Download or read book Virtues for the People written by Geert Roskam and published by Universitaire Pers Leuven. This book was released on 2011 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays addresses Plutarch's writings on practical ethics from different perspectives, including regarding their overall structure, content, purpose, and underlying philosophical and social presuppositions.

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by The Floating Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 824 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James' observation, its divorce from science when studied academically. After publication in 1902 it quickly became a canonical text of philosophy and psychology, remaining in print through the entire century. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."

Download or read book Happiness written by Darrin M. McMahon and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intellectual history of man's most elusive yet coveted goal. Today, we think of happiness as a natural right, but people haven't always felt this way. Historian McMahon argues that our modern belief in happiness is a recent development, the product of a revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century. He investigates that fundamental transformation by synthesizing two thousand years of politics, culture, and thought. In ancient Greek tragedy, happiness was considered a gift of the gods. During the Enlightenment men and women were first introduced to the novel prospect that they could--in fact should--be happy in this life as opposed to the hereafter. This recognition of happiness as a motivating ideal led to its consecration in the Declaration of Independence. McMahon then shows how our modern search continues to generate new forms of pleasure, but also, paradoxically, new forms of pain.--From publisher description.

Download or read book Enemies of the Enlightenment written by Darrin M. McMahon and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, Darrin M. McMahon shows that well before the French Revolution, enemies of the Enlightenment were warning that the secular thrust of modern philosophy would give way to horrors of an unprecedented kind. Greeting 1789, in turn, as the realization of their worst fears, they fought the Revolution from its onset, profoundly affecting its subsequent course. The radicalization - and violence - of the Revolution was as much the product of militant resistance as any inherent logic."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Myth of Achievement Tests written by James J. Heckman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achievement tests play an important role in modern societies. They are used to evaluate schools, to assign students to tracks within schools, and to identify weaknesses in student knowledge. The GED is an achievement test used to grant the status of high school graduate to anyone who passes it. GED recipients currently account for 12 percent of all high school credentials issued each year in the United States. But do achievement tests predict success in life? The Myth of Achievement Tests shows that achievement tests like the GED fail to measure important life skills. James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Tim Kautz, and a group of scholars offer an in-depth exploration of how the GED came to be used throughout the United States and why our reliance on it is dangerous. Drawing on decades of research, the authors show that, while GED recipients score as well on achievement tests as high school graduates who do not enroll in college, high school graduates vastly outperform GED recipients in terms of their earnings, employment opportunities, educational attainment, and health. The authors show that the differences in success between GED recipients and high school graduates are driven by character skills. Achievement tests like the GED do not adequately capture character skills like conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity. These skills are important in predicting a variety of life outcomes. They can be measured, and they can be taught. Using the GED as a case study, the authors explore what achievement tests miss and show the dangers of an educational system based on them. They call for a return to an emphasis on character in our schools, our systems of accountability, and our national dialogue. Contributors Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin–Madison Andrew Halpern-Manners, Indiana University Bloomington Paul A. LaFontaine, Federal Communications Commission Janice H. Laurence, Temple University Lois M. Quinn, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Pedro L. Rodríguez, Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration John Robert Warren, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Download or read book Letter to Menoeceus written by Epicurus and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-08-27 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letter to Menoeceus - Epicurus - Translated by Robert Drew Hicks - Epicurus; 341-270 BC, was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia-peace and freedom from fear-and aponia-the absence of pain-and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods neither reward nor punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space. Epicurus is a key figure in the development of science and scientific methodology because of his insistence that nothing should be believed, except that which was tested through direct observation and logical deduction. He was a key figure in the Axial Age, the period from 800 BC to 200 BC, during which, according to Karl Jaspers, similar thinking appeared in China, India, Iran, the Near East, and Ancient Greece. His statement of the Ethic of Reciprocity as the foundation of ethics is the earliest in Ancient Greece, and he differs from the formulation of utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill by emphasizing the minimization of harm to oneself and others as the way to maximize happiness.

Download or read book On Tyranny written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Tyranny is Leo Strauss’s classic reading of Xenophon’s dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss’s commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss’s restatement of his position in light of Kojève’s commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.

Download or read book Oration on the Dignity of Man written by Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ardent treatise for the Dignity of Man, which elevates Humanism to a truly Christian level. This translation of Pico della Mirandola's famed "Oration," hitherto hidden away in anthologies, was prepared especially for Gateway Editions, making it available for the first time in a stand-alone volume. The youngest son of the Prince of Mirandola, Pico lived during the Renaissance, an era of change and philosophical ferment. The tenacity with which he clung to fundamental Christian teachings while crying out against his brilliant though half-pagan contemporaries made him exceptional in a time of exceptional men. While Pico, as Russell Kirk observes in his introduction, was an ardent spokesman for the "dignity of man," his devout nature elevated humanism to a truly Christian level, which makes his writing as pertinent today as it was in the fifteenth century.

Download or read book Strangers at Our Door written by Zygmunt Bauman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-06-20 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Refugees from the violence of wars and the brutality of famished lives have knocked on other people's doors since the beginning of time. For the people behind the doors, these uninvited guests were always strangers, and strangers tend to generate fear and anxiety precisely because they are unknown. Today we find ourselves confronted with an extreme form of this historical dynamic, as our TV screens and newspapers are filled with accounts of a 'migration crisis', ostensibly overwhelming Europe and portending the collapse of our way of life. This anxious debate has given rise to a veritable 'moral panic' - a feeling of fear spreading among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society. In this short book Zygmunt Bauman analyses the origins, contours and impact of this moral panic - he dissects, in short, the present-day migration panic. He shows how politicians have exploited fears and anxieties that have become widespread, especially among those who have already lost so much - the disinherited and the poor. But he argues that the policy of mutual separation, of building walls rather than bridges, is misguided. It may bring some short-term reassurance but it is doomed to fail in the long run. We are faced with a crisis of humanity, and the only exit from this crisis is to recognize our growing interdependence as a species and to find new ways to live together in solidarity and cooperation, amidst strangers who may hold opinions and preferences different from our own.

Download or read book Using Italian written by J. J. Kinder and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-07 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2002 book is a guide to Italian usage for students who have already acquired the basics of the language and wish to extend their knowledge. Unlike conventional grammars, it gives special attention to those areas of vocabulary and grammar which cause most difficulty to English-speakers. Careful consideration is given throughout to questions of style, register, and politeness which are essential to achieving an appropriate level of formality or informality in writing and speech. It surveys the contemporary linguistic scene in Italy and gives ample space to the new varieties of Italian that are emerging in modern Italy. The influence of the dialects in shaping the development of Italian is also acknowledged. Clear, readable and easy to consult via its two indexes, this is an essential reference for learners seeking access to the finer nuances of the Italian language.

Download or read book The Work of Art written by Gérard Genette and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What art is--its very nature--is the subject of this book by one of the most distinguished continental theorists writing today. Informed by the aesthetics of Nelson Goodman and referring to a wide range of cultures, contexts, and media, The Work of Art seeks to discover, explain, and define how art exists and how it works. To this end, Gérard Genette explores the distinction between a work of art's immanence--its physical presence--and transcendence--the experience it induces. That experience may go far beyond the object itself.Genette situates art within the broad realm of human practices, extending from the fine arts of music, painting, sculpture, and literature to humbler but no less fertile fields such as haute couture and the culinary arts. His discussion touches on a rich array of examples and is bolstered by an extensive knowledge of the technology involved in producing and disseminating a work of art, regardless of whether that dissemination is by performance, reproduction, printing, or recording. Moving beyond examples, Genette proposes schemata for thinking about the different manifestations of a work of art. He also addresses the question of the artwork's duration and mutability.

Download or read book The Problem of Minority Groups written by Louis Wirth and published by Irvington Pub. This book was released on 1993-08-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Exploring the City written by Ulf Hannerz and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1980 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold attempt to provide a coherent and unified theoretical understanding of urbanism that draws upon history, sociology, and geography, to bring intellectual unity to the history and development of urban anthropology.

Download or read book Da Capo written by Graziana Lazzarino and published by Heinle & Heinle Publishers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Seventh Edition of the best-selling intermediate Italian text, DA CAPO, International Edition, reviews and expands upon all aspects of Italian grammar while providing authentic learning experiences (including new song and video activities) that provide students with engaging ways to connect with Italians and Italian culture. Following the guidelines established by the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning, DA CAPO develops Italian language proficiency through varied features that accommodate a variety of teaching styles and goals. The Seventh Edition emphasizes a well-rounded approach to intermediate Italian, focusing on balanced acquisition of the four language skills within an updated cultural framework.

Download or read book The Mother Mantra written by Selene Calloni Williams and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An initiate’s guide to the healing practices, spiritual exercises, and secret rites of the Mother Mantra tradition • Explains the practice of the Mother Mantra, which allows us to overcome subconscious programming, release our fears, and awaken to the dream nature of reality • Includes instructions for the practice of the Egyptian mantra to attract wealth and abundance and the Mystical Marriage Mantra for transformation and rebirth • Presents five spiritual rituals that can be incorporated into daily life to reestablish the universal balance between humanity and the divine Hidden at the heart of nearly all spiritual and esoteric traditions lies the powerful teachings of the Mother Mantra. Its initiates have preserved its consciousness-expanding techniques for millennia. Originating in the ancient practice of shamanic yoga, this tradition allows us to perceive the full complexity of reality. It helps us see both the visible and the invisible, moving beyond the consciousness of duality that limits us to only the material world. Operating in this heightened state of non-ordinary consciousness, we can see beyond our subconscious programming and behavior patterns and understand our possibilities and powers. By removing all fear, it allows you to love yourself exactly as you are. In this spiritual and philosophical guide, initiate Selene Calloni Williams shares the healing practices and spiritual exercises of the Mother Mantra tradition. She explains how these practices bypass the thinking mind to access our higher spiritual consciousness, allowing us to awaken to the dream nature of reality and release us from all fear. She details the exercises and practices of the four-part Mother Mantra: The first series, which dissolves the constructs of the ego; the second, which invokes ancient spirits and deities for their aid in this endeavor; the third, where we experience a divine androgynous tantric union to transcend sexual identity and spiritually fuse with the divine; and the fourth, where the first three rituals are combined to unlock an expanded state of consciousness and a true seeing of the complexity of both the visible and invisible worlds. The author also describes the practice of the Egyptian mantra, a soul-making ceremony that unites the initiate with the Chthonian realms and attracts wealth and abundance, and the Mystical Marriage Mantra, which opens a path to authentic transformation and rebirth. Additionally, Williams presents five spiritual rituals, including yogic poses and exercises, that can be incorporated into daily life to allow divine communication through the chakras, awaken the mind and body from the aging process, and reestablish the universal balance between humanity and the divine.

Download or read book Authentic Happiness written by Martin E. P. Seligman and published by William Heinemann. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the international bestseller, Learned Optimism, comes a ground-breaking look at the nature of happiness and how everyone has the power to inject real joy into their lives. Martin E. Seligman is the international leader of the Positive Psychology Movement. His first trade book, the international bestseller Learned Optimism, greatly influenced the way people thought about mental health by bringing the concepts of cognitive psychology to a mass audience. Authentic Happiness is an even bigger ground-breaker. It represents the first time any scientist has placed value in the study not only of mental illness, but of 'mental wellness.' It's not about curing one's ills, but about exercising one's strengths and virtues in order to achieve what Seligman terms 'authentic happiness.' The life-changing lesson of Authentic Happiness is that, by assessing the very best in ourselves, we can improve the world around us and achieve new and lasting levels of genuine contentment and joy.

Download or read book Complexity in Society From Indicators Construction to their Synthesis written by Filomena Maggino and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-27 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume discusses the many recent significant developments, and identifies important problems, in the field of social indicators. In the last ten years the methodology of multivariate analysis and synthetic indicators construction significantly developed. In particular, starting from the classical theory of composite indicators many interesting approaches have been developed to overcome the weaknesses of composites. This volume focuses on these recent developments in synthesizing indicators, and more generally, in quantifying complex phenomena.