Download or read book Escape from Predicament written by Thomas A. Metzger and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a critique and response to Max Weber's The Religion of China, arguing that sagehood, implying the transformation of the social order, was taken as a personal goal by Neo-Confucians, producing an "extreme ethical tension" that later provided the impetus for modernization-- J. Carmen.
Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.
Download or read book Escape from Predicament written by Thomas A. Metzger and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tradition and Modernity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Question for Twentieth-Century China has been the integration of tradition and modernity. In this collection of essays written over a period of some twenty years (1987-2006), Chen Lai reflects on the question in an informative and original way. He reads behind the political slogans and engages with the thought both of Max Weber, Talcott Parsons and Western sociology, and representative Chinese thinkers, notably Feng Youlan and Liang Shuming. While the focus is on China, the book also appeals to anyone interested in this fascinating question of how to modernise whilst retaining the positive values of tradition. Chen Lai s unique and balanced grasp of society marks him out as the foremost thinker in China on this topic today.
Download or read book The Paris Predicament written by Sasha Lauren and published by Black Rose Writing. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ooh-la-la! This magical first-person novel poignantly captures the quest for love, truth, and meaning in a tumultuous world. Chances are, you know someone like Camille: tenderhearted and ambitious, yet free-as-the-breeze. An American portrait artist in Paris, Camille Portraro leads an enchanting existence until her life forever changes when everything she loves crashes in a flash. Camille’s life is entangled with a foreigner who mirrors lost parts of her life; as the narrative sweeps these strangers together, you will find yourself doing a double take. Sasha Lauren’s dramatic debut novel The Paris Predicament is a playful, thrilling, and unpredictable page-turner; it will take you for a wondrous ride around the world without ever leaving your seat. The whimsical words lilt and roll off the page, beckoning you on.
Download or read book Too Smart for Our Own Good written by Craig Dilworth and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking work explaining our ecological predicament in the context of the first scientific theory of humankind's development.
Download or read book Visions of Ryukyu written by Gregory Smits and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1609 and 1879, the geographical, political, and ideological status of the Kingdom of Ryukyu (modern Okinawa) was characterized by its ambiguity. It was subordinate to its larger neighbors, China and Japan, yet an integral part of neither. A Japanese invasion force from Satsuma had conquered the kingdom in 1609, resulting in its partial incorporation into Tokugawa Japan’s bakuhan state. Given Ryukyu’s long-standing ties with China and East Asian foreign relations following the rise of the Qing dynasty, however, the bakufu maintained only an indirect link with Ryukyu from the mid-seventeenth century onward. Thus Ryukyu was able to exist as a quasi-independent kingdom for more than two centuries—albeit amidst a complex web of trade and diplomatic agreements involving the bakufu, Satsuma, Fujian, and Beijing. During this time, Ryukyu’s ambiguous position relative to China and Japan prompted its elites to fashion their own visions of Ryukyuan identity. Created in a dialogic relationship to both a Chinese and Japanese Other, these visions informed political programs intended to remake Ryukyu. In this innovative and provocative study, Gregory Smits explores early modern perceptions of Ryukyu and their effect on its political culture and institutions. He describes the major historical circumstances that informed early modern discourses of Ryukyuan identity and examines the strategies used by leading intellectual and political figures to fashion, promote, and implement their visions of Ryukyu. Early modern visions of Ryukyu were based on Confucianism, Buddhism, and other ideologies of the time. Eventually one vision prevailed, becoming the theoretical basis of the early modern state by the middle of the eighteenth century. Employing elements of Confucianism, the scholar and government official Sai On (1682–1761) argued that the kingdom’s destiny lay primarily with Ryukyuans themselves and that moral parity with Japan and China was within its grasp. Despite Satsuma’s control over its diplomatic and economic affairs, Sai envisioned Ryukyu as an ideal Confucian state with government and state rituals based on the Chinese model. In examining Sai’s thought and political program, this volume sheds new light on Confucian praxis and, conversely, uncovers one variety of an East Asian “prenational” imagined political/cultural community.
Download or read book Tripod Reverses the Heaven written by Da MoFeiGe and published by Funstory. This book was released on 2020-08-09 with total page 631 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world all the time has the rumor, the demon star appears, the taboo goes out, the heaven and earth big rob! The ancient style is born with the demon star, known as the body of taboo by the world, the source of chaos, by the world...
Download or read book Flowers of Darkness written by Tatiana de Rosnay and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the internationally bestselling author of Sarah's Key comes Tatiana de Rosnay's Flowers of Darkness, a riveting and emotionally intense novel, set in a near future Paris, where a woman confronts past betrayal and present mystery Author Clarissa Katsef is struggling to write her next book. She’s just snagged a brand new artist residency in an ultra-modern apartment, with a view of all of Paris, a dream for any novelist in search of tranquility. But since moving in, she has had the feeling of being watched. Is there reason to be paranoid? Or is her distraction and discomfort the result of her husband’s recent shocking betrayal? Or is that her beloved Paris lies altered outside her windows? A city that will never be quite the same, a city with a scar at its center? Stuck inside, in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, Clarissa enlists her beloved granddaughter in her investigation of the mysterious, high tech building even as she finds herself drawn back into the orbit of her first husband who is still the one who knows her most intimately, who shares the past grief that she has never quite let go. Staying true to her favorite themes—the imprint of the place, the weight of secrets—de Rosnay weaves an intrigue of thrilling suspense and emotional power.
Download or read book Finding God at Harvard written by Kelly K. Monroe and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 1997-09-18 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kelly Monroe presents forty-two compelling testimonies from faculty members, former students, and orators at Harvard University whose reflections explode the myth that Christian faith cannot survive a rigorous intellectual environment.
Download or read book The Art of Escaping written by Erin Callahan and published by Amberjack Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventeen-year-old Mattie has a hidden obsession: escapology. Emphasis on hidden. If anyone from school finds out, she’ll be abandoned to her haters. Facing a long and lonely summer, Mattie finally seeks out Miyu, the reclusive daughter of a world-renowned escape artist. Following in Houdini’s footsteps, Miyu helps Mattie secretly transform herself into an escapologist and performance artist. When Will, a popular athlete from school, discovers Mattie’s act at an underground venue, Mattie fears her secret persona will be exposed. Instead of outing her, though, Will tells Mattie a secret not even his girlfriend knows. Through a blossoming friendship, the two must find a way to express their authentic selves. Told through the perspectives of the witty main characters, this funny and fresh debut explores the power of stage personas and secret spaces, and speaks to the uncanny ways in which friendships transform us.
Download or read book The Middle Works of John Dewey Volume 7 1899 1924 written by John Dewey and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 11 brings together all of Dewey's writings for 1918 and 1919. A Modern Language Association Committee on Scholarly Editions textual edition. Dewey's dominant theme in these pages is war and its after-math. In the Introduction, Oscar and Lilian Handlin discuss his philosophy within the historical context: The First World War slowly ground to its costly conclusion; and the immensely more difficult task of making peace got painfully under way. The armi-stice that some expected would permit a return to normalcy opened instead upon a period of turbulence that agitated fur-ther a society already unsettled by preparations for battle and by debilitating conflict overseas. After spending the first half of 1918-19 on sabbatical from Columbia at the University of California, Dewey traveled to Japan and China, where he lectured, toured, and assessed in his essays the relationship between the two nations. From Peking he reported the student revolt known as the May Fourth Move-ment. The forty items in this volume also include an analysis of Thomas Hobbe's philosophy; an affectionate commemorative tribute to Theodore Roosevelt, our Teddy; the syllabus for Dewey's lectures at the Imperial University in Tokyo, which were later revised and published as Reconstruction in Philosophy; an exchange with former disciple Randolph Bourne about F. Mat-thias Alexander's Man's Supreme Inheritance; and, central to Dew-ey's creed, Philosophy and Democracy. His involvement in a study of the Polish-American community in Philadelphia--resulting in an article, two memoranda, and a lengthy report--is discussed in detail in the Introduction and in the Note on the Confidential Report ofConditions among the Poles in the United States.
Download or read book Questioning Scotland written by E. Bell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-09-20 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning Scotland considers the ways in which Scottish Literature has often been discussed in parochial, essentialist terms. It suggests that Scottish literary studies must now expand its conceptual boundaries in order to account for changes taking place at wider European and global levels. It is literary-based but also scrutinizes the methodological construction process of national traditions. Drawing on wider theories of postmodernism, (post)nationalism and globalism, it will help map the changing nature of national studies and Scottish studies in particular.
Download or read book Freedom as Marronage written by Neil Roberts and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-02-11 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " Freedom as Marronage" deepens our understanding of political freedom not only by situating slavery as freedom s opposite condition, but also by investigating the experiential significance of the equally important liminal and transitional social space "between" slavery and freedom. Roberts examines a specific form of flight from slavery"marronage"that was fundamental to the experience of Haitian slavery, but is integral to understanding the Haitian Revolution and has widespread application to European, New World, and black Diasporic societies. He pays close attention to the experience of the process by which people emerge "from "slavery "to "freedom, contending that freedom as marronage presents a useful conceptual device for those interested in understanding both normative ideals of political freedom and the origin of those ideals. Roberts investigates the dual anti-colonial and anti-slavery Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and especially the ideas of German-Jewish thinker Hannah Arendt, Irish political theorist Philip Pettit, American fugitive-turned ex-slave Frederick Douglass, and the Martinican philosopher Edouard Glissant in developing a theory of freedom that offers a compelling interpretive lens to understand the quandaries of slavery, freedom, and political language that still confront us today."
Download or read book An American Tragedy written by Paul A. Orlov and published by Bucknell University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book's premise is that a novel's ideas about the human drama are not necessarily the same as those its author consciously holds - meaning that a close reading of Theodore Dreiser's artistic portrayal of modern America in An American Tragedy reveals the idea that he transcends the empirical premises of his presumed naturalistic thought to affirm the reality of the self and the importance of selfhood. Based on this crucial premise and intensive analysis of the novel's text, Professor Orlov's study develops an argument offering many original views of the Tragedy's meanings and artistry. There is new light here on the fact that Dreiser sees the subversion of the idea of self in a highly materialistic society as the heart of his characters' tragic experiences. Ultimately, then, this study suggests that An American Tragedy is an antinaturalistic statement about the self's intrinsic importance.
Download or read book Writing written by Celia Hunt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-03-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the writing process and its relationship to self, this guide synthesizes critical and creative theories of writing for both writers and readers. Each chapter links a range of theoretical approaches to one practical aspect of writing, using illustrations from fiction, poetry and literary non-fiction, and suggesting practical exercises for pursuing the topic further. The book will enable students to develop literary, critical and psychodynamic understandings of the creative process and to explore a range of key topics.
Download or read book Escape from Mr Lemoncello s Library written by Chris Grabenstein and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a Nickelodeon Original Movie! Over 100 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List! 44 State Award Lists! Discover what James Patterson calls “the coolest library in all the world” in this fun-filled, action-packed bestseller from the much-loved co-author of I Funny and Treasure Hunters! “A worthy successor to.…Willy Wonka.” —Booklist, Starred Review When Kyle learns that the world's most famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the town's new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on opening night, he's determined to be there! But the tricky part isn't getting into the library—it's getting out. Because when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must solve every clue and figure out every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route! Don't miss bonus content in the back of the book—extra puzzles, an author Q&A, and more! And look for the puzzle-packed sequels—Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics and Mr. Lemoncello’s Great Library Race! “Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at …this solid, tightly plotted read is a winner for readers and game-players alike.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
