Download or read book Technics and Time 1 written by Bernard Stiegler and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a technical object? At the beginning of Western philosophy, Aristotle contrasted beings formed by nature, which had within themselves a beginning of movement and rest, and man-made objects, which did not have the source of their own production within themselves. This book, the first of three volumes, revises the Aristotelian argument and develops an innovative assessment whereby the technical object can be seen as having an essential, distinct temporality and dynamics of its own. The Aristotelian concept persisted, in one form or another, until Marx, who conceived of the possibility of an evolution of technics. Lodged between mechanics and biology, a technical entity became a complex of heterogeneous forces. In a parallel development, while industrialization was in the process of overthrowing the contemporary order of knowledge as well as contemporary social organization, technology was acquiring a new place in philosophical questioning. Philosophy was for the first time faced with a world in which technical expansion was so widespread that science was becoming more and more subject to the field of instrumentality, with its ends determined by the imperatives of economic struggle or war, and with its epistemic status changing accordingly. The power that emerged from this new relation was unleashed in the course of the two world wars. Working his way through the history of the Aristotelian assessment of technics, the author engages the ideas of a wide range of thinkers--Rousseau, Husserl, and Heidegger, the paleo-ontologist Leroi-Gourhan, the anthropologists Vernant and Detienne, the sociologists Weber and Habermas, and the systems analysts Maturana and Varela.

Download or read book The European Supergrid written by Ana Aguado Cornago and published by Claeys & Casteels. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy has always been a potential positive European cooperation and integration factor. Providing zero-carbon power to homes and businesses across the EU will require an open market in electricity, underpinned by both upgraded and new transnational transmission networks. Building this network in time to meet the 2050 challenge will require action now. 'Supergrid' is a European project that will not only integrate the energy markets, but will further contribute to the EU's integration process. Moreover, a European Supergrid will allow Europe to transform its present energy system - still mainly based on fossil fuels - to one that is sustainable, since it will not only be able to optimize all generation (energy mixes) of the Member States, but will integrate all renewable energy sources that Europe wishes to exploit. By doing so, Europe increases its security of supply while diminishing its external dependency, creates new skilled employment opportunities, and gives greater impulse to the new technologies where European companies are currently world leaders. This book will show that the above could be implemented today if there was the political will do so, followed by the implementation of the necessary regulatory instruments. The book will lead readers through the period when the idea of a European Supergrid was just a vision, to the reality of the technological developments that make it possible to have such a transformed energy system in the near future. Europe can afford a transformed energy system. Investing in all these new technologies that can limit global warming to 2 degree C has, of course, a cost, but the cost of doing nothing would be much higher - and not only in terms of money. (Series: European Energy Studies - Vol. 7) Subject: European Law, Energy Law]

Download or read book Science Technology and Society written by Martin Bridgstock and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-03-28 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a comprehensive introduction to the human, social and economic aspects of science and technology. It is broad, interdisciplinary and international, with a focus on Australia. The authors present complex issues in an accessible and engaging form. Invaluable for both students and teachers.

Download or read book The Principle of Reason written by Martin Heidegger and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-22 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Principle of Reason, the text of an important and influential lecture course that Martin Heidegger gave in 1955–56, takes as its focal point Leibniz's principle: nothing is without reason. Heidegger shows here that the principle of reason is in fact a principle of being. Much of his discussion is aimed at bringing his readers to the "leap of thinking," which enables them to grasp the principle of reason as a principle of being. This text presents Heidegger's most extensive reflection on the notion of history and its essence, the Geschick of being, which is considered on of the most important developments in Heidegger's later thought. One of Heidegger's most artfully composed texts, it also contains important discussions of language, translation, reason, objectivity, and technology as well as remarkable readings of Leibniz, Kant, Aristotle, and Goethe, among others.

Download or read book An Introduction to Metaphysics written by Martin Heidegger and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 1999 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains a series of lectures delivered by Heidegger in 1935 at the University of Freiburg. In this work Herdegger presents the broadest and the most inteligible account of the problem of being, as he sees this problem. First, he discusses the relevance of it by pointing out how this problem lies at the root not only of the most basic metaphysical questions but also of our human existence in its present historical setting. Then after a short digression into the grammatical forms and etymological roots of the word "being", Heidegger enters into a lengthy discussion of the meaning of being in Greek thinking, letting pass at the same time no opportunity to stress the impact of this thinking about being on subsequent western speculation. His contention is that the meaning of being in Greek thinking underwent a serious restriction through the opposition that was introduced between being on one hand and becoming, appearance, thinking and values on the other.

Download or read book The Emergence of Complexity in Mathematics Physics Chemistry and Biology written by Bernard Pullman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, some of the world's leading scientists discuss the role of complexity across all the scientific disciplines. Opinions differ: for some, complexity holds the key to a deeper and fuller understanding of the world; to others, it is merely a modern version of the philsophers' stone.

Download or read book The End of Philosophy written by Martin Heidegger and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2003-04-15 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joan Stambaugh's translations of the works of Heidegger, accomplished with his guidance, have made key aspects of his thought and philosophy accessible to readers of English for many years. This collection, writes Stambaugh, contains Heidegger's attempt "to show the history of Being as metaphysics," combining three chapters from the philosopher's Nietzsche ("Metaphysics as a History of Being," "Sketches for a History of Being as Metaphysics," and "Recollection in Metaphysics") with a selection from Vorträge und Aufsätze ("Overcoming Metaphysics").

Download or read book Remaking the World written by Henry Petroski and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1998-12-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science/Engineering "Petroski has an inquisitive mind, and he is a fine writer. . . . [He] takes us on a lively tour of engineers, their creations and their necessary turns of mind." --Los Angeles Times From the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit, feats of engineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big and small. In Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering, Duke University's Henry Petroski focuses on the big: Malaysia's 1,482-foot Petronas Towers as well as the Panama Canal, a cut through the continental divide that required the excavation of 311 million cubic yards of earth. Remaking the World tells the stories behind the man-made wonders of the world, from squabbles over the naming of the Hoover Dam to the effects the Titanic disaster had on the engineering community of 1912. Here, too, are the stories of the personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlantic steamships, to Charles Steinmetz, oddball genius of the General Electric Company, whose office of preference was a battered twelve-foot canoe. Spirited and absorbing, Remaking the World is a celebration of the creative instinct and of the men and women whose inspirations have immeasurably improved our world. "Petroski [is] America's poet laureate of technology. . . . Remaking the World is another fine book." --Houston Chronicle "Remaking the World really is an adventure in engineering." --San Diego Union-Tribune

Download or read book Russia s Agro Food Sector written by Peter Wehrheim and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2000-06-30 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the transition of Russia's agro-food sector from a centrally planned system to a market-oriented one. The text explains the initial conditions of transition, describes measures undertaken, surveys the current situation, and offers perspectives on how best to continue with the reform.

Download or read book Paths of Fire written by Robert M. Adams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-17 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology, perhaps the most salient feature of our time, affects everything from jobs to international law yet ranks among the most unpredictable facets of human life. Here Robert McC. Adams, renowned anthropologist and Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, builds a new approach to understanding the circumstances that drive technological change, stressing its episodic, irregular nature. The result is nothing less than a sweeping history of technological transformation from ancient times until now. Rare in antiquity, the bursts of innovations that mark the advance of technology have gradually accelerated and now have become an almost continuous feature of our culture. Repeatedly shifting in direction, this path has been shaped by a host of interacting social, cultural, and scientific forces rather than any deterministic logic. Thus future technological developments, Adams maintains, are predictable only over the very short term. Adams's account highlights Britain and the United States from early modern times onward. Locating the roots of the Industrial Revolution in British economic and social institutions, he goes on to consider the new forms of enterprise in which it was embodied and its loss of momentum in the later nineteenth century. He then turns to the early United States, whose path toward industrialization initially involved considerable "technology transfer" from Britain. Propelled by the advent of mass production, world industrial leadership passed to the United States around the end of the nineteenth century. Government-supported research and development, guided partly by military interests, helped secure this leadership. Today, as Adams shows, we find ourselves in a profoundly changed era. The United States has led the way to a strikingly new multinational pattern of opportunity and risk, where technological primacy can no longer be credited to any single nation. This recent trend places even more responsibility on the state to establish policies that will keep markets open for its companies and make its industries more competitive. Adams concludes with an argument for active government support of science and technology research that should be read by anyone interested in America's ability to compete globally.

Download or read book East to the Dawn written by Susan Butler and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amelia Earhart captured the hearts of the nation after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1928. And her disappearance on an around-the-world flight in 1937 is an enduring mystery. Based on ten years of research, East to the Dawn provides a richly textured portrait of Earhart in all her complexity. It's the perfect complement to the October 2009 movie Amelia, starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor.

Download or read book Famine in Africa written by von Braun, Joachim and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though famine has affected many parts of the world in the twentieth century, the conditions that produce famine—extreme poverty, armed conflict, economic and political turmoil, and climate shocks—are now most prevalent in Africa. Researchers differ on how to address this problem effectively, but their arguments are often not informed by empirical analysis from a famine context. Broadening current theories and models of development for conquering famine, Famine in Africa grounds its findings in long-term empirical research, especially on the impact of famine on households and markets. The authors present the results of field work and other research from numerous parts of Africa, with a particular focus on Botswana, Ethiopia, Niger, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. With these data, the authors explain the factors that cause famines and assess efforts to mitigate and prevent them. Famine in Africa is an important resource for international development specialists, students, and policymakers.

Download or read book Atomic Physics 19 written by Luis Gustavo Marcassa and published by American Institute of Physics. This book was released on 2005-05-23 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume will provide a nice overview for state of the art atomic physics. The topics and advances are put forth in a clear and concise manner, described by the leading scientists in the field. The conference included a special Nobel symposium covering key topics and directions in atomic physics. Other general topics covered include spectroscopy, time measurement/atomic clocks, cooling and trapping, quantum control, and quantum information. Additional specific topics include antihydrogen experiments and applications of atomic physics to biology and medicine.

Download or read book Wilderness by Design written by Ethan Carr and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carr delves into the planning and motivations of the people who wanted to preserve America's scenic geography. He demonstrates that by drawing on historical antecedents, landscape architects and planners carefully crafted each addition to maintain maximum picturesque wonder. Tracing the history of landscape park design from British gardens up through the city park designs of Frederick Law Olmsted, Carr places national park landscape architecture within a larger historical context.

Download or read book Recarbonization of the Biosphere written by Rattan Lal and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-03-28 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human activities are significantly modifying the natural global carbon (C) cycles, and concomitantly influence climate, ecosystems, and state and function of the Earth system. Ever increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) are added to the atmosphere by fossil fuel combustion but the biosphere is a potential C sink. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of C cycling in the biosphere is crucial for identifying and managing biospheric C sinks. Ecosystems with large C stocks which must be protected and sustainably managed are wetlands, peatlands, tropical rainforests, tropical savannas, grasslands, degraded/desertified lands, agricultural lands, and urban lands. However, land-based sinks require long-term management and a protection strategy because C stocks grow with a progressive improvement in ecosystem health.

Download or read book Protein Turnover and Lysosome Function written by Harold L. Segal and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Protein Turnover and Lysosome Function comprises the proceedings of a symposium under the same title held at the State University of New York at Buffalo on August 21-26, 1977. The book discusses mechanisms of protein turnover, as well as the identification and characterization of intracellular proteases. The text also describes the internalization of macromolecules into the intracellular digestive system; the types of specificity entailed; and the fate of the membrane material involved in the vacuolization process. Biochemists, pathologists, cell biologists, molecular biologists, and physiologists will find the book invaluable.

Download or read book History of Techniques Techniques and sciences written by Bertrand Gille and published by Gordon & Breach Science Publishers. This book was released on 1986 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: