Download or read book Possible Pasts written by Robert Blair St. George and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Possible Pasts represents a landmark in early American studies, bringing to that field the theoretical richness and innovative potential of the scholarship on colonial discourse and postcolonial theory. Drawing on the methods and interpretive insights of history, anthropology, history of art, folklore, and textual analysis, its authors explore the cultural processes by which individuals and societies become colonial.Rather than define early America in terms of conventional geographical, chronological, or subdisciplinary boundaries, their essays span landscapes from New England to Peru, time periods from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century, and topics from religion to race and novels to nationalism. In his introduction Robert Blair St. George offers an overview of the genealogy of ideas and key terms appearing in the book.Part I, "Interrogating America," then challenges readers to rethink the meaning of "early America" and its relation to postcolonial theory. In Part II, "Translation and Transculturation," essays explore how both Europeans and native peoples viewed such concepts as dissent, witchcraft, family piety, and race. The construction of individual identity and agency in Philadelphia is the focus of Part III, "Shaping Subjectivities." Finally, Part IV, "Oral Performance and Personal Power," considers the ways in which political authority and gendered resistance were established in early America.
Download or read book The Possible Past written by Aislinn Hunter and published by Raincoast Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poet Aislinn Hunter asks, What if our writers and artists, scientists and revolutionaries had used other words or media, told other stories, developed alternative assumptions and conclusions? In The Possible Past, she finds tentative answers, expressed in startling, vivid imagery and dark musical rhythms. The book's four sections -- Errors, Inventions; The Progress of History; Public Records, Local Histories; and Field Notes -- speak of its sweep as Hunter's poetic meditation on memory moves magically from the local to the universal.
Download or read book Divine Omniscience and Human Free Will written by Ciro De Florio and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with an old conundrum: if God knows what we will choose tomorrow, how can we be free to choose otherwise? If all our choices are already written, is our freedom simply an illusion? This book provides a precise analysis of this dilemma using the tools of modern metaphysics and logic of time. With a focus on three intertwined concepts - God’s nature, the formal structure of time, and the metaphysics time, including the relationship between temporal entities and a timeless God - the chapters analyse various solutions to the problem of foreknowledge and freedom, revealing the advantages and drawbacks of each. Building on this analysis, the authors advance constructive solutions, showing under what conditions an entity can be omniscient in the presence of free agents, and whether an eternal entity can know the tensed futures of the world. The metaphysics of time, its topology and the semantics of future tensed sentences are shown to be invaluable topics in dealing with this issue. Combining investigations into the metaphysics of time with the discipline of temporal logic this monograph brings about important advancements in the philosophical understanding of an ancient and fascinating problem. The answer, if any, is hidden in the folds of time, in the elusive nature of this feature of reality and in the infinite branching of our lives.
Download or read book Future Past Future Perfect written by Joe Zwickl and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This speculative fiction is based on the discovery of a buried spacecraft of an extraterrestrial civilization. How would such discovery impact our society? Would it cause political and economic instability, change our views of ourselves, alter our values? If we could establish communications, what would we ask them? We would certainly want to know about their planet and how and why they came here. Perhaps we would ask about their concept of God, or whether the universe is even comprehensible? Would it not be fascinating to know how they viewed us or what messages they would wish to convey? These are some ideas explored through this fast paced, thought-provoking story that begins with the discovery of a spacecraft in Israel's Arava Valley and ends in Washington D.C. with an unprecedented discourse between the President and an alien entity. It offers food for thought, hope for our future, and invites the reader to reflect on our civilization from the perspective of an outside observer.
Download or read book Haunting History written by Ethan Kleinberg and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues for a deconstructive approach to the practice and writing of history at a moment when available forms for writing and publishing history are undergoing radical transformation. To do so, it explores the legacy and impact of deconstruction on American historical work; the current fetishization of lived experience, materialism, and the "real;" new trends in philosophy of history; and the persistence of ontological realism as the dominant mode of thought for conventional historians. Arguing that this ontological realist mode of thinking is reinforced by current analog publishing practices, Ethan Kleinberg advocates for a hauntological approach to history that follows the work of Jacques Derrida and embraces a past that is at once present and absent, available and restricted, rather than a fixed and static snapshot of a moment in time. This polysemic understanding of the past as multiple and conflicting, he maintains, is what makes the deconstructive approach to the past particularly well suited to new digital forms of historical writing and presentation.
Download or read book Intelligent Systems Safety Reliability and Maintainability Issues written by Okyay Kaynak and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collection of some of the papers that were presented during a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on "Intelligent Systems: Safety, Reliability and Maintainability Issues" that was held in Kusadasi, Turkey during August 24- 28, 1992. Attendance at this workshop was mainly by invitation only, drawing people internationally representing industry, government and the academic community. Many of the participants were internationally recognized leaders in the topic of the workshop. The purpose of the ARW was to bring together a highly distinguished group of people with the express purpose of debating where the issues of safety, reliability and maintainability place direct and tangible constraints on the development of intelligent systems. As a consequence, one of the major debating points in the ARW was the definition of intelligence, intelligent behaviour and their relation to complex dynamic systems. Two major conclusions evolved from the ARW are: 1. A continued need exists to develop formal, theoretical frameworks for the architecture of such systems, together with a reflection on the concept of intelligence. 2. There is a need to focus greater attention to the role that the human play in controlling intelligent systems. The workshop began by considering the typical features of an intelligent system. The complexity associated with multi-resolutional architectures was then discussed, leading to the identification of a necessity for the use of a combinatorial synthesis/approach. This was followed by a session on human interface issues.
Download or read book Israel in Transition 2 written by Lester L. Grabbe and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Israel in Transition 2 is the second in a two-volume work addressing some of the historical problems relating to the early history of Israel, from its first mention around 1200 BCE to the beginnings of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. During this four century transition period Israel moved from a group of small settlements in the Judean and Samarian hill country to the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, occupying much of the land on the west side of the Jordan. The present volume engages with the relevant texts. These include various inscriptions, such as the Tel Dan inscription and the Assyrian inscriptions, but also an examination of the biblical text. The articles discuss various individual problems relating to Israelite history, but ultimately the aim is to comment on historical methodology. The debate among Seminar members illustrates not only the problems but also suggests solutions and usable methods. The editor provides a perspective on the debate in a Conclusion that summarizes the contributions of the two volumes together.
Download or read book An Anthropological Toolkit written by David Zeitlyn and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting sixty theoretical ideas, David Zeitlyn asks ‘How to write about anthropological theory without making a specific theoretical argument.’ “David Zeitlyn has written a wryly engaging, short book on, essentially, why we should not become theoretical partisans—that, indeed, being a serious theorist means accepting precisely that principle.”—Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University To answer, he offers a series of mini essays about an eclectic collection of theoretical concepts that he has found helpful over the years. The book celebrates the muddled inconsistencies in the ways that humans live their messy lives. There are, however, still patterns discernible: the actors can understand what is going on, they see an event unfolding in ways that are familiar, as belonging to a certain type and therefore, Zeitlyn suggests, so can researchers. From the introduction: This book promotes an eclectic, multi-faceted anthropology in which multiple approaches are applied in pursuit of the limited insights which each can afford.... I do not endorse any one of these idea as supplying an exclusive path to enlightenment: I absolutely do not advocate any single position. As a devout nonconformist, I hope that the following sections provide material, ammunition and succour to those undertaking nuanced anthropological analysis (and their kin in related disciplines).... Mixing up or combining different ideas and approaches can produce results that, in their breadth and richness, are productive for anthropology and other social sciences, reflecting the endless complexities of real life. ...This is my response to the death of grand theory. I see our task as learning how to deal with that bereavement and how to resist the siren lures of those promising synoptic overviews. This book is relevant to anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies and sociology.
Download or read book The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible written by Vlad Petre Glăveanu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-01-25 with total page 1812 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible represents a comprehensive resource for researchers and practitioners interested in an emerging multidisciplinary area within psychology and the social sciences: the study of how we engage with and cultivate the possible within self, society and culture. Far from being opposed either to the actual or the real, the possible engages with concrete facts and experiences, with the result of transforming them. This encyclopedia examines the notion of the possible and the concepts associated with it from standpoints within psychology, philosophy, sociology, neuroscience and logic, as well as multidisciplinary fields of research including anticipation studies, future studies, complexity theory and creativity research. Presenting multiple perspectives on the possible, the authors consider the distinct social, cultural and psychological processes - e.g., imagination, counterfactual thinking, wonder, play, inspiration, and many others - that define our engagement with new possibilities in domains as diverse as the arts, design and business.
Download or read book Time and the Philosophy of Action written by Roman Altshuler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-10 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although scholarship in philosophy of action has grown in recent years, there has been little work explicitly dealing with the role of time in agency, a role with great significance for the study of action. As the articles in this collection demonstrate, virtually every fundamental issue in the philosophy of action involves considerations of time. The four sections of this volume address the metaphysics of action, diachronic practical rationality, the relation between deliberation and action, and the phenomenology of agency, providing an overview of the central developments in each area with an emphasis on the role of temporality. Including contributions by established, rising, and new voices in the field, Time and the Philosophy of Action brings analytic work in philosophy of action together with contributions from continental philosophy and cognitive science to elaborate the central thesis that agency not only develops in time but is shaped by it at every level.
Download or read book Formal Methods in Artificial Intelligence written by Allan Ramsay and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1988 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers the background of classical logic, including the major meta-theorems, and the state of the art in theorem proving.
Download or read book The Simulated Multiverse written by Rizwan Virk and published by Bayview Books, LLC. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do multiple versions of ourselves exist in parallel universes living out their lives in different timelines? In this follow up to his bestseller, The Simulation Hypothesis, MIT Computer Scientist and Silicon Valley Game Pioneer Rizwan Virk explores these topics from a new lens: that of simulation theory. If we are living in a digital universe, then many of the complexities and baffling characteristics of our reality start to make more sense. Quantum computing lets us simulate complex phenomena in parallel, allowing the simulation to explore many realities at once to find the most "optimum" path forward. Could this explain not only the enigmatic Mandela Effect but provide us with a new understanding of time and space? Bringing his unique trademark style of combining video games, computer science, quantum physics and computing with lots of philosophy and science fiction, Virk gives us a new way to think about not just our universe, but all possible realities!
Download or read book The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Social Justice written by David Ruiter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Social Justice is a wide-ranging, authoritative guide to research on Shakespeare and issues of social justice and arts activism by an international team of leading scholars, directors, arts activists, and educators. Across four sections it explores the relevance and responsibility of art to the real world ? to the significant teaching and learning, performance and practice, theory and economies that not only expand the discussion of literature and theatre, but also open the gates of engagement between the life of the mind and lived experience. The collection draws from noted scholars, writers and practitioners from around the globe to assert the power of art to question, disrupt and re-invigorate both the ties that bind and the barriers that divide us. A series of interviews with theatre practitioners and scholars opens the volume, establishing an initial portfolio of areas for research, exploration, and change. In Section 2 'The Practice of Shakespeare and Social Justice' contributors examine Shakespeare's place and possibilities in intervening on issues of race, class, gender and sexuality. Section 3 'The Performance of Shakespeare and Social Justice' traces Shakespeare and social justice in multiple global contexts; engaging productions grounded in the politics of Mexico, India, South Africa, China and aspects of Asian politics broadly, this section illuminates the burgeoning field of global production while keeping as a priority the political structures that make advocacy and resistance possible. The last section on 'Economies of Shakespeare' describes socio-economic and community issues that come to light in Shakespeare, and their potential to catalyse ongoing discussion and change in respect to wealth, distribution, equity, and humanity. An annotated bibliography provides further guidance to those researching the subject.
Download or read book A Past of Possibilities written by Quentin Deluermoz and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of hypothetical turning points in history from Ancient Greece to September 11 What if history, as we know it, had run another course? Touching on alternate histories of the future and the past, or uchronias, A Past of Possibilities encourages deeper consideration of watershed moments in the course of history. Wide-ranging in scope, it examines the Boxer Rebellion in China, the 1848 revolution in France, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and integrates science fiction, history, historiography, sociology, anthropology, and film. In probing the genre of literature and history that is fascinated with hypotheticals surrounding key points in history, Quentin Deluermoz and Pierre Singaravélou reach beyond a mere reimagining of history, exploring the limits and potentials of the futures past. From the most bizarre fiction to serious scientific hypothesis, they provide a survey of the uses of counterfactual histories, methodological issues on the possible in Social Sciences, and practical proposals for using alternate histories in research and the wider public.
Download or read book Time and Causation written by Michael Tooley and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1999 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Introduction to Knowledge Systems written by Mark Stefik and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2014-06-28 with total page 891 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on fundamental scientific and engineering issues, this book communicates the principles of building and using knowledge systems from the conceptual standpoint as well as the practical. Previous treatments of knowledge systems have focused on applications within a particular field, or on symbol-level representations, such as the use of frame and rule representations. Introduction to Knowledge Systems presents fundamentals of symbol-level representations including representations for time, space, uncertainty, and vagueness. It also compares the knowledge-level organizations for three common knowledge-intensive tasks: classification, configuration, and diagnosis. The art of building knowledge systems incorporates computer science theory, programming practice, and psychology. The scope of this book is appropriately broad, ranging from the design of hierarchical search algorithms to techniques for acquiring the task-specific knowledge needed for successful applications. Each chapter proceeds from concepts to applications, and closes with a brief tour of current research topics and open issues. Readers will come away with a solid foundation that will enable them to create real-world knowledge systems using whatever tools and programming languages are most current and appropriate.
Download or read book The Way It Works written by Kathy Pinna and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2006-10-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way It Works is an introduction to the New Era and its belief systems. This guide contains an explanation of the foundation of the world along with excercises that support you in changing your life today.
