RIT Libraries Recent Acquisitions - Philosophy

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter : a Woman's Journey From Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine / Sue Monk Kidd

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: "I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised, and, in fact, a little terrified, when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening." ——Sue Monk Kidd For years, Sue Monk Kidd was a conventionally religious woman. Then, in the late 1980s, Kidd experienced an unexpected awakening, and began a journey toward a feminine spirituality. With the exceptional storytelling skills that have helped make her name, author of When the Heart Waits tells her very personal story of the fear, anger, healing, and freedom she experienced on the path toward the wholeness that many women have lost in the church. From a jarring encounter with sexism in a suburban drugstore, to monastery retreats and to rituals in the caves of Crete, she reveals a new level of feminine spiritual consciousness for all women— one that retains a meaningful connection with the "deep song of Christianity," embraces the sacredness of ordinary women's experience, and has the power to transform in the most positive ways every fundamental relationship in a woman's life— her marriage, her career, and her religion. This Plus edition paperback includes a recent interview with the author conducted by the book's editor Michael Maudlin.

Added: Friday, Oct 10 2008

Handbook of Chinese Mythology / Lihui Yang and Deming An, with Jessica Anderson Turner

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Every year, at the Wa Huang Gong temple in Hebei Province, China, people gather to worship the great mother, Nuwa, the oldest deity in Chinese myth, praising her for bringing them a happy life. It is a vivid demonstration of both the ancient reach and the continuing relevance of mythology in the lives of the Chinese people. Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on groundbreaking new research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective. This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and related items (Xirang-a kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yao-mythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it. With more than 40 illustrations and photographs, fresh translations of primary sources, and insight based on the authors' own field research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology offers an illuminating account of a fascinating corner of the world of myth.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

Kantian Ethics / Allen W. Wood

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Allen Wood investigates Kant's conception of ethical theory, using it to develop a viable approach to the rights and moral duties of human beings. By remaining closer to Kant's own view of the aims of ethics, Wood's understanding of Kantian ethics differs from the received 'constructivist' interpretation, especially on such matters as the ground and function of ethical principles, the nature of ethical reasoning and autonomy as the ground of ethics. Wood does not hesitate to criticize and modify Kant's conclusions when they seem inconsistent with his basic principles or fail to make the best use of the resources Kantian principles make available. Of special interest are the book's treatment of such topics as freedom of the will, the state's role in securing economic justice, sexual morality, the justification of punishment, and the prohibition on lying.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

Trials of Reason : Plato and the Crafting of Philosophy / David Wolfsdorf

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Scholarship on Plato's dialogues persistently divides its focus between the dramatic or literary and the philosophical or argumentative dimensions of the texts. But this hermeneutic division of labor is naive, for Plato's arguments are embedded in dramatic dialogues and developed through complex, largely informal exchanges between literary characters. Consequently, it is questionable how readers can even attribute arguments and theses to the author himself. The answer to this question lies in transcending the scholarly divide and integrating the literary and philosophical dimensions of the texts. This is the task of Trials of Reason. The study focuses on a set of fourteen so-called early dialogues, beginning with a methodological framework that explains how to integrate the argumentation and the drama in these texts. Unlike most canonical philosophical works, the early dialogues do not merely express the results of the practice of philosophy. Rather, they dramatize philosophy as a kind of motivation, the desire for knowledge of goodness. They dramatize philosophy as a discursive practice, motivated by this desire and ideally governed by reason. And they dramatize the trials to which desire and reason are subject, that is, the difficulties of realizing philosophy as a form of motivation, a practice, and an epistemic achievement. In short, Trials of Reason argues that Plato's early dialogues are as much works of meta-philosophy as philosophy itself.

Added: Thursday, Oct 2 2008

John Stuart Mill : Victorian Firebrand / Richard Reeves

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: John Stuart Mill was a vigorous activist who began campaigning for accessible contraceptive methods when he was just seventeen, shocked into action after finding a recently killed newborn baby in a park. He would become, in time, the highest-ranked English thinker of the century, the author of On Liberty, and one of the most passionate reformers and advocates of his opinionated age. John Stuart Mill is a portrait of a man whose life was spent in pursuit of truth and liberty for all.

Added: Monday, Sep 29 2008

A Companion to Hume / Edited By Elizabeth S. Radcliffe

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Comprised of twenty-nine newly commissioned essays, A Companion to Hume examines the depth of the philosophies and influence of the legacies attributed to one of history's most remarkable thinkers.

Added: Thursday, Sep 25 2008

Football and Philosophy : Going Deep / Edited By Michael W. Austin ; with a Foreword By Joe Posnanski

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Over the past forty years, football has surpassed baseball as America's favorite game. The game has become an institution of our national culture: the Super Bowl is regarded as an unofficial national holiday, and our annual Thanksgiving Day celebrations would be incomplete without it. The sport brings in massive amounts of revenue to high schools and both public and private universities as spectators enjoy a unique and celebratory social scene. Professional football teams across the country cultivate and foster a sense of community in urban areas. Surely a game this influential, with its hallowed traditions, treasured festivities, and clearly defined cultural presence, resonates far beyond recreational importance. Football and Philosophy: Going Deep, edited by Michael W. Austin, reveals how a sport followed by millions reflects our deeper values, beliefs, and priorities. Austin and other contributing writers bring unique perspectives to this thought-provoking collection of essays. Divided into "four quarters" of reflective writing, the book covers many topics frequently debated by football fans. Sharon Ryan asks "What's So Bad about Performance Enhancing Drugs?", while the book's editor argues for a playoff system in college football. Daniel Collins-Cavanaugh ponders whether the salary cap makes the NFL a fairer league, and Joshua Smith offers his own review of the instant replay. Football and Philosophy also forays into some time honored issues as it considers the philosophy of winning in light of the NFL's most legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, and contemplates the concepts of sportsmanship, virtue, friendship, and failure. While the book is unafraid to tackle serious topics, touching on ethics, religion, and the nature of reality itself, the collection is designed to be accessible for any interested reader and was written, first and foremost, for fans of the game. As Austin notes, football fans and philosophers definitely have one quality in common: they both love to argue. Football and Philosophy engages in the debates of both groups, illuminating how the fields are intertwined. So whether they love or hate the college bowl system or disagree on whether the NFL has an ego problem, readers of this book will undoubtedly find much to ponder about America's favorite game. (20071126)

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

Dewey : a Beginner's Guide / David L. Hildebrand

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: John Dewey was an icon of philosophy and psychology during the first half of the 20th century. Known as the father of Functional Psychology and a pivotal figure of the Pragmatist movement, he also played a strong hand in the progressive movement in education. This concise and critical look at Dewey's work examines his discourse of right and wrong, as well as political notions such as freedom, rights, liberty, equality, and naturalism.

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

The Oxford Handbook of Plato / Edited By Gail Fine

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: The Oxford Handbooks series is a major new initiative in academic publishing. Each volume offers an authoritative and state-of-the-art survey of current thinking and research in a particular area. Specially commissioned essays from leading international figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences. Plato is the best known, and continues to be the most widely studied, of all the ancient Greek philosophers. The twenty-one newly commissioned articles in the Oxford Handbook of Plato provide in-depth and up-to-date discussions of a variety of topics and dialogues. The result is a useful state-of-the-art reference to the man many consider the most important philosophical thinker in history. Each article is an original contribution from a leading scholar, and they all serve several functions at once: they survey the lay of the land; express and develop the authors' own views; and situate those views within a range of alternatives. This Handbook contains chapters on metaphysics, epistemology, love, language, ethics, politics, art and education. Individual chapters are are devoted to each of the following dialogues: the Republic, Parmenides, Theaetetus, Sophist, Timaeus, and Philebus. There are also chapters on Plato and the dialogue form; on Plato in his time and place; on the history of the Platonic corpus; on Aristotle's criticism of Plato, and on Plato and Platonism.

Added: Wednesday, Sep 17 2008

Reclaiming Cognition : the Primacy of Action, Intention, and Emotion Edited By Rafael Nu?ez and Walter J. Freeman

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: Traditional cognitive science ('cognitivism') is Cartesian in the sense that it takes as fundamental the distinction between the mind and the world. This leads to the claim that cognition is representational and best explained by classical AI and computational theory. The authors in this volume develop a critique of cognitivism and introduce an alternative approach -- which owes more to evolutionary biology, embodied robotics, phenomenology and dynamical systems.

Added: Tuesday, Aug 5 2008

The Perceived Self / Edited By Ulric Neisser

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: This book brings new ideas to bear on the classical psychological problem of the self. A distinguished interdisciplinary group of contributors explore Neisser's hypothesis that each of us has an "ecological self" based on our immediate situation in the environment and an "interpersonal self" established through social interaction. These aspects of the self, which are based on accurate perception, appear early in infancy. They have implications for topics ranging from motor development to psychopathology to nonverbal communication, to social philosophy. The Perceived Self explores these notions with topics that range from the perceptual and social development of infants to autism and blindness; from mechanisms of motor control to dance and nonverbal communication; as well as from ecological theory to the work of social philosophers such as G.H. Mead and Martin Buber.

Added: Monday, Aug 4 2008

John Dewey's Ethics : Democracy As Experience / Gregory Fernando Pappas

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Description: John Dewey, widely known as "America's philosopher," provided important insights into education and political philosophy, but surprisingly never set down a complete moral or ethical philosophy. Gregory Fernando Pappas presents the first systematic and comprehensive treatment of Dewey's ethics. By providing a pluralistic account of moral life that is both unified and coherent, Pappas considers ethics to be key to an understanding of Dewey's other philosophical insights, especially his views on democracy. Pappas unfolds Dewey's ethical vision by looking carefully at the virtues and values of ideal character and community. Showing that Dewey's ethics are compatible with the rest of his philosophy, Pappas corrects the reputation of American pragmatism as a philosophy committed to skepticism and relativism. Readers will find a robust and boldly detailed view of Dewey's ethics in this groundbreaking book.

Added: Monday, Jul 28 2008