Spectacles and Predicaments PDF Download

Author: Ernest Gellner
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521424349
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
A collection of essays concerned with some key problems in the study of philosophy, politics and society.

Author: Andrew Cambers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521764890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This innovative exploration of Puritan reading practices from c.1580-1720 connects the history of religion with the history of the book.

Author: Gerry Martin
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847651011
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
A narrative history of glass from discovery, through antiquity, the Enlightenment, the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions to the present. It charts the history of the technology but also the enabling effects of glass on such aspects of civilization as experimental science, perspective, astronomy, zoology and all manner of scientific instrumentation - plus the central role of window-glass technology in making the colder north habitable. The authors show how the divergence in glass technology between west and east (China and Japan) explains differential aspects of E/W development. The last chapter develops the intriguing thesis that glass is one of the principal factors in the development of western civilization.

Author: Alan Macfarlane
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226500287
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars, and even electricity probably wouldn't exist. Artists would draw without the benefit of three-dimensional perspective, and ships would still be steered by what stars navigators could see through the naked eye. In Glass: A World History, Alan Macfarlane and Gerry Martin tell the fascinating story of how glass has revolutionized the way we see ourselves and the world around us. Starting ten thousand years ago with its invention in the Near East, Macfarlane and Martin trace the history of glass and its uses from the ancient civilizations of India, China, and Rome through western Europe during the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, and finally up to the present day. The authors argue that glass played a key role not just in transforming humanity's relationship with the natural world, but also in the divergent courses of Eastern and Western civilizations. While all the societies that used glass first focused on its beauty in jewelry and other ornaments, and some later made it into bottles and other containers, only western Europeans further developed the use of glass for precise optics, mirrors, and windows. These technological innovations in glass, in turn, provided the foundations for European domination of the world in the several centuries following the Scientific Revolution. Clear, compelling, and quite provocative, Glass is an amazing biography of an equally amazing subject, a subject that has been central to every aspect of human history, from art and science to technology and medicine.

Author: Donald Wiebe
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 9780773510159
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Donald Wiebe critically examines the pervasive assumption that theology is a form of religious thought that is both compatible with and supportive of religious faith. The irony, he argues, is that theology is in fact detrimental to religion and the religious way of life.

Author: Richard Bauman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195069196
Category : Communication in folklore
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This collection of thirty-seven entries selected from the more than 550 that make up the International Encyclopedia of Communications focuses on expressive forms and practices that are popular and participatory in nature: folklore forms such as folktale and riddle; cultural performances suchas ritual and festival; and popular entertainments such as puppetry and mime. Cross-references within each individual entry facilitate exploration within the volume, while bibliographies appended to each entry direct the reader to related literature. Covering basic concepts, analyticalperspectives, communicative media, expressive genres, and complex performance events, this concise yet comprehensive book is a handy reference for those interested in folklore and its growing role in drama, anthropology, and cultural studies.

Author: James Fernandez
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226244228
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Irony today extends beyond its classification as a figure of speech and is increasingly recognized as one of the major modes of human experience. This idea of irony as an integral force in social life is at the center of this provocative book. The result of a meeting where anthropologists were invited to explore the politics of irony and the moral responsibilities that accompany its recognition, this book is one of the first to lend an anthropological perspective to this contemporary phenomenon. The first group of essays explores the limits to irony's liberating qualities from the constrained use of irony in congressional hearings to its reactive presence amid widening disparities of wealth despite decades of world development. The second section presents irony's more positive dimensions through an array of examples such as the use of irony by Chinese writers and Irish humorists. Framed by the editors' theoretical introduction to the issues posed by irony and responses to the essays by two literary scholars, Irony in Action is a timely contribution in the contemporary reinvention of anthropology.

Author: Jones, David M.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1802209468
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Investigating 20th century Chinese ideology through the two main elements of passionate belief and cultivation of rage, this timely book examines how Maoist thinking has influenced Western politics.

Author: Wolfgang Schluchter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351289829
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Max Weber and Islam is a major effort by Islamic-studies specialists to reexamine and appraise Max Weber's perspectives on Islam and its historical development. Eight specialists on Islam and two sociologists explore many dimensions of Weber's comments on Islam, along with Weber's conceptual framework. The volume's introduction links the discussions to contemporary issues and debates. Wolfgang Schluchter reconstructs Weber's conceptual apparatus as it applies to Islam and its historical development. In subsequent chapters, Islamic specialists consider such major topics as the developmental history of Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic reform, Islamic law and capitalism, secularization in Islam, as well as the value of attempting to apply Weber's concept of sects to Islam. While some authors find flaws in Weber's factual knowledge of Islam, they also find considerable merit in the kinds of questions Weber raised. Contributors to the volume include highly respected contemporary international scholars of Islam: Ira Lapidus, Nehemia Levtzion, Richard M. Eaton, Peter Hardy, Rudolph Peters, Barbara Metcalf, Francis Robinson, Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, and S.N. Eisenstadt. Toby Huff's introduction not only knits the thematics of the separate essays together but adds its own stresses while engaging the contributors in dialogue and debate about fundamental issues. This acute collective analysis establishes a new benchmark for understanding Weber and Islam. This book also provides an up-to-date overview of the developmental history of many aspects of Islam. A major reappraisal of the entire span of Max Weber's sociological thought on Islam, this book will appeal to a wide range of scholars and laymen interested in the Islamic world. It will be of particular interest to sociologists specializing in religion and Middle East area specialists.

Author: Ernest Gellner
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521337984
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Considers human diversity and change and rejects the usual solutions to problems of relativism. Presents a new mode of inquiry in its stead a mixture of philosophy, history, and anthropology that appears to be more meaningful.