polity press jun 2024 (16 Ergebnisse)

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - As a writer, poet, musician and dissident, Liao Yiwu is one of the most important chroniclers and analysts of contemporary China. In his books, he draws on his own experiences of imprisonment and mistreatment at the hands of the Chinese state to criticise abuses of power and give a voice to the downtrodden and disenfranchised.In this powerful memoir, Liao Yiwu reflects on his own journey from imprisonment in Sichuan to his current life in Berlin, where he now works as a full-time writer. As China's presence and influence on the international stage grows, this small book is a poignant reminder of the human cost of authoritarianism and of the power of the written word to bear witness to evil.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - What is at stake in that form of inquiry that the western philosophical tradition has called 'first philosophy' or 'metaphysics' Is it an abstract, now outmoded branch of philosophy, or does it address a problem that is still of great interest - namely the unity of western knowledge In fact, metaphysics is 'first' only in relation to the other two sciences that Aristotle called 'theoretical': the study of nature (phusik) and mathematics. It is the strategic sense of this 'primacy' that needs to be examined, because what is at issue here is nothing less than the relationship - of domination or subservience, conflict or harmony - between philosophy and science. The hypothesis of this book is that philosophy's attempt to use metaphysics as a way of securing primacy among the sciences has resulted instead in its subservience: philosophy, once handmaiden to theology (ancilla theologiae), has now become more or less consciously handmaiden to the sciences (ancilla scientiarum). So it is all the more urgent to explore the nature and limits of this primacy and subservience, which is what the present book does through an archaeological investigation of metaphysics.This important rereading of the western philosophical tradition by a leading thinker will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, critical theory and the humanities more generally, and to anyone interested in contemporary philosophy and European thought.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Since the beginning of the 21st century, global warming, terrorism, the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine have created a widespread feeling that the world is an increasingly dangerous place. In response to this situation, it is understandable that many people are inclined to retreat to the safety of their home - the last refuge and safeguard against the savagery of the outside world. But the home is not just a shelter: it is a space that supplants and replaces the world, a wired cocoon that gradually renders any journey to the outside world superfluous.From our couch, we can enjoy remotely the pleasures once offered by the cinema, the theatre and the café. Everything, from food to love to art, can be delivered to your door. Armed with a smartphone and a Netflix account, why would anyone risk life and limb to venture out to the cinema Compulsory confinement, the nightmare of the pandemic years, seems to have been replaced by voluntary self-confinement. Fleeing from the cities, working remotely, relinquishing travel and tourism, we risk becoming reclusive creatures that cower at the slightest tremor.In this witty and spirited book, Pascal Bruckner takes aim at today's voluntary seclusionism and the self-inflicted atrophy that comes with it, tracing its philosophical contours and historical roots. It is no longer the tyranny of lockdowns that threatens us but rather the tyranny of the sofa: will the slipper and the dressing gown be the new symbols of tomorrow's world.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Labour leader Harold Wilson was once asked how difficult he found being prime minister of the United Kingdom. 'Not half as difficult as being Leader of the Opposition', he replied. Sadly for the Labour Party, much of the last century has been spent in shadow government. But were these wasted years in the Party's history Or did they offer vital opportunities for creation and improvement In Keeping the Red Flag Flying political historians Mark Garnett, Gavin Hyman and Richard Johnson offer the first in-depth account of Labour's periods out of office since becoming the Official Opposition in 1922. They argue that, far from being barren periods in the Party's history, Labour's opposition years from MacDonald to Starmer have been undervalued and misunderstood. Across the book's eight chapters they scrutinise Labour's approach to reforming the party machinery, its development of policy proposals, its success in appealing to the wider electorate and its skill in opposing the government to identify the key hallmarks of successful opposition, as well as common mistakes. As the Labour Party prepares for a long-awaited return to government, this insightful book on Labour's past has vital lessons for the Party's future.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The world is never going to make complete sense to us, yet we find that conclusion almost impossible to accept. Can we live, and feel at home, in a world composed at best of incompatible fragments of meaning This is the theme that runs through this collection of essays by Raymond Geuss. Drawing on a characteristically wide range of insights from moral and political philosophy, history, and aesthetics, he addresses topics such as knowledge (of self, the world, and others), language, the visual and the auditory, authority, hope, and the success and failure of life projects. He argues that, to get by in our bewildering world, we must embrace the virtue of 'double vision': that is, immersing ourselves in and learning the ways of the culture surrounding us, even as we feel alienated from it. Together the essays explore some of the consequences of abandoning the idea of a unitary view of the world, while at the same time trying to avoid quietism.Seeing Double is a compelling collection of work by one of the world's most versatile and creative philosophers.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Revolutionary humanist and radical psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was one of the greatest Black thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Martinique and known for his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, his seminal books Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth are widely considered to be cornerstones of anti-colonial and anti-racist thought.In this essential introduction to Fanon's remarkable life and philosophy, Nigel C. Gibson argues that Fanon's oeuvre is essential to thinking about race today. Connecting Fanon's writing, psychiatric practice, and lived experience in the Caribbean, France, and Africa, Gibson reveals (with startling clarity) his philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Despite his untimely death, the revolutionary pulse of Fanon's ideas has continued to beat ever more strongly in the consciousness of successive revolutionary generations, from the Black Panthers and the Black Power to Black Lives Matter.As Fanon's thought comes alive to new activists thinking about their mission to 'humanize the world,' Gibson reminds us that that Fanon's revolutionary humanism is fundamental to all forms of anti-colonial struggle, including our own.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The modern bathroom is an ingenious compilation of locked doors, smooth porcelain, 4-ply tissue and antibacterial hand soap, but despite this miracle of indoor plumbing, we still can't bear the thought that anyone else should know that our bodies produce waste. Why must we live by the rules of this intense scatological embarrassment In Spectacles of Waste, leading historian of medicine Warwick Anderson reveals how human excrement has always complicated humanity's attempts to become modern. From wastewater epidemiology and sewage snooping to fecal transplants and excremental art, he argues that our insistence on separating ourselves from our bodily waste has fundamentally shaped our philosophies, social theories, literature and art--even the emergence of high-tech science as we understand it today.Written with verve and aplomb, Anderson's expert analysis reveals how in recent years, humanity has doubled down on abstracting and datafying our most abject waste, and unconsciously underlined its biopolitical signature across our lives.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - In response to the damage caused by centuries of colonial ravaging and the current ecological, political and social crises, the leading Indigenous thinker and activist Ailton Krenak warns against the power of corporate capitalism and its destructive impact.Capitalism encroaches on every corner of the planet and orients us toward a future of promised progress, achievement and growth, but this future doesn't exist - we just imagine it. This orientation to the future also blinds us to what exists around us, to the plants and animals with which we share the Earth and to the rivers that flow through our lands. Rivers are not just resources to be exploited by us or channels to carry away our waste, they are beings that connect us with our past. If there is a future to imagine, it is ancestral, since it is already present in the here and now and in that which exists around us, in the rivers and mountains and trees that are our kin.In a spoken language that has the mark of ancestral oral wisdom, Krenak offers a new perspective that challenges and disrupts some of the assumptions that underpin Western attitudes and mentalities. His work will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the climate crisis and the worsening plight of our planet.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - From ancient philosophy to contemporary theories of fiction, it is a common practice to relegate illusory appearances to the realm of the non-existent, like shadows on the wall of Plato's cave. Contrary to this traditional mode of drawing a metaphysical distinction between reality and fiction, Markus Gabriel argues that the realm of the illusory, fictional, imaginary and conceptually indeterminate is as real as it gets.Being in touch with reality need not and cannot require that we overcome appearances in order to grasp a meaningless reality which exists 'out there', outside and maybe even beyond our minds. Human mindedness (Geist) exists in the mode of fictions through which we achieve self-consciousness. This novel approach provides a fresh perspective on our existence as subjects who lead their lives in the light of self-conceptions.Fictions also develops a social ontology according to which the social unfolds as a constant renegotiation of dissent, of different points of view onto the same reality. Thus we cannot ever hope to ground human society in a fiction-free realm of objective transactions. However, this does not mean that truth and reality are somehow outdated concepts. On the contrary, we need to enlarge our conception of reality so that it fully encompasses ourselves as specifically minded social animals.This major new work of philosophy will be of interest to students and scholars throughout the humanities and to anyone interested in contemporary philosophy and social thought.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The modern bathroom is an ingenious compilation of locked doors, smooth porcelain, 4-ply tissue and antibacterial hand soap, but despite this miracle of indoor plumbing, we still can't bear the thought that anyone else should know that our bodies produce waste. Why must we live by the rules of this intense scatological embarrassment In Spectacles of Waste, leading historian of medicine Warwick Anderson reveals how human excrement has always complicated humanity's attempts to become modern. From wastewater epidemiology and sewage snooping to fecal transplants and excremental art, he argues that our insistence on separating ourselves from our bodily waste has fundamentally shaped our philosophies, social theories, literature and art--even the emergence of high-tech science as we understand it today.Written with verve and aplomb, Anderson's expert analysis reveals how in recent years, humanity has doubled down on abstracting and datafying our most abject waste, and unconsciously underlined its biopolitical signature across our lives.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - What is at stake in that form of inquiry that the western philosophical tradition has called 'first philosophy' or 'metaphysics' Is it an abstract, now outmoded branch of philosophy, or does it address a problem that is still of great interest - namely the unity of western knowledge In fact, metaphysics is 'first' only in relation to the other two sciences that Aristotle called 'theoretical': the study of nature (phusik) and mathematics. It is the strategic sense of this 'primacy' that needs to be examined, because what is at issue here is nothing less than the relationship - of domination or subservience, conflict or harmony - between philosophy and science. The hypothesis of this book is that philosophy's attempt to use metaphysics as a way of securing primacy among the sciences has resulted instead in its subservience: philosophy, once handmaiden to theology (ancilla theologiae), has now become more or less consciously handmaiden to the sciences (ancilla scientiarum). So it is all the more urgent to explore the nature and limits of this primacy and subservience, which is what the present book does through an archaeological investigation of metaphysics.This important rereading of the western philosophical tradition by a leading thinker will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy, critical theory and the humanities more generally, and to anyone interested in contemporary philosophy and European thought.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The planet is in crisis. Time is short, but it is still possible to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions before disaster overtakes us all.Renowned philosopher Robin Attfield explains the moral reasons for urgent action based on current harms, threats to future generations, and to the species with which we share the planet. In compelling and student-friendly prose, he explores the science of climate change, biodiversity loss and air pollution, climate injustices, political implications of the crisis, and possible responses. Among other things, he argues that measures to introduce climate justice should be paid for by countries able to pay, and by the big polluters in particular. The recently agreed Loss and Damage fund can play a central part in climate funding. Related political measures, such as the introduction of Ecocide as an international crime alongside war crimes, also give cause for hope.Attfield's passionately argued twentieth book, The Ethics of the Climate Crisis, is crucial reading for our times.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Labour leader Harold Wilson was once asked how difficult he found being prime minister of the United Kingdom. 'Not half as difficult as being Leader of the Opposition', he replied. Sadly for the Labour Party, much of the last century has been spent in shadow government. But were these wasted years in the Party's history Or did they offer vital opportunities for creation and improvement In Keeping the Red Flag Flying political historians Mark Garnett, Gavin Hyman and Richard Johnson offer the first in-depth account of Labour's periods out of office since becoming the Official Opposition in 1922. They argue that, far from being barren periods in the Party's history, Labour's opposition years from MacDonald to Starmer have been undervalued and misunderstood. Across the book's eight chapters they scrutinise Labour's approach to reforming the party machinery, its development of policy proposals, its success in appealing to the wider electorate and its skill in opposing the government to identify the key hallmarks of successful opposition, as well as common mistakes. As the Labour Party prepares for a long-awaited return to government, this insightful book on Labour's past has vital lessons for the Party's future.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - We are inclined to assume that digital technologies have suddenly revolutionized everything - including our relationships, our forms of work and leisure, and even our democracies - in just a few years. Armin Nassehi puts forward a new theory of digital society that turns this assumption on its head. Rather than treating digital technologies as an independent causal force that is transforming social life, he asks: what problem does digitalization solve When we pose the question in this way, we can see, argues Nassehi, that digitalization helps societies to deal with and reduce complexity by using coded numbers to process information. We can also see that modern societies had a digital structure long before computer technologies were developed - already in the nineteenth century, for example, statistical pattern recognition technologies were being used in functionally differentiated societies in order to recognize, monitor and control forms of human behaviour. Digital technologies were so successful in such a short period of time and were able to penetrate so many areas of society so quickly precisely because of a pre-existing sensitivity that prepared modern societies for digital development.This highly original book lays the foundations for a theory of the digital society that will be of value to everyone interested in the growing presence of digital technologies in our lives.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Being Philosophical guides readers through the perplexing initial moments of meeting philosophy by taking them inside philosophical thinking as an activity.In a beginner-friendly voice, Stephen Hetherington elucidates how intellectual 'tools' from a diversity of traditions, East and West, can enable us to start doing philosophy - that is, to think 'from scratch' in a philosophical way. He explores many classical topics and issues that have preoccupied philosophers from Plato, early Buddhists and Confucius to Karl Marx and beyond - selves, souls, identity, will, knowing and reasoning, acting morally, and more - and presents possible methods for responding to different theories.Inviting and conversational, Being Philosophical is the book needed by every new philosophy student - or anyone wondering whether they might want to explore the world of philosophy.

Buch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - Revolutionary humanist and radical psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was one of the greatest Black thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Martinique and known for his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, his seminal books Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth are widely considered to be cornerstones of anti-colonial and anti-racist thought.In this essential introduction to Fanon's remarkable life and philosophy, Nigel C. Gibson argues that Fanon's oeuvre is essential to thinking about race today. Connecting Fanon's writing, psychiatric practice, and lived experience in the Caribbean, France, and Africa, Gibson reveals (with startling clarity) his philosophical commitments and the vision of revolution that he stood for. Despite his untimely death, the revolutionary pulse of Fanon's ideas has continued to beat ever more strongly in the consciousness of successive revolutionary generations, from the Black Panthers and the Black Power to Black Lives Matter.As Fanon's thought comes alive to new activists thinking about their mission to 'humanize the world,' Gibson reminds us that that Fanon's revolutionary humanism is fundamental to all forms of anti-colonial struggle, including our own.