Social Society

A leading American philosopher brings the tools of his trade to contentious contemporary debates. How can we have meaningful debates with political opponents? How can we distinguish reliable science from overhyped media reports? How can we talk sensibly about God? In What Philosophy Can Do, Gary Gutting takes a philosopher's scalpel to modern life's biggest questions and the most powerful forces in our society - politics, science, religion, education, and capitalism - to show how we can improve our discussions of contentious contemporary issues.

NASA Astrobiologist and renowned scientist Dr. David Grinspoon brings listeners an optimistic message about humanity's future in the face of climate change. For the first time in Earth's history, our planet is experiencing a confluence of rapidly accelerating changes prompted by one species: Humans. Climate change is only the most visible of the modifications we've made - up until this point, inadvertently - to the planet. And our current behavior threatens not only our own future but that of countless other creatures.

There is a saying: knowledge is power. The secret is this. Knowledge, applied at the right time and place, is more than power. It’s magic. That’s what the Black Panther Party did. They called up this magic and launched a revolution. In the beginning, it was a story like any other. It could have been yours and it could have been mine. But once it got going, it became more than any one person could have imagined.

Cuando el asesino es el Estado: un libro durísimo, pero necesario, que recoge los desgarradores testimonios de las víctimas civiles de la violencia ejercida por las fuerzas de seguridad. "Esta es una guerra contra el pueblo de México. Se dice que es una guerra contra el crimen organizado, pero no. Nosotros pensamos que es una guerra contra el pueblo, porque es al pueblo al que han estado desapareciendo y matando".- Yolanda Morán, mamá de Dan Jeremeel Fernández Morán, desaparecido por el Ejército en 2008.

New technologies can inspire us, but the breakneck pace of change can also frighten us. So how do Christians walk by faith through the innovations of Silicon Valley? To build a biblical theology of technology, journalist and tech optimist Tony Reinke examines nine key texts from Scripture to show how the world’s discoveries are divinely orchestrated. With the help of several theologians and inventors throughout history, Reinke dispels 12 common myths in the church and offers 14 ethical convictions to help Christians live by faith in the age of big tech.

Eleven-year-old Tommy has dreamed of being on the Bulldogs sports team forever. The Bulldogs eat, breathe, and fart sports. They’re part of the elusive Super Sports Society in his hometown, and Tommy knows that if he makes the team, he’ll be set up for life. Meanwhile, Pel would rather be at home gaming in the air conditioning, but his mom decided that he has to “be a role model” to his little siblings (ugh!), and now he’s trying out for the Bulldogs too. At least that means the two BFFs won’t be in competition for the spot . . . right? (Wrong.)

Organized in keeping with our knowledge of the migration of human groups through history, with statistics and a cultural portrait of each ethnic group, People of the World becomes a fascinating round-the-world tour of customs and traditions, as well as a go-to source for background information to round out one's own family history. From the Tuvans of Siberia to the Samoans and Tahitians of Polynesia, from the Mapuche of Chile to the Sami of Scandinavia, 222 of the world's 10,000-plus ethnic groups are featured.

Let's take stock of young America. Compared to previous generations, American youth have more schooling (college enrollments have never been higher); more money ($100 a week in disposable income); more leisure time (five hours a day); and more news and information (Internet, The Daily Show, RSS feeds). What do they do with all that time and money? They download, upload, IM, post, chat, and network. (Nine of their top ten sites are for social networking.) They watch television and play video games (2 to 4 hours per day).

Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming's extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of 404 interlinked dictionary entries, inviting listeners to choose their own path through its radical vision. Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure can be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has selected and edited one of these potential narratives to create Surviving the Future.

Cuteness has taken the planet by storm. Global sensations Hello Kitty and Pokémon, the works of artists Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum and E.T. - all reflect its gathering power. But what does “cute” mean, as a sensibility and style? Why is it so pervasive? Is it all infantile fluff, or is there something more uncanny and even menacing going on - in a lighthearted way? In The Power of Cute, Simon May provides nuanced and surprising answers.

Hatred is often considered the opposite of love, but in many ways it is much more complicated. It also may be considered one of the dominant emotions of our time, as individuals, groups, and even nations express or enact hatred to varying degrees. What is hatred? Where does it come from, and what does it reveal about the hater? And is hatred always a bad thing? Brogaard makes a deep dive into the moral psychology of one of our most complex and vivid emotions.

Le texte qui suit fut rédigé en 1913, dans un contexte social et culturel marqué notamment par l'industrialisation de la France, l'émergence du modèle capitaliste en Occident et les changements profonds qu'implique le basculement d'un modèle de société vers un autre. Et c'est justement de la critique d'un système de représentation dont il est ici question, de la remise en cause d'une idéologie naissante qui place désormais l'argent au sommet des valeurs.

What is the Internet doing to us? What is college for? What are the myths and metaphors we live by? What is the purpose of art, and what can we learn from the past? The End of Solitude brings together more than forty essays from such publications as Harper's and the Atlantic and introduces four that are published here for the first time. Drawing on the past, they ask how we got where we are. Scrutinizing the present, they seek to understand how we can live more mindfully, more meaningfully, more freely.

When we think about trust, we naturally think about personal relationships or bank vaults. That's too narrow. Trust is much broader, and much more important. Nothing in society works without trust. It's the foundation of communities, commerce, democracy - everything. In this insightful and entertaining book, Schneier weaves together ideas from across the social and biological sciences and technologies to explain how society induces trust.

Information Technology Law is the ideal companion for a course of study on IT law and the ways in which it is evolving in response to rapid technological and social change. The fourth edition of this groundbreaking textbook develops its unique examination of the legal processes and their relationship to the modern "information society". Charting the development of the rapid digitization of society and its impact on established legal principles, Murray examines the challenges faced with enthusiasm and clarity.

It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.

Quel point commun y a-t-il entre spiritualité, médias et politique ? L'attention. Médias, industriels et politiques se l'arrachent, c'est le célèbre " temps de cerveaux disponible ". Or l'attention est la clé de notre liberté intérieure. C'est aussi le cœur même de toute vie spirituelle. Dès lors, comment, dans ce monde où notre vigilance est sans cesse " capturée ", développer sa spiritualité (laïque ou religieuse), c'est-à-dire la vie de l'esprit ? Dans ce livre, Lionel Cruzille aborde les plus grands freins à l'attention puis propose des antidotes pour reprendre le pouvoir sur notre intériorité.

There may not be such a thing as a perfect city, but all great cities have moments of perfection - perfect streets or buildings, perfect places to raise a family or to relax with a coffee - and all of them strive for perfection when they undertake grand projects...Joe Berridge, one of the world's leading urban planners, takes us on an insider's tour of the world's largest and most diverse cities, from New York to London, Shanghai to Singapore, Toronto to Sydney, to examine what is working and not working, what is promising and what needs to be fixed in the contemporary megalopolis.

The brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality. Throughout The Use of Pleasure Foucault analyzes an irresistible array of ancient Greek texts on eroticism as he tries to answer basic questions: How in the West did sexual experience become a moral issue? And why were other appetites of the body, such as hunger, and collective concerns, such as civic duty, not subjected to the numberless rules and regulations and judgments that have defined, if not confined, sexual behavior?

In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.