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Uncertainty and Emotion in the 1900 Sydney Plague (Elements in Histories of Emotions and the Senses)
by null Philippa Nicole BarrWhen the third global plague pandemic reached Sydney in 1900, theories regarding the ecology and biology of disease transmission were transforming. Changing understandings led to conflicts over the appropriate response. Medical and government authorities employed symbols like dirt to address gaps in knowledge. They used these symbols strategically to compel emotional responses and to advocate for specific political and social interventions, authorising institutional actions to shape social identity and the city in preparation for Australia's 1901 Federation. Through theoretical and historical analysis, this Element argues that disgust and aversion were effectively mobilised to legitimise these actions. As an intervention in contemporary debates about the impact of knowledge on emotion and affect, it presents a case for the plasticity of emotions like disgust, and for how both emotion and affect can change with new medical information.
Uncivilised: Ten Lies that Made the West
by Subhadra DasPre-order the enthralling and radical book that overturns our assumptions about civilisation and society'A witty and accessible survey of the shortcomings of western civilisation as many people imagine it' ANGELA SAINI, author of Superior'A vital piece of work in our challenging times that reminds us of the rich history and influences outside the West. Das writes with passion and humour to open our eyes to the history that has shaped our world' ROMA AGRAWAL, author of Built and Nuts and Bolts___________Some things are a given: knowledge is power, time is money, justice is blind. But many of the big ideas that underpin Western civilisation are just that - ideas. Taking cues from Greek philosophy and honed in the Enlightenment, certain notions about humanity and society grew into the tenets we still live by today, and we haven't questioned them a great deal since.But what if they're not just ideas? What if they're outright lies? Isn't it time we asked who really benefits from the values at the core of our society? What is unbiased about a science that conjured up 'race'? Who do laws and nations actually protect? What even is 'art'? And the real question: is the West really as 'civilised' as it thinks it is?Uncivilised puts everything back on the table and asks readers to reconsider what they thought they knew about civilisation, starting with the ten lies that have shaped their lives.
Uncommon Sense
by Ian ShapiroA spirited defense of the Enlightenment against assaults from both the left and the right that explains its urgent implications for our contemporary politics Ours is an age when optimism about politics is hard to come by. Ian Shapiro explains why this is so and, without minimizing the daunting challenges, spells out an appropriate response. Written in the indomitable spirit exemplified by Tom Paine, Uncommon Sense is a rich source of insight and inspiration in dark political times. The Enlightenment commitments to reason and science are under assault from the Postmodern Left and the Authoritarian Right. Shapiro explains why the attacks are misguided and politically destructive. He agrees with the critics that there are no universal principles of justice that transcend political battles and no fair, impartial rules to govern the distribution of income, wealth, rights, or opportunities. But abandoning the search for them as futile does not mean junking the Enlightenment’s core political goal: to deploy the tools of reason and science to fight domination. Democracy is essential to vindicating that goal, yet citizens in many democracies are profoundly alienated and many democracies are in danger of failing. Shapiro explains what has gone wrong, debunks ill-considered remedies, and spells out better ones—deepening and extending his previous writing on political theory and democratic politics.
Under the Spell of Freedom: Theory of Religion after Hegel and Nietzsche
by Hans JoasHow do the history of religion and the history of political freedom relate to each other? The variety of views on this subject in philosophy, the humanities and social sciences, and the public is broad and confusing. But the grandiose synthesis in which Hegel brought together Christianity and political freedom is still an enormous source of orientation for many-despite or even because of the influential provocations of Friedrich Nietzsche. As Hans Joas shows in Under the Spell of Freedom, a different view has developed in the religious thinking of the twentieth century based on a conception of history that is more open to the future and on a concept of freedom that is richer than that of Hegel. Using sixteen selected thinkers, Joas deconstructs the grand Hegelian narrative of human history as the self-realization of the idea of freedom, setting as a counterpart the sketches of a theory of the emergence of moral universalism. Further, taking the classical views of Hegel and his emphasis on the role of Protestant Christianity and the extremely negative views about Christianity in the work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Joas elaborates on this new understanding of religion and freedom, which avoids both Eurocentrism and an intellectualist view of religious faith and practice. The result is a forceful plea for a global history of moral universalism. Under the Spell of Freedom is an important step in this direction.
Understanding Badiou, Understanding Modernism (Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism)
by Arka Chattopadhyay and Arthur RoseIn his philosophical project, aesthetic orientation and political leanings, Alain Badiou is a product of, and a leading advocate for, European modernism. From the milieu of May 1968 to the contemporary 'postmodern' ethos, Badiou returns, time and again, to avant-garde modernist texts – aesthetic, political, philosophical and scientific – as inspiration for his response to present situations. Drawing upon disciplines as varied as architecture, cinema, theatre, music, history, mathematics, poetry and philosophy, Understanding Badiou, Understanding Modernism shows how Badiou's contribution to philosophy must be understood within the context of his decades-long conversation with modernist thinking. As with other volumes in the series, Understanding Badiou, Understanding Modernism follows a three part structure. The first section explores Badiou's readings of aesthetic, political and scientific modernities; both introducing his system and pointing to how Badiou offers manifold readings of modernism. The middle portion of the book connects Badiou's thought with the various strands of aesthetic, philosophical, amorous and political modernisms in relation to which it can be extended. The final section is a glossary of key concepts and categories that Badiou uses in his interface with modernism.
Understanding Bakhtin, Understanding Modernism (Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism)
by Philippe BirgyExplores and illuminates the impact of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin on our understanding of literary modernism.This volume explores the subject of modernism as seen through the lens of Bakhtinian criticism and in doing so offers a rounded and up-to-date example of the application of Bakhtinian theory to a field of research. The contributors consider the global spread of modernism and the variety of its manifestations as well as modernism's relationship to popular culture and its collective elaboration, which are dominant concerns in Bakhtin's thinking. As with other volumes in the Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism series, the volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 provides readings of Bakhtin's work in the context of literary modernism. Part 2 features case studies of modernist art and artists and their relation to Bakhtinian theory. The final part provides a glossary of key terms in Bakhtin's work.
Understanding Fifty Years of Bangladesh Politics: Struggles, Achievements, and Challenges
by Harun- Or-RashidThis book studies the first 50 years of Bangladesh politics since independence. It looks at Bangladesh politics as a unique case for study to analyze and understand the role of institutions, political parties, the election commission, election-time government, judiciary, the media, etc. The volume cross-examines the 1971 War of Liberation and the brutal killing of the republic’s founding father in 1975 as the two great divides that crystallized in the political arena between the Awami League on the one side and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami on the other. Through deep dives on major historical events and key political developments that have since shaped Bangladesh’s entire society and politics, it then delves into topics including the parliament, electoral integrity, civil society, and politics as they take on a confrontational course.An incisive study on major struggles, achievements, and challenges faced by Bangladesh in the 20th century, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in political science, democracy, modern history, and South Asia studies.
Understanding Fifty Years of Bangladesh Politics: Struggles, Achievements, and Challenges
by Harun- Or-RashidThis book studies the first 50 years of Bangladesh politics since independence. It looks at Bangladesh politics as a unique case for study to analyze and understand the role of institutions, political parties, the election commission, election-time government, judiciary, the media, etc. The volume cross-examines the 1971 War of Liberation and the brutal killing of the republic’s founding father in 1975 as the two great divides that crystallized in the political arena between the Awami League on the one side and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami on the other. Through deep dives on major historical events and key political developments that have since shaped Bangladesh’s entire society and politics, it then delves into topics including the parliament, electoral integrity, civil society, and politics as they take on a confrontational course.An incisive study on major struggles, achievements, and challenges faced by Bangladesh in the 20th century, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in political science, democracy, modern history, and South Asia studies.
Understanding Violence: The Intertwining of Morality, Religion, Capitalism and Violence: A Philosophical Stance (Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics #69)
by Lorenzo MagnaniThis book offers a philosophical account of violence, engaged with both empirical and theoretical debates in disciplines such as cognitive science, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, political theory, evolutionary biology, and theology. The primary thesis is that violence is intertwined with morality and typically enacted for “moral” reasons. To show this, the book compellingly demonstrates how morality operates to trigger and justify violence and how people, in their violent behaviors, can engage and disengage with discrete moralities. The author’s fundamental account of language, and in particular its normative aspects, is particularly insightful as regards extending the range of what is to be understood as violence beyond the domain of physical harm. By employing concepts such as “coalition enforcement”, “moral bubbles”, “cognitive niches”, “overmoralization”, and “military intelligence”, the book aims to spell out how perpetrators and victims of violence systematically disagree about the very nature of violence. The author’s original claim is that disagreement can be understood naturalistically, described by an account of morality informed by evolutionary perspectives as well. This book helps us come to terms with the fact that we are intrinsically “violent beings”. To acknowledge this condition, and our stupefying capacity to inflict harm, is a responsibility we must face up to: such understanding could ultimately be of help in order to achieve a safer ownership of our destinies, by individuating and reinforcing those cognitive firewalls that would prevent violence from always escalating and overflowing. This second edition is thoroughly revised and integrated with two new chapters to cover new aspects of violence and its understanding, such as the role of looting finance in facilitating violent outcomes and the attack to scientific cognition and human creativity.
Unforgivable?: Exploring the Limits of Forgiveness
by Stephen CherryForgiveness is a lovely idea, wrote C. S. Lewis, and in recent decades it has been seen and admired in situations ranging from therapy to politics, and proposed as a constructive pathway in the aftermath of abuse and atrocity. Not everyone is impressed, however, and in parallel with praise and promotion of forgiveness, cries of 'unforgivable' are uttered with increased shrillness and frequency. In this hugely compelling, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking book, Stephen Cherry argues that while forgiveness can be transformative in the aftermath of harm, it can also, if not handled with care, become an additional pressure and anxiety for those who have been harmed. He teases out the way in which Christian understandings often lie behind pressure to forgive, identifying a number of typical mistakes with the Christian approach to forgiveness. Reflecting on many examples from real life as well as literature, and on the insights of psychologists and philosophers, Cherry uses the tension between the desire to forgive and the protest that a person is unforgivable to push towards understandings of forgiveness that avoid the harshness of binary models. Forgiveness is not, he insists, the only good way forward after harm. A positive understanding of non-vengeful unforgiveness is vital if the harmed are to be given the care and support they need and deserve, and if forgiveness itself is to be authentic and liberating. Cherry's challenging book brims with energy and blends human insight with intellectual vision. It argues that if forgiveness is to play a part in the aftermath of harm without inflicting further harm it must be presented in a non-idealized way and only following acknowledgement of the depth of the human impact of the harm done.
Universal Logic, Ethics, and Truth: Essays in Honor of John Corcoran (1937-2021) (Studies in Universal Logic)
by Jean-Yves Béziau Timothy J. MadiganJohn Corcoran was a very well-known logician who worked on several areas of logic. He produced decisive works giving a better understanding of two major figures in the history of logic, Aristotle and Boole. Corcoran had a close association with Alfred Tarski, a prominent 20th-century logician. This collaboration manifested in Corcoran's substantial introduction to Tarski's seminal book, Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics (1956). Additionally, Corcoran's posthumous editorial involvement in 'What are logical notions?' (1986) breathed new life into this seminal paper authored by Tarski. His scholarly pursuits extended to the intricate explication of fundamental concepts in modern logic, including variables, propositions, truth, consequences, and categoricity. Corcoran's academic curiosity extended further to the intersection of ethics and logic, reflecting his contemplation of their interrelation. Beyond these theoretical contributions, Corcoran was deeply engaged in the pedagogical dimensions of logic instruction. This volume serves as a compilation of articles contributed by Corcoran's students, colleagues, and international peers. By encompassing a diverse range of subjects, this collection aptly mirrors Corcoran's wide-ranging interests, offering insights that not only deepen our understanding of his work but also advance the theoretical frameworks he explored.
Unreal Beliefs: An Anti-Realist Approach in the Metaphysics of Mind (Mind, Meaning and Metaphysics)
by Krzysztof PoslajkoKrzysztof Poslajko offers a novel version of an anti-realist view about beliefs, rejecting the extreme proposal of eliminativism that beliefs do not exist. He shows us we should rather say that beliefs exist, but they are not real. Poslajko demonstrates how we might make sense of this idea by providing a unified account of the debates in philosophical psychology. The antirealist view interprets beliefs as being causally irrelevant, that they do not constitute a natural kind, and that their content cannot be naturalized. Exploring the status of folk psychology, Poslajko raises key questions in the analytic metaphysics of mind: Are beliefs real? Do people really possess mental states which are causally efficacious bearers of propositional content? By arguing for the antirealist view and revising our common-sense view about the nature of mind, he makes a compelling case for adopting a pragmatic metaphilosophy when we deal with questions about belief.
Unshrinking: How to Fight Fatphobia
by Kate Manne'Required reading for everyone who lives in an unruly human body... elegant, fierce, and profound' Roxane GaySize discrimination harms everyone. Acclaimed philosopher Kate Manne shows how to combat it.For as long as she can remember, Kate Manne has wanted to be smaller. She can tell you what she weighed on any significant occasion: her wedding day, the day she became a professor, the day her daughter was born. She's been bullied and belittled for her size, leading to extreme dieting. As a feminist philosopher, she wanted to believe that she was exempt from the cultural gaslighting that compels so many of us to ignore our hunger. But she was not.Blending intimate stories with trenchant analysis, Manne shows why fatphobia matters, now more than ever. Over the last decades, bias has waned in every category except one: body size. Here she examines how anti-fatness operates – how it leads us to make devastating assumptions about a person's attractiveness, fortitude and intellect, and how it intersects with other systems of oppression. Fatphobia is responsible for wage gaps, medical neglect and poor educational outcomes. It is a straitjacket, restricting our freedom, our movement, our potential. Fatphobia is a social justice issue.In this urgent call to action, Manne proposes a new politics of ‘body reflexivity’ -- a radical re-evaluation of who our bodies exist in the world for: ourselves and no one else. When it comes to fatphobia, the solution is not to love our bodies more. Instead, we must dismantle the forces that control and constrain us, and remake the world to accommodate people of every size.
'Updatism' and the Understanding of Time and History: A Theory for the 21st Century
by Professor Mateus Henrique Pereira Professor Valdei Lopes AraujoThis book enables us to understand the current transformations in the experience of time that have been taking place in recent decades. Mateus Henrique de Faria Pereira and Valdei Lopes de Araujo convincingly argue that we live in a time of 'Updatism', the temporal dimension that emerges in those societies imprisoned by the structures of infinite expansion, and that this Updatism has profound consequences for how we think about the past, the present and the future.Using the theoretical works of Lyotard and Heidegger as its foundation, 'Updatism' and the Understanding of Time and History analyses our digital modernity and the significance of key themes, such as updating, solitude, democracy, internet, exposure, postmodernism and historicism. It discusses aspects of our present time that reveal substantial differences between the historicist-modern time, usually located in the 19th century, and an emergent 'chronotope' or 'regime of historicity' understood and explained here as Updatism. The book is effective in mapping the ubiquity of Updatism and the anxiety-inducing insistence of being constantly updated, as well as exploring some searching questions: If our reality is constantly being updated, and its previous versions are deleted or inaccessible, what does this mean for memory and our understanding of history? And what does this tell us about the world we live in today and the one we may update to in the future?
Upgrading Political Systems with Purposive Technology: A Performing Democracy
by Soobhiraj BungsrazThis book presents a framework for designing and implementing technologies to reduce risks in parliamentary decision-making, leading to the emergence of e-politics. It emphasizes adaptable virtual systems and problem-solving over predefined solutions, fostering multi-helix engagement among cross-functional teams. These teams collaborate to develop strategic, tactical, and operational solutions for citizens, elected parliamentarians, and organizations such as the UN. The book underscores the importance of risk identification, mitigation, and communication for e-political system safety. The framework leverages technology to create an e-democracy, enhancing the productivity of parliamentarians and promoting democratic sustainability. It builds on the theoretical framework of system engineering, aiming to avoid the pitfalls of previous generations' promises and instead focusing on continuous improvement through a people-centric system. The book introduces the PI App as a purposive technology that aids in implementing these ideas. By promoting an ever-improving parliament and parliamentarians, the framework aims to achieve higher productivity in decision-making roles and evolve practical e-democracy. It highlights the need for a Virtuous Cycle for continuous improvement in strategic decisions for national investment, ultimately leading to a people-centric system. The book envisions a future where technology plays a crucial role in ensuring democratic sustainability and enhancing the effectiveness of parliamentary decision-making.
Uprisings in Eighteenth-Century Britain: Mediation and the Transformation of Political Culture (Cultures of Early Modern Europe)
by Dr Monika BargetThis study examines how the British Empire of the 18th century contained revolution by integrating opposition agents as new spaces of power opened up. Monika Barget convincingly argues that this process of constitutionalisation meant that groups from the aristocracy to religious communities, from the army to the people at large, were brought into the system in a way that balanced the obvious, serious challenges that the Glorious Revolution, the Jacobite Rebellion, the American Revolution, and Jacobin threats of the late-18th century posed to the Empire. Barget highlights the lasting political and legal repercussions of this process. The structure of the chapters, each focussing on specific agents and conflict media, also links the history of political agency and political institutions with an expanding European and even trans-continental media market.
The Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector in Shanghai: Ambition, Capacity and Reality
by Diego TodaroThis book examines how Shanghai aims to improve public service provision by accelerating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector. After clarifying the technical and social factors that shape the use of AI in this area, the book delves into the AI policy environment and AI ecosystem of Shanghai to gauge the city’s capacity to implement public sector AI applications. Then it examines how this capacity translates into real-world policy initiatives through the investigation of case studies. It highlights the analytical, operational and political capabilities that determine the strengths and limitations of such initiatives in deploying AI in the public sector, and it assesses their impacts on public service provision in Shanghai. By using the findings on Shanghai to gain a deeper understanding of key topics in public sector AI research, this book also contributes new knowledge about the use of AI to improve the provision of public services.
Value-Creating Education: Teachers’ Perceptions and Practice (Routledge Series on Life and Values Education)
by Emiliano Bosio Maria GuajardoOffering a pivotal reference point and a wide range of global perspectives of teaching experiences on value-creating education (VCE), this book is a timely spotlight on contemporary issues of globalisation that many educational institutions around the world may encounter. It contributes to the originality of constructing new knowledge in the field of VCE, a forward-looking framework, and an ethical and educational imperative that can be understood in different ways, from diverse theoretical orientations. The chapters written by experienced international educators explore the following questions: How do educators understand the role of VCE? What pedagogical approaches to VCE do educators employ in their classes? How do educators support the values and knowledge of VCE in all curricular areas? What do educators see as the key essential values and knowledge that students should develop through VCE? It offers valuable insights and applied pedagogical practices for postgraduate students, researchers, educational policy makers, curriculum developers, and decision-makers in higher education institutions and non-governmental organizations (e.g., UNESCO, OXFAM).
Value-Creating Education: Teachers’ Perceptions and Practice (Routledge Series on Life and Values Education)
by Emiliano Bosio Maria GuajardoOffering a pivotal reference point and a wide range of global perspectives of teaching experiences on value-creating education (VCE), this book is a timely spotlight on contemporary issues of globalisation that many educational institutions around the world may encounter. It contributes to the originality of constructing new knowledge in the field of VCE, a forward-looking framework, and an ethical and educational imperative that can be understood in different ways, from diverse theoretical orientations. The chapters written by experienced international educators explore the following questions: How do educators understand the role of VCE? What pedagogical approaches to VCE do educators employ in their classes? How do educators support the values and knowledge of VCE in all curricular areas? What do educators see as the key essential values and knowledge that students should develop through VCE? It offers valuable insights and applied pedagogical practices for postgraduate students, researchers, educational policy makers, curriculum developers, and decision-makers in higher education institutions and non-governmental organizations (e.g., UNESCO, OXFAM).
Values: Why We Need Them Although They Don’t Exist
by Andreas Urs SommerIn his book, Andreas Urs Sommer reflects on the question of what it really means when everybody’s appealing to values, all the time – the question, fundamentally, of what values actually are. Values explores both of these points, arriving at two intriguing suggestions: Maybe what we call values are just a set of elaborate fictions. And maybe those fictions serve some very important purposes.
Values and Valuing in Mathematics Education: Moving Forward into Practice
by Yüksel Dede Gosia Marschall Philip ClarksonThis book is a follow-up to 'Values and Valuing in Mathematics Education: Scanning and Scoping the Territory' (2019, Springer). This book adds a critical emphasis on practice and fosters thinking concerning positive mathematical well-being, engagement, teacher noticing, and values alignment among a range of critical notions that intersect with values and valuing. Values and valuing play a key role in many aspects of education, such as assessment, planning, classroom interactions, choosing tasks, and general well-being. What one values and finds important in the learning and teaching of mathematics operates within the intersection of all social, cognitive, and affective aspects of school pedagogy, making values a significant holistic factor in education. The chapters explore potential teaching strategies that enhance the understanding of the central place of values in mathematics itself as a subject, as well as how values impact how mathematics is used withinsociety. This book includes examples of strategies for facilitating students’ meaningful engagement with, and conscious learning of, values when engaging in mathematical thinking and doing.
Values, Relationships and Engagement in Quaker Education: Student Perspectives on Inclusive School Cultures (Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education)
by Nigel NewtonThis book provides a unique critical perspective on the importance of values to school culture. Drawing on research in Quaker schools in England, and the perspectives of students, it challenges the idea that school evaluation should be primarily based on measurable outcomes and argues that values matter more to learning than is often acknowledged. Furthermore, the book provides important insights on how to research schools that claim to hold similar values, from multi-academy chains to other so-called faith schools. Throughout the text, the author underscores the importance of values to students’ dispositions, in order to engage with the learning opportunities their schools provide. He argues for seeing schools as places where equality, inclusiveness and mutual respect should be central, not only to help students understand our fragile, multicultural democracy, but also because these values open up the possibility of learners’ increased engagement with curriculum knowledge.
Varieties of Voluntarism in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy
This book considers different forms of voluntarism developed from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries. By crossing the conventional dividing line between the medieval and early modern periods, the volume draws important new insights on the historical development of voluntarism. Voluntarism places a special emphasis on the will when it comes to the analysis and explanation of fundamental philosophical questions and problems. Since the Middle Ages, voluntarist considerations and views played an important role in the development of different theories of action, ethics, metaethics, and metaphysics. The chapters in this volume are grouped according to three distinct kinds of voluntarism: psychological, ethical, and theological voluntarism. They address topics such as the threat of irrationality as the standard objection to voluntarism, incontinent actions and their explanation, the nature of the will as rational appetite, the relationship between intellect and will, the implications of conceptions of the will for political freedom, and the relations between divine freedom and the modal status of eternal truths. The chapters not only consider towering figures of the Middle Ages—Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, William of Ockham, Francisco de Vitoria—and early modern period—René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Samuel Pufendorf—but also engage with less well-known figures such as Peter John Olivi, John of Pouilly, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, and Christian August Crusius. Varieties of Voluntarism in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in medieval philosophy, early modern philosophy, the history of ethics, and philosophy of religion.
Varieties of Voluntarism in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy
by Sonja Schierbaum Jörn MüllerThis book considers different forms of voluntarism developed from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries. By crossing the conventional dividing line between the medieval and early modern periods, the volume draws important new insights on the historical development of voluntarism. Voluntarism places a special emphasis on the will when it comes to the analysis and explanation of fundamental philosophical questions and problems. Since the Middle Ages, voluntarist considerations and views played an important role in the development of different theories of action, ethics, metaethics, and metaphysics. The chapters in this volume are grouped according to three distinct kinds of voluntarism: psychological, ethical, and theological voluntarism. They address topics such as the threat of irrationality as the standard objection to voluntarism, incontinent actions and their explanation, the nature of the will as rational appetite, the relationship between intellect and will, the implications of conceptions of the will for political freedom, and the relations between divine freedom and the modal status of eternal truths. The chapters not only consider towering figures of the Middle Ages—Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, William of Ockham, Francisco de Vitoria—and early modern period—René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Samuel Pufendorf—but also engage with less well-known figures such as Peter John Olivi, John of Pouilly, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, and Christian August Crusius. Varieties of Voluntarism in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in medieval philosophy, early modern philosophy, the history of ethics, and philosophy of religion.
Vector: A Surprising Story of Space, Time, and Mathematical Transformation
by Robyn ArianrhodA celebration of the seemingly simple idea that allowed us to imagine the world in new dimensions—sparking both controversy and discovery. The stars of this book, vectors and tensors, are unlikely celebrities. If you ever took a physics course, the word “vector” might remind you of the mathematics needed to determine forces on an amusement park ride, a turbine, or a projectile. You might also remember that a vector is a quantity that has magnitude and (this is the key) direction. In fact, vectors are examples of tensors, which can represent even more data. It sounds simple enough—and yet, as award-winning science writer Robyn Arianrhod shows in this riveting story, the idea of a single symbol expressing more than one thing at once was millennia in the making. And without that idea, we wouldn’t have such a deep understanding of our world. Vector and tensor calculus offers an elegant language for expressing the way things behave in space and time, and Arianrhod shows how this enabled physicists and mathematicians to think in a brand-new way. These include James Clerk Maxwell when he ushered in the wireless electromagnetic age; Einstein when he predicted the curving of space-time and the existence of gravitational waves; Paul Dirac, when he created quantum field theory; and Emmy Noether, when she connected mathematical symmetry and the conservation of energy. For it turned out that it’s not just physical quantities and dimensions that vectors and tensors can represent, but other dimensions and other kinds of information, too. This is why physicists and mathematicians can speak of four-dimensional space-time and other higher-dimensional “spaces,” and why you’re likely relying on vectors or tensors whenever you use digital applications such as search engines, GPS, or your mobile phone. In exploring the evolution of vectors and tensors—and introducing the fascinating people who gave them to us—Arianrhod takes readers on an extraordinary, five-thousand-year journey through the human imagination. She shows the genius required to reimagine the world—and how a clever mathematical construct can dramatically change discovery’s direction.