But he did not intend the metaphysics to stand apart from his scientific work, which included important investigations into physics, mathematics, and optics. In this book, Sorell shows that Descarates was, above all, an advocate and practitioner of the new mathematical approach to physics, and that he developed his philosophies to support his discoveries in the sciences.About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

    Helen Sword interviewed one hundred academics worldwide about their writing background and practices. Relatively few were trained as writers, she found, and yet all have developed strategies to thrive in their publish-or-perish environment.So how do these successful academics write, and where do they find the "air and light and time and space," in the words of poet Charles Bukowski, to get their writing done? What are their formative experiences, their daily routines, their habits of mind? How do they summon up the courage to take intellectual risks and the resilience to deal with rejection?Sword identifies four cornerstones that anchor any successful writing practice: Behavioral habits of discipline and persistence; Artisanal habits of craftsmanship and care; Social habits of collegiality and collaboration; and Emotional habits of positivity and pleasure. Building on this "BASE," she illuminates the emotional complexity of the writing process and exposes the lack of writing support typically available to early-career academics. She also lays to rest the myth that academics must produce safe, conventional prose or risk professional failure. The successful writers profiled here tell stories of intellectual passions indulged, disciplinary conventions subverted, and risk-taking rewarded. Grounded in empirical research and focused on sustainable change, Air & Light & Time & Space offers a customizable blueprint for refreshing personal habits and creating a collegial environment where all writers can flourish.

    To truly flourish, the human spirit needs to be present in its surroundings and attuned to the Now. It needs to act on what it knows is possible and to experience how the smallest actions can have massive consequences. This is the reality of the Prophet’s Way, a path--both literal and figurative--that the author walked with his spiritual mentor Herr Müller that skirts the edge of the precipice, where one can experience a truly spontaneous life under seemingly overwhelming and impossible circumstances.In The Prophet’s Way, Thom Hartmann shares his intense spiritual journey, a story that melds recent discoveries in science with ancient truths. Through insightful and engaging vignettes Hartmann teaches that accepting the challenge to have faith means living on the edge--remaining in the moment--because it is here where the material and spiritual worlds meet. He offers readers a unique view into his experiences of expanded consciousness, providing a powerful example of how we can re-create our future by reconnecting to the sacred heartbeat of the world.

    One of the most important books on the social sciences since the Second World War, it is a searing insight into the ideas of this great thinker.

    Grayling extends the range of his previous two books to show how much understanding people can gain about themselves and their world by reflecting on the lessons offered by science, the arts (including literature) and history. Covering subjects as diverse as Jane Austen's EMMA, the Rosetta Stone, Shakespeare, the Holocaust, quantum physics, Galileo, and even alien abductions, A..C. Grayling's latest collection is a rich source for reflection and contemplation over the mysteries of life.

    Accessible and absorbing, the essays in Is God Happy? deal with some of the eternal problems of philosophy and the most vital questions of our age.Leszek Kolakowski has also written on religion, Spinoza, Bergson, Pascal and seventeenth-century thought. He left communist Poland after his expulsion from Warsaw University for anti-communist activities. From 1970 he was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.'His distinctive mix of irony and moral seriousness, religious sensibility and epistemological scepticism, social engagement and political doubt was truly rare ... a true Central European intellectual-perhaps the last' Tony Judt, The New York Times Review of Books

    Dip into any chapter and you will find lively scenarios and dialogues to take you through philosophical puzzles ancient and modern, involving virtual reality, science fiction and a host of characters from this and other planets. The text is interspersed on every page with lively cartoons, and there is a list of philosophical jargon at the end..Stephen Law has a gift for communicating complex ideas. He offers few answers, but his unstuffy, highly personal approach will have the reader thinking and arguing with as much pleasure as he does himself.

    Times have changed since the late 1940s, but ambitions have not, and millions of Americans have drawn on the no-nonsense techniques described in The Magic of Believing to reach their dreams and achieve success. Obstacles have become a thing of the past, when they were “blasted” with Bristol’s powerful book, T.N.T.: It Rocks the Earth. Adhering to his corner- stone philosophy on the power of believing, T.N.T. offers practical suggestions on how to accurately and scientifically proceed to get what you want in life. In these 2 great books, you will learn: • How to project confidence
• How to impress your subconscious mind
• Why a focused aim leads to achievement.
• What your appearance reveals about you.
• The mental secret to success.
• How to transfer your thoughts to others
• To have a power at your command that astounds Let the wisdom the author imparts, infiltrate both your conscious and uncon- scious mind. It’s time to shift into high gear and forward motion, as you commit to your greatest and highest purpose. The late Claude M. Bristol was a lawyer, lecturer, investment banker, and foreign correspondent. He is the coauthor of the long-time best- seller, TNT: The Power Within. Claude Bristol’s tough-minded, hard-hitting message remains as fresh and focused today as when his books were first published, when the subconscious mind was less understood. Times have changed since the late 1940s, but ambitions have not, and millions of Americans have drawn on the no-nonsense techniques described in The Magic of Believing to reach their dreams and achieve success. Obstacles have become a thing of the past, when they were “blasted” with Bristol’s powerful book, T.N.T.: It Rocks the Earth. Adhering to his corner- stone philosophy on the power of believing, T.N.T. offers practical suggestions on how to accurately and scientifically proceed to get what you want in life. In these 2 great books, you will learn: • How to project confidence
• How to impress your subconscious mind
• Why a focused aim leads to achievement.
• What your appearance reveals about you.
• The mental secret to success.
• How to transfer your thoughts to others
• To have a power at your command that astounds Let the wisdom the author imparts, infiltrate both your conscious and uncon- scious mind. It’s time to shift into high gear and forward motion, as you commit to your greatest and highest purpose. The late Claude M. Bristol was a lawyer, lecturer, investment banker, and foreign correspondent. He is the coauthor of the long-time best- seller, TNT: The Power Within.

    It identifies ten types of supposed truth and explains how easily each can become the midwife of falsehood. There is no species of truth that we can rely on unquestioningly, but that does not mean the truth can never be established. Attaining truth is an achievement we need to work for, and each chapter will end up with a truth we can have some confidence in.This history builds into a comprehensive and clear explanation of why truth is now so disputed by exploring 10 kinds of truth:1. Eternal truths.2. Authoritative truths.3. Esoteric truths.4. Reasoned truths.5. Evidence-based truths.6. Creative truths.7. Relative truths. 8. Powerful truths9. Moral truths.10. Holistic truths. Baggini provides us with all we need to restore faith in the value and possibility of truth as a social enterprise. Truth-seekers need to be sceptical not cynical, autonomous not atomistic, provisional not dogmatic, open not empty, demanding not unreasonable.

    His claim that “harnessing the forces of nature was the only worthwhile scientific endeavor" both impressed and enraged the scientific community. Eventually, his peers could no longer dismiss his eccentricities and began to view him as a crackpot — a potentially dangerous one. Although Tesla’s work was a major factor in the success of the second Industrial Revolution, he died alone, impoverished, and largely shunned by the scientific community that once hailed him a genius. Beset by visions, without a wife or children, Nikola Tesla’s brilliant mind changed the world, even though at the time of his death he passed unnoticed into obscurity. Some of the topics covered in this book include: Childhood Education and Early Career Patents and Politics The Eccentric Genius Tesla’s Coil and the Niagara Contract Influential Friends and the Lure of Flight The Wardenclyffe Tower 1914 and Beyond And much more! Scroll to the top and select the "BUY NOW" button for instant download

    In a new introduction, Steiner addresses language and philosophy and the rise of Nazism."It would be hard to imagine a better introduction to the work of philosopher Martin Heidegger."—George Kateb, The New Republic

    And while art criticism is ubiquitous in newspapers, magazines, and exhibition brochures, it is also virtually absent from academic writing. How is it that even as criticism drifts away from academia, it becomes more academic? How is it that sifting through a countless array of colorful periodicals and catalogs makes criticism seem to slip even further from our grasp? In this pamphlet, James Elkins surveys the last fifty years of art criticism, proposing some interesting explanations for these startling changes."In What Happened to Art Criticism?, art historian James Elkins sounds the alarm about the perilous state of that craft, which he believes is 'In worldwide crisis . . . dissolving into the background clutter of ephemeral cultural criticism' even as more and more people are doing it. 'It's dying, but it's everywhere . . . massively produced, and massively ignored.' Those who pay attention to other sorts of criticism may recognize the problems Elkins describes: 'Local judgments are preferred to wider ones, and recently judgments themselves have even come to seem inappropriate. In their place critics proffer informal opinions or transitory thoughts, and they shy from strong commitments.' What he'd like to see more of: ambitious judgment, reflection about judgment itself, and 'criticism important enough to count as history, and vice versa.' Amen to that."—Jennifer Howard, Washington Post Book World

    The Archaeology of Knowledge begins at the level of “things aid” and moves quickly to illuminate the connections between knowledge, language, and action in a style at once profound and personal. A summing up of Foucault’s own methodological assumptions, this book is also a first step toward a genealogy of the way we live now. Challenging, at times infuriating, it is an absolutely indispensable guide to one of the most innovative thinkers of our time.

    Quantum) is, as Deepak Chopra states, "one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness." Featured in the wordofmouth indie hit, What the Bleep Do We Know?!, Dr. Wolf is a physicist who knows how to put complex sciencebased ideas into terms that even sciencephobes can understand. With clarity and a sense of humor, Dr. Quantum presents Big Ideas in the form of both short quotes and longer excerpts and covers topics ranging from the construction of our everyday reality to our relationship to one another. Dr. Quantum's Little Book of Big Ideas is a perfect gift for anyone interested in the realm where science meets spirit.

     It’s the story about how a Chinese fishing village became a global economic powerhouse of innovation and technology. Just four decades ago Shenzhen was a backwater area, populated by fishermen and rice farmers. Today, it’s home to up to 20 million people and some of the world’s leading technology companies and most innovative tech startups. No other city better symbolizes the rise of modern China. And no other city challenges Silicon Valley more aggressively as the global hub for innovation and technology startups. In many ways, the Chinese city has already outsmarted the Valley. “Shenzhen has an energy of growth – the same energy I felt when I first came to Silicon Valley ten years ago. And it’s not just in technology. It’s this idea that whoever you are, whatever you’re into, you can come to China, and especially Shenzhen, and do it!” American entrepreneur Scotty Allen says in the book. Shenzhen Superstars is written for anyone who wants to be part of this raging growth story – no matter if you’re a tech buff, investor or just someone curious about knowing what’s driving the future. As a journalist for CNN, Forbes and other international media, Johan Nylander has witnessed the astonishing transformation of the south Chinese city. Its speed, energy and determination are just mind-blowing. His aim is to take you inside, to the very heart of what is shaping this vibrant city. KEY QUOTES FROM THE BOOK “In terms of hardware plus software innovation, Shenzhen is ahead of the curve.” – Jeffrey Towson, private equity investor and Peking University professor “The next ten years will be the era of robots and intelligent machines, and Shenzhen will play well to that.” – Jixun Foo, managing partner of GGV Capital “Shenzhen is just better than Silicon Valley in terms of hardware and software integration.” – Qin Li, CEO of startup Sennotech “If you’re not already in Shenzhen, you're crazy.” – Edith Yeung, general partner of 500 Startups