A series of essays on Nordic Folklore, Mythology and Culture in honor of John Lindow. Edited by Merrill Kaplan and Timothy R. Tangherlini, contributors also include Margaret Clunies Ross, Gisli Sigurosson, Jens Peter Schjodt, Anders Andren, Lars Lonnroth, Carol J. Clover, Ulfar Bragason, Kendra Willson, Ulf Palmenfelt, Thomas A. Dubois, Terry Gunnell, JoAnn Conrad, Hanne Pico Larsen, Tok Thompson, Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, and Kirsten Thisted.

Contemporary philosophy is torn between a reliance on the pragmatic meanings of designated objects and a foundation based on formal theory. This book shows that philosophical knowledge, which no more has a terminal state than an infinite set has a last term, advances when the dialectical relationship between the two approaches is synthesized. The choice of designations is intimately related to theory and the form of theory is intimately related to the character of designated objects. The intimate dialectical relationship between theory and meaning is explored in detail in the area of international theory. The recent emphasis on realism rests on a regressive misunderstanding of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice that loses Newton's acute understanding of it, an understanding that underlies the great advances of physics, and that is lost in the contemporary social sciences.

In Ricoeur's Critical Theory, David M. Kaplan revisits the Habermas-Gadamer debates to show how Paul Ricoeur's narrative-hermeneutics and moral-political philosophy provide a superior interpretive, normative, and critical framework. Arguing that Ricoeur's unique version of critical theory surpasses the hermeneutic philosophy of Gadamer, Kaplan adds a theory of argumentation necessary to criticize false consciousness and distorted communication. He also argues that Ricoeur develops Habermas's critical theory, adding an imaginative, creative dimension and a concern for community values and ideas of the Good Life. He then shows how Ricoeur's political philosophy steers a delicate path between liberalism, communitarianism, and socialism. Ricoeur's version of critical theory not only identifies and criticizes social pathologies, posits Kaplan, but also projects utopian alternatives for personal and social transformation that would counter and heal the effects of unjust societies. The author concludes by applying Ricoeur's critical theory to three related problems -- the politics of identity and recognition, technology, and globalization and democracy -- to show how his works add depth, complexity, and practical solutions to these problems.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death and illness in the United States, and though much progress has been made in reducing cardiac risk factors, obesity and diabetes mellitus are on the rise. Preventing Illness Among People With Coronary Heart Disease explores recent advances in drug treatments for CAD risk factors and how these interventions can play an important role in improving the length and quality of patients'lives by addressing health behaviors and the need for behavioral change. This advanced text shows readers how mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and alcoholism interplay with patients'physical health and how certain interventions can improve patients'outlook and health status.Preventing Illness Among People With Coronary Heart Disease brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines to address subjects critical to secondary and tertiary preventive care for patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). This outstanding volume concentrates on studies from three major areas to help primary care practitioners and family practice physicians intervene successfully with risky behaviors among their patients prone to or afflicted with coronary artery disease. These include the effects of heart disease on patients'mental health and quality of life and the role of formal behavioral interventions in promoting health among patients with heart disease.Readers of Preventing Illness Among People With Coronary Heart Disease acquire a solid understanding of the factors influencing CAD patients'behavioral patterns and mental states and how the prevalence of CAD can be reduced. Among the vital topics readers learn about are: the effects of alcohol upon CHD and blood pressure CHD risk factors in the elderly exercise interventions coping strategies and cardiac illness strategies for assessment and prevention smoking and cardiovascular diseasePreventing Illness Among People With Coronary Heart Disease seeks to provoke greater discussion and scientific activity among professionals in the field to improve understanding of the interplay of mental health, physical health, and behavioral medicine for patients with heart disease. Primary care practitioners, family practice physicians, medical students, and others interested in preventive cardiology, preventive care, or chronic disease management will learn about recent advances in research and treatment approaches that can be applied immediately to daily practice.

As health care costs soar, there is increasing interest in examining what society and, particularly, patients receive in return for these expenditures. Optimizing Health brings together the best thinking from both sides of the Atlantic to explore these issues. It employs disciplinary perspectives from economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology, clinical practice, and epidemiology to explore various ways that value for patients have and can be determined. It concludes with a discussion of changes required in practice, research, and health care systems to maximize the outcomes received from the provision of medical care services from the patient's perspective. The first section of the book provides theoretical perspectives from economics and systems thinking that help us to focus on how one might determine the value of medical care for patients. The next section considers the ethical and philosophical dilemmas that face developed countries in distributing medical care. How is justice served and evidence-based medicine employed to increase the value of medical care for patients? perspective and involving patients in medical decision making. Measuring quality of life and gaining valid quality of life information when patients cannot respond for themselves are important topics covered by these chapters. Other chapters consider ways that patients can become more involved in medical decision making with the expectation that this will increase the value of medical care for patients. A major section of the book about clinical practice discusses problems that can reduce the value to patients of medical care. These include over diagnosis, aggressive treatments that do not result in better patient outcomes, findings that earlier diagnosis does not always result in better outcomes, and the extent of medical error in treatment. The final sections deal with cost-effectiveness analyses and applications of clinical epidemiology. The chapters include a number of original investigations and applications of new methodologies. researchers who want to find in one place the state-of-the-art thinking and future directions of valuing medical care from the patient's perspective. Ronald Andersen Wasserman is the Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Health Services and Sociology at the University of California School of Public Health in Los Angeles.

As a five-feet-three-inch hunchback who weighed about 100 pounds, Homer Lea (1876--1912), was an unlikely candidate for life on the battlefield, yet he became a world-renowned military hero. Homer Lea: American Soldier of Fortune paints a revealing portrait of a diminutive yet determined man who never earned his valor on the field of battle, but left an indelible mark on his times. Lawrence M. Kaplan draws from extensive research to illuminate the life of a "man of mystery," while also yielding a clearer understanding of the early twentieth-century Chinese underground reform and revolutionary movements. Lea's career began in the inner circles of a powerful Chinese movement in San Francisco that led him to a generalship during the Boxer Rebellion. Fixated with commanding his own Chinese army, Lea's inflated aspirations were almost always dashed by reality. Although he never achieved the leadership role for which he strived, he became a trusted advisor to revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-sen during the 1911 revolution that overthrew the Manchu Dynasty. As an author, Lea garnered fame for two books on geopolitics: The Valor of Ignorance, which examined weaknesses in the American defenses and included dire warnings of an impending Japanese-American war, and The Day of the Saxon, which predicted the decline of the British Empire. More than a character study, Homer Lea provides insight into the establishment and execution of underground reform and revolutionary movements within U.S. immigrant communities and in southern China, as well as early twentieth-century geopolitical thought.

In the l~nited States and in Europe~ there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between individual behavior and disease. The American National Academy of Sciences (Hamberg, Elliott, and Parron, 1982)' through its Institutes of Medicine, has estimated that as many as 50 percent of chronic disease cases can be traced to individual behaviors such as smoking, diet, exercise, etc. Similar conclusions have been reached by a variety of European investigators and institutes. The World Health Organization has also expressed considerable interest in individual behavior in relation to the development of chronic disease. Thus, throughout the NATO countries there has been increased awareness of the relationship between behavior and disease. However, communication among investigators in different countries has been rather limited. Further, many different scientific disciplines including psychology, sociology, medicine, microbiology, statistics, and epidemiology have all developed new and different literatures in this field. One purpose of this book is to bring together contributions from scientists in each of these fields. Much of the variance in individual health behavior occurs across countries rather than within countries. Thus, we can learn much from comparing behavior-disease relationships across countries. To date, there have been few studies which have had an adequate international basis for these comparisons. Interest in behavioral epidemiology is a relatively recent phenomena. Thus, many scientists are entering the field without uniform background, experience, or training. This book discusses approaches common in a variety of NATO countries.

Throughout history, Judaism has been under attack by other religions, attacks which strengthened the identification of the group as a whole. Modern challenges, however, are coming from different directions, and are producing different results. Jewish identification is declining at the same time as more and more Jewish groups to identify with are rising. Rather than being a disaster, Kaplan argues that the multiplicity of threads in Jewish life today represents the process of a radical transformation "nothing less than metamorphosis." It is in this way that Judaism is creating its own future, the greater Judaism in the making. Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) was a rabbi and philosopher whose ideology, centering around the concept of Judaism as a civilization, led him to found the Reconstructionist movement. He was a prolific writer whose other books include The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion (1937), The Future of the American Jew (1948), and The Purpose and Meaning of Jewish Existence (1964).

Contemporary philosophy is torn between a reliance on the pragmatic meanings of designated objects and a foundation based on formal theory. This book shows that philosophical knowledge, which no more has a terminal state than an infinite set has a last term, advances when the dialectical relationship between the two approaches is synthesized. The choice of designations is intimately related to theory and the form of theory is intimately related to the character of designated objects. The intimate dialectical relationship between theory and meaning is explored in detail in the area of international theory. The recent emphasis on realism rests on a regressive misunderstanding of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice that loses Newton's acute understanding of it, an understanding that underlies the great advances of physics, and that is lost in the contemporary social sciences.

In the l~nited States and in Europe~ there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between individual behavior and disease. The American National Academy of Sciences (Hamberg, Elliott, and Parron, 1982)' through its Institutes of Medicine, has estimated that as many as 50 percent of chronic disease cases can be traced to individual behaviors such as smoking, diet, exercise, etc. Similar conclusions have been reached by a variety of European investigators and institutes. The World Health Organization has also expressed considerable interest in individual behavior in relation to the development of chronic disease. Thus, throughout the NATO countries there has been increased awareness of the relationship between behavior and disease. However, communication among investigators in different countries has been rather limited. Further, many different scientific disciplines including psychology, sociology, medicine, microbiology, statistics, and epidemiology have all developed new and different literatures in this field. One purpose of this book is to bring together contributions from scientists in each of these fields. Much of the variance in individual health behavior occurs across countries rather than within countries. Thus, we can learn much from comparing behavior-disease relationships across countries. To date, there have been few studies which have had an adequate international basis for these comparisons. Interest in behavioral epidemiology is a relatively recent phenomena. Thus, many scientists are entering the field without uniform background, experience, or training. This book discusses approaches common in a variety of NATO countries.

Ever since Richard Bright discovered the link between kidney disease and cardiac hypertrophy inhispioneeringworkin 1827, thefieldofrenovascularandrenal parenchy matous hypertension has been a transatlantic adventure. Towards the end of the nine teenth century, Tigerstedt and Bergman discovered that the kidneys contain a factor whichraisedbloodpressurewheninjected intointactanimals. Theynamedthesubstance renin, which is now known as the crucial enzyme activating the angiotensin aldosterone system, which is so pertinent in the regulation of blood pressure and kidney function. After this crucial European contribution to the field, Harry Goldblatt at the Cleveland Clinic demonstrated in his classical experiments that reduction in renal blood flow, by placing a clamp at the major renal artery, could induce sustained hypertension. These discoveries established the role of the kidney in certain forms of hypertension which are now classified as renovascular and renal parenchymatous hypertension. These fundamental concepts suggested - based on experimental evidence - that restoration of blood flow or nephrectomy in unilateral parenchymatous disease would lead to blood pressure normalization in these patients. Indeed, as early as the first half of this century, a report appeared demonstrating blood pressure normalization in a child with fibromusculardisplasiaofthe right renalartery after nephrectomy. Advances in surgical techniques later allowed reconstructive renovascular surgery and therefore a more appropriate form of therapy of the disease. In the late seventies Andreas Grtinzig initiated another European contribution to renovascular hypertension by introducting the procedure of percuteaneous transluminal angioplasty, an elegant catheter technique allowing non-surgical therapy of renovascular disease."

This book brings together the best thinking from both sides of the Atlantic to explore the issues surrounding soaring health care costs. It employs disciplinary perspectives from economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology, clinical practice, and epidemiology to explore various ways that value for patients have and can be determined. A major section of the book discusses problems that can reduce the value to patients of medical care. The volume is must read for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who want to find in one place the state-of-the-art thinking and future directions of valuing medical care from the patient 's perspective.

America's power is in decline, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past few years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. Celebrated Slate columnist Fred Kaplan explains the grave misconceptions that enabled George W. Bush and his aides to get so far off track, and traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas from the era of Nixon through Reagan to the present day.

America's power is in decline, its foreign policy adrift, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past eight years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. In Daydream Believers, celebrated Slate columnist Fred Kaplan combines in-depth reporting and razor-sharp analysis to explain just how George W. Bush and his aides got so far off track--and why much of the nation followed. Kaplan demonstrates that their disasters stemmed not from mere incompetence but from two grave misconceptions. First, they believed that the world changed after 9/11, when it didn't. The nature of power, warfare, and politics among nations remained the same, no matter how deeply they wanted to break free from the real world's constraints. Second, they thought that America emerged from its Cold War victory stronger than before, when in fact it was weaker. The disappearance of the Soviet Union brought freedom to much of the globe. But by the same token, the shattering of their common enemy gave many of America's allies leave to go their own way and pursue their own interests, without regard for what Washington desired.

For eight years, Kaplan reminds us, the White House--and many of the nation's podiums and opinion pages--rang out with appealing but deluded claims: that we live in a time like no other and that, therefore, the lessons of history no longer apply; that new technology has transformed warfare; that the world's peoples will be set free, if only America topples their dictators; and that those who dispute such promises do so for partisan reasons. They thought they were visionaries, but they only had visions. Andthey believed in their daydreams.

Kaplan traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas--from the era of Nixon through Reagan to the present day--and reveals how they have been either twisted through the years or rebutted as illusions at every step.

Packed with stunning anecdotes, hidden history, and a level of insight only Fred Kaplan can bring to issues of national security, Daydream Believers tells a story whose understanding is central to getting America back on track and to finding leaders who can improve the world, and America's position in it, by seeing the world as it really is.

In this issue of Gastroenterology Clinics, guest editor Dr. Lee M. Kaplan brings his considerable expertise to the topic of Management of Obesity, Part 2: Treatment Strategies. Thirteen percent of the world's population are obese, and most of the world's population live in countries where being overweight and obese kills more people than being underweight. In this second issue (of two), key experts address treatment and prevention strategies for obesity, including bariatric surgery, medical management, and lifestyle modifications. Contains 16 practice-oriented topics including bariatric and metabolic surgery; mechanisms of weight loss and metabolic improvement after bariatric surgery; endoscopic therapies for obesity and its complications; obesity and viral infections including SARS-Cov-2; the future of obesity care; and more.  Provides in-depth clinical reviews on management of obesity, offering actionable insights for clinical practice.  Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews. 

Stanford's pioneering behavioral scientist draws on a lifetime of research and experience guiding the NIH to make the case that America needs to radically rethink its approach to health care if it wants to stop overspending and overprescribing and improve people's lives. American science produces the best-and most expensive-medical treatments in the world. Yet U.S. citizens lag behind their global peers in life expectancy and quality of life. Robert Kaplan brings together extensive data to make the case that health care priorities in the United States are sorely misplaced. America's medical system is invested in attacking disease, but not in addressing the social, behavioral, and environmental problems that engender disease in the first place. Medicine is important, but many Americans act as though it were all important. The United States stakes much of its health funding on the promise of high-tech diagnostics and miracle treatments, while ignoring strong evidence that many of the most significant pathways to health are nonmedical. Americans spend millions on drugs for high cholesterol, which increase life expectancy by only six to eight months on average. But they underfund education, which might extend life expectancy by as much as twelve years. Wars on infectious disease have paid off, but clinical trials for chronic conditions-costing billions-rarely confirm that new treatments extend life. Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health spends just 3 percent of its budget on research on the social and behavioral determinants of health, even though these factors account for 50 percent of premature deaths. America's failure to take prevention seriously costs lives. More than Medicine argues that we need a shakeup in how we invest resources, and it offers a bold new vision for longer, healthier living.

Food is a challenging subject. There is little consensus about how and what we should produce and consume. It is not even clear what food is or whether people have similar experiences of it. On one hand, food is recognized as a basic need, if not a basic right. On the other hand, it is hard to generalize about it given the wide range of practices and cuisines, and the even wider range of tastes. This book is an introduction to the philosophical dimensions of food. David M. Kaplan examines the nature and meaning of food, how we experience it, the social role it plays, its moral and political dimensions, and how we judge it to be delicious or awful. He shows how the different branches of philosophy contribute to a broader understanding of food: what food is (metaphysics), how we experience food (epistemology), what taste in food is (aesthetics), how we should make and eat food (ethics), how governments should regulate food (political philosophy), and why food matters to us (existentialism). Kaplan embarks on a series of philosophical investigations, considering topics such as culinary identity and authenticity, tasting and food criticism, appetite and disgust, meat eating and techno-foods, and consumerism and conformity. He emphasizes how different narratives help us navigate the complex world of food and reminds us we all have responsibilities to ourselves, to others, and to animals. An original treatment of a timely subject, Food Philosophy is suitable for undergraduates while making a significant contribution to scholarly debates.

Packed full of real circuits to build and test, Hands-on Electronics is an unique introduction to analog and digital electronics theory and practice. Ideal for teaching and self-study, the book's friendly style, clear illustrations and construction details encourage rapid and effective learning of analog and digital circuit design theory. All the major topics are covered including RC circuits, diodes, transistors, op-amps, oscillators, TTL logic, counters, D/A converters and more. It explains how to use the equipment needed for the examples (oscilloscope, multimeter and breadboard) together with pin-out diagrams and manufacturers' specifications for all the key components referred to in the book.

In this issue of Gastroenterology Clinics, guest editor Dr. Lee M. Kaplan brings his considerable expertise to the topic of Management of Obesity, Part I:  Overview and Basic Mechanisms. Most of the world's population live in countries where being overweight and obese is more life-threatening than being underweight. This preventable disease leaves patients with a cascade of health problems, resulting in serious stress and impact on global economies and healthcare systems. This issue, the first of two, addresses basic mechanisms and contributors of obesity, along with health care disparities and access.. Contains 16 practice-oriented topics including the many forms of obesity; genetic contributions to obesity; health complications of obesity; the effect of obesity on gastrointestinal disease; disparities in access and quality of obesity care; and more.  Provides in-depth clinical reviews of management of obesity, offering actionable insights for clinical practice.  Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews. 

Food is a challenging subject. There is little consensus about how and what we should produce and consume. It is not even clear what food is or whether people have similar experiences of it. On one hand, food is recognized as a basic need, if not a basic right. On the other hand, it is hard to generalize about it given the wide range of practices and cuisines, and the even wider range of tastes. This book is an introduction to the philosophical dimensions of food. David M. Kaplan examines the nature and meaning of food, how we experience it, the social role it plays, its moral and political dimensions, and how we judge it to be delicious or awful. He shows how the different branches of philosophy contribute to a broader understanding of food: what food is (metaphysics), how we experience food (epistemology), what taste in food is (aesthetics), how we should make and eat food (ethics), how governments should regulate food (political philosophy), and why food matters to us (existentialism). Kaplan embarks on a series of philosophical investigations, considering topics such as culinary identity and authenticity, tasting and food criticism, appetite and disgust, meat eating and techno-foods, and consumerism and conformity. He emphasizes how different narratives help us navigate the complex world of food and reminds us we all have responsibilities to ourselves, to others, and to animals. An original treatment of a timely subject, Food Philosophy is suitable for undergraduates while making a significant contribution to scholarly debates.

This collection brings together a set of new papers that advance the debate concerning the nature of explanation in mind and brain science, and help to clarify the prospects for bonafide integration across these fields. Long a topic of debate among philosophers and scientists alike, there is growing appreciation that understanding the complex relationship between the psychological sciences and the neurosciences, especially how their respective explanatory frameworks interrelate, is of fundamental importance for achieving progress across these scientific domains. Traditional philosophical discussions tend to construe the relationship between them in stark terms - either they are related in terms of complete independence (i.e., autonomy) or complete dependence (i.e., reduction), leaving little room for more interesting relations such as that of mutually beneficial interaction or integration. A unifying thread across the diverse set of contributions to this volume is the rejection of the assumption that no stable middle ground exists between these two extremes, and common embrace of the idea that these sciences are partially dependent on or constrained by one another. By addressing whether the explanatory patterns employed across these domains are similar or different in kind, and to what extent they inform and constrain each another, this volume helps to deepen our understanding of the prospects for successfully integrating mind and brain science.

This book explores food from a philosophical perspective, bringing together sixteen leading philosophers to consider the most basic questions about food: What is it exactly? What should we eat? How do we know it is safe? How should food be distributed? What is good food? David M. Kaplan's erudite and informative introduction grounds the discussion, showing how philosophers since Plato have taken up questions about food, diet, agriculture, and animals. However, until recently, few have considered food a standard subject for serious philosophical debate. Each of the essays in this book brings in-depth analysis to many contemporary debates in food studies - Slow Food, sustainability, food safety, and politics - and addresses such issues as "happy meat", aquaculture, veganism, and table manners. The result is an extraordinary resource that guides readers to think more clearly and responsibly about what we consume and how we provide for ourselves, and illuminates the reasons why we act as we do.

Here 's a conundrum: the U.S. health care system is the largest sector in the biggest economy in the world, and the US spends significantly more per capita on health care than any other country. Yet it ranks last among comparison nations on the major health indicators. Robert Kaplan attempts to tackle these anomalies head-on by taking the controversial position that mass markets have been created for services that may offer little or no benefit to patients. Kaplan forcefully argues that the overuse of medications and tests runs up the costs of health care, and offers potential solutions for policy makers and for patients.