L. Thompson examines philosophical problems in consciousness, self, religion, ethics, evolution, freedom and ontology and provides a clear account of how Dennett resolves these issues. Thompson explores the twentieth-century stand-off between the scientific worldview, on the one hand, and ethics, freedom and human dignity on the other. Ultimately he presents Dennett's work as reconciling these two approaches. The book covers all Dennett's key texts and presents a number of Dennett's often brilliant thought experiments. This is the ideal companion to study of this hugely influential thinker. "The Continuum Contemporary American Thinkers" series offers concise and accessible introductions to the most important and influential thinkers at work in philosophy today. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and readers encountering these thinkers for the first time, these informative books provide a coherent overview and analysis of each thinker's vital contribution to the field of philosophy. The series is the ideal companion to the study of these most inspiring and challenging of thinkers.

It's 1963, a year that had an impact on the cultural, political and religious beliefs of people locally, nationally and internationally. As the minutes tick into the early hours of a new year, Sebastian Crawley is unaware that his life is about to change forever. Sebastian is a market trader living in a slum clearance area of South Shields, in the north east of England. By his own admission, life is comfortably boring. His responses to a new love and personal tragedy forces him to react against a changing world. His principles and beliefs are compromised by a series of unfolding events which result in an unlikely alliance with the Sand Dancers, a local crime brotherhood. His fight to find out who he really is leads Sebastian to a violent confrontation with a policeman, who happens to be his mother's former partner.

When Councillor Macauley Chrisp hears of a local museum's closing, he buys an old brass machine from it and hires a young woman studying engineering to reconstruct it. The machine, named Ada, after Victorian mathematician Ada Lovelace, soon provides some astounding information which requires the help of computer expert Kate, and elderly historian Raymond, to piece together the machine's history. Ada produces stunning data which indicates that a new 'messiah' was born in the north east of England in 1997. The team set out to discover who it is. How Ada should be used underlines the moral differences within the group and fractures their working relationship, with tragic results. Because of Ada, past world events will have to be redrawn. The future is at stake. Eventually, when the machine has to pass the Turing Test to prove itself to the scientific world, its public debut doesn't go to plan.

David Lee Thompson has produced a caring and introspective personal account of the vanishing Appalachian culture. This way of life existed for over twelve generations, teaching its people the importance of family, community, and religion. Thompson s old home place, now empty and lonely, holds faint whispers of what was once alive with laughter and reminiscences. His boyhood memories of life on Bowen Creek represent the last vestiges of a time and place now nearly extinct.

This book offers an introduction to and overview of Dennett's ideas, his writings and his contributions to the various fields of philosophy. Daniel Dennett is one of America's most important and influential contemporary philosophers. He has made considerable contributions to the philosophy of mind and to evolutionary thought. While he has clarified his ideas considerably, his fundamental philosophical approach has remained largely unchanged throughout his career. This book offers an introduction to Dennett's ideas, his key writings and his contributions to the various fields of philosophy. Thematically organised, the book presents a consistent and accessible philosophy. David L. Thompson examines philosophical problems in consciousness, self, religion, ethics, evolution, freedom and ontology and provides a clear account of how Dennett resolves these issues. Thompson explores the twentieth-century stand-off between the scientific worldview, on the one hand, and ethics, freedom and human dignity on the other. Ultimately he presents Dennett's work as reconciling these two approaches. The book covers all Dennett's key texts and presents a number of Dennett's often brilliant thought experiments. This is the ideal companion to study of this hugely influential thinker. "The Continuum Contemporary American Thinkers" series offers concise and accessible introductions to the most important and influential thinkers at work in philosophy today. Designed specifically to meet the needs of students and readers encountering these thinkers for the first time, these informative books provide a coherent overview and analysis of each thinker's vital contribution to the field of philosophy. The series is the ideal companion to the study of these most inspiring and challenging of thinkers.