Bookpedia : Library WWWisdom : Author : W

Summary: A colleague and I chose this book as our "science selection" for our freshman studies classes at a small private college in the midwest. It's been a great choice. De Waal's approach is careful and considered; he is able to talk about ethics among non-human primates without anthropomorphizing. Even better, unlike some of his predecessors in what he calls "classical sociobiology," De Waal does not leap primate species in a single bound. Rather, he considers such issues as altruism and hierarchy in the bonobo, chimp and monkey universes on their own terms. This book is post-sociobiology and post-ethology without succumbing to glib anti-science perspectives.
De Waal is a superb writer. His style has absolutely captivated two classrooms full of bright college freshmen. The subject matter is fascinating. This book is a marvelous mix of natural and social sciences.
I envy De Waal's Emory office with the window view of Yerkes Center chimp life. What an amazing way to live!

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Summary: Vol. I. Spenser to Dryden
Vol. II. Sackville to Keats
Vol. III. Darley to Heaney

Summary: La formazione dei concetti nella matematica moderna

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Summary: DNA and the I Ching - Unlocking the Code of the Universe

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Summary: Vol. I : Fromthe Gothic to Neoclassicism
Vol. II : From the Romantic Age to the Presenrt Day

Summary: I read this book for a course in international relations.
I found it a fascinating history and analysis of different theories of the causes of war.
This book should not be described as either 'neo-realist' or simplistic. I believe it's more similar to classical realism or the 'English school'
I think those reviewers who described it as simplistic or neo-realist are confusing it with Waltz's later work. It was his 'Theory of International relations' that became more reductionist and simplistic and claimed that domestic politics was irrelevant to foreign policy.
In 'Man, the State and War' by contrast he provides a history of different views on the causes of war - human nature, the form of government (e.g democracies/republics thought to be less likely to start wars than dictatorships/monarchies) , or the nature of the international system (anarchic in the sense that there is no authority or power above states to judge which is the aggressor and punish aggressors).
He clearly states in the conclusion that while he thinks the last of the three is the major cause the firt and second also play a role.
I may disagree with this conclusion (I believe the second factor and especially culture and assumptions about war to be at least as important) Waltz never claims - at least in this book - that the international system is the sole cause of war.

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Summary: With chapters on the family, federations, schools, housing, crime, employment, welfare, deviancy, planning, and more, this is probably the best practical example of anarchist ideas in action. As he writes in his introduction "This book is not intended for people who had spent a lifetime pondering the problems of anarchism, but for those who either had no idea of what the word implied or knew exactly what it implied and rejected it, considering that it had no relevance for the modern world. My original preference as a title was the more cumbersome but more accurate 'Anarchism As A Theory Of Organization' because, as I urge in my preface, that is what the book is about. It is not about strategies for revolution and it is not involved in speculation on the way an anarchist society would function. It is about the ways in which people organize themselves in any kind of human society, whether we care to categorize those societies as primitive, traditional, capitalist or communist...

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Summary: I had been on a short course to learn CS4 Dreamweaver but needed to clarify a lot of what we were taught as it was very confusing. This book was just what was needed- fantastic - it is laid out in clear, easy to understand sections and once I started it I couldn't put it down. A great reference tool to dip back into when actively working with Dreamweaver. I have now built two websites using the book as I did so. I can't wait to get onto the others in the series for CS4 applications.

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Summary: The Practical Anarchist brings to light the work of Josiah Warren, eccentric American genius. Devoting his life to showing the practicality of an astonishing ideal, Warren devoted equal industry to the question of how to make a pair of shoes and how to remake the social world into an individualist paradise.This will be the first chance for many readers to encounter Warren's writings, and in many oases-this is their first publication since their original appearance in obscure self-published periodicals, including The Peaceful Revolutionist (1833), the first American anarchist periodical. Moreover, they often appeared in a bizarre zxperimental typography.This volume presents, out of the welter of bewildering writings left by Warren, a readnig text designed for today's readers and students. It seeks to convey the practical value of many of Warren's ideas, as well as their continuing relevance.Crispin Sartwell teaches philosophy and political science at Dickinson College. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory. --Book Jacket.

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Summary: The Pulitzer Prize winning novel, considered the finest ever written on American politics. New film releasing in UK 6th January starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslett and Anthony Hopkins.

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Summary: The book that initiated a revolution in its attempt to make psychology an objective science

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Summary: Why Common Sense Fails

Summary: You may be only six degrees away from Kevin Bacon, but would he lend you his car? It depends on the network that links you. In "Six Degrees", sociologist Duncan Watts examines networks like these: what they are, how they're being studied, and what we can use them for. When the power goes out, when we find that a stranger knows someone we know, when dot-com stocks soar in price, networks are evident. To illustrate the often complicated mathematics that describe such structures, Watts uses plenty of examples from real life, without which this book would quickly move beyond a general science readership. Small chapters make each thought-provoking conclusion easy to swallow, though some are hard to digest. For instance, in a short bit on "coercive externalities", Watts sums up sociological research showing that: Conversations concerning politics displayed a consistent pattern ... On election day, the strongest predictor of electoral success was not which party an individual privately supported but which party he or she expected would win.""Six Degrees" attempts to help readers understand the new and exciting field of networks and complexity. While considerably more demanding than a general book such as "The Tipping Point", it offers readers a snapshot of a riveting moment in science, when understanding things such as disease epidemics and the stock market seems almost within our reach. "--Therese Littleton, Amazon.com"

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Summary: Forgive the flippancy of the title, as this is, without a doubt the greatest novel I have ever read. The central theme is that of stringent religious values and breaking away from, or returning to them. I am an extremely committed atheist and Waugh was a fervent Roman Catholic. This surely proves Waughs sublime vision, insight and, above all, his splendidly non-preachy way of writing. Beyond that, it is one of the greatest love stories ever written. We may not mention Ryder and Flyte in the same breath as Rmeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, or Dido and Aeneas, but as a study in humanity (in my humble opinion) they exceed them all. The sheer beauty of Waugh's prose which is, at times, scarcely believable (see 'A blow, expected, repeated, falling on a bruise') is coupled with the outright hilarity of many passages (see the Belgian who feels as if it is his duty to oppose the lower classes everywhere). Amazon also sells (at a rather decent price) the 1981 BBC adaptation of the novel, starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, which is unusual in that it is faithful to the letter and the spirit of the novel, and is really rather splendid. The novel, however, remains a towering acheivement, a heart-rending tale of loss and rejection, as well as acceptance and redemption. The finest novel of the Twentieth Century. You owe it to yourself to read it.

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Summary: Max Weber (1864-1920) had noticed that Protestants appeared excessively under the numbers of people who economically were successful. The Catholicism seemed to make it easier (due to an integrated sin pardon mechanics) to enjoy life in between times. The Mediterranean countries have saved this as a differentiable lifestyle till nowadays, but particular the Nordic, by the majority Protestant countries put the human beings into a hermetic box of duty fulfillment and responsibility. The suicide installment is also higher in these areas: Unfortunately, Luther's theological revolution was not namely a liberation, no reduction of control but its millionfold multiplication: In the end everyone became the merciless inspector of himself. The reformation has increased the pressure extremely. Now mixed religious aims and working actions were bound each other with the visibility of financial success. Other religions, the Buddhism, the Islam etc., seem strikingly less in conformity with the capitalism in this regard. On the contrary: Being obstinate or disinterested seem to be transported rather. The Calvinistic capitalism on the other hand produces (besides all superficial correctness) a subtle social coldness, a fight of everybody against everybody, which promotes the assumption, that there is not enough space in the paradisiacal sky for everyone at all. Therefore the fear of being not preferred later on by the dear God starts a hitting and fighting between the human beings vehemently. Being religious in this manner has not contributed to humanness, but, instead, made some steps backward globally, regarding the great individual sovereignty, which the renaissance man already had achieved. Face of the fact, that (at the moment) a second theocracy seems to spread himself apparently in the USA -- at least in the opinion of the ones who sit at the decisive Washington coordinating points -- in the face of such developments among the conservative Christians of the USA, which surpass many a nastiness of the frowned Machiavellism or the elite oriented Darwinism, yes even the racism -- in view of such developments it seems recommended to examine the rational analyses of Max Weber again ...

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Summary: La vita di Giovanni Paolo II, protagonista del secolo

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Summary: Come ascoltare e capire la musica: la sua storia e il suo sviluppo dal canto gregoriano agli esperimenti elettronici

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Summary: His Social and Literary History

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Summary: Foreign investment and air pollution in developing countries

Summary: A book of fascinating questions and answers on every subject

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Summary: From the first page this book promises a great deal: Francis Wheen sets out to show how society, both Western and Islamic, has determinedly squandered the benefits of the Enlightenment and has developed an astonishing hostility towards contemporary science and rational thought.
Wheen paints a picture that is both amusing and chilling: our citizens and leaders are in the thrall of hocus and spin; educated people consume with gusto the diet of drivel served up in the media; an entire nation loses its grip after the death of a Sloaney princess; and post-modernists conjure with words to question the reality of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide.
This would have been a better book if Wheen had built on its early momentum and resisted the lure of diatribe, but there is such a surfeit of material to support his thesis, and so much nonsense routinely peddled by famous people who should have known better, that he seems unable to stop. The result is erudite and funny, but in the end this is a string of good journalism, rather than the serious manifesto that it might have been.
I recommend this book, and I hope that Wheen will soon produce another edition that not only updates us on the progress of this human ship of fools (which seems daily to surpass itself in its vainglorious stupidity) but also lingers more on the questions why, and what needs to be done.

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Summary: A report of an investigation into information provision in Town and Country Planning

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Summary: A Symposium on Form in Nature and Art

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Summary: Process and Reality was published the year that Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge to begin the movement known as linguistic analysis. Whitehead's masterpiece is everything that analysts despise: metaphysical, jargon-filled, and systematic. Whitehead's philosophy of language is terse: "philosophy redesigns language in the same wat that, in a physical science, pre-existing appliances are redesigned."
The book is arranged in five "Parts". The first part gives an overview of philosophy, its aims and methods, together with a set of premises on which the substance of his philosophy will be built. He calls this set "The Categoreal Scheme" and intends the remainder of his book to be an exposition of this scheme. His work is, then, "systematic" in a way that the 20th century has largely rejected, and hearkens back to the 19th century. In fact, he does so explicitly, naming his book after Bradley's "Appearance and Reality", and stating that, despite their metaphysical differences, he and Bradly come to much the same conclusions.
The second part discusses the categoreal scheme in terms of the history of philosophy, with emphasis on the Empiricist tradition that begins with Locke, but covering the range of modern an ancient philosophy. In this section he elaborates his "philosophy of organism" which sees each actual entity as a psycho-physical unity of its environment. Deeply influenced by early 20th century physics, Whitehead presents us with a universe that is dynamic. Grounded in Plato (Western Philosophy consists of "a series of footnotes to Plato"), he also presents us with a changeless ground for this dynamism. The result is a fascinating, modern interpretation of an ancient mode of thought.
The third and forth parts develop the philosophy of organism in its own terms, rather than in relationship to the history of philosophy or to science. These sections are of special interest to the technical philosopher, and continue to be the subject-matter of articles and books by professional philosophers.
The fifth and final part is a rhapsodic interpretation of the philosophy he has presented. This "Final Interpretation" has inspired a theological movement called "Process Theology", and provides provocative oracles for the amateur philosopher.
This is not an easy book to read once you get into part two, and it is recommended that the reader have some familiarity with philosophy. However, the determined undergraduate or the dedicated amateur will find that the complexity of Whitehead's jargon is not merely to impress the unintiated, but expresses a view of reality that aims to be "consistent, coherent, applicable, and adequate". The view from inside makes it worth the effort necessary to enter into Whitehead's universe. Once entered, it is a world you will not forget.

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Summary: This was the first time I had read a book about linguistics. For some time I had heard about Benjamin Lee Whorf and his seminal work on American Indian languages. This is his most famous book, a book of some of his papers during the 30's and 40's.
Whorf makes the fascinating assertion, new for his time, that the language we speak, to some degree at least, forces us to orient our view of the world in a certain direction, for example the noun based structure of Indo-European languages forces it into considering the world as made up of separate interacting pieces whereas Hopi doesn't even have a tense system and doesn't consider the past or the future and sees events as either manifest or unmanifest. A completely different way of viewing the world and yet possessing its own internal logic and ability to express whatever is necessary. This is something Whorf stresses throughout and the so-called `primitive' languages of for example, the native Americans, is far from this western perspective. In fact Hopi stands out as being a language ideally suited to the new physics.
Whorf really lives in two worlds regarding his linguistic studies 1. the fascinating metaphysical world of language constructions throughout the world, i.e. the world view generated by these languages and 2. the strict linguistic approach to languages with its own very formal and structured method to analyse languages, see for example the formulaic approach for one-syllable English words in the paper entitled "Linguistics as an Exact Science".

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Summary: Elements of a Theory of Problems and Problem Solving

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Summary: In [this book, the author] shows how, in subsequent years, during the Progressive era of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, American sought the organizing principles around which a new viable social order could be constructed in the modern world. This subtle and sophisticated study combines the virtues of historical narrative, sociological analysis, and social criticism.

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Summary: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years

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Summary: Elhanan Rosenbaum raconte ses souvenirs de la Palestine et de l'Israël "quarante-cinq ans plus tard, à New York où il s'est installé avec Malkiel, son fils."

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Summary: Qui, d'entre nous, n'a pas eu l'impression, un moment, de devenir fou ? Qui, d'ailleurs, ne l'est pas ? Le héros de cette histoire pense, pour sa part, qu'il souffre d'une folie due à un excès de mémoire. L'histoire se déroule aujourd'hui à New York dans le huis clos du cabinet d'une psychanalyste : car le héros a décidé de se débarrasser de ses fantômes qui lui obscurcissent la mémoire et le rendent fou. Mais n'est pas fou celui que l'on désigne comme tel. Roman historique dans lequel se déploie la mémoire d'Elie Wiesel sur le XXe siècle et son tourbillon de malheurs, roman d'apprentissage de la découverte de soi-même dans ses tréfonds les plus obscurs, Un désir fou de danser est aussi un livre d'aventure intérieure porté par la volonté de savoir et la certitude que seul l'amour peut guérir les blessures les plus intimes.

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Summary: A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife", Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."
As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."

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Summary: An integrated approach to play and child development

Summary: An integrated approach to play and child development

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