Download or read book Simplicity and Complexity in Games of the Intellect written by Lawrence B. Slobodkin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If it were necessary, for some curious legal reason, to draw a clear line between human and nonhuman--for example, if a group of australopithecines were to appear and one had to decide if they were to be protected by Fair Employment Laws or by the ASPCA--I would welcome them as humans if I knew that they were seriously concerned about how to bury their dead." In this witty and wise way, Lawrence Slobodkin takes us on a spirited quest for the multiple meanings of simplicity in all facets of life. Slobodkin begins at the beginning, with a consideration of how simplicity came into play in the development of religious doctrines. He nimbly moves on to the arts--where he ranges freely from dining to painting--and then focuses more sharply on the role of simplicity in science. Here we witness the historical beginnings of modern science as a search for the fewest number of terms, the smallest number of assumptions, or the lowest exponents, while still meeting criteria for descriptive accuracy. The result may be an elegant hypothetical system that generates the apparent world from less apparent assumptions, as with the Newtonian revolution; or it may mean deducing non-obvious processes from everyday facts, as with the Darwinian revolution. Slobodkin proposes that the best intellectual work is done as if it were a game on a simplified playing field. He supplies serious arguments for considering the role of simplification and playfulness in all of our activities. The immediate effect of his unfailingly captivating essay is to throw open a new window on the world and to refresh our perspectives on matters of the heart and mind.
Download or read book Homoplasy written by Michael J. Sanderson and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 1996-10-21 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do unrelated organisms sometimes appear almost identical in details of the anatomy, behavior, physiology, and ecology? Homoplasy assembles leaders in evolutionary biology to explore issues of parallelism, convergence, and reversals. This innovative book is certain to provoke discussion of homoplasy compelling evidence for particular theories of evolutionary change - The first book on this increasingly interesting subject - Includes authoritative treatments from leading experts expressing a variety of viewpoints
Download or read book New Essays on the Nature of Legal Reasoning written by Mark McBride and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-05-19 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to bring together distinguished jurisprudential theorists, as well as up-and-coming scholars, to critically assess the nature of legal reasoning. The volume is divided into 3 parts: The first part, General Jurisprudence and Legal Reasoning, addresses issues at the intersection of general jurisprudence - those pertaining to the nature of law itself - and legal reasoning. The second part, Rules and Reasons, addresses two concepts central to two prominent types of theory of legal reasoning. The essays in the third and final part, Doctrine and Practice, delve into the mechanics of legal practice and doctrine, from a legal reasoning perspective.
Download or read book Children s Imaginative Play written by Shlomo Ariel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2002-06-30 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this visit to the wonderland of children's imaginative, make-believe play, readers are be exposed to both a general, bird's-eye view of the whole of this fascinating realm, and to a closer look at its diverse regions. This volume examines the borderlines between make-believe play and akin phenomena such as dreams, drama, and rituals. Readers will become acquainted with the secret codes of make-believe play. These codes are activated in both covert and overt power struggles among children as well as in the child's internal theater of emotions. Readers will have the opportunity to examine these uses by looking at real-life sociodramatic play scenes. Also, the development of make-believe play and its interface with the child's general cognitive and socioemotional development is traced. This volume enables readers to consider children of various cultures at play, and investigates whether make-believe play and its characteristics are universal or culture-specific. Make-believe play has been investigated across fields including cognitive, clinical, developmental, and social psychology, as well as linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. In this book, a comprehensive, integrative model is proposed, in which all of these approaches are synthesized into a single, coherent whole. The unifying hypothesis behind this synthesis is that make-believe play is a semiotic system, a body of signs and symbols, a language by means of which children express themselves and communicate. This language enables children to regulate and balance both their inner emotional life and their social life. Another central hypothesis is therefore that make-believe play functions as an homeostatic feedback mechanism for controlling the level of arousal around the child's central concerns, as well as the level of interpersonal conflict around issues of social proximity and power. Therapeutic and education applications of make-believe play are derived from these hypotheses and their ramifications.
Download or read book Noetics written by Lawrence Krader and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2010 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Noetics is Lawrence Krader's magnum opus, which he began while still an undergraduate philosophy major at the City College of New York in the 1930s. By examining the architectonics of some of the greatest thinkers in history - Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Husserl among others - as works of art combining myth, speculation and empirical science, Krader tackles one of the central problems of the philosophy of science: what is science and how does it relate to human thinking and knowing more generally. Building on his theories concerning the different orders of nature adumbrated in his Labor and Value (2003), he follows not only the lines of development of the three fields of science corresponding to three orders of nature (material, quantum, and human) but also examines the development of all three as human processes and products. Krader takes up the relations of thinking and knowing in conjunction with emotions, feelings and judgment and examines the processes of abstraction as one of the key and unique features of human being and knowing. He proposes noetics as a science of thinking and knowing and establishes its relation to the natural sciences, the human sciences, and the arts. The breadth and depth of Krader's scholarship is stunning and evokes Spinoza's thought that «all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.»
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Policy Studies Second Edition written by Stuart Nagel and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 1094 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This entirely updated and enlarged Second Edition of a landmark reference/text continues to provide comprehensive coverage of every important aspect of policy studies--discussing concepts, methods, utilization, formation, and implementation both internationally and across each level of government."
Download or read book Advances in Artificial Life written by Dario Floreano and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-10-23 with total page 743 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No matter what your perspective is, what your goals are, or how experienced you are, Artificial Life research is always a learning experience. The variety of phe nomena that the people who gathered in Lausanne reported and discussed for the fifth time since 1991 at the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) has not been programmed, crafted, or assembled by analytic design. It has evolved, emerged, or appeared spontaneously from a process of artificial evolution, se- organisation, or development. Artificial Life is a field where biological and artificial sciences meet and blend together, where the dynamics of biological life are reproduced in the memory of computers, where machines evolve, behave, and communicate like living organ isms, where complex life-like entities are synthesised from electronic chromo somes and artificial chemistries. The impact of Artificial Life in science, phi losophy, and technology is tremendous. Over the years the synthetic approach has established itself as a powerful method for investigating several complex phenomena of life. From a philosophical standpoint, the notion of life and of in telligence is continuously reformulated in relation to the dynamics of the system under observation and to the embedding environment, no longer a privilege of carbon-based entities with brains and eyes. At the same time, the possibility of engineering machines and software with life-like properties such as evolvability, self-repair, and self-maintainance is gradually becoming reality, bringing new perspectives in engineering and applications.
Download or read book A Philosophy of Simple Living written by Jérôme Brillaud and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, “simple living” is a rallying cry for anti-consumerists, environmentalists, and anyone concerned with humanity’s effect on the planet. But what is so revolutionary about a simple life? And why are we so fascinated with simplicity today? A Philosophy of Simple Living charts the ideas, motivations, and practices of simplicity from antiquity to the present day. Bringing together an array of people, practices, and movements, from Henry David Thoreau to Steve Jobs, and from Cynics and Shakers to the “slow movement,” voluntary simplicity, and degrowth, this book is as comprehensive as it is concise. Written in elegant, spare prose, A Philosophy of Simple Living will be of great benefit to all who wish to declutter and pare back their complicated, modern lives.
Download or read book Future Worlds of Social Science written by Lawrence Hazelrigg and published by Ethics International Press. This book was released on 2023-11-25 with total page 691 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the possible future worlds of social science? How do these prospects compare with recent conclusions that social science “is generally a non-factor in policy debates and irrelevant to the lives of a host of real-world people,” as a well-known sociologist reported in the centennial volume of the American Sociological Association? This substantial study covers history, art and aesthetics, identity and the self, in seeking an answer to the question of ‘Future Worlds’.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy written by Michael Moran and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-06-13 with total page 1000 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science is a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. Each volume focuses on a particular part of the discipline, with volumes on Public Policy, Political Theory, Political Economy, Contextual Political Analysis, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Law and Politics, Political Behavior, Political Institutions, and Political Methodology. The project as a whole is under the General Editorship of Robert E. Goodin, with each volume being edited by a distinguished international group of specialists in their respective fields. The books set out not just to report on the discipline, but to shape it. The series will be an indispensable point of reference for anyone working in political science and adjacent disciplines. Public policy is the business end of political science. It is where theory meets practice in the pursuit of the public good. Political scientists approach public policy in myriad ways. Some approach the policy process descriptively, asking how the need for public intervention comes to be perceived, a policy response formulated, enacted, implemented, and, all too often, subverted, perverted, altered, or abandoned. Others approach public policy more prescriptively, offering politically-informed suggestions for how normatively valued goals can and should be pursued, either through particular policies or through alternative processes for making policy. Some offer their advice from the Olympian heights of detached academic observers, others as 'engaged scholars' cum advocates, while still others seek to instil more reflective attitudes among policy practitioners themselves toward their own practices. The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy mines all these traditions, using an innovative structure that responds to the very latest scholarship. Its chapters touch upon institutional and historical sources and analytical methods, how policy is made, how it is evaluated and how it is constrained. In these ways, the Handbook shows how the combined wisdom of political science as a whole can be brought to bear on political attempts to improve the human condition.
Download or read book Epistemics of the Virtual written by Johan F. Hoorn and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proposing a new theory of fiction, this work reviews the confusion about perceived realism, metaphor, virtual worlds and the seemingly obvious distinction between what is true and what is false. The rise of new media, new technology, and creative products and services requires a new examination of what ‘real’ friends are, to what extent scientific novelty is ‘true’, and whether online content is merely ‘figurative’. In this transdisciplinary theory the author evaluates cognitive theories, philosophical discussion, and topics in biology and physics, and places these in the frameworks of computer science and literary theory. The interest of the reader is continuously challenged on matters of truth, fiction, and the shakiness of our belief systems.
Download or read book People and Computers X written by M. A. R. Kirby and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-10-12 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is concerned with every aspect of the relationship between computers and people (individuals, groups and society). The annual meeting of the British Computer Society's HCI group is recognized as one of the main venues for discussing recent trends and issues. This volume contains refereed papers and reports from the 1995 meeting. The materials cover a broad range of HCI related topics, including visualization, computer supported communication, task analysis, formal methods, user support and cyberspace. The documents consider both research and commercial perspectives, making the book essential for all researchers, designers and manufacturers who need to keep abreast of developments in HCI.
Download or read book Darwin s Fishes written by Daniel Pauly and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Darwin's Fishes, Daniel Pauly presents an encyclopaedia of ichthyology, ecology and evolution, based upon everything that Charles Darwin ever wrote about fish. Entries are arranged alphabetically and can be about, for example, a particular fish taxon, an anatomical part, a chemical substance, a scientist, a place, or an evolutionary or ecological concept. The reader can start wherever they like and are then led by a series of cross-references on a fascinating voyage of interconnected entries, each indirectly or directly connected with original writings from Darwin himself. Along the way, the reader is offered interpretation of the historical material put in the context of both Darwin's time and that of contemporary biology and ecology. This book is intended for anyone interested in fishes, the work of Charles Darwin, evolutionary biology and ecology, and natural history in general.
Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Corporate Sustainability in the Digital Era written by Seung Ho Park and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook addresses the intersection between corporate sustainability and digital transformation. It analyzes the challenges and transformations required to be able to have sustainable businesses with a future orientation. Topics include current and potential social, demographic, technological, and managerial trends; the implications of the digital revolution in society and business; as well as the challenges of being sustainable, and profitable. Providing an understanding of the business reasons to incorporate a future orientation into the business strategy, this handbook facilitates an understanding of the need for profound changes in individual behavior, organizational culture, public policy, and business environments to adapt to the accelerated changes and manage business with orientation to the future.
Download or read book Research Anthology on Business and Technical Education in the Information Era written by Management Association, Information Resources and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2021-01-08 with total page 1448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fourth Industrial Revolution has disrupted businesses worldwide through the introduction of highly automated processes. This disruption has affected the way in which companies conduct business, impacting everything from managerial styles to resource allocations to necessary new skillsets. As the business world continues to change and evolve, it is imperative that business education strategies are continuously revised and updated in order to adequately prepare students who will be entering the workforce as future entrepreneurs, executives, and marketers, among other careers. The Research Anthology on Business and Technical Education in the Information Era is a vital reference source that examines the latest scholarly material on pedagogical approaches in finance, management, marketing, international business, and other fields. It also explores the implementation of curriculum development and instructional design strategies for technical education. Highlighting a range of topics such as business process management, skill development, and educational models, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for business managers, business and technical educators, entrepreneurs, academicians, upper-level students, and researchers.
Download or read book Evolutionary Ethics written by Matthew H. Nitecki and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1993-07-16 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume analyzes the biological and philosophical disagreements in evolutionary ethics and points out difficulties with the interpretations. The book is divided into four sections. The first is an historical introduction to the origin of evolutionary ethics, showing how different evolutionary ethics was a hundred years ago, and how distant Huxley is from most of us now. The second section argues for a sociobiological interpretation of evolutionary ethics. The third section presents the view opposite to that of the second section and rejects the sociobiological interpretation. The fourth section deals objectively with many complex and fundamental issues from diverse perspectives.
Download or read book Gaither s Dictionary of Scientific Quotations written by Carl C. Gaither and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-08 with total page 1895 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists and other keen observers of the natural world sometimes make or write a statement pertaining to scientific activity that is destined to live on beyond the brief period of time for which it was intended. This book serves as a collection of these statements from great philosophers and thought–influencers of science, past and present. It allows the reader quickly to find relevant quotations or citations. Organized thematically and indexed alphabetically by author, this work makes readily available an unprecedented collection of approximately 18,000 quotations related to a broad range of scientific topics.
