But what did Wittgenstein really say?

    It offers perspectives on Lyotard's meta-narrative, and Fukuyama's end of history in postmodern debate.

    Yet despite logic's widely acknowledged importance, it remains an unbroken seal for many, due to its heavy use of jargon and mathematical symbolism.This book follows the historical development of logic, explains the symbols and methods involved and explores the philosophical issues surrounding the topic in an easy-to-follow and friendly manner. It will take you through the influence of logic on scientific method and the various sciences from physics to psychology, and will show you why computers and digital technology are just another case of logic in action.

    Deconstructionists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, second-wave feminists, new historicists, cultural materialists, postcolonialists, black critics and queer theorists, among a host of others, all vie for our attention. Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon's incisive graphic guide provides a route through the tangled jungle of competing ideas and provides an essential historical context, situating these theories within tradition of critical analysis going back to the rise of Marxism. They present the essential methods and objectives of each theoretical school in an incisive and accessible manner, and pay special attention to recurrent themes and concerns that have preoccupied a century of critical theoretical activity.

    The main "schools" of thought and the sections within psychology are described, including Introspection, Biopsychology, Psychoanalysis, Behaviourism, Comparative (Animal) Psychology, Cognitive Approaches (including the Gestalt movement), Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology and Humanism. The key figures covered include: Freud, Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura, Piaget, Bowlby, Maslow and Rogers, as well as many lesser-known but important psychologists.

    However, a myth of Joyce's difficulty has taken root which discourages many readers from approaching his work. This is a great pity, because Joyce's writings are deeply human, enormously comic and make compelling reading.

    What really happens at the most fundamental levels of nature?Introducing Particle Physics explores the very frontiers of our knowledge, even showing how particle physicists are now using theory and experiment to probe our very concept of what is real.From the earliest history of the atomic theory through to supersymmetry, micro-black holes, dark matter, the Higgs boson, and the possibly mythical graviton, practising physicist and CERN contributor Tom Whyntie gives us a mind-expanding tour of cutting-edge science.Featuring brilliant illustrations from Oliver Pugh, Introducing Particle Physics is a unique tour through the most astonishing and challenging science being undertaken today.

    This work traces his understanding of the cognitive realities involved in the use of language and the technical apparatus needed to represent it.

    The ancient Greeks were so horrified by the implications of an endless number that they drowned the man who gave away the secret. And a German mathematician was driven mad by the repercussions of his discovery of transfinite numbers. Brian Clegg and Oliver Pugh’s brilliant graphic tour of infinity features a cast of characters ranging from Archimedes and Pythagoras to al-Khwarizmi, Fibonacci, Galileo, Newton, Leibniz, Cantor, Venn, Gödel and Mandelbrot, and shows how infinity has challenged the finest minds of science and mathematics. Prepare to enter a world of paradox.

    Introducing Fascism investigates the four types of Fascism that emerged after the First World War in Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan. It also looks beyond the current headlines of neo-Nazi hooliganism and examines the increasing political success of the far right in Western Europe and the explosion of ultra-nationalisms in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

    Along the way, readers will be introduced to zombies and Chinese Rooms, ghosts in machines and Schrodinger's cat.

    Has the 21st century resolved the question of postmodernism or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the grim Cold War era of nuclear confrontation and oppressive ideologies. Fukuyama's notoriously proclaimed end of history, the triumph of liberal democracy over Communist tyranny, has proved an illusion. We awoke in the anxious grip of globalization, unpredictable terrorism and unforeseen war. Introducing Postmodernism traces the pedigrees of postmodernism in art, theory, science and history, providing an urgent guide to the present. Derrida, Baudrillard, Foucault and many other icons of postmodern complexity are brilliantly elucidated by Richard Appignanesi and enlivened by the Guardian's Biff cartoonist Chris Garratt.

    His extraordinary insights into human psychology, morality, religion and power seem quite clairvoyant today: existentialism, psychoanalysis, semiotics and postmodernism are plainly anticipated in his writings - which are famously enigmatic and often contradictory."Introducing Nietzsche" is the perfect guide to this exhilarating and oft-misunderstood philosopher.

    To the public he is a figure of tragic dimensions - a brilliant scientist and author of the phenomenal best-seller A Brief History of Time, and yet confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak or write. Hawking has mastered the two great theories of 20th-century physics - Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics - and has made breathtaking discoveris about where they break down or overlap, such as on the edge of a Black Hole or at the Big Bang origin of the Universe. Here is the perfect introduction to Hawking's work by the author, who was helped by several long discussions with Hawking in researching the book.

    Yet the word 'Hindu' is of foreign 18th-century origin. Hinduism is defined as a polytheistic religion, but Mahatma Gandhi famously declared that one can be a Hindu without believing in any god. Hinduism appears to accommodate endless contradictions. It is a religion at least as much of myth as of history - it has no historical founder, no single authoritative book, and few central doctrines." Introducing Hinduism offers a guide to this extraordinarily diverse faith. It untangles the complexities of Hinduism's gods and goddesses, its caste system and its views on sex, everyday life and asceticism. Why do Hindus revere the cow? Must Hindus be vegetarian? Introducing Hinduism explores the links with and differences from Buddhism, Jainism and other religions, and describes the resurgence of Hindu extremism, the phenomenon of Bollywood and the overseas Hindu diaspora.