Download or read book Political Theory Today written by David Held and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the proper subject matter of political theory? What kind of a theory is political theory? Uncertainty about the most appropriate way of answering these questions provides the key rationales for this volume: to provide a comprehensive overview of the central questions and debates in contemporary political thought and to offer guidelines for the reformation of political theory made necessary by the philosophical and substantive problems it faces today. The twelve essays in this book examine some of the classic traditional questions of political theory: the nature of obligation, equality, liberty, the public, the private, democracy, and justice. They also examine questions that relate these notions to a broader framework encompassing the many recent changes in the nation-state, forms of sovereignty, domestic and international law, violence and warfare, and domestic and international political economy. The contributors are leading scholars in political theory from the United States, Europe, and Africa: Samara Amin, Charles Beitz, Antonio Cassese, John Dunn, Jon Elster, David Held, Agnes Heller, Steven Lukes, Iain McLean, Claus Offe, Susan Moller Okin, Onora O'Neill and Ulrich K

Download or read book Understanding Computers and Cognition written by Terry Winograd and published by Addison-Wesley Professional. This book was released on 1987 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Computers and Cognition presents an important and controversial new approach to understanding what computers do and how their functioning is related to human language, thought, and action. While it is a book about computers, Understanding Computers and Cognition goes beyond the specific issues of what computers can or can't do. It is a broad-ranging discussion exploring the background of understanding in which the discourse about computers and technology takes place. Understanding Computers and Cognition is written for a wide audience, not just those professionals involved in computer design or artificial intelligence. It represents an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about what it means to be a machine, and what it means to be human. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Corrosion of Character The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism written by Richard Sennett and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-02-07 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Business Week Best Book of the Year.... "A devastating and wholly necessary book."—Studs Terkel, author of Working In The Corrosion of Character, Richard Sennett, "among the country's most distinguished thinkers . . . has concentrated into 176 pages a profoundly affecting argument" (Business Week) that draws on interviews with dismissed IBM executives, bakers, a bartender turned advertising executive, and many others to call into question the terms of our new economy. In his 1972 classic, The Hidden Injuries of Class (written with Jonathan Cobb), Sennett interviewed a man he called Enrico, a hardworking janitor whose life was structured by a union pay schedule and given meaning by his sacrifices for the future. In this new book-a #1 bestseller in Germany-Sennett explores the contemporary scene characterized by Enrico's son, Rico, whose life is more materially successful, yet whose work lacks long-term commitments or loyalties. Distinguished by Sennett's "combination of broad historical and literary learning and a reporter's willingness to walk into a store or factory [and] strike up a conversation" (New York Times Book Review), this book "challenges the reader to decide whether the flexibility of modern capitalism . . . is merely a fresh form of oppression" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Praise for The Corrosion of Character: "A benchmark for our time."—Daniel Bell "[A]n incredibly insightful book."—William Julius Wilson "[A] remarkable synthesis of acute empirical observation and serious moral reflection."—Richard Rorty "[Sennett] offers abundant fresh insights . . . illuminated by his concern with people's struggle to give meaning to their lives."—[Memphis] Commercial Appeal