Book picks similar to
Paradox and Discovery by John Wisdom


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Uncle John's Third Bathroom Reader (Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, #3)


Bathroom Readers' Institute - 1990
    No more frantic searches at the last minute for that perfect magazine article. No agonizing choices between light reading and the serious stuff. Volume three has it all-Entertainment, humor, politics, pop culture, science, history, gossip...And more! Of course, it's still divided by length-you can spend a minute with the Quickies, relax with Regular-Length articles, or get really comfortable with Long Items.With Uncle John's Third Bathroom Reader strategically placed in your home, you'll settle in happily and read about:-The origin of Rocky and Bullwinkle-The Rolling Stones' Big Ripoff-The Real Story of Cinderella-Dick Nixon, Football Coach-Censorship in America-What's in a Twinkie-Elvis Sightings-And a Host of Great Bathroom Topics!

The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number


Mario Livio - 2002
    In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887...This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio," was discovered by Euclid more than two thousand years ago because of its crucial role in the construction of the pentagram, to which magical properties had been attributed. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing variety of places, from mollusk shells, sunflower florets, and rose petals to the shape of the galaxy. Psychological studies have investigated whether the Golden Ratio is the most aesthetically pleasing proportion extant, and it has been asserted that the creators of the Pyramids and the Parthenon employed it. It is believed to feature in works of art from Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper, and poets and composers have used it in their works. It has even been found to be connected to the behavior of the stock market!The Golden Ratio is a captivating journey through art and architecture, botany and biology, physics and mathematics. It tells the human story of numerous phi-fixated individuals, including the followers of Pythagoras who believed that this proportion revealed the hand of God; astronomer Johannes Kepler, who saw phi as the greatest treasure of geometry; such Renaissance thinkers as mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa; and such masters of the modern world as Goethe, Cezanne, Bartok, and physicist Roger Penrose. Wherever his quest for the meaning of phi takes him, Mario Livio reveals the world as a place where order, beauty, and eternal mystery will always coexist.From the Hardcover edition.

What Is Philosophy?


Gilles Deleuze - 1991
    His acclaimed works and celebrated collaborations with Félix Guattari have established him as a seminal figure in the fields of literary criticism and philosophy. The long-awaited publication of What Is Philosophy? in English marks the culmination of Deleuze's career.Deleuze and Guattari differentiate between philosophy, science, and the arts, seeing as means of confronting chaos, and challenge the common view that philosophy is an extension of logic. The authors also discuss the similarities and distinctions between creative and philosophical writing. Fresh anecdotes from the history of philosophy illuminate the book, along with engaging discussions of composers, painters, writers, and architects.A milestone in Deleuze's collaboration with Guattari, What Is Philosophy? brings a new perspective to Deleuze's studies of cinema, painting, and music, while setting a brilliant capstone upon his work.

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding 1, Books 1-2


John Locke - 1689
    The editor, Professor A.C. Fraser, has provided marginal analyses of almost every paragraph, plus hundreds of explanatory footnotes which comment, elaborate, explain difficult points, and more.

Biplane


Richard Bach - 1966
    "Biplane" is the story of that solo flight into the American skies—a flight that became a personal quest to discover everything that lies beyond the ordinary.

To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism


Evgeny Morozov - 2013
    But how will these be affected once we delegate much of the responsibility for them to technology? The temptation of the digital age is to fix everything—from crime to corruption to pollution to obesity—by digitally quantifying, tracking, or gamifiying behavior. But when we change the motivations for our moral, ethical, and civic behavior, we may also change the very nature of that behavior itself. Technology, Evgeny Morozov proposes, can be a force for improvement—but only if we abandon the idea that it is necessarily revolutionary and instead genuinely interrogate what we are doing with it and what it is doing to us.From urging us to abandon monolithic ideas of “the Internet” to showing how to design more humane and democratic technological solutions, To Save Everything, Click Here is a dazzling tour of our technological future, and a searching investigation into the digital version of an enduring struggle: between man and his machines.

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man


Marshall McLuhan - 1964
    Terms and phrases such as "the global village" and "the medium is the message" are now part of the lexicon, and McLuhan's theories continue to challenge our sensibilities and our assumptions about how and what we communicate.There has been a notable resurgence of interest in McLuhan's work in the last few years, fueled by the recent and continuing conjunctions between the cable companies and the regional phone companies, the appearance of magazines such as WiRed, and the development of new media models and information ecologies, many of which were spawned from MIT's Media Lab. In effect, media now begs to be redefined. In a new introduction to this edition of Understanding Media, Harper's editor Lewis Lapham reevaluates McLuhan's work in the light of the technological as well as the political and social changes that have occurred in the last part of this century.

Literature and Evil


Georges Bataille - 1957
    “It is guilty and should admit itself so.” The word, the flesh, and the devil are explored by this extraordinary intellect in the work of eight outstanding authors: Emily Bronte, Baudelaire, Blake, Michelet, Kafka, Proust, Genet and De Sade.Born in France in 1897, Georges Bataille was a radical philosopher, novelist, and critic whose writings continue to exert a vital influence on today's literature and thought.

Conduct of Life: A Philosophical Reading


Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1860
    First published in the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as President, this work poses the questions of human freedom and fate. This new edition emphasizes Emerson's philosophy and thoughts on such issues as freedom and fate; creativity and established culture; faith, experience, and evidence; the individual, God, and the world; unity and dualism; moral law, grace, and compensation; and wealth and success. Emerson's text has been fully annotated to explain difficult words and to clarify his references. The Introduction, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and Chronology of Emerson's life help the reader understand his distinctive outlook, his contributions to philosophy, and his place in American culture and society.

A World Without Islam


Graham E. Fuller - 2010
    Fuller guides us along an illuminating journey through history, geopolitics, and religion to investigate whether or not Islam is indeed the cause of some of today's most emotional and important international crises. Fuller takes us from the birth of Islam to the fall of Rome to the rise and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. He examines and analyzes the roots of terrorism, the conflict in Israel, and the role of Islam in supporting and energizing the anti-imperial struggle. Provocatively, he finds that contrary to the claims of many politicians, thinkers, theologians, and soldiers, a world without Islam might not look vastly different from what we know today.Filled with fascinating details and counterintuitive conclusions, A WORLD WITHOUT ISLAM is certain to inspire debate and reshape the way we think about Islam's relationship with the West.

Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction


Gary Rogowski - 2017
    

To Meet the Real Dragon


Gudo Wafu Nishijima - 1984
    The Truth, they say, is like the distant moon. Ideas, theories, and explanations are merely fingers pointing at that far-away goal. They are not, and can never be, the moon itself. So this book is one such finger, a finger pointing at the moon, but the moon itself can be touched by you alone... The Buddhism which emerges from To Meet the Real Dragon is Buddhism for real people: ordinary human beings with ordinary human problems. It is humanistic Zen--Zen for human beings. Here are a few of the topics covered by this very readable book: What is Religion, Meeting a True Master, Master Dogen, Science and Buddhism, Idealism and Materialism, Gautama Buddha, The Four Noble Truths, The Transmission of the Truth, Cause and Effect, Not Doing Wrong, Action: The Center of Buddhism, Zazen, The Four Philosophies.

Dom Wars: Round 1 & 2


Lucian Bane - 2014
    When he signs up for Dom Wars, he meets Tara who is naive to the BDSM world. Her reckless dominance and puritan heart fascinate him. But when he discovers the pain in her past, it unleashes his true Dom within. Lucian and Tara make it to round two in the DOM WARS. The challenges now revolve around trust, and while Tara's inhibitions in the world of BDSM are slowly being crushed by Lucian's passion, her deep rooted fears become the real obstacle he must dominate.

Tale of Tala


Chaker Khazaal - 2017
    Triumph over Failure. Hope over Despair. In Tale of Tala, Henry, a bestselling New York writer is trying to cope with the unexpected death of his mother and the failure of his latest book. His life a triumphant success had collapsed. Flying to Amsterdam to indulge in decadence and depravity, Henry gorges on everything from illicit drugs to vile carnal acts. Wanting more, he heads to Slovenia. Enter Tala - a strikingly beautiful but deceptively cunning prostitute. A Palestinian refugee, her tale of loss and suffering strikes a chord with Henry. The perilous journey between Turkey and Greece; the desperate search for her husband Bilal; kidnapped by human traffickers. Finding himself falling in love, Henry promises to search for the missing Bilal and vows to protect his muse from the perils of life. For a man used to winning, one might wonder how far he will go to help Tala, or will he only go far enough to keep her for himself? Three People. Three Journeys. One Tale. Lies over Truth. Murder over Safety. Crisis over Peace. When a winner loses everything will he become villain or victim? Chaker Khazaal traveled through Europe and the Middle East in 2015 talking to refugees about their different experiences. Inspired by various stories comes a descriptive narrative of the plight of refugees, presented in this romantic thriller novel. The story focuses on the very dark world of displacement - war, human trafficking, terrorism, organ trafficking, and the exploitation of the desperate - while humanizing refugees in this love story.

Cowboy


Frank Roderus - 1981
    He had been saving the pay he sweated so hard for, and he reckoned there was enough to set himself up with a spread of his own. He thought he might look into the Triple X Ranch, the one they called the Whiskey Brand. It had prime cattle land and was a bargain... or so it seemed.