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Think: In Defence of a Thoughtful Life
by Svend BrinkmannA defining feature of being human is our ability to think. We refer to ourselves, after all, as Homo sapiens. But in a world where experiencing and achieving as much as possible is the number one preoccupation, there is little room for reflection. Technology is also making everything easier, eroding the need for us to think at all. Of course deep, critical thinking can be difficult, sometimes painful, and it takes time. But it is fundamental to our well-being. In this new book, bestselling philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann argues for a return to the thoughtful life, where we learn to think well, to think deeply, to lose ourselves in reverie and tune in to our inner voice. By spending time in our thoughts and letting them wander freely, we will discover that thinking is one of the most enriching things we can do in life – and one of the most human, too.
The Third Culture: The Impact of AI on Knowledge, Society and Consciousness in the 21st Century (Sustainable Finance)
by Stefan BrunnhuberWe are currently witnessing the emergence of a ‘third culture’, driven by unprecedented developments that are changing the playing field. These include advances in AI, big data analysis and robotics. The traditional ‘two cultures’ view (S. P. Snow) distinguishes between the sciences and the humanities. The wisdoms these two cultures offer are separated from each other, with little to no interaction or mutual comprehension. However, over the past two decades, and for the first time in human history, a new, third culture has appeared. This new culture, rooted in new technologies, not only pursues its own form of rationality but also supports advances in the original two cultures, deepening and expanding our individual and collective consciousness so that we can see more and do better. It will eventually give rise to new forms of consciousness based not on biochemical signals, but on copper wires and lithium chips. These new machine intelligences will change the world and force us to realise: we are no longer alone. The human species’ position in the twenty-first century will be fundamentally redefined: not as a conductor leading the orchestra, but a single string player within it.
This is Ancient Philosophy: An Introduction (This is Philosophy)
by Kirk FitzpatrickTHIS IS ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY “A masterful introduction to ancient philosophy. Fitzpatrick knows the contemporary scholarship on these authors, so he can shift from summarizing their thought to scrutinizing individual arguments. Meanwhile the writing remains so accessible that a reader might not notice how much he covers. The prose is precise but relaxed, with details that enrich the texture: the Pythagoreans’ harmonies, the Stoic Horned Argument, Antisthenes’ daily walk to Socrates. Students and instructors alike will benefit.” —Nickolas Pappas, Professor at City College of New York (CUNY) This Is Ancient Philosophy is a fascinating introduction to the major philosophers and foundational concepts of classical antiquity. Assuming no prior knowledge, the book uses an intuitive, readable narrative style as it examines the ideas, influences, and interconnections of philosophers such as Socrates, the Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as philosophical schools of thought including Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism. Divided into three parts, the book opens with an overview of early Greek philosophy, describing the turn from mythological thinking to philosophical analysis. The second part focuses on the distinctions between the subjects of philosophy in both the Golden Age and today, followed by a survey of the Hellenistic period and a discussion of the relation between fate and freedom of action. Throughout, readers are aided by a wealth of instructive and engaging charts, grids, figures, and a detailed map illustrating the chronological development of philosophy, from Asia Minor to southern Italy and Athens. Part of the popular This Is Philosophy series, This Is Ancient Philosophy is an excellent text for students of philosophy, both introductory and advanced, and general readers with interest in the philosophy of the classical era.
This is Ancient Philosophy: An Introduction (This is Philosophy)
by Kirk FitzpatrickTHIS IS ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY “A masterful introduction to ancient philosophy. Fitzpatrick knows the contemporary scholarship on these authors, so he can shift from summarizing their thought to scrutinizing individual arguments. Meanwhile the writing remains so accessible that a reader might not notice how much he covers. The prose is precise but relaxed, with details that enrich the texture: the Pythagoreans’ harmonies, the Stoic Horned Argument, Antisthenes’ daily walk to Socrates. Students and instructors alike will benefit.” —Nickolas Pappas, Professor at City College of New York (CUNY) This Is Ancient Philosophy is a fascinating introduction to the major philosophers and foundational concepts of classical antiquity. Assuming no prior knowledge, the book uses an intuitive, readable narrative style as it examines the ideas, influences, and interconnections of philosophers such as Socrates, the Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as philosophical schools of thought including Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism. Divided into three parts, the book opens with an overview of early Greek philosophy, describing the turn from mythological thinking to philosophical analysis. The second part focuses on the distinctions between the subjects of philosophy in both the Golden Age and today, followed by a survey of the Hellenistic period and a discussion of the relation between fate and freedom of action. Throughout, readers are aided by a wealth of instructive and engaging charts, grids, figures, and a detailed map illustrating the chronological development of philosophy, from Asia Minor to southern Italy and Athens. Part of the popular This Is Philosophy series, This Is Ancient Philosophy is an excellent text for students of philosophy, both introductory and advanced, and general readers with interest in the philosophy of the classical era.
Thought: Essays for Mark Sainsbury
by Alex Grzankowski Anthony SavileThe work of Mark Sainsbury has made a significant and challenging contribution to several central areas of philosophy, especially philosophy of language and logic. He has made significant contributions to puzzles concerning the nature of thought and language and pioneered research in the philosophical theory known as fictionalism.In this outstanding volume, 20 contributors engage with Sainsbury’s work but also go beyond it, exploring fundamental problems in the philosophy of language, mind, and logic. Topics covered include propositional thought, intentionality, the mind-body problem, singular thoughts, the individuation of concepts, nominalisation, logical form, non-existent objects, and vagueness.Thought: Its Origin and Reach will be of interest to professional philosophers and students working in philosophy of mind, language, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Thought: Essays for Mark Sainsbury
by Alex Grzankowski Anthony SavileThe work of Mark Sainsbury has made a significant and challenging contribution to several central areas of philosophy, especially philosophy of language and logic. He has made significant contributions to puzzles concerning the nature of thought and language and pioneered research in the philosophical theory known as fictionalism.In this outstanding volume, 20 contributors engage with Sainsbury’s work but also go beyond it, exploring fundamental problems in the philosophy of language, mind, and logic. Topics covered include propositional thought, intentionality, the mind-body problem, singular thoughts, the individuation of concepts, nominalisation, logical form, non-existent objects, and vagueness.Thought: Its Origin and Reach will be of interest to professional philosophers and students working in philosophy of mind, language, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Thought as Experience in Bataille, Cioran, and Rosset
by Professor Joseph AcquistoExamines how postwar French writers constitute the thinking subject and reshape its relation to the external social world.Joseph Acquisto analyzes the writings of three thinkers during and shortly after the Second World War who address the question of what it means to think, and what it means to constitute oneself as a thinking subject – at a time that seems to come "after everything"; with the ruins of attacked cities echoing the remains of a philosophical tradition that was confident in its establishment of human beings as rational, of reason leading to progress, and of both the self and the world as knowable. What Georges Bataille calls "inner experience" and Emil Cioran labels "thinking against oneself" is something akin to a drama; not a mere representation of the self in relation to the world, but a process of remapping the relation of subject to object of thought dialectically. Acquisto argues that both writers adopt an anti-systematic approach to thinking that implicates fragmentary writing as a way of turning answers about subject-object relations into questions. Acquisto contends that this stands in contrast to the approach of Clément Rosset, whose affirmation of the inaccessibility of the real leads to an anti-intellectual, grace-filled affirmation of life as it is given, under the guise of what he calls the "tragic."Bringing together thinkers that have seldom been discussed in a comparative light, Thought as Experience in Bataille, Cioran, and Rosset examines the affective dimensions of thought as experience and considers the political stakes of postwar thought as "out of order" with the world from which it springs.
The Three Ethologies: A Positive Vision for Rebuilding Human-Animal Relationships (Animal Lives)
by Matthew CalarcoA transformative vision for human-animal relations on personal, social, and environmental levels. The Three Ethologies offers a fresh, affirmative vision for rebuilding human-animal relations. Venturing beyond the usual scholarly and activist emphasis on restricting harm, Matthew Calarco develops a new philosophy for understanding animal behavior—a practice known as ethology—through three distinct but interrelated lenses: mental ethology, which rebuilds individual subjectivity; social ethology, which rethinks our communal relations; and environmental ethology, which reconfigures our relationship to the land we co-inhabit with our animal kin. Drawing on developments in philosophy, (eco)feminist theory, critical geography, Indigenous studies, and the environmental humanities, Calarco casts an inspiring vision of how ethological living can help us to reimagine our ideas about goodness, truth, and beauty.
Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left and Islamist (Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism)
by Jeffrey HerfThree Faces of Antisemitism examines the three primary forms of antisemitism as they emerged in modern and contemporary Germany, and then in other countries.The chapters draw on the author’s historical scholarship over the years on the form antisemitism assumed on the far right in Weimar and Nazi Germany, in the Communist regime in East Germany, and in the West German radical left, and in Islamist organizations during World War II and the Holocaust, and afterward in the Middle East. The resurgence of antisemitism since the attacks of September 11, 2001, has origins in the ideas, events, and circumstances in Europe and the Middle East in the half century from the 1920s to the 1970s. This book covers the period since 1945 when neo-Nazism was on the fringes of Western and world politics, and the persistence of antisemitism took place primarily when its leftist and Islamist forms combined antisemitism with anti-Zionism in attacks on the state of Israel. The collection includes recent essays of commentary that draw attention to the simultaneous presence of antisemitism’s three faces. While scholarship on the antisemitism of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust remains crucial, the scholarly, intellectual, and political effort to fight antisemitism in our times requires the examination of antisemitism’s leftist and Islamist forms as well.This book will be of interest to scholars researching antisemitism, racism, conspiracy theories, the far right, the far left, and Islamism.
Three Faces of Antisemitism: Right, Left and Islamist (Studies in Contemporary Antisemitism)
by Jeffrey HerfThree Faces of Antisemitism examines the three primary forms of antisemitism as they emerged in modern and contemporary Germany, and then in other countries.The chapters draw on the author’s historical scholarship over the years on the form antisemitism assumed on the far right in Weimar and Nazi Germany, in the Communist regime in East Germany, and in the West German radical left, and in Islamist organizations during World War II and the Holocaust, and afterward in the Middle East. The resurgence of antisemitism since the attacks of September 11, 2001, has origins in the ideas, events, and circumstances in Europe and the Middle East in the half century from the 1920s to the 1970s. This book covers the period since 1945 when neo-Nazism was on the fringes of Western and world politics, and the persistence of antisemitism took place primarily when its leftist and Islamist forms combined antisemitism with anti-Zionism in attacks on the state of Israel. The collection includes recent essays of commentary that draw attention to the simultaneous presence of antisemitism’s three faces. While scholarship on the antisemitism of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust remains crucial, the scholarly, intellectual, and political effort to fight antisemitism in our times requires the examination of antisemitism’s leftist and Islamist forms as well.This book will be of interest to scholars researching antisemitism, racism, conspiracy theories, the far right, the far left, and Islamism.
To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
by null Sergey RadchenkoWhat would it feel like To Run the World? The Soviet rulers spent the Cold War trying desperately to find out. In this panoramic new history of the conflict that defined the postwar era, Sergey Radchenko provides an unprecedented deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution. This tension drove Soviet policies from Stalin's postwar scramble for territory to Khrushchev's reckless overseas adventurism and nuclear brinksmanship, Brezhnev's jockeying for influence in the third world, and Gorbachev's failed attempts to reinvent Moscow's claims to greatness. Perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelled Moscow on a headlong quest for global power, with dire consequences and painful legacies that continue to shape our world.
Totalitarianism: A Borderline Idea in Political Philosophy (Square One: First-Order Questions in the Humanities)
by Simona FortiIn the last decade, we have witnessed the return of one of the most controversial terms in the political lexicon: totalitarianism. What are we talking about when we define a totalitarian political and social situation? When did we start using the word as both adjective and noun? And, what totalitarian ghosts haunt the present? Philosopher Simona Forti seeks to answer these questions by reconstructing not only the genealogy of the concept, but also by clarifying its motives, misunderstandings, and the controversies that have animated its current resurgence. Taking into account political theories and historical discussions, Totalitarianism especially focuses on philosophical reflections, from the question of totalitarian biopolitics to the alleged totalitarian drifts of neoliberalism. The work invites the relentless formulation of a radical question about the democratic age: the possibilities it has opened up, the voids it leaves behind, the mechanisms it activates, and the "voluntary servitude" it produces. Forti argues that totalitarianism cannot be considered an external threat to democracy, but rather as one of the possible answers to those questions posed by modernity which democracies have not been able to solve. Her investigation of the uses and abuses of totalitarianism as one of the fundamental categories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries promises to provoke much-needed discussion and debate among those in philosophy, politics, ethics, and beyond.
Totalitarianism: A Borderline Idea in Political Philosophy (Square One: First-Order Questions in the Humanities)
by Simona FortiIn the last decade, we have witnessed the return of one of the most controversial terms in the political lexicon: totalitarianism. What are we talking about when we define a totalitarian political and social situation? When did we start using the word as both adjective and noun? And, what totalitarian ghosts haunt the present? Philosopher Simona Forti seeks to answer these questions by reconstructing not only the genealogy of the concept, but also by clarifying its motives, misunderstandings, and the controversies that have animated its current resurgence. Taking into account political theories and historical discussions, Totalitarianism especially focuses on philosophical reflections, from the question of totalitarian biopolitics to the alleged totalitarian drifts of neoliberalism. The work invites the relentless formulation of a radical question about the democratic age: the possibilities it has opened up, the voids it leaves behind, the mechanisms it activates, and the "voluntary servitude" it produces. Forti argues that totalitarianism cannot be considered an external threat to democracy, but rather as one of the possible answers to those questions posed by modernity which democracies have not been able to solve. Her investigation of the uses and abuses of totalitarianism as one of the fundamental categories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries promises to provoke much-needed discussion and debate among those in philosophy, politics, ethics, and beyond.
Towards Posthumanism in Education: Theoretical Entanglements and Pedagogical Mappings (Routledge New and Critical Studies in Education)
by Jessie A. Bustillos Morales Shiva ZarabadiThis edited volume presents a post-humanist reflection on education, mapping the complex transdisciplinary pedagogy and theoretical research while also addressing questions related to marginalised voices, colonial discourses, and the relationship between theory and practice.Exhibiting a re-imagination of education through themed relationalities that can transverse education, this cutting-edge book highlights the importance of matter in educational environments, enriching pedagogies, teacher-student relationships and curricular innovation. Chapters present contributions that explore education through various international contexts and educational sectors, unravelling educational implications with reference to the climate change crisis, migrant children in education, post-pandemic education, feminist activists and other emergent issues. The book examines the ongoing iterations of the entanglement of colonisation, modernity, and humanity with education to propose a possibility of education capable of upholding heterogeneous worlds.Curated with a global perspective on transversal relationalities and offering a unique outlook on posthuman thoughts and actions related to education, this book will be an important reading for students, researchers and academics in the fields of philosophy of education, sociology of education, posthumanism and new materialism, curriculum studies, and educational research.
Towards Posthumanism in Education: Theoretical Entanglements and Pedagogical Mappings (Routledge New and Critical Studies in Education)
This edited volume presents a post-humanist reflection on education, mapping the complex transdisciplinary pedagogy and theoretical research while also addressing questions related to marginalised voices, colonial discourses, and the relationship between theory and practice.Exhibiting a re-imagination of education through themed relationalities that can transverse education, this cutting-edge book highlights the importance of matter in educational environments, enriching pedagogies, teacher-student relationships and curricular innovation. Chapters present contributions that explore education through various international contexts and educational sectors, unravelling educational implications with reference to the climate change crisis, migrant children in education, post-pandemic education, feminist activists and other emergent issues. The book examines the ongoing iterations of the entanglement of colonisation, modernity, and humanity with education to propose a possibility of education capable of upholding heterogeneous worlds.Curated with a global perspective on transversal relationalities and offering a unique outlook on posthuman thoughts and actions related to education, this book will be an important reading for students, researchers and academics in the fields of philosophy of education, sociology of education, posthumanism and new materialism, curriculum studies, and educational research.
The Traces of Jacques Derrida's Cinema
by Timothy HollandSituated at the intersection of film and media studies, literary theory, and continental philosophy, The Traces of Jacques Derrida's Cinema provides a trenchant account of the role of cinema in the oeuvre of one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). The book is animated by Derrida's self-confessed passion for the movies, his reluctance to write about film despite the range of his corpus, and the generative encounters arising between his legacy and the field of film and media studies as a result. Given the expanse of its references, interdisciplinarity, and consideration of Derrida's approach to the experience of both spectatorship and the act of being filmed, The Traces of Jacques Derrida's Cinema contributes to the ongoing close analyses of the philosopher's work while also providing a rigorous introduction to deconstruction. Author Timothy Holland interweaves historical and speculative modes of research and writing to articulate the peripheral-yet surprisingly crucial-place of the cinematic medium for Derrida and his philosophical enterprise. The outcome is a meticulously detailed survey of the centers and margins of Derrida's oeuvre that include forays into such terrain as: his notable appearances in films; an unrealized project on cinema and belief that Derrida proposed in a 2001 interview; the correspondences between the strategies of deconstruction and the traditions, homecomings, and wordplay of David Lynch's cinematic media; and the questions wedded to the future of film studies amid the vicissitudes of the modern, virtual university. Ultimately, Holland pursues the thinking activated by the flickering of Derrida's cinema-not only the absence and presence of film in Derrida's professional and personal life, but also the rigor of academic discourse and the pleasures of the movies, ghosts and technology, religious faith and scientific knowledge, and ruination and survival-as a critical chance for reflection.
Traditional Indian Virtue Ethics for Today: An East-West Dialogue (Palgrave Studies in Comparative East-West Philosophy)
by Amita Chatterjee Sitansu S. Chakravarti Ananda Chakravarti Lisa WiddisonWorking in the tradition of world philosophy, this book puts Western virtue ethics in conversation with traditional Indian philosophies. The book begins with a contribution from Michael Slote on ‘World Philosophy: The Importance of India,’ which is followed by contributions covering metaethical topics such as the relationship between Western virtue ethics and various Indian philosophical traditions, and applied topics such as environmental ethics, business ethics, ethics and science, and moral psychology. Contributors include scholars working in both North America and India.
The Tragic Imagination in Shakespeare and Emerson
by Andy AmatoWhat is the “tragic imagination”? And what role does it play in the works of William Shakespeare and Ralph Waldo Emerson? Explaining the tragic imagination as a creative faculty employed to answer the perennial Riddle of the Sphinx – a theory of the world that advances human freedom and dignity in the face of historical injustice, cruelty and violence – Andy Amato seeks to recover and rehabilitate this concept by revealing its significance to both key works of philosophy and literature and our contemporary world. This book begins with a close and careful reading of Emerson's first major work, Nature, in conversation with nineteenth and 20thcentury continental philosophy, critical theory and post-structuralism. Uncovering neglected elements of Emerson's philosophy, beyond his reputation as the philosopher of 'cheer', this book explores how Emersonian transcendentalism affirms rather than denies the tragic sense of life – “tragic idealism” – and makes a substantial contribution to philosophy's perpetual endeavour to solve the Riddle. In the second part of the book, Amato then employs Emerson's theoretical lens to interpret Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear. In doing so, he innovatively reframes the central themes of suffering, vision, nature, nothing, foolishness and silence toward achieving liberation.By pairing these two giants of literature and philosophy, The Tragic Imagination in Shakespeare and Emerson not only offers fresh interpretations of Nature and King Lear, but also makes the case for the renewed deployment of tragic imagination, in creative redress, to our current social-political situation.
Trans Figured: On Being a Transgender Person in a Cisgender World
by Sophie Grace Chappell‘I was four and three-quarters when I asked my mother if, from now on, I could please go to school as a girl instead of as a boy …’ In this extraordinary new book, renowned philosopher Sophie Grace Chappell combines personal memoir, philosophical reflection, open letters, science fiction writing, and poetry to help us all figure out transgender. What is it really like to be transgender? How can we as a society do better to accept the reality of trans lives and to welcome and include trans adults, trans children, and trans families? How can trans people thrive in a cisgendered world? For too long now, clouds of myth, misinformation, alarmism, and wrong-headed ideology have masked the reality of trans people’s lives. By answering questions like these, this book blows away the clouds and gives us the truth instead. Rich, informative, and deeply moving, Trans Figured will be widely read and celebrated for years to come.
Transcendental Epistemology (Elements in Epistemology)
by null Tony ChengTranscendental arguments were prominent in Western philosophy, German idealism, phenomenological tradition, and P. F. Strawson's thinking. They have fallen out of fashion because of their associations with transcendental idealism and verificationism. They are still invoked by important figures in the analytic tradition even if the very same tradition has cast doubt on such arguments. The nature of transcendental arguments remains unclear: Are they supposed to be deductive? Are they synthetic or analytic? If they are a priori, how are they supposed to be about the empirical world? What are their relations to necessity, conceivability, and essence? This Element takes up the challenge of elucidating the nature of transcendental arguments, embedded in the wider context of transcendental epistemology. It will be argued that the key premise 'transcendental conditional' is synthetic, necessary, and a posteriori.
Transcending Fictionalism: God, Minimalism and Realism
by Dr Jessica EastwoodExploring alternative conceptions of the divine, Jessica Eastwood considers the ways of believing in God that are authentic and sincere, moving beyond traditional metaphysical structures that many find difficult to accept. In this study, she examines a unique branch of religious non-realism known as religious fictionalism, making the case for its ability to resonate on an intellectual and emotional level. Considering the extent to which fictionalism allows us to make sense of the role of religion in our spiritual lives, she presents its limitations on adhering to what might be an attractive contemporary model for philosophy of religion called 'the humane turn'.Articulating an alternative conception of God that we can relate to in an intellectual, emotional and spiritual way, Eastwood sheds light on a minimalist form of religious realism, which preserves the reality of God without committing the theist to a host of additional religious beliefs.
Transformation and the History of Philosophy (Rewriting the History of Philosophy)
From ancient conceptions of becoming a philosopher to modern discussions of psychedelic drugs, the concept of transformation plays a fascinating part in the history of philosophy. However, until now there has been no sustained exploration of the full extent of its role. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is an outstanding survey of the history, nature, and development of the idea of transformation, from the ancient period to the twentieth century. Comprising twenty-two specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors, the volume is divided into four clear parts: Philosophy as Transformative: Ancient China, Greece, India, and Rome Transformation Between the Human and the Divine: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Transformation After the Copernican Revolution: Post-Kantian Philosophy Treatises, Pregnancies, Psychedelics, and Epiphanies: Twentieth-Century Philosophy Each of these sections begins with an introduction by the editors. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of western and non-western philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and the history of ideas.
Transformation and the History of Philosophy (Rewriting the History of Philosophy)
by G. Anthony Bruno Justin VlasitsFrom ancient conceptions of becoming a philosopher to modern discussions of psychedelic drugs, the concept of transformation plays a fascinating part in the history of philosophy. However, until now there has been no sustained exploration of the full extent of its role. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is an outstanding survey of the history, nature, and development of the idea of transformation, from the ancient period to the twentieth century. Comprising twenty-two specially commissioned chapters by an international team of contributors, the volume is divided into four clear parts: Philosophy as Transformative: Ancient China, Greece, India, and Rome Transformation Between the Human and the Divine: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Transformation After the Copernican Revolution: Post-Kantian Philosophy Treatises, Pregnancies, Psychedelics, and Epiphanies: Twentieth-Century Philosophy Each of these sections begins with an introduction by the editors. Transformation and the History of Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in the history of western and non-western philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, and aesthetics. It will also be extremely useful for those in related disciplines such as religion, sociology, and the history of ideas.