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Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy
Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy
Zuckert, Michael P.
¥370.82
Leo Strauss and his alleged political influence regarding the Iraq War have in recent years been the subject of significant media attention, including stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.Time magazine even called him "e;one of the most influential men in American politics."e; With The Truth about Leo Strauss, Michael and Catherine Zuckert challenged the many claims and speculations about this notoriously complex thinker. Now, with Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy, they turn their attention to a searching and more comprehensive interpretation of Strauss's thought as a whole, using the many manifestations of the "e;problem of political philosophy"e; as their touchstone.?For Strauss, political philosophy presented a "e;problem"e; to which there have been a variety of solutions proposed over the course of Western history. Strauss's work, they show, revolved around recovering-and restoring-political philosophy to its original Socratic form. Since positivism and historicism represented two intellectual currents that undermined the possibility of a Socratic political philosophy, the first part of the book is devoted to Strauss's critique of these two positions. Then, the authors explore Strauss's interpretation of the history of philosophy and both ancient and modern canonical political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Locke. Strauss's often-unconventional readings of these philosophers, they argue, pointed to solutions to the problem of political philosophy. Finally, the authors examine Strauss's thought in the context of the twentieth century, when his chief interlocutors were Schmitt, Husserl, Heidegger, and Nietzsche.?The most penetrating and capacious treatment of the political philosophy of this complex and often misunderstood thinker, from his early years to his last works, Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy reveals Strauss's writings as an attempt to show that the distinctive characteristics of ancient and modern thought derive from different modes of solving the problem of political philosophy and reveal why he considered the ancient solution both philosophically and politically superior.
Autonomy After Auschwitz
Autonomy After Auschwitz
Shuster, Martin
¥370.82
Ever since Kant and Hegel, the notion of autonomy-the idea that we are beholden to no law except one we impose upon ourselves-has been considered the truest philosophical expression of human freedom. But could our commitment to autonomy, as Theodor Adorno asked, be related to the extreme evils that we have witnessed in modernityIn Autonomy after Auschwitz, Martin Shuster explores this difficult question with astonishing theoretical acumen, examining the precise ways autonomy can lead us down a path of evil and how it might be prevented from doing so.Shuster uncovers dangers in the notion of autonomy as it was originally conceived by Kant. Putting Adorno into dialogue with a range of European philosophers, notably Kant, Hegel, Horkheimer, and Habermas-as well as with a variety of contemporary Anglo-American thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Stanley Cavell, John McDowell, and Robert Pippin-he illuminates Adorno's important revisions to this fraught concept and how his different understanding of autonomous agency, fully articulated, might open up new and positive social and political possibilities. Altogether, Autonomy after Auschwitz is a meditation on modern evil and human agency, one that demonstrates the tremendous ethical stakes at the heart of philosophy.?
To Flourish or Destruct
To Flourish or Destruct
Smith, Christian
¥370.82
In his 2010 book What Is a Person?, Christian Smith argued that sociology had for too long neglected this fundamental question. Prevailing social theories, he wrote, do not adequately "e;capture our deep subjective experience as persons, crucial dimensions of the richness of our own lived lives, what thinkers in previous ages might have called our 'souls' or 'hearts.'"e; Building on Smith's previous work, To Flourish or Destruct examines the motivations intrinsic to this subjective experience: Why do people do what they doHow can we explain the activity that gives rise to all human social life and social structuresSmith argues that our actions stem from a motivation to realize what he calls natural human goods: ends that are, by nature, constitutionally good for all human beings. He goes on to explore the ways we can and do fail to realize these ends-a failure that can result in varying gradations of evil. Rooted in critical realism and informed by work in philosophy, psychology, and other fields, Smith's ambitious book situates the idea of personhood at the center of our attempts to understand how we might shape good human lives and societies.
Wasting a Crisis
Wasting a Crisis
Mahoney, Paul G.
¥370.82
The recent financial crisis led to sweeping reforms that inspired countless references to the financial reforms of the New Deal. Comparable to the reforms of the New Deal in both scope and scale, the 2,300-page Dodd-Frank Act of 2010-the main regulatory reform package introduced in the United States-also shared with New Deal reforms the assumption that the underlying cause of the crisis was misbehavior by securities market participants, exacerbated by lax regulatory oversight.With Wasting a Crisis, Paul G. Mahoney offers persuasive research to show that this now almost universally accepted narrative of market failure-broadly similar across financial crises-is formulated by political actors hoping to deflect blame from prior policy errors. Drawing on a cache of data, from congressional investigations, litigation, regulatory reports, and filings to stock quotes from the 1920s and '30s, Mahoney moves beyond the received wisdom about the financial reforms of the New Deal, showing that lax regulation was not a substantial cause of the financial problems of the Great Depression. As new regulations were formed around this narrative of market failure, not only were the majority largely ineffective, they were also often counterproductive, consolidating market share in the hands of leading financial firms. An overview of twenty-first-century securities reforms from the same analytic perspective, including Dodd-Frank and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, shows a similar pattern and suggests that they too may offer little benefit to investors and some measurable harm.
Making &quote;Nature&quote;
Making &quote;Nature&quote;
Baldwin, Melinda
¥370.82
Making "e;Nature"e; is the first book to chronicle the foundation and development of Nature, one of the world's most influential scientific institutions. Now nearing its hundred and fiftieth year of publication, Nature is the international benchmark for scientific publication. Its contributors include Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford, and Stephen Hawking, and it has published many of the most important discoveries in the history of science, including articles on the structure of DNA, the discovery of the neutron, the first cloning of a mammal, and the human genome.But how did Nature become such an essential institutionIn Making "e;Nature,"e; Melinda Baldwin charts the rich history of this extraordinary publication from its foundation in 1869 to current debates about online publishing and open access. This pioneering study not only tells Nature's story but also sheds light on much larger questions about the history of science publishing, changes in scientific communication, and shifting notions of "e;scientific community."e; Nature, as Baldwin demonstrates, helped define what science is and what it means to be a scientist.
Secular Powers
Secular Powers
Cooper, Julie E.
¥329.62
Secularism is usually thought to contain the project of self-deification, in which humans attack God's authority in order to take his place, freed from all constraints. Julie E. Cooper overturns this conception through an incisive analysis of the early modern justifications for secular politics. While she agrees that secularism is a means of empowerment, she argues that we have misunderstood the sources of secular empowerment and the kinds of strength to which it aspires.Contemporary understandings of secularism, Cooper contends, have been shaped by a limited understanding of it as a shift from vulnerability to power. But the works of the foundational thinkers of secularism tell a different story. Analyzing the writings of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Rousseau at the moment of secularity's inception, she shows that all three understood that acknowledging one's limitations was a condition of successful self-rule. And while all three invited humans to collectively build and sustain a political world, their invitations did not amount to self-deification. Cooper establishes that secular politics as originally conceived does not require a choice between power and vulnerability. Rather, it challenges us-today as then-to reconcile them both as essential components of our humanity.
Rhetoric of Pregnancy
Rhetoric of Pregnancy
Seigel, Marika
¥288.41
It is a truth widely acknowledged that if you're pregnant and can afford one, you're going to pick up a pregnancy manual. From What to Expect When You're Expecting to Pregnancy for Dummies, these guides act as portable mentors for women who want advice on how to navigate each stage of pregnancy. Yet few women consider the effect of these manuals-how they propel their readers into a particular system of care or whether the manual they choose reflects or contradicts current medical thinking.Using a sophisticated rhetorical analysis, Marika Seigel works to deconstruct pregnancy manuals while also identifying ways to improve communication about pregnancy and healthcare. She traces the manuals' evolution from early twentieth-century tomes that instructed readers to unquestioningly turn their pregnancy management over to doctors, to those of the women's health movement that encouraged readers to engage more critically with their care, to modern online sources that sometimes serve commercial interests as much as the mother's.The first book-length study of its kind, The Rhetoric of Pregnancy is a must-read for both users and designers of our prenatal systems-doctors and doulas, scholars and activists, and anyone interested in encouraging active, effective engagement.
Foundations of Natural Morality
Foundations of Natural Morality
Seagrave, S. Adam
¥288.41
Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in the relationship between natural law and natural rights. During this time, the concept of natural rights has served as a conceptual lightning rod, either strengthening or severing the bond between traditional natural law and contemporary human rights. Does the concept of natural rights have the natural law as its foundation or are the two ideas, as Leo Strauss argued, profoundly incompatible?With The Foundations of Natural Morality, S. Adam Seagrave addresses this controversy, offering an entirely new account of natural morality that compellingly unites the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Seagrave agrees with Strauss that the idea of natural rights is distinctly modern and does not derive from traditional natural law. Despite their historical distinctness, however, he argues that the two ideas are profoundly compatible and that the thought of John Locke and Thomas Aquinas provides the key to reconciling the two sides of this long-standing debate. In doing so, he lays out a coherent concept of natural morality that brings together thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes and Locke, revealing the insights contained within these disparate accounts as well as their incompleteness when considered in isolation. Finally, he turns to an examination of contemporary issues, including health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty, showing how this new account of morality can open up a more fruitful debate.
Tunguska, or the End of Nature
Tunguska, or the End of Nature
Hampe, Michael
¥288.41
On June 30, 1908, a mysterious explosion erupted in the skies over a vast woodland area of Siberia. Known as the Tunguska Event, it has been a source of wild conjecture over the past century, attributed to causes ranging from meteors to a small black hole to antimatter. In this imaginative book, Michael Hampe sets four fictional men based on real-life scholars-a physicist (Gunter Hasinger and Steven Weinberg), a philosopher (Paul Feyerabend), a biologist (Adolf Portmann), and a mathematician (Alfred North Whitehead)-adrift on the open ocean, in a dense fog, to discuss what they think happened. The result is a playful and highly illuminating exploration of the definition of nature, mankind's role within it, and what its end might be.?Tunguska, Or the End of Nature uses its four-man setup to tackle some of today's burning issues-such as climate change, environmental destruction, and resource management-from a diverse range of perspectives. With a kind of foreboding, it asks what the world was like, and will be like, without us, whether we are negligible and the universe random, whether nature can truly be explained, whether it is good or evil, or whether nature is simply a thought we think. This is a profoundly unique work, a thrillingly interdisciplinary piece of scholarly literature that probes the mysteries of nature and humans alike.?
Machiavelli's Virtue
Machiavelli's Virtue
Mansfield, Harvey C.
¥147.15
Uniting thirty years of authoritative scholarship by a master of textual detail, Machiavelli's Virtue is a comprehensive statement on the founder of modern politics. Harvey Mansfield reveals the role of sects in Machiavelli's politics, his advice on how to rule indirectly, and the ultimately partisan character of his project, and shows him to be the founder of such modern and diverse institutions as the impersonal state and the energetic executive. Accessible and elegant, this groundbreaking interpretation explains the puzzles and reveals the ambition of Machiavelli's thought."e;The book brings together essays that have mapped [Mansfield's] paths of reflection over the past thirty years. . . . The ground, one would think, is ancient and familiar, but Mansfield manages to draw out some understandings, or recognitions, jarringly new."e;-Hadley Arkes, New Criterion"e;Mansfield's book more than rewards the close reading it demands."e;-Colin Walters, Washington Times"e;[A] masterly new book on the Renaissance courtier, statesman and political philosopher. . . . Mansfield seeks to rescue Machiavelli from liberalism's anodyne rehabilitation."e;-Roger Kimball, The Wall Street Journal
Early Antiquity
Early Antiquity
I. M. Diakonoff, Alexander Kirjanov
¥759.29
The internationally renowned Assyriologist and linguist I.M. Diakonoff has gathered the work of Soviet historians inthis survey of the earliest history of the ancient Near East,Central Asia, India, and China. Diakonoff and hiscolleagues, nearly all working within the general Marxisthistoriographic tradition, offer a comprehensive, accessiblesynthesis of historical knowledge from the beginnings ofagriculture through the advent of the Iron Age and the Greekcolonization in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas.Besides discussing features of Soviet historicalscholarship of the ancient world, the essays treat thehistory of early Mesopotamia and the course of PharaonicEgyptian civilization and developments in ancient India andChina from the Bronze Age into the first millennium B.C.Additional chapters are concerned with the early history ofSyria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, the Hittite civilization,the Creto-Mycenaean world, Homeric Greece, and the Phoenicianand Greek colonization.This volume offers a unified perspective on earlyantiquity, focusing on the economic and social relations ofproduction. Of immense value to specialists, the book willalso appeal to general readers.I. M. Diakonoff is a senior research scholar of ancienthistory at the Institute of Oriental Studies, LeningradAcademy of Sciences. Philip L. Kohl is professor ofanthropology at Wellesley College.
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty
Gross, Neil
¥158.92
On his death in 2007, Richard Rorty was heralded by the New York Times as "e;one of the world's most influential contemporary thinkers."e; Controversial on the left and the right for his critiques of objectivity and political radicalism, Rorty experienced a renown denied to all but a handful of living philosophers. In this masterly biography, Neil Gross explores the path of Rorty's thought over the decades in order to trace the intellectual and professional journey that led him to that prominence.The child of a pair of leftist writers who worried that their precocious son "e;wasn't rebellious enough,"e; Rorty enrolled at the University of Chicago at the age of fifteen. There he came under the tutelage of polymath Richard McKeon, whose catholic approach to philosophical systems would profoundly influence Rorty's own thought. Doctoral work at Yale led to Rorty's landing a job at Princeton, where his colleagues were primarily analytic philosophers. With a series of publications in the 1960s, Rorty quickly established himself as a strong thinker in that tradition-but by the late 1970s Rorty had eschewed the idea of objective truth altogether, urging philosophers to take a "e;relaxed attitude"e; toward the question of logical rigor. Drawing on the pragmatism of John Dewey, he argued that philosophers should instead open themselves up to multiple methods of thought and sources of knowledge-an approach that would culminate in the publication of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, one of the most seminal and controversial philosophical works of our time.In clear and compelling fashion, Gross sets that surprising shift in Rorty's thought in the context of his life and social experiences, revealing the many disparate influences that contribute to the making of knowledge. As much a book about the growth of ideas as it is a biography of a philosopher, Richard Rorty will provide readers with a fresh understanding of both the man and the course of twentieth-century thought.
The Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount
Fox, Emmet
¥88.56
What did Jesus teachDistilled from years of study and lecture, affirmed by nearly a million readers over the last fifty years, Emmet Fox's answer in The Sermon on the Mount is simple. The Bible is a "textbook of metaphysics" and the teachings of Jesus express--without dogma--a practical approach for the development of the soul and for the shaping of our lives into what we really wish them to be. For Fox, Jesus was "no sentimental dreamer, no mere dealer in empty platitudes, but the unflinching realist that only a great mystic can be."In his most popular work, Emmet Fox shows how to: Understand the true nature of divine wisdom. Tap into the power of prayer. Develop a completely integrated and fully expressed personality. Transform negative attitudes into life-affirming beliefs. Claim our divine right to the full abundance of life.
Ruthless Trust
Ruthless Trust
Manning, Brennan
¥83.03
In his sequel to The Ragamuffin Gospel bestselling author Brennan Manning shows how true and radical trust in God can transform our lives
Bullied
Bullied
Goldman, Carrie
¥99.65
Winner of National Parenting Publications Award and Mom's Choice Award!Everybody knows how it feels to be ostracized, isolated or taunted, but most of us are at a loss when it comes to knowing how to make it better. In Carrie Goldman's groundbreaking book, Bullied, she offers concrete solutions for parents, teachers, and kids on how to effectively respond to painful situations whether it is normal social conflict or more serious bullying.Goldman's warm, engaging style combines the real-life stories of bullies, victims, bystanders, and their parents with the most cutting edge scientific research to provide a thorough analysis of cruelty in our culture. She explores how the pop culture permeates homes and schools, often impacting the way kids view those who are different from the accepted norm.Bullied comprehensively addresses issues such as: The media's influence on aggression and bullying How to prevent cyberbullying, or how to manage cyberbullying once it has begun How to safely shift from being a bystander into a witness or an ally Effects of bullying on the brain, both for bullies and for victims Steps to take with the school if you are being bullied or sexually harassed A comprehensive look at restorative justice as a non-punitive response to bullying Techniques to help you deal with verbal taunting in the moment it is happening Identifying the difference between normal social drama and bullying Knowing when to ask for help and how to access effective help The mother of a bullied first grader, Goldman's inspiring true story triggered an outpouring of support from online communities around the world. Bullied is a research-based book born from Goldman's blog post about the ridicule her daughter suffered for bringing a Star Wars thermos to school a story that went viral on Facebook and Twitter before exploding everywhere, from CNN.com and Yahoo.com to sites all around the world. More than 200 people were interviewed for the book, including parents, teachers, kids, social workers, authors, celebrities, researchers, psychologists, actors, actresses, and school administrators. It is a wealth of knowledge packaged in a fascinating read.
That's Not What I Meant!
That's Not What I Meant!
Tannen, Deborah
¥94.10
At home, on the job, in a personal relationship, it's often not what you say but how you say it that counts.Deborah Tannen revolutionized our thinking about relationships between women and men in her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand. In That's Not What I Meant!, the internationally renowned sociolinguist and expert on communication demonstrates how our conversational signals voice level, pitch and intonation, rhythm and timing, even the simple turns of phrase we choose are powerful factors in the success or failure of any relationship. Regional speech characteristics, ethnic and class backgrounds, age, and individual personality all contribute to diverse conversational styles that can lead to frustration and misplaced blame if ignored but provide tools to improve relationships if they are understood.At once eye-opening, astute, and vastly entertaining, Tannen's classic work on interpersonal communication will help you to hear what isn't said and to recognize how your personal conversational style meshes or clashes with others. It will give you a new understanding of communication that will enable you to make the adjustments that can save a conversation . . . or a relationship.
Why Suicide?
Why Suicide?
Marcus, Eric
¥83.03
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in our lifetimes 80 percent of us will have some up-close experience with the suicide of someone we know. And more than 20 percent of us will have a family member die by suicide. Journalist Eric Marcus knows this better than most people. In 1970, his father took his life at the age of 44. In 2008, his 49-year-old sister-in-law took her life as well.In a completely revised and updated edition of the landmark original Why Suicide ?, Eric Marcus offers thoughtful answers to scores of questions about this complex, painful issue, from how to recognize the signs of someone who is suicidal to strategies for coping in the aftermath of a loved one's death.No matter what the circumstances, those of us who are affected by suicide are left with difficult and disturbing questions: Why did they do itWas it my faultWhat should I tell people when they ask what happenedIs someone who attempts suicide likely to try againWhat should I do if I'm thinking of killing myselfDrawing from his own experience, as well as interviews with people who have been touched by suicide, Eric Marcus cuts through the veil of silence and misunderstanding to bring clarity, reassurance, and comfort to those who so desperately need it.
Finding Your Way Home
Finding Your Way Home
Beattie, Melody
¥90.51
What does it mean to feel at home, truly present with ourselves, comfortable with our choices, and alive to the possibilities of conscious changeHow can we develop inner balance and connection, keeping our boundaries clear while opening our hearts to those we loveWith practical wisdom and insight, Melody Beattie addresses these questions, encouraging us to reach a higher level of living and loving, and showing us how to be at home with ourselves wherever we are in the world, at whatever stage of life.Through true stories and take-action exercises, including journaling, visualizations, affirmations, meditations, and prayers, Beattie provides the essential tools to help us discover our own sense of home. Accessible and illuminating, Finding Your Way Home is a soul-searching look at how not to be victimized by ourselves'or other people. Beattie urges us to discover new levels of integrity, to break through barriers that have blocked us for too long. This is a powerful and challenging book about buying back our souls and learning to live a life guided by spirit.
Naked Spirituality
Naked Spirituality
McLaren, Brian D.
¥83.03
Christianity is in crisis. Many sincere Christians feel their traditional Christian practices are in danger of becoming irrelevant, empty rituals. In his previous book A New Kind of Christianity, Brian D. McLaren offered new biblical models for how we understand the central ideas of a faith that provides hope for restoring and reinvigorating the power of the gospels to transform us and our communities.In Naked Spirituality, McLaren takes his prophetic work a step further by confronting how the lack of a simple, doable, durable spirituality undermines the very transformation God is calling us to undergo. As a result, our religious structures become tools to maintain the status quo and not catalysts for personal and social change. McLaren presents a four-stage framework for understanding the spiritual life, and he unfolds spiritual practices appropriate to each stage. Each practice is rooted in a simple word: here, thanks, O, sorry, help, please, when, no, why, behold, yes, and silence. Naked Spirituality offers accessible, practical wisdom for living a truly spiritual life. Staying true to Jesus's core message while engaging faithfully with our postmodern world, McLaren presents a proven spiritual program for engaging in and sustaining a meaningful relationship with God.
100 Simple Secrets Why Dogs Make Us Happy
100 Simple Secrets Why Dogs Make Us Happy
Niven, David, PhD
¥67.09
Why do people who have dogs live happier, longer, and more fulfulling livesSociologists and veterinarians have spent years investigating the positive effects that dogs have on people's health and happiness yet their findings are inaccessible to ordinary people, hidden in obscure journals to be shared with other experts. Now the international bestselling author of the 100 Simple Secrets series has collected the most current and significant data from more than a thousand of the best scientific studies on the profound relationship between humans and our canine companions. These findings have been boiled down to the one hundred essential ways dogs positively impact our lives. Each fact is accompanied by a inspiring true story. If you love your dog, and science tells us that you do, this book will inspire and entertain. Communicate Better: It sounds odd to say a creature that communicates with barking and body language can have such a profound effect on human communication. But by providing a common point of reference and concern, dogs help us to feel a connection to other humans. That connection makes us feel more comfortable communicating with each other. When meeting a new person, the presence of a dog reduces the time before people feel comfortable while talking with each other by 45 percent. Live Longer: There is perhaps no better gift that dogs offer us humans than this simple fact. People who care for a dog live longer, healthier lives than those who do not. On average, people who cared for dogs during their lives lived 3 years longer than people who never had a dog. No Monkey Business: Primates are genetically more similar to humans than any other creature. But try to tell a chimpanzee something and you will be hard pressed to get your message across. Dogs are uniquely attuned to the messages we send. Dogs study humans and have evolved to build social skills that help them to function around us. Dogs are 52 percent more likely to follow human cues such as pointing toward a source of food than are primates. Around the Block: Good habits are often misunderstood as difficult or unpleasant chores. But there is tremendous value in the simple act of taking a walk. Walking not only burns calories, it also decreases stress. Having a dog means regularly talking walks it's something you do for your dog but in truth your dog is doing for you. Dog owners walk 79 percent farther in an average week than non–dog owners.
Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage
Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage
Glasser, William, M.D.
¥71.72
Applying the methods and ideas espoused in his popular book Choice Theory, world-renowned psychiatrist and relationship expert Dr. William Glasser, along with his wife, Carleen, offers a practical guide to an enduring, satisfying, successful marriage. Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage showcases eight real-life histories of troubled couples and presents simple, practical solutions to overcoming the pitfalls illustrated therein. Keeping love alive and strong is not as difficult as you think; let the Glassers and this indispensable book show you how!