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Words of Wisdom: Philosophy's Most Important Quotations and Their Meaning
by Gareth SouthwellWords of Wisdom brings together 360 of Philosophy's most famous quotations, explaining their meaning and telling the stories behind them. Western philosophy may be said to have begun in ancient Greece, where, inscribed in his temple at Delphi, the words of the god Apollo commanded those who sought wisdom to first 'know thyself'. With the author's usual humour and clarity of style, the whole 2,500 year history of philosophy is laid bare. Each quote is set in the context of its cultural background, author biography and general outlook; trends are highlighted, links established, and influences traced, all in a way that is entertaining, thought-provoking, and even fun. Words of Wisdom is the perfect book for those who always wanted to ask what philosophy was about, but were afraid they might not understand the answer.
Words, Space, and the Audience: The Theatrical Tension between Empiricism and Rationalism
by M. BennettIn this unique study, Michael Y. Bennett re-reads four influential modern plays alongside their contemporary debates between rationalism and empiricism to show how these monumental achievements were thoroughly a product of their time, but also universal in their epistemological quest to understand the world through a rational and/or empirical model. Bennett contends that these plays directly engage in their contemporary epistemological debates rather than through the lens of a specific philosophy. Besides producing new, insightful readings of heavily-studied plays, the interdisciplinary (historical, philosophical, dramatic, theatrical, and literary) frame Bennett constructs allows him to investigate one of the most fundamental questions of the theatre - how does meaning get made? Bennett suggests that the key to unlocking theatrical meaning is exploring the tension between empirical and rational modes of understanding. The book concludes with an interview with performance artist Coco Fusco.
Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary
by Thomas Szasz"The human mind abhors the absence of explanation, but full understanding is never possible. Human understanding is likely to be incomplete at best and, more often, utterly fallacious. To make matters worse, it is likely to be supported as truth and wisdom by religious and scientific authority, intellectual fashion and social convention. In Words to the Wise, Thomas Szasz offers a compendium of thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that address our understanding of a broad range of subjects, from birth to death.In this book, Szasz tackles a problem intrinsic to the human condition. What problem? In the words of the American humorist Josh Billings: ""The trouble with people is not what they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."" Many of Thomas Szasz's books have been devoted to exposing what ""ain't so"" about mental illness and psychiatry. Here, Szasz applies the same skeptical spirit to the larger problem of people knowing much that ""ain't so."" About addiction, Szasz observes: ""If a person ingests a drug prohibited by legislators and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves he is an addict; if he ingests a drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves that mental illness is a biomedical disease."" About beauty: ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; ugliness is in the personality of the beholden."" About libertarians: ""Libertarians regard liberty as contingent on the right to property; scientists regard disease as contingent on pathological alteration of the body. All libertarians reject the notion of 'socialist liberty,' yet many accept the notion of 'mental disease.'"" Or about power: ""Many of my critics say I am hostile to medicine and physicians. They are wrong. I am hostile only to the power of the medical profession and of physicians.""Szasz notes that despite enormous social pressure for a shared perspective on how the world works and how we ought to live, every person'saunde"
Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary
by Thomas Szasz"The human mind abhors the absence of explanation, but full understanding is never possible. Human understanding is likely to be incomplete at best and, more often, utterly fallacious. To make matters worse, it is likely to be supported as truth and wisdom by religious and scientific authority, intellectual fashion and social convention. In Words to the Wise, Thomas Szasz offers a compendium of thoughts, observations, and aphorisms that address our understanding of a broad range of subjects, from birth to death.In this book, Szasz tackles a problem intrinsic to the human condition. What problem? In the words of the American humorist Josh Billings: ""The trouble with people is not what they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so."" Many of Thomas Szasz's books have been devoted to exposing what ""ain't so"" about mental illness and psychiatry. Here, Szasz applies the same skeptical spirit to the larger problem of people knowing much that ""ain't so."" About addiction, Szasz observes: ""If a person ingests a drug prohibited by legislators and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves he is an addict; if he ingests a drug prescribed by a psychiatrist and claims that it makes him feel better, that proves that mental illness is a biomedical disease."" About beauty: ""Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; ugliness is in the personality of the beholden."" About libertarians: ""Libertarians regard liberty as contingent on the right to property; scientists regard disease as contingent on pathological alteration of the body. All libertarians reject the notion of 'socialist liberty,' yet many accept the notion of 'mental disease.'"" Or about power: ""Many of my critics say I am hostile to medicine and physicians. They are wrong. I am hostile only to the power of the medical profession and of physicians.""Szasz notes that despite enormous social pressure for a shared perspective on how the world works and how we ought to live, every person'saunde"
Wordsworth's Ethics
by Adam PotkayWhy read Wordsworth’s poetry—indeed, why read poetry at all? Beyond any pleasure it might give, can it make one a better or more flourishing person? These questions were never far from William Wordsworth’s thoughts. He responded in rich and varied ways, in verse and in prose, in both well-known and more obscure writings.Wordsworth's Ethics is a comprehensive examination of the Romantic poet’s work, delving into his desire to understand the source and scope of our ethical obligations. Adam Potkay finds that Wordsworth consistently rejects the kind of impersonal utilitarianism that was espoused by his contemporaries James Mill and Jeremy Bentham in favor of a view of ethics founded in relationships with particular persons and things. The discussion proceeds chronologically through Wordsworth’s career as a writer—from his juvenilia through his poems of the 1830s and '40s—providing a valuable introduction to the poet’s work. The book will appeal to readers interested in the vital connection between literature and moral philosophy.
Wordsworth's Ethics
by Adam PotkayWhy read Wordsworth’s poetry—indeed, why read poetry at all? Beyond any pleasure it might give, can it make one a better or more flourishing person? These questions were never far from William Wordsworth’s thoughts. He responded in rich and varied ways, in verse and in prose, in both well-known and more obscure writings.Wordsworth's Ethics is a comprehensive examination of the Romantic poet’s work, delving into his desire to understand the source and scope of our ethical obligations. Adam Potkay finds that Wordsworth consistently rejects the kind of impersonal utilitarianism that was espoused by his contemporaries James Mill and Jeremy Bentham in favor of a view of ethics founded in relationships with particular persons and things. The discussion proceeds chronologically through Wordsworth’s career as a writer—from his juvenilia through his poems of the 1830s and '40s—providing a valuable introduction to the poet’s work. The book will appeal to readers interested in the vital connection between literature and moral philosophy.
Work: Re-thinking the Question of Work (Routledge Revivals)
by Jan Holmer Jan Ch KarlssonFirst published in 1997, this volume is the result of the third Karlstad symposium which aimed to bring together and reflect current empirical trends and theoretical discussions on the questions: what exactly is happening to work and, consequentially, what should happen to work? This book disseminates contributions from seventeen scientists from eleven countries to a wider audience. It should prove stimulating to postgraduates, researchers, policy-makers and others to encourage further work on conditions both at work and on the labour market.
Work: Re-thinking the Question of Work (Routledge Revivals)
by Jan Holmer Jan Ch. KarlssonFirst published in 1997, this volume is the result of the third Karlstad symposium which aimed to bring together and reflect current empirical trends and theoretical discussions on the questions: what exactly is happening to work and, consequentially, what should happen to work? This book disseminates contributions from seventeen scientists from eleven countries to a wider audience. It should prove stimulating to postgraduates, researchers, policy-makers and others to encourage further work on conditions both at work and on the labour market.
Work
by Lars Fredrik Svendsen"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell Work is one of the most universal features of human life; virtually everybody spends some part of their life at work. It is often associated with tedium and boredom, in conflict with the things we would otherwise love to do. The idea of work primarily as a burden was also shared by the philosophers in ancient Greece, who generally regarded work as a curse. And yet research shows that it prolongs life and is generally good for people’s physical and mental health. Why is this? What is the meaning of work? To what extent does it determine our social identity? Should we expect to find work fulfilling? In this book, Lars Svendsen explores these questions and more. He argues that we need to complete this reorientation of our feelings about work and collapse the differences between leisure and work. Work is always with us. But to overcome the sense of being burnt out, we must think of work as not only productive but recreative – in other words, a lot more like leisure. Revised and updated in light of the global financial crisis, this second edition also includes a new chapter on work and globalization.
Work
by Lars Fredrik Svendsen"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell Work is one of the most universal features of human life; virtually everybody spends some part of their life at work. It is often associated with tedium and boredom, in conflict with the things we would otherwise love to do. The idea of work primarily as a burden was also shared by the philosophers in ancient Greece, who generally regarded work as a curse. And yet research shows that it prolongs life and is generally good for people’s physical and mental health. Why is this? What is the meaning of work? To what extent does it determine our social identity? Should we expect to find work fulfilling? In this book, Lars Svendsen explores these questions and more. He argues that we need to complete this reorientation of our feelings about work and collapse the differences between leisure and work. Work is always with us. But to overcome the sense of being burnt out, we must think of work as not only productive but recreative – in other words, a lot more like leisure. Revised and updated in light of the global financial crisis, this second edition also includes a new chapter on work and globalization.
Work-Based Learning (UK Higher Education OUP Humanities & Social Sciences Higher Education OUP)
by David Boud Nicky SolomonWork-Based Learning
Work-Family Enrichment: A Research Of Positive Transfer
by Charles P. Chen J. SheinThis book aims to promote individuals’ personal and vocational wellbeing through an increased awareness on the invaluable nature of the positive role interaction between work and family contexts. Built upon rich theoretical and empirical evidence in the existing literature, the book presents a research study focusing on the construct of work-family enrichment, one of several constructs representing the positive interdependencies of work and family roles. It illustrates vividly how the psychological process of enrichment takes place, demonstrating movements and correlations between various variables and dynamics in the process. Through a critical eye, findings of the current research contribute to greater understanding of the positive linkages between work and family role participation. The book concludes with a synopsis of the newly expanded, innovative, and comprehensive framework of worklife and family life enrichment, highlighting the implications for theory, research, and practice. Researchers, scholars, and practitioners in various walks of social sciences can benefit form this book, especially those who work in areas of vocational and career psychology, organizational and industrial psychology, health psychology, counselling psychology, human resource management and development, and other related fields. Nevertheless, readers do not have to be experts in these human services realms only. Lay workers across professions can enjoy the insights and intelligence from this book for their own work-family wellbeing.
Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The 'Pathological' Theory of Unemployment (Routledge Revivals)
by Doris SchroederThis title was first published in 2000: Over the past decade the welfare state has come under sustained attack not only from quarters which never approved of its policies, but also from political theorists who used to support it. With the collapse of communism, the policy of comprehensive welfare provision came under renewed scrutiny. It was argued that its impact on work incentives is most detrimental. Examining in detail current unemployment debates within Western welfare states, this book seeks to verify or refute the view that non-work is increasingly chosen by work shy individuals - the 'pathological' theory of unemployment. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives - from social philosophy and the history of philosophy, to occupational psychology and feminist economics - this interdisciplinary analysis reveals that the "pathological" theory of unemployment, with its reliance on a deficient depiction of human nature and its disregard of non-pecuniary work incentives and empirical evidence on benefit fraud, cannot be upheld. Schroeder presents an alternative explanation for the phenomenon of widespread Western unemployment through new insights into an 'external barrier' theory of unemployment, namely technological displacement combined with a refusal to return to a two-tiered Victorian society. By effectively combining empirical data with philosophical deliberations, the book provides an important contribution to the welfare state debate.
Work Incentives and Welfare Provision: The 'Pathological' Theory of Unemployment (Routledge Revivals)
by Doris SchroederThis title was first published in 2000: Over the past decade the welfare state has come under sustained attack not only from quarters which never approved of its policies, but also from political theorists who used to support it. With the collapse of communism, the policy of comprehensive welfare provision came under renewed scrutiny. It was argued that its impact on work incentives is most detrimental. Examining in detail current unemployment debates within Western welfare states, this book seeks to verify or refute the view that non-work is increasingly chosen by work shy individuals - the 'pathological' theory of unemployment. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives - from social philosophy and the history of philosophy, to occupational psychology and feminist economics - this interdisciplinary analysis reveals that the "pathological" theory of unemployment, with its reliance on a deficient depiction of human nature and its disregard of non-pecuniary work incentives and empirical evidence on benefit fraud, cannot be upheld. Schroeder presents an alternative explanation for the phenomenon of widespread Western unemployment through new insights into an 'external barrier' theory of unemployment, namely technological displacement combined with a refusal to return to a two-tiered Victorian society. By effectively combining empirical data with philosophical deliberations, the book provides an important contribution to the welfare state debate.
Work, Inheritance, and Deserts in Joseph Conrad’s Fiction
by Evelyn Tsz ChanThis book focuses on the complex relationships between inheritance, work, and desert in literature. It shows how, from its manifestation in the trope of material inheritance and legacy in Victorian fiction, “inheritance” gradually took on additional, more modern meanings in Joseph Conrad’s fiction on work and self-making. In effect, the emphasis on inheritance as referring to social rank and wealth acquired through birth shifted to a focus on talent, ability, and merit, often expressed through work.The book explores how Conrad’s fiction engaged with these changing modes of inheritance and work, and the resulting claims of desert they led to. Uniquely, it argues that Conrad’s fiction critiques claims of desert arising from both work and inheritance, while also vividly portraying the emotional costs and existential angst that these beliefs in desert entailed. The argument speaks to and illuminates today’s debates on moral desert arising from work and inheritance, in particular from meritocratic ideals. Its new approach to Conrad’s works will appeal to students and scholars of Conrad and literary modernism, as well as a wider audience interested in philosophical and social debates on desert deriving from inheritance and work.
Work, Learning and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges (Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #8)
by John Fien Rupert Maclean Man-Gon ParkThis book is the first that provides a comprehensive overview of the way countries, education systems and institutions have responded to the call for an integration of learning for work, citizenship and sustainability at the Second International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education which was held in Seoul in 1999. Discussions on the central theme of the Seoul Conference - lifelong learning and training for all, a bridge to the future – led to the conclusion that a new paradigm of both development and Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) was needed. This book showcases the wide range of international initiatives that have sought to put such exhortations into practice. It includes: case studies of national TVET policy reforms, reoriented curricula, sustainable campus management programs, and examples of innovative approaches to integrating learning in TVET with on-the-job training and in community service. It also focuses on the issues and challenges being faced and ways of moving forward. Case studies feature initiatives in a wide range of world regions and countries, and include authors from: UK, Germany, Finland, Canada, USA, Australia, South Africa, China, Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media
by Walter BenjaminBenjamin’s famous “Work of Art“ essay sets out his boldest thoughts—on media and on culture in general. This book contains the second, and most daring, of the four versions of the “Work of Art“ essay—the one that addresses the utopian developments of the modern media.
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media
by Walter BenjaminBenjamin’s famous “Work of Art” essay sets out his boldest thoughts—on media and on culture in general—in their most realized form, while retaining an edge that gets under the skin of everyone who reads it. In this essay the visual arts of the machine age morph into literature and theory and then back again to images, gestures, and thought. This essay, however, is only the beginning of a vast collection of writings that the editors have assembled to demonstrate what was revolutionary about Benjamin’s explorations on media. Long before Marshall McLuhan, Benjamin saw that the way a bullet rips into its victim is exactly the way a movie or pop song lodges in the soul. This book contains the second, and most daring, of the four versions of the “Work of Art” essay—the one that addresses the utopian developments of the modern media. The collection tracks Benjamin’s observations on the media as they are revealed in essays on the production and reception of art; on film, radio, and photography; and on the modern transformations of literature and painting. The volume contains some of Benjamin’s best-known work alongside fascinating, little-known essays—some appearing for the first time in English. In the context of his passionate engagement with questions of aesthetics, the scope of Benjamin’s media theory can be fully appreciated.
The Work of Enchantment
by Matthew Del NevoThe Work of Enchantment suggests that it is a lack of "enchantment" in rich, developed countries that causes soul-starved Westerners to experience mental (and sometimes physical) illness. Del Nevo argues that this "enchantment" is most often experienced in childhood, but can also be found in adulthood, particularly through art. However, adults must cultivate within themselves the ability to appreciate art by reading, listening, and gazing-activities often misconceived in advanced industrial societies. Del Nevo describes the framework of enchantment and its philosophical and historical roots. He then concentrates on the work of enchantment within literature, considering what enchantment might entail taking the works of Proust, Rilke, and Goethe as examples. Del Nevo shows how a sense of enchantment forms within and between art works, using his literary examples, as well as between the work and the audience. The reader will learn along the way that enchantment may be found in the power of words, as an expression of the desire of the soul, a compliment of melancholy, and in art that points to something beyond itself. Enchantment may be found in many places, ranging from philosophy, religion, and psychology to sociology and culture, but here Del Nevo focuses on literature. His audience is people who are searching for something beyond money or glamour-perhaps the meaning of art and culture. His focus on literary masterpieces such as the Duino Elegies, Remembrance of Things Past, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, and others will make it of interest to those in cultural studies. Well written and engaging, and accessible to non-specialist readers, this unusual work in philosophy and aesthetics is free of jargon and complicated verbiage. Inspiring and enlivening, it is, in the author's words, "a stirring call to idleness."
The Work of Enchantment
by Matthew Del NevoThe Work of Enchantment suggests that it is a lack of "enchantment" in rich, developed countries that causes soul-starved Westerners to experience mental (and sometimes physical) illness. Del Nevo argues that this "enchantment" is most often experienced in childhood, but can also be found in adulthood, particularly through art. However, adults must cultivate within themselves the ability to appreciate art by reading, listening, and gazing-activities often misconceived in advanced industrial societies. Del Nevo describes the framework of enchantment and its philosophical and historical roots. He then concentrates on the work of enchantment within literature, considering what enchantment might entail taking the works of Proust, Rilke, and Goethe as examples. Del Nevo shows how a sense of enchantment forms within and between art works, using his literary examples, as well as between the work and the audience. The reader will learn along the way that enchantment may be found in the power of words, as an expression of the desire of the soul, a compliment of melancholy, and in art that points to something beyond itself. Enchantment may be found in many places, ranging from philosophy, religion, and psychology to sociology and culture, but here Del Nevo focuses on literature. His audience is people who are searching for something beyond money or glamour-perhaps the meaning of art and culture. His focus on literary masterpieces such as the Duino Elegies, Remembrance of Things Past, Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years, and others will make it of interest to those in cultural studies. Well written and engaging, and accessible to non-specialist readers, this unusual work in philosophy and aesthetics is free of jargon and complicated verbiage. Inspiring and enlivening, it is, in the author's words, "a stirring call to idleness."
The Work of Giorgio Agamben: Law, Literature, Life
by Justin Clemens Nicholas HeronThis collection of essays, newly available in paperback, seeks to explore Agamben's work from philosophical and literary perspectives, thereby underpinning its place within larger debates in continental philosophy.
The Work of Mourning: The State Of The Debt, The Work Of Mourning And The New International (Routledge Classics Ser.)
by Jacques DerridaJacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, "perhaps the world's most famous philosopher—if not the only famous philosopher." He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection that honors those friendships in the wake of passing. Gathered here are texts—letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations—written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabès, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-François Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servière. With his words, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of tact, taste, and ethical responsibility involved in speaking of the dead—the risks of using the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation, personal vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. More than a collection of memorial addresses, this volume sheds light not only on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent French thinkers of the past quarter century but also on some of the most important themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory, and friendship itself. "In his rapt attention to his subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes—how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful work."—Steven Poole, Guardian "Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."—Publishers Weekly
The Work of Teachers in America: A Social History Through Stories
by Rosetta Marantz Cohen Samuel ScheerThis volume presents a complex portrait of the American teacher through a fascinating range of "story" narratives, including fictional short stories, poetry, diaries, letters, ethnographies, and autobiographies. Through these stories, the volume traces the evolution of the teacher and the profession over the course of two centuries -- from the late 1700s to the late 1900s. In depicting the profession over time, the authors include stories by and about both male and female teachers, as well as teachers from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including white, black, Hispanic, Asian-American, immigrant and native-born, and gay and straight. This book offers accessible, comprehensive introductions to both the central ideas associated with each period and to the representative individual stories that are included within it. The volume editors connect each of the parts to earlier and later ones by tracing evolving themes of feminization, teacher activism, conceptions of curriculum and discipline, and issues of multiculturalism. Questions, suggested readings, and activities are offered at the end of each section. Photographs and drawings -- retrieved from state historical archives -- provide telling images of the teacher in each of the four periods.
The Work of Teachers in America: A Social History Through Stories
by Rosetta Marantz Cohen Samuel ScheerThis volume presents a complex portrait of the American teacher through a fascinating range of "story" narratives, including fictional short stories, poetry, diaries, letters, ethnographies, and autobiographies. Through these stories, the volume traces the evolution of the teacher and the profession over the course of two centuries -- from the late 1700s to the late 1900s. In depicting the profession over time, the authors include stories by and about both male and female teachers, as well as teachers from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including white, black, Hispanic, Asian-American, immigrant and native-born, and gay and straight. This book offers accessible, comprehensive introductions to both the central ideas associated with each period and to the representative individual stories that are included within it. The volume editors connect each of the parts to earlier and later ones by tracing evolving themes of feminization, teacher activism, conceptions of curriculum and discipline, and issues of multiculturalism. Questions, suggested readings, and activities are offered at the end of each section. Photographs and drawings -- retrieved from state historical archives -- provide telling images of the teacher in each of the four periods.
The Work of the Sun: Literature, Science, and Political Economy, 1760–1860
by T. UnderwoodAt the end of the Eighteenth century, British writers began to celebrate work in a strangely indirect way. Instead of describing diligence as an attribute of character, poets and novelists increasingly identified work with impersonal 'energies' akin to natural force. Chemists traced mental and muscular work back to its source in sunlight, giving rise to the claim (beloved by Nineteenth-century journalists) that 'all the labour done under the sun is really done by it'. The Work of The Sun traces the emergence of this model of work, exploring its sources in middle-class consciousness and its implications for British literature and science.