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Performing Against Annihilation: Identity and Consciousness in J.R.R. Tolkien, Richard Wagner and George R.R. Martin
by Lukas ScheppThis book outlines how the protagonists in The Nibelung's Ring, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones attempt to construct identities and expand their consciousness manifestations. As the characters in the three works face the ends of their respective worlds, they must find answers to their mortality, and to the threat it implies: the loss of identity and consciousness. Moreover, it details how this process is depicted performatively. In a hands-on and interdisciplinary approach, this book seeks to unveil the underlying philosophical concepts of identity and consciousness in the three works as they are represented audio-visually on stage and screen. Through the use of many practical examples, this book offers both academic scholars and any interested readers a completely new perspective on three enduringly popular and interrelated works.
Applied Philosophy for Health Professions Education: A Journey Towards Mutual Understanding
by Megan E. L. Brown Mario Veen Gabrielle Maria FinnThis book increases the accessibility of philosophical concepts to a wider audience within medical education, translating ‘knowing’ to ‘doing.’ It prompts health professions educators and researchers to consider the dynamics and structure of contemporary issues within health professions education in new, philosophical ways. Through considering the practical implications of applying philosophical concepts to contemporary issues, the book recommends avenues for further research and pedagogical change. Individual educators are considered, with practice points for teaching generated within each chapter. Readers will acquire practical ways in which they can change their own practice or pedagogy that align with the new insight offered through our philosophical analysis. These practical recommendations may be systemic in nature, but the authors of this book also offer micro-level recommendations for practitioners that can be considered as ways to improve individual approaches to education and research.
Intercultural Communication Education: Broken Realities and Rebellious Dreams (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Fred Dervin Andreas JacobssonThis book explores the notion of interculturality in education and supports scholars in their discovery of the notion. Continuing the author’s previous work, the book urges (communication) education researchers and educators to 'interculturalize' interculturality. This book corresponds to the authors’ endeavor to complexify the way interculturality is discussed, expressed, (co-)constructed and advocated in different parts of the world and in different languages. To interculturalize interculturality is to expand the way we deal with the notion as an object of scientific and educational discourse, noting the dominating voices and allowing for silenced voices that are rarely heard around interculturality to emerge. This book is based on broken realities and (the authors’) rebellious dreams. As two researchers and educators with a long experience examining discourses of interculturality, this book represents the authors’ program for the future of intercultural communication education. The book is divided into three 'tableaus' (living descriptions) depicting today’s 'broken' realities of interculturality and two 'rebellious' dreams of what it could be in research and education.
Relevance of Duties in the Contemporary World: With Special Emphasis on Gandhian Thought
by Raman Mittal Kshitij Kumar SinghThis book reflects on the significance of duties in creating an egalitarian society by collating and contextualizing the relevant literature. It particularly focuses on an appreciation of Gandhi’s views on duty to showcase how they remain pertinent to create a cohesive, responsible and value-based society in the present right-dominated world. A viable solution to the current real world problems could be found in exploring the philosophy on duties and the book provides relevant literature in this regard. It undertakes jurisprudential analysis of duty in a rights-dominated world, identifying the gaps in realising the potential of duty to address the critical issues of the present times. It argues that enforcement of rights depends heavily on the observance of duties and proposes coherence in right-duty relationship. Gandhian thought on duty recognises duty as a precursor to rights and emphasises that the observance of duties guarantees the enforcement of rights. The relevance of duties and Gandhian thoughts on the same is not restricted to India but transcends borders with profound appeal. Gandhian thoughts have become even more relevant in the current times to examine the situation of COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination (BLM), environmental crises, digital divide, health care and medical care crises, refugee and migrant labour problems and it can offer promising solutions based on the nuances of social solidarity, self realisation of duties/responsibilities, local governance, compassion and humanity.
Japan and the Origins of the Asia-Pacific Order: Masayoshi Ohira's Diplomacy and Philosophy
by Ryuji HattoriThis book analyzes Ohira's ideology, philosophy, and actions as a politician and a minister, based on primary sources from Japan and the USA, and makes a significant contribution to the field of Japanese political and diplomatic history. This book is the first critical biography to chart Masayoshi Ohira’s life and work, with a focus on his political philosophy, and how he sought to create a new order in the Asia-Pacific region, framing a plan for solidarity across the Pacific Rim. If a statesman is a politician who has made diplomacy their life's work, then Ohira can be regarded as the first Japanese statesman of the modern era. While this ambition remained unfulfilled, Ohira's involvement in foreign policy was long and intensive—and highly influential—on the region. One of only two postwar prime ministers to have served as foreign minister for two terms, he attempted to balance the pursuit of a new order in the Pacific Rim with Asian diplomacy and focused on cooperation with the USA without becoming overly reliant on it. With the new availability of original documents decades after his death, this book has become possible, enabling the author to systematically follow and record Ohira's diplomatic vision. Combining history, political philosophy, political science, and international relations, this book is of appeal to history scholars and students of Japan, as well as of the foreign relations of countries such as the USA, China, and Korea.
Understanding and Changing the World: From Information to Knowledge and Intelligence
by Joseph SifakisThis book discusses the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset, separate from physical entities, that can enable us to understand and/or change the world. It provides a thorough treatment of knowledge, one that is free of ideological and philosophical preconceptions, and which relies exclusively on concepts and principles from the theory of computing and logic. It starts with an introduction to knowledge as truthful and useful information, and its development and management by computers and humans. It analyses the relationship between computational processes and physical phenomena, as well as the processes of knowledge production and application by humans and computers. In turn, the book presents autonomous systems that are called upon to replace humans in complex operations as a step toward strong AI, and discusses the risks – real or hypothetical – of the careless use of these systems. It compares human and machine intelligence, attempting to answer the question of whether and to what extent computers, as they stand today, can approach human-level situation awareness and decision-making. Lastly, the book explains the functioning of individual consciousness as an autonomous system that manages short- and long-term objectives on the basis of value criteria and accumulated knowledge. It discusses how individual values are shaped in society and the role of institutions in fostering and maintaining a common set of values for strengthening social cohesion. The book differs from books on the philosophy of science in many respects, e.g. by considering knowledge in its multiple facets and degrees of validity and truthfulness. It follows the dualist tradition of logicians, emphasizing the importance of logic and language and considering an abstract concept of information very different from the one used in the physical sciences. From this perspective, it levels some hopefully well-founded criticism at approaches that consider information and knowledge as nothing more than the emergent properties of physical phenomena. The book strikes a balance between popular books that sidestep fundamental issues and focus on sensationalism, and scientific or philosophical books that are not accessible to non-experts. As such, it is intended for a broad audience interested in the role of knowledge as a driver for change and development, and as a common good whose production and application could shape the future of humanity.
Authoritative Democracies: Need or capitalistic greed?
by Bill K. KoulThis book comments on growing authoritarianism in democracy and suggests how it ought to be instead. It asks if some degree of authoritarianism is the need of the hour to address potentially existential issues facing the human race. Readers are encouraged to analyse the state of democracy in their own countries and verify if it meets their expectations, or if it is just a myth or an imposter, or a necessary but imperfect compulsion in the absence of a perfect alternative. The book presents a commentary on the state of democracy in some of the world’s leading democracies. It aims to challenge the human mind, which seems to be getting accustomed to not having to think, thanks to a constant bombardment of information—real and fake and in-between—that it receives through social and print media, which is freely accessible through smartphone to which it has become addicted. It discusses how the drivers of capitalism – through their business-like connections with powerful and influential politicians and celebrities—could be cleverly manipulating the gullible human mind and exploiting the system to their own material benefit.
We Piano Teachers and Our Demons: Socio-psychological Obstacles on the Road to Inspired and Secure Performance (Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education #32)
by Zecharia PlavinThis book focuses on piano teachers and the many pains they encounter in their careers. These pains play an essential role in blocking the musical inspiration of their students. The author identifies with the sensitivities of the teachers, aiming at the inspiration permeated and safer playing of their students.The book penetrates the protective mechanisms of the teachers that, on the one hand, maintain their professional functioning, while on the other hand, block refreshing ideas. It combines exploration of secure and culturally informed inspired playing, coping with exaggerated anxiety and understanding the interaction of piano actions with pianist’s physiology.This book helps to open teachers’ perceptions of the ways to enable more secure and more inspired performances while remembering the inner feelings of the piano teachers.
The Affective Intensities of Masculinity in Shaping Gendered Experience: From Little Boys, Big Boys Grow
by Amanda KeddieThis book tells a story of masculinity through the experiences of one boy, ‘Adam’. From four different studies and time periods, it tracks moments of significance in his life over a period of 20 years. These moments highlight the ways in which Adam is both drawn towards and away from a hegemonic masculinity of physical toughness, domination, competition and an opposition to ‘the feminine’. The book is set against the backdrop of a long history of contentious gender politics in Australia and globally but particularly responds to the renewed attention to the social construction of masculinities in the current #MeToo climate. Against this backdrop, nuanced and longitudinal accounts of boys’ and men’s experiences of masculinity are significant because they can offer insight into the complex bodily, social, economic, and historical forces that configure masculinities. Such understandings are important in our endeavours as those who educate, support and work with boys and men to transform gender inequalities.
Voices from the Contemporary Japanese Feminist Movement (Palgrave Macmillan Studies on Human Rights in Asia)
by Emma Dalton Caroline NormaThis book introduces six key influential feminist activists from Japan’s contemporary feminist movement and examines Japanese women’s experience of and contribution to the international #MeToo movement. Set against a backdrop of pervasive sexual inequality in Japanese society—on a scale that makes Japan an outlier in Asia as well as the rest of the advanced democratic world—this book offers a snapshot of Japan’s contemporary feminist movement and the issues it faces, including, primarily, sexual violence and harassment of women and girls. The six feminist activists interviewed to create this snapshot all work toward eradicating sexual violence against women and girls—they are: Kitahara Minori (instigator of the Flower Demo and public commentator), Yamamoto Jun (activist for sex crime law amendments), Nitō Yumeno (advocate for sexually exploited girls), Tsunoda Yukiko (feminist lawyer), Mitsui Mariko (former politician and current activist), and Yang-Ching-Ja (comfort women activist).
Sound and Reason: Synesthesia as Metacognition (Palgrave Studies in Sound)
by Sven Hroar KlempeThis book is about the human mental capacities that are mostly veiled in the use of language yet can be revealed through music activities. In speech, just one word is articulated at the time, whereas in music different pitches sound simultaneously. This conflict demonstrates that rationality must be regarded as relative, as rationality in music may create chaos in speech. Moreover, investigating the role of sound in synesthesia reveals that its aesthetic combinations are related to the human capacity to enjoy different types of harmonies in music. Drawing on new research regarding synesthesia as a more fundamental basis for human cognition, this book brings this a step further by introducing synesthesia as a general metacognitive process, hinting at the aesthetical origin of fundamental logical operations. Bringing together a number of cultural perspectives on music, language, and mathematics, this volume expertly illustrates that music reveals a fundamental system that deeply combines the sensorial and the intellectual human capacities.
Natural Law & Government: After the COVID-19 Revolution
by Joseph DrewSince the dawn of civilisation philosophers and sages alike have been concerned about the potential for government to become a Leviathan-like monster. In this book Professor Drew shows how a careful application of natural law principles can mitigate this threat of Leviathan and also contribute to the flourishing of people. To do so Natural Law and Government examines the trade-off between human dignity and the common good during the public policy response to COVID-19. Specifically, Professor Drew details his concerns regarding the emergence of concentrations of power and competence in government – changes that have sadly given rise to the repression of the vitality of citizens. This ground-breaking work explains the changes to thinking, institutions and public management that are necessary for people to reclaim their right to thrive as humans. In sum, this is a handbook for what needs to be done after the COVID-19 revolution.
Service-Learning Capacity Enhancement in Hong Kong Higher Education (Quality of Life in Asia #14)
by Grace Ngai Daniel T. L. ShekThis book provides an in-depth, multi-faceted look into capacity building for service-learning, using the case of the higher education landscape in Hong Kong. Service-learning has been proven to be an effective pedagogy for the holistic development of students, as well as promotion of their well-being. It also attempts to promote the well-being of the service recipients and the community. While service-learning is becoming increasingly popular in many higher educational institutions around the world, the learning gains that can be attained from service-learning are only as good as the learning experience allows, and poorly-developed or motivated service-learning may potentially do adverse harm to students and the community. This book reinforces the imperative to enhance the capacity of the institution, teachers, students and community partners by exploring a diverse range of methods for achieving capacity building among different stakeholders. Examples of the methods explored include formal course-based professional development, scale development, action research, and communities of practice. Furthermore, the book includes a series of detailed, qualitative case studies that are aimed at embodying good practice, unpacking “what matters” from service-learning. Aa a useful resource for scholars and educators who are passionate about holistic youth leadership development, this book is also relevant to researchers in the intersection between well-being and higher education.
A Buddhist Theory of Killing: A Philosophical Exposition
by Martin KovanThis book provides a philosophical account of the normative status of killing in Buddhism. Its argument theorises on relevant Buddhist philosophical grounds the metaphysical, phenomenological and ethical dimensions of the distinct intentional classes of killing, in dialogue with some elements of Western philosophical thought. In doing so, it aims to provide a descriptive account of the causal bases of intentional killing, a global justification and elucidation of Buddhist norms regarding killing, and an intellectual response to and critique of alternative conceptions of such norms presented in recent Buddhist Studies scholarship. It examines early and classical Buddhist accounts of the evaluation of killing, systematising and rationally assessing these claims on both Buddhist and contemporary Western philosophical grounds. The book provides the conceptual foundation for the discussion, engaging original reconstructive philosophical analyses to both bolster and critique classical Indian Buddhist positions on killing and its evaluation, as well as contemporary Buddhist Studies scholarship concerning these positions. In doing so, it provides a systematic and critical account of the subject hitherto absent in the field. Engaging Buddhist philosophy from scholastic dogmatics to epistemology and metaphysics, this book is relevant to advanced students and scholars in philosophy and religious studies.
Work, Inheritance, and Deserts in Joseph Conrad’s Fiction
by Evelyn Tsz ChanThis book focuses on the complex relationships between inheritance, work, and desert in literature. It shows how, from its manifestation in the trope of material inheritance and legacy in Victorian fiction, “inheritance” gradually took on additional, more modern meanings in Joseph Conrad’s fiction on work and self-making. In effect, the emphasis on inheritance as referring to social rank and wealth acquired through birth shifted to a focus on talent, ability, and merit, often expressed through work.The book explores how Conrad’s fiction engaged with these changing modes of inheritance and work, and the resulting claims of desert they led to. Uniquely, it argues that Conrad’s fiction critiques claims of desert arising from both work and inheritance, while also vividly portraying the emotional costs and existential angst that these beliefs in desert entailed. The argument speaks to and illuminates today’s debates on moral desert arising from work and inheritance, in particular from meritocratic ideals. Its new approach to Conrad’s works will appeal to students and scholars of Conrad and literary modernism, as well as a wider audience interested in philosophical and social debates on desert deriving from inheritance and work.
Essentials of Fuzzy Soft Multisets: Theory and Applications
by Anjan Mukherjee Ajoy Kanti DasThis book discusses major theories and applications of fuzzy soft multisets and their generalization which help researchers get all the related information at one place. The primary objective of this book is to help bridge the gap to provide a textbook on the theories in fuzzy soft multisets and their applications in real life. It is targeted to researchers and students working in the field of fuzzy set theory, multiset theory, soft set theory and their applications. Uncertainty, vagueness and the representation of imperfect knowledge have been a problem in many fields of research, including artificial intelligence, network and communication, signal processing, machine learning, computer science, information technology, as well as medical science, economics, environments and engineering. There are many mathematical tools for dealing with uncertainties. They include fuzzy set theory, multiset theory, soft set theory and soft multiset theory.
Analysis of Legal Argumentation Documents: A Computational Argumentation Approach (Translational Systems Sciences #29)
by Hayato Hirata Katsumi NittaThis book introduces methods to analyze legal documents such as negotiation records and legal precedents, using computational argumentation theory.First, a method to automatically evaluate argumentation skills from the records of argumentation exercises is proposed. In law school, argumentation exercises are often conducted and many records of them are produced. From each utterance in the record, a pattern of “speech act +factor” is extracted, and argumentation skills are evaluated from the sequences of the patterns, using a scoring prediction model constructed by multiple regression analyses between the appearance pattern and the scoring results. The usefulness of this method is shown by applying it to the example case “the garbage house problem”. Second, a method of extracting factors (elements that characterize precedents and cases) and legal topoi from individual precedents and using them as the expression of precedents to analyze how the pattern of factors and legal topoi appearing in a group of precedents affects the judgment (plaintiff wins/defendant wins) is proposed. This method has been applied to a group of tax cases. Third, the logical structure of 70 labor cases is described in detail by using factors and a bipolar argumentation framework (BAF) and an (extended argumentation framework (EAF) together. BAF describes the logical structure between plaintiff and defendant, and EAF describes the decision of the judge. Incorporating the legal topoi into the EAF of computational argumentation theory, the strength of the analysis of precedents by combined use of factored BAF and EAF, not only which argument the judge adopted could be specified. It was also possible to determine what kind of value judgment was made and to verify the logic. The analysis methods in this book demonstrate the application of logic-based AI methods to the legal domain, and they contribute to the education and training of law school students in logical ways of argumentation.
L. S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works, Volume 3: Pedology of the Adolescent I: Pedology in the Transitional Age (Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research #11)
by L. S. VygotskyThis book contains the first complete translation of the first half of the Pedology of the Adolescent by the Soviet thinker, educator, and teacher L.S. Vygotsky. It was the longest work published in his lifetime and was a correspondence course written by Vygotsky for teachers across the Soviet Union. The book is a sustained argument about the borders of pedology, the nature of the transition between childhood and adulthood, and the concrete character of the distinction between the lower psychological functions that we largely share with animals and those that are specific to fully socialized humans. After an initial methodological introduction, three kinds of maturation—general anatomical, sexual, and sociocultural—are explored. This book will be followed by a companion volume covering pedology of the transitional age as a psychological and social problem.
Philosophical Semiotics: The Coming into Being of the World of Meaning
by Yiheng ZhaoThis book attempts to solve the question whether semiotics is a methodology as is generally held and if the studies of meaning and the mind can shed light on a series of metaphysical issues, so that the edifice of semiotics could be erected on a philosophical ground. It proposes that a philosophical semiotics is, by necessity, a semiotic phenomenology about the construction of the “world of meaning” by signs, and any discussion about semiotics has to proceed around two core issues: meaning and the mind.This book particularly exemplifies the semiotic connections in various schools of traditional Chinese philosophies. In the “Pre-Imperial Age” (before BC 300), there emerged an abundance of semiotic thinking in China, from Yijing the first sign system that aims to explain everything in the world, to the Namists’s subtle argument about the form of meaning, from the Yin-Yang/five elements of the Han, to the “Things are non-existent while mind is non-non-existent” principle of the Vijñāptimātratāsiddhi School of Buddhism in the Tang, and from the Sudden Revelation of Chan Buddhism to the “Nothing outside the mind” endorsed by the Mindist Confucianism in the Ming. The mighty trend of philosophical heritage provides rich food to our understanding of the form of meaning.
Reading Sri Aurobindo: Metaphysics, Ethics and Spirituality
by Bindu PuriThis book presents contemporary perspectives of scholars working on different aspects of the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo- the idea of evolution, integral yoga, the transformation of the individual, society and earth, theories of nation and human unity, philosophy of emotions and ethics of the environment. Contributors examine Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, its close conceptual relationship to classical Indian philosophy and its relevance. It sheds light on how his philosophy deals with the twenty-first century's fundamental problems and offers possible solutions. The book brings out the modern debate in Western philosophy involving thinkers like Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, and their predecessors, such as Martin Heidegger and Friedrich Nietzsche. This book is an exercise in comparative Philosophy,one that unpacks the mind of Sri Aurobindo in the context of Indian, European and Anglo-American philosophical discourse. It is of great relevance for a new generation of students, scholars of Indian philosophy, politics, religious studies and those interested in knowing the thought and practice of the twentieth-century Indian, thinker and yogi, Sri Aurobindo.
Statecraft in Symbols: Policy and the Life of the Chinese Nation
by Paul CheungThis book presents a study of how urban residency in China is regulated by state policy in the second decade of the 21st Century. Far from a straightforward divide between natives and newcomers, policy in this period has created delicate cross-classifications of internal migrants and attendant conditions under which they reside in particular urban areas. With reference to some of the most profound social theorists of the present day, such symbolic acts of division are explained as acts of statecraft carried out by different levels of public administration in the face of multiple quandaries. The book will appeal to those with an interest in the governance of population and territory in China, and by extension, in other parts of the contemporary world.
Regenerating Cultural Religious Heritage: Intercultural Dialogue on Places of Religion and Rituals
by Olimpia NiglioThis book introduces important reflections on understanding the meaning of cultural-religious heritage in an international context and their relationship with issues of sustainability at the local community level. Through a holistic approach, the book charts new courses in analyzing different cultural policies and methods for preserving and enhancing cultural heritage. Stemming from an intercultural seminar promoted by the International Scientific Committee Places of Religion and Ritual (ICOMOS PRERICO) under the theme of “Reuse and regenerations of cultural-religious heritage in the world: Comparison among cultures,” the book examines the scientific diplomacy and cultural strategies promoted by countries in dialogue with the UN 2030 Agenda, as well as Agenda 21 for Culture. The book seeks to reinforce the value of local cultural policies for supporting and enhancing cultural-religious heritage through specific programs and collaborations in dialogue with government policies. This collection is relevant to scholars working in areas relating to cultural heritage, religious heritage, architectural restoration, protection of the local inheritances, law, and management of the cultural sites.
My Mathematical Life: Yuan Wang in Conversation (Springer Biographies)
by Yuan WangThis book is an autobiographical interview with Chinese Academician Yuan Wang on his experience in mathematical research. The book looks back on Wang's collaboration with his teacher Hua Loo-Keng and younger scholars, offering insights into fruitful cooperation in mathematical research.In this book, Yuan Wang’s path of studying Goldbach conjecture is revealed in detail from motivation to method. Then his work on algebraic number theory is traced back in a separate chapter. The book ends with two chapters which introduce Wang’s interest in history of mathematics and his hobbies outside of mathematical research. Wang shows how a mathematician can in the same time be a historical and popular science writer and, in particular, a well-received calligrapher. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students studying number theory. Researchers who are willing to learn from the experience of an established mathematician, as well as math amateurs and general audience who are interested in Yuan Wang's life story might also find this book appealing.
The World of Dual-Brain
by Weizhi ZhangThis book leaves the template of the inertia of natural human society and traditional ideological thinking, to illustrate the mechanism of the generation of the Sociality Brain and to explore the construction path of the human-computer symbiosis order. At the same time, this book proposes concepts including ‘wisdom sharing system’, ‘the Sociality Brain’, ‘dual-brain world’, ‘off-site economic civilization’, ‘basic contradictions in the intelligent world’, and ‘class analysis and division of the dual-brain world’, etc. This is a philosophical thinking about the intelligent world beyond the categories of natural human society and biological brain.
Sovereignty Blockchain 2.0: New Forces Changing the World of Future
by Lian YumingThis book is a continuation and deepening of Sovereign Blockchain 1.0. It mainly includes three views: 1) Blockchain is a super public product based on digital civilization. 2) The Internet is an advanced level of industrial civilization, the core of which is connection; blockchain is an important symbol of digital civilization, the essence of which is reconstruction. 3) Digital currency will trigger a comprehensive change in the economic field, and digital identity will reconstruct the governance model in the social field, thereby changing the order of civilization.This book is not only a popular science book based on blockchain thinking, theory and application research, but also a scholarly work on the technical and philosophical issues of governance and the future. By reading Sovereign Blockchain 2.0, policymakers can quickly understand the basic knowledge and frontier dynamics of science and technology; science and technology workers can grasp the general trend, seize opportunities, face problems and difficulties, aim at the world's science and technology frontier and lead the direction of science and technology development; experts and scholars in law and legal fields can see new ideas, concepts and models of data governance; social science researchers can discover data sociology and data philosophy issues.