Download or read book The End of Illusions written by Andreas Reckwitz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in a time of great uncertainty about the future. Those heady days of the late twentieth century, when the end of the Cold War seemed to be ushering in a new and more optimistic age, now seem like a distant memory. During the last couple of decades, we’ve been battered by one crisis after another and the idea that humanity is on a progressive path to a better future seems like an illusion. It is only now that we can see clearly the real scope and structure of the profound shifts that Western societies have undergone over the last 30 years. Classical industrial society has been transformed into a late-modern society that is molded by polarization and paradoxes. The pervasive singularization of the social, the orientation toward the unique and exceptional, generates systematic asymmetries and disparities, and hence progress and unease go hand in hand. Reckwitz examines this dual structure of singularization and polarization as it plays itself out in the different sectors of our societies and, in so doing, he outlines the central structural features of the present: the new class society, the characteristics of a postindustrial economy, the conflict about culture and identity, the exhaustion of the self resulting from the imperative to seek authentic fulfillment, and the political crisis of liberalism. Building on his path-breaking work The Society of Singularities, this new book will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, politics, and the social sciences generally, and to anyone concerned with the great social and political issues of our time.
Download or read book Go Deeper written by Rick Collingwood and published by Resonanz Recordings Int. This book was released on 2011 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Deeper Illusions written by Annie Jocoby and published by Annie Jocoby. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iris and her beautiful Prince Charming, Ryan, are now married. But the issues facing the two only get more complicated and dark. Iris is finding that being married to a man with such a dark past keeps threatening her present and the couple's future. But the issues from the past do not compare to the devastating issues in the present. A tragic chain of events leads to a possible end of the fairytale... This is a continuation of Beautiful Illusions. End of Illusions, the third and final book in the trilogy, is also available now! This is a full length novel, approximately 100,000 words.
Download or read book Empire of Illusion written by Chris Hedges and published by Knopf Canada. This book was released on 2009-07-28 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.
Download or read book The Science of Illusions written by Jacques Ninio and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A specialist in visual perception, Ninio (Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques, Paris) presents many classic and new illusions, explains the underlying logic of the various types, and suggests their value for neurological and physiological research. He does not provide an index. La Science des Illusions was published in 1998 by Editions Odile Jacob. Philip has translated widely from the French, including an autobiography of Francois Jacob. c. Book News Inc.
Download or read book The End of Two Illusions written by Hamid Dabashi and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-04-19 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dismantling the myths that divide Islam and the West, this cutting-edge work of critical thinking proposes new ways to reread Islamic and world histories. Extending from the front-page news coverage of our daily lives back into the deepest and most revelatory histories of the last two hundred years and earlier, Hamid Dabashi's The End of Two Illusions is a daring, provocative, and groundbreaking work that dismantles the most dangerous delusions manufactured between two vastly fetishized abstractions: "Islam" and "the West." With this book, Dabashi shows how the civilizational divides imagined between these two cosmic binaries have defined their entanglement—in ways that have nothing to do with the lived experiences of either Muslims or the diverse and changing communities scarcely held together by the myth of "the West." Through detailed historical and contemporary analysis, The End of Two Illusions untangles the motivations that produced this global fiction. Dabashi demonstrates how "the West" was an ideological commodity and civilizational mantra invented during the European Enlightenment, serving as an epicenter for the rise of globalized capitalist modernity. In turn, Orientalist ideologues went around the world manufacturing equally illusory abstractions in the form of inferior civilizations in India, China, Africa, Latin America, and the Islamic world. The result was the projection of "Islam and the West" as the prototype of a civilizational hostility that has given false explanations and flawed prognoses of our contemporary history, with weaponized Islamophobia on one side and militant Islamism on the other as its most palpable manifestations. Dabashi argues it is long past time to dismantle this dangerous liaison, expose and overcome its perilous delusions, and reimagine the world beyond its shimmering mirage. The End of Two Illusions is the most iconoclastic work of critical thought and scholarship to emerge in recent memory, clearing the way toward a far more liberating imaginative geography of the world we share.
Download or read book The End of Illusions written by Joe Loconte and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the eve of America's entry into World War II, a fierce debate raged among religious leaders over the United States's participation in the war. In The End of Illusions, Joseph Loconte brings together pieces from the most significant religious thinkers of the day about the responsibilites of America and Europe in the face of Nazi agressions. As America faces a new war on terror, the arguments from half a century ago resonate with renewed passion, clarity, and poignancy.
Download or read book Beautiful Illusions written by Annie Jocoby and published by Illusions. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beautiful Illusions - a page-turning, sexy, and very contemporary adult romance novel. VERY contemporary. Beautiful Illusions is a Cinderella Romance With a Twist - and what a twist it is! Attorney Iris Snowe drinks too much, eats too much, and spends too much. Her sex life has been as spectacularly unsuccessful as her law practice, so she spends her evenings in her tiny apartment watching bad TV, talking to her cat, and rescuing pit bulls. And her name might be Iris, but it should be Jade. As in jaded, which is how she feels about romance and men in general. So, when a gorgeous and sexy stranger appears in her law office on Monday morning, after a one-night stand the previous Saturday, she doesn't think that he is coming to see her because he is interested. She just figures that she left something behind in the room and he is enough of a gentleman to deliver it to her. How wrong she is. As it turns out, Ryan Gallagher not only looks like a Ralph Lauren model come to life, but is also fabulously wealthy, as he is the son of a prominent billionaire. In other words, light years out of Iris' league. And completely into her, in more ways than one. And so begins the erotic Cinderella romance of her life, with a man who truly loves her. And oh, if it could just be that simple. But, of course, it's not -the fairy tale is fractured, as it is marred by obsession, jealousy, and dark secrets that Ryan has desperately sought to conceal and repress. It turns out that, behind those magnificent green eyes, lies the memories of a past that nobody should ever have to experience. Nobody. But when his past becomes his present, his secrets come to light. And one of those secrets just might be deadly... This is a full-length novel, approximately 100,000 words.
Download or read book Inevitable Illusions written by Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini and published by Wiley. This book was released on 1996-11-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fascinating and insightful. . . . I cannot recall a book that has made me think more about the nature of thinking." -- Richard C. Lewontin Harvard University Everyone knows that optical illusions trick us because of the way we see. Now scientists have discovered that cognitive illusions, a set of biases deeply embedded in the human mind, can actually distort the way we think. In Inevitable Illusions, distinguished cognitive researcher Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini takes us on a provocative, challenging, and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the games our minds play. He opens the doors onto the newly charted realm of the cognitive unconscious to reveal the full range of illusions, showing how they inhibit our ability to reason--no matter what our educational background or IQ. Inevitable Illusions is stimulating, eye-opening food for thought.
Download or read book Illusion of Separation written by Giles Hutchins and published by Floris Books. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our modern patterns of thinking and learning are all based on observing a world of 'things', which we think of as separate building blocks. This worldview allows us to count and measure objects without their having any innate value; it provides neat definitions and a sense of control over life. However, this approach also sets humans apart from each other, and from nature.In reality, in nature, everything is connected in a fluid, dynamic way. 'Separateness' is an illusion we have created -- and is fast becoming a dangerous delusion infecting how we relate to business, politi, and other key areas of our daily reality.Giles Hutchins argues that the source of our current social, economic and environmental issues springs from the misguided way we see and construct our world. With its roots in ancient wisdom, this insightful book sets out an accesssible, easy to follow exploration of the causes of our current crises, offering ways to rectify these issues at source and then pointing to a way ahead.
Download or read book Illusions of Emancipation written by Joseph P. Reidy and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As students of the Civil War have long known, emancipation was not merely a product of Lincoln's proclamation or of Confederate defeat in April 1865. It was a process that required more than legal or military action. With enslaved people fully engaged as actors, emancipation necessitated a fundamental reordering of a way of life whose implications stretched well beyond the former slave states. Slavery did not die quietly or quickly, nor did freedom fulfill every dream of the enslaved or their allies. The process unfolded unevenly. In this sweeping reappraisal of slavery's end during the Civil War era, Joseph P. Reidy employs the lenses of time, space, and individuals' sense of personal and social belonging to understand how participants and witnesses coped with drastic change, its erratic pace, and its unforeseeable consequences. Emancipation disrupted everyday habits, causing sensations of disorientation that sometimes intensified the experience of reality and sometimes muddled it. While these illusions of emancipation often mixed disappointment with hope, through periods of even intense frustration they sustained the promise that the struggle for freedom would result in victory.
Download or read book Imperial Illusions written by Kristina Kleutghen and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-06-17 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Forbidden City and other palaces around Beijing, Emperor Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) surrounded himself with monumental paintings of architecture, gardens, people, and faraway places. The best artists of the imperial painting academy, including a number of European missionary painters, used Western perspectival illusionism to transform walls and ceilings with visually striking images that were also deeply meaningful to Qianlong. These unprecedented works not only offer new insights into late imperial China�s most influential emperor, but also reflect one way in which Chinese art integrated and domesticated foreign ideas. In Imperial Illusions, Kristina Kleutghen examines all known surviving examples of the Qing court phenomenon of �scenic illusion paintings� (tongjinghua), which today remain inaccessible inside the Forbidden City. Produced at the height of early modern cultural exchange between China and Europe, these works have received little scholarly attention. Richly illustrated, Imperial Illusions offers the first comprehensive investigation of the aesthetic, cultural, perceptual, and political importance of these illusionistic paintings essential to Qianlong�s world. For more information: http://arthistorypi.org/books/imperial-illusions
Download or read book The End of an Illusion written by Jean De Kervasdoue and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Download or read book Beautiful Illusion written by Christie Nelson and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a brash and beautiful American newspaper reporter, Lily Nordby, falls into a forbidden love affair with Tokido Okamura, a sophisticated Japanese diplomat whom she suspects is a spy, at the Golden Gate International Exposition, a brilliant Mayan art scholar, Woodrow Packard, tries to save her.
Download or read book Geometries of Anamorphic Illusions written by Alessandra Pagliano and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book intends to focus exclusively on anamorphic experiments in contemporary art and design, leaving an in-depth historical examination of its Baroque season to other studies. Themes, languages and fields of application of anamorphosis in contemporary culture are critically analyzed to make the reader aware of the communicative potentiality of this kind of geometrical technique. The book also has the aim to teach the reader the most appropriate geometric techniques for each of them, in order to achieve the designed illusion. Each typology of anamorphosis is accompanied in this book by contemporary installations, a geometrical explanation by means of 3D models and didactic experiments carried on in collaboration with the students of the Department of Architecture in Naples.
Download or read book The Book of Illusions written by Paul Auster and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man's obsession with a silent-film star sends him on a journey into a shadow world of lies, illusions, and unexpected love Six months after losing his wife and two young sons in an airplane crash, Vermont professor David Zimmer spends his waking hours mired in a blur of alcoholic grief and self-pity. Then, watching television one night, he stumbles upon a clip from a lost silent film by comedian Hector Mann. Zimmer's interest is piqued, and he soon finds himself embarking on a journey around the world to research a book on this mysterious figure, who vanished from sight in 1929 and has been presumed dead for sixty years. When the book is published the following year, a letter turns up in Zimmer's mailbox bearing a return address from a small town in New Mexico-supposedly written by Hector's wife. "Hector has read your book and would like to meet you. Are you interested in paying us a visit?" Is the letter a hoax, or is Hector Mann still alive? Torn between doubt and belief, Zimmer hesitates, until one night a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes the decision for him, changing his life forever. This stunning novel plunges the reader into a universe in which the comic and the tragic, the real and the imagined, the violent and the tender dissolve into one another. With The Book of Illusions, one of America's most powerful and original writers has written his richest, most emotionally charged work yet.
Download or read book 101 Helpful Illusions written by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2010-02-25 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 101 Helpful Illusions highlights natural veils waiting to be transcended by disciplined courage, wisdom and insight. Everything in creation has a purpose relevant to a specific situation that could lead the seeker of higher knowledge towards the ultimate spiritual truth of oneness. Thus our egotistic vices can indeed be stepping stones towards acting selflessly, spontaneously, and cheerfully with heightened awareness and good expectations in all situations. Indeed, all our mistakes can lead us towards the desired spiritual awakening - the ultimate purpose in life: experiencing and knowing the universal oneness.
