|
Showing 1 - 14 of
14 matches in All Departments
This volume explains how Star Trek allows viewers to comprehend
significant aspects of Georg Hegel's concept the absolute, the
driving force behind history. Gonzalez, with wit and wisdom,
explains how Star Trek exhibits central elements of the absolute.
He describes how themes and ethos central to the show display the
concept beautifully. For instance, the show posits that people must
possess the correct attitudes in order to bring about an ideal
society: a commitment to social justice; an unyielding commitment
to the truth; and a similar commitment to scientific, intellectual
discovery. These characteristics serve as perfect embodiments of
Hegel's conceptualization, and Gonzalez's analysis is sharp and
exacting.
This volume explains how Star Trek allows viewers to comprehend
significant aspects of Georg Hegel's concept the absolute, the
driving force behind history. Gonzalez, with wit and wisdom,
explains how Star Trek exhibits central elements of the absolute.
He describes how themes and ethos central to the show display the
concept beautifully. For instance, the show posits that people must
possess the correct attitudes in order to bring about an ideal
society: a commitment to social justice; an unyielding commitment
to the truth; and a similar commitment to scientific, intellectual
discovery. These characteristics serve as perfect embodiments of
Hegel's conceptualization, and Gonzalez's analysis is sharp and
exacting.
The Star Trek franchise reflects, conveys, and comments upon the
key philosophical tensions of the modern era. This book details the
manner in which these tensions and controversies are manifested in
Star Trek across its iterations, arguing that Star Trek offers an
indispensable contribution to our understanding of politics in the
modern era.
The Absolute, philosophized most saliently about by Georg Hegel,
encompasses the entirety of reality. The absolute (reality) is
composed of five dimensions - height, length, width, time, and
justice. The five dimensions operate dialectically, and the
normative values of reality inhere within the fifth dimension
(justice) - hard, soft, moral, ethical, yellow, etc. ad infinitum.
The normative values from the fifth dimension (justice), in
combination with the brain, comprise the human mind. With the
issues of climate change, world-wide biosphere destruction, nuclear
weapons, international trade regimes, humanity has created the
phenomenon of global politics - thereby changing the fifth
dimension. The argument in this volume is that the broadcast
iterations of Star Trek allow us to comprehend significant aspects
of justice and the politics of globalism - created through the
advent of science, technology, engineering, etc. The creators of
Star Trek hold that nationalism is a psychological pathology and
internationalism is rationality.
Environmental policy is broadly viewed as an oasis of democracy,
unspoiled by crass capitalism and undominated by corporate
interests. This book counters that view. The focus of Corporate
Power and the Environment focuses on how U.S. economic elites
corporate decisionmakers and other individuals of substantial
wealth shape the content and implementation of U.S. environmental
policy to their economic and political benefit. The author uses the
management of the national forests and national parks, as well as
wilderness preservation policies and federal clean air policies, as
case studies to show corporate power in action in even the "purest"
of policy arenas."
Environmental policy is broadly viewed as an oasis of democracy,
unspoiled by crass capitalism and undominated by corporate
interests. This book counters that view. The focus of Corporate
Power and the Environment focuses on how U.S. economic
elites-corporate decisionmakers and other individuals of
substantial wealth-shape the content and implementation of U.S.
environmental policy to their economic and political benefit. The
author uses the management of the national forests and national
parks, as well as wilderness preservation policies and federal
clean air policies, as case studies to show corporate power in
action in even the 'purest' of policy arenas.
Although considerable progress has been made in improving
environmental quality in parts of the United States, many
localities have yet to meet federal air and water quality standards
and many hazardous-waste sites remain to be cleaned up. At the
international level, the U.S. and other countries continue to face
critical environmental problems. As a contribution to the
literature on public policy and to help educate students about
natural resource issues, this book identifies the likely "hot
spots" of environmental policy and presents alternative and often
opposing points of view on the major controversies that are likely
to be with us well into the next century. Among the topics covered
are comparative risk assessment; market incentives in environmental
regulation; environmental justice; public versus private management
of public lands; international trade and sustainable development;
and the relationship between national security and environmental
protection.
"The 'controversies format' makes for interesting reading and a
good teaching tool. Sustainability is the current catch word among
natural resource managers and environmentalists, yet the meaning of
the term is unclear. This book goes a long way toward explaining
the debates surrounding sustainability. It is a useful text for
upper division environmental policy courses and graduate seminars".
-- Helen Ingram, Director, The Udall Center for Studies in Public
Policy, University of Arizona
The forward progress of society is not automatic and should not be
taken for granted. The assassination President John F. Kennedy in
1963 ended his effort to deploy American prestige, power to forward
progressive change worldwide. Today, there are political forces
seeking to stop progressive social, political, economic change.
Whatever their reasons, such forces are conspiring to impose
authoritarianism to suppress the public's desire for just,
democratic governance, government. The brutality, violence,
viciousness, racism (dystopia) of authoritarianism is becoming more
and more the hallmark of world politics. Perhaps the most glaring
aspect of this dystopia is the fact that the American state has
been almost continuously at war for the past roughly 30 years -
including a sinister, dastardly drone assassination program. One
means to obscure the ongoing conspiracy to ultimately impose
outright dictatorship on the American people and the rest of the
world is to smear, malign critics of this conspiracy as guilt of
conspiracy theory - advocating, embracing baseless fantasies. Worse
yet, proponents of conspiracy theory (by implication) are deemed as
psychologically suspect for arguing that political elites are
engaged in a process to eliminate all meaningful vestiges of
democracy.
This book examines how the Star Trek franchise does more than
reflect and depict the political currents of the times. Gonzalez
argues that Star Trek also presents an argument as to what
constitutes a just, stable, thriving society. By analyzing Star
Trek, this book argues that in order to obtain true democracy and
justice the productive forces of society must be geared toward
achieving a thriving society, the whole individual, and the
environment. This dialectic is consonant with the notions of
revolutionary change, progress postulated by Karl Marx and examined
within this text. The book concludes that the only way to hope to
avoid a planetary cataclysm is through justice—more specifically,
communism as a concept of justice.
Reality is made up of the Absolute and Causality. The absolute
(most saliently philosophized about by Georg Hegel) is where
normative values inhere. Causality can be described as the
measurable effects of the normative values of the absolute and the
laws of physics (also ostensibly a product of the absolute). Humans
are special insofar as they access the higher aspects of the
Absolute - altruism, compassion, love, humor, science, engineering,
etc. The Absolute also contains what can be considered the less
attractive values or impulses: greed, lust for power, hate,
self-centeredness, conceit, etc. Predicating society on what I deem
the lower (spirits) aspects of the absolute (most prominently,
greed) results in personal, social dysfunction and ultimately the
end of civilization. Conversely, a society based on justice is
stable and vibrant. Justice is a classless society, free of gender
and ethnic biases. My argument is based on popular culture -
especially the Star Trek franchise. One implication of my thesis is
that capitalist values generate psychological neurosis and societal
instability - even catastrophe. Additionally, the political values
that dominate the current neoliberalist world system (and
especially the American government) are the other, the will to
power - resulting in war, and global political instability. Popular
culture is germane to philosophy and contemporary politics because
television/movie creators frequently try to attract viewers by
conveying authentic philosophical and political motifs. Conversely,
viewers seek out authentic movies and television shows. This is in
contrast to opinion surveys (for instance), as the formation of the
data begins with the surveyor seeking to directly solicit an
opinion - however impromptu or shallow
This volume settles the debate between analytic and continental
philosophy. It turns to art, more specifically popular culture, to
demonstrate the validity of continental philosophy. Drawing on the
philosophy of Georg Hegel (perhaps the most important of
continental philosophers), James Kreines holds that reason in the
world metaphysically exists. Reasons of the world are reasons of
the Hegelian Absolute. Thus, similar to the fact that gravity is
curves in the space-time continuum along which matter moves -
reasons are the grooves in the Absolute along which human
decision-making occurs. Art allows us to conceptualize, understand,
speculate about the grooves (reasons) of the Absolute. Two key
points can be drawn from Kreines's position: first, normative
values are embedded in reality. Thus, in complete contradistinction
to analytic philosophy, there is no bifurcation between the
empirical and the normative - to exist is to have normative value.
Secondly, the role of social science is to cogitate, explore,
identify the reasons of the world that shape social, political
norms. Such an approach would decisively move the social sciences
away from an emphasis on statistically significant patterns of
human behavior (e.g., voting studies) and toward an approach that
seeks to analyze the reasons of the world that motivate/shape
social and political decisions. Art (particularly popular culture)
becomes an important source in identifying the way that people
reason about the world and how they perceive political elites
reasoning in the world. To adjudicate between continental and
analytic philosophy this book on relies on the broadcast iterations
of Star Trek, as well as Nazi cinema. With regard to contemporary
American politics, in addition to Star Trek, it draws on the
television series Game of Thrones, Veep, House of Cards, and The
Man in the High Castle. Popular culture is germane to philosophy
and contemporary politics because television/movie creators
frequently try to attract viewers by conveying authentic
philosophical and political motifs. Conversely, viewers seek out
authentic movies and television shows. This is in contrast to
opinion surveys (for instance), as the formation of the data begins
with the surveyor seeking to directly solicit an opinion - however
impromptu or shallow.
What set the United States on the path to developing commercial
nuclear energy in the 1950s, and what led to the seeming demise of
that industry in the late 1970s? Why, in spite of the depletion of
fossil fuels and the obvious dangers of global warming, has the
United States moved so slowly toward adopting alternatives? In
Energy and Empire, George A. Gonzalez presents a clear and concise
argument demonstrating that economic elites tied their advocacy of
the nuclear energy option to post-1945 American foreign policy
goals. At the same time, these elites opposed government support
for other forms of energy, such as solar, that cannot be dominated
by one nation. While researchers have blamed safety concerns and
other factors as helping to arrest the expansion of domestic
nuclear power plant construction, Gonzalez points to an entirely
different set of motivations stemming from the loss of America s
domination/control of the enrichment of nuclear fuel. Once foreign
countries could enrich their own fuel, civilian nuclear power
ceased to be a lever the United States could use to
economically/politically dominate other nations. Instead, it became
a major concern relating to nuclear weapons proliferation."
Who has been at the political forefront of clean air policy
development in the United States? "In the Politics of Air
Pollution, George A. Gonzalez argues that the answer is neither the
federal governent, nor environmental groups, but rather locally
oriented economic elites in conjuction with state and local
governments. These local growth coalitions, composed of mostly
large landholders, land developers, and the owners of regional
media and utility firms, support clean air policies insofar as they
contribute to the creation of a positive investment climate and, in
turn, bring about greater profits through increased land values and
an expanded local consumer base.
|
You may like...
Midnights
Taylor Swift
CD
R418
Discovery Miles 4 180
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|