Contrasted to the academic and cultural fads often based on the scientific methodology of the Cartesian legacy, or any number of trendy experiments in education, Poetic Knowledge returns to the freshness and importance of first knowledge, a knowledge of the senses and the passions."Poetic knowledge" is not the knowledge of poetry, nor is it even knowledge in the sense that we often think of today, that is, the mastery of scientific, technological, or business information. Rather, it is an intuitive, obscure, mysterious way of knowing reality, not always able to account for itself, but absolutely essential if one is ever to advance properly to the higher degrees of certainty. From Socrates to the Middle Ages, and even into the twentieth century, the case for poetic knowledge is revealed with the care of philosophical archeology. Taylor demonstrates the effectiveness of the poetic mode of education through his own observations as a teacher, and two experimental "poetic" schools in the twentieth century.

    Discussing philosophy's ability to clarifyour thoughts, he explains why such clarification depends on the development of philosophical theories, and how those theories can be tested by imaginative thought experiments, and compared against each other by standards similar to those used in the natural and social sciences. He also shows howlogical rigor can be understood as a way of enhancing the explanatory power of philosophical theories.Drawing on the history of philosophy to provide a track record of philosophical thinking's successes and failures, Williams overturns widely held dogmas about the distinctive nature of philosophy in comparison to the sciences, demystifies its methods, and considers the future of the discipline. Fromthought experiments, to deduction, to theories, this little book will cause you to totally rethink what philosophy is.

    Vygotsky analyzes the relationship between words and consciousness, arguing that speech is social in its origins and that only as children develop does it become internalized verbal thought.Now Alex Kozulin has created a new edition of the original MIT Press translation by Eugenia Hanfmann and Gertrude Vakar that restores the work's complete text and adds materials that will help readers better understand Vygotsky's meaning and intentions. Kozulin has also contributed an introductory essay that offers new insight into the author's life, intellectual milieu, and research methods.

    In this, his most comprehensive and accessible study of influence, Bloom leads us through the labyrinthine paths which link the writers and critics who have informed and inspired him for so many years. The result is "a critical self-portrait," a sustained meditation on a life lived with and through the great works of the Western canon: Why has influence been my lifelong obsessive concern? Why have certain writers found me and not others? What is the end of a literary life?Featuring extended analyses of Bloom's most cherished poets—Shakespeare, Whitman, and Crane—as well as inspired appreciations of Emerson, Tennyson, Browning, Yeats, Ashbery, and others, The Anatomy of Influence adapts Bloom's classic work The Anxiety of Influence to show us what great literature is, how it comes to be, and why it matters. Each chapter maps startling new literary connections that suddenly seem inevitable once Bloom has shown us how to listen and to read. A fierce and intimate appreciation of the art of literature on a scale that the author will not again attempt, The Anatomy of Influence follows the sublime works it studies, inspiring the reader with a sense of something ever more about to be.

     KEY TOPICS: It presents the principles that govern the composition of effective argumentative discourse and includes brief examples, with analyses that show students the underlying structure of the argument presented and the ways in which the rhetoric was persuasive. MARKET: For anyone interested in rhetoric and reasoning.

    Stores are deserted, restaurants quiet--and for patients of distinguished psychoanalyst and author Glen Gabbard, desperate calls for help go unreturned. Why, Dr. Gabbard wondered, have the misadventures of a middle-aged thug won the largest audience in HBO history? What is it about the characters and their relationships that draws us in so completely? What can we learn about ourselves from going inside the heads of these outlaws from New Jersey? In The Psychology of the Sopranos Dr. Gabbard draws on his vast professional experience (and his near-obsessive preoccupation with Tony's two "families") to delve into the psychology of the characters, the show's depiction of therapy, and how "The Sopranos" dramatically showcases the psychological ambiguities and conflicts in our own lives. Indeed, part of the show's popularity, he argues, is the spotlight it throws on viewers' psychological issues--from panic attacks and existential angst to codes of honor and moral indiscretions. With his tongue planted only lightly in his cheek, Gabbard poses the questions so many of us have pondered on Monday mornings: Is Tony's therapy working? And how is it possible for him and his "families" to reconcile the mundane and the monstrous? His answers will surprise and delight loyal fans. This book was not prepared, licensed, approved, or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the "Sopranos" television series.Mafia don Tony Soprano, his family, his work "associates," and his therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, have captured the imagination (and the fanatical devotion) of more than 11 million viewers. The show has garnered rave reviews for its writing and acting and has won a loyal following of educated viewers, who appreciate the sharp wit, the Machiavellian plot turns, and the Shakespearean character development of this extraordinarily well-crafted drama. Find the answers in The Psychology of the Sopranos: Is Tony a psychopath--or is he an American everyman putting bread on the table in the best way he knows how? Is Livia a modern-day Medea or a victim caught in mob mentality? Is Carmella an accomplice or an innocent? Who's more corrupt, Tony Soprano or Father Phil? Is Tony doomed to desire women who make him feel as bad as Mom did? Can a man who commits bad acts still teach his children to be good?

    The controversy surrounding these unsolved problems is as relevant to the psychology of cognitive development as it is to the philosophy of science. No serious student of either discipline can afford to misunderstand Goodman's classic argument.

    One man's funny war against loose talk!

    By going step-by-step from the holistic to the detailed, you'll quickly discover when body language indicates something significant, and when an itch is just an itch. You'll learn how to: -- Identify the basic mechanics of human communication. -- Observe what is culturally normal…and when ""abnormal" matters. -- Read changes in body language. -- Avoid misunderstandings. -- Project the right message. -- Protect yourself from manipulation. The Body Language Handbook will not only teach you how to read the body language of others, it will also make sure you send the signals you want to send. Increase your power of communication at the office, in a courtroom or classroom, at home, and in any social setting, even the poker table!

    -- Alan Dundes. Propp's work is seminal...[and], now that it is available in a new edition, should be even more valuable to folklorists who are directing their attention to the form of the folktale, especially to those structural characteristics which are common to many entries coming from even different cultures. -- Choice

    Yet in the late twentieth century truth became suddenly rather unfashionable. The precedence given to assorted political and ideological agendas, along with the rise of relativism, postmodernism and pseudoscience in academia, led to a decline both of truth as a serious subject, and an intellectual tradition that began with the Enlightenment.Why Truth Matters is a timely, incisive and entertaining look at how and why modern thought and culture lost sight of the importance of truth. It is also an eloquent and inspiring argument for restoring truth to its rightful place. Jeremy Stangroom and Ophelia Benson, editors of the successful butterfliesandwheels website—itself established to "fight fashionable nonsense"—identify and debunk such senselessness, and the spurious claims made for it, in all its forms. Their account ranges over religious fundamentalism, Holocaust denial, the challenges of postmodernism and deconstruction, the wilful misinterpretation of evolutionary biology, identity politics and wishful thinking.Why Truth Matters is both a rallying cry for the Enlightenment vision and an essential read for anyone who's ever been bored, frustrated, bewildered or plain enraged by the worst excesses of the fashionable intelligentsia.

    Contemplation of time and the discoveries of modern science lead to the assertion that the mind is paramount and limitless.

    Because it's written to be easily understood no matter your background, this philosophy of religion textbook introduces you to the debate in a way you can understand. Whether it's the philosophical proofs for God's existence or using reason to evaluate faith claims, the major points in the philosophy of religion are all covered in this excellent textbook. And with its built-in study tools, PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION: AN INTRODUCTION helps out during test time as well.

    But though Freud compared himself to Copernicus and Darwin, his history as a physician is problematic. Historians have determined that Freud often misrepresented the course and outcome of his treatments—so that the facts would match his theories. Today Freud's legacy is in dispute, his commentators polarized into two camps: one of defenders; the other, fierce detractors.Peter D. Kramer, himself a practicing psychiatrist and a leading national authority on mental health, offers a new take on this controversial figure, one both critical and sympathetic. He recognizes that although much of Freud's thought is now archaic, the discipline he invented has become an inescapable part of our culture, transforming the way we see ourselves. Freud was a myth-maker, a storyteller, a writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature. The result of Kramer's inquiry is nothing less than a new standard history of Freud by a modern master of his thought.

    Damn, you fine!blin, nu ti i shi-KAR-nii! Let's have an orgy.da-VAI u-STRO-im OR-gi-yu. This is crappy vodka.d-ta VOD-ka khre-NO-va-ya. Let's go get hammered.poi-DYOM bukh-NYOM. I'm gonna own you, bitch!ya te-BYA VI-ye-blyu!