Andrew P. Porter's Books

Living in Spin

Narrative as a Distributed Ontology of Human Action

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Living in Spin

Narrative as a Distributed Ontology of Human Action

By: Andrew P. Porter

All the hard questions about human action are about what to include in a story, what can be left out, and how to characterize what gets included. A narrative selects from all the world's motions which ones are part of or relevant to an act, and so narratives give us what narratives have already shaped: the relation is circular. Many narratives can be told of an act, not all consistent. Some features of human action: - events "off-stage" determine what's happening "on-stage"; - many actions ``pass through'' motions in view; - an act can be changed after the fact; - action presupposes language; - what an act is can be highly ambiguous; - we judge acts (and narratives) because we have a stake in them.

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333

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AuthorHouse

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ISBN 10

1467854794

ISBN 13

9781467854795

The Accountant's Tale

A Reading of the History of Biblical Religion

By: Andrew P. Porter

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The Accountant's Tale

A Reading of the History of Biblical Religion

By: Andrew P. Porter

Three problems in the life of the church: (1) For the past millennium, theologians have done a brisk trade in proofs, arguments for the so-called ‘‘existence’’ of God, the validity of the Christian faith, and so on. I think this is a mistake; Christianity is a choice. (2) Typical Christian theology begins with Jesus rather than with the Common Documents, the documents shared in common by Christianity and rabbinic Judaism. This is Marcionite Theology, so called for a second-century figure who wanted to delete the Common Documents from the Bible. Many problems in theology become much more tractable if the Common Documents, the Exodus focally, are treated as a model rather than as a mere prologue to the New Testament. (3) There are problems with God interfering with nature, and they have become worse with modern science. God interfering with nature doesn’t just injure the sciences, it also generates serious pathologies in theology. The theme is choices made by the church, and the book is called The Accountant’s Tale because somebody once asked an accountant, ‘‘What is two times two?’’ and got the answer, ‘‘What do you want it to be?’’

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288

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1666717789

ISBN 13

9781666717785

The Sum of the People

How the Census Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient World to the Modern Age

By: Andrew Whitby

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The Sum of the People

How the Census Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient World to the Modern Age

By: Andrew Whitby

This fascinating three-thousand-year history of the census traces the making of the modern survey and explores its political power in the age of big data and surveillance. In April 2020, the United States will embark on what has been called "the largest peacetime mobilization in American history": the decennial population census. It is part of a tradition of counting people that goes back at least three millennia and now spans the globe. In The Sum of the People, data scientist Andrew Whitby traces the remarkable history of the census, from ancient China and the Roman Empire, through revolutionary America and Nazi-occupied Europe, to the steps of the Supreme Court. Marvels of democracy, instruments of exclusion, and, at worst, tools of tyranny and genocide, censuses have always profoundly shaped the societies we've built. Today, as we struggle to resist the creep of mass surveillance, the traditional census -- direct and transparent -- may offer the seeds of an alternative.

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Page Count

317

Publisher

Basic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1541619331

ISBN 13

9781541619333

Where Now, O Biologists, is Your Theory?

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Where Now, O Biologists, is Your Theory?

By: Andrew P. Porter

Intelligent Design creationism faults evolutionary biology for being ``naturalistic,'' but ID is in its own strange way just as naturalistic. Like the man who can't find his car-keys at night and looks for them under a street-light, though he last saw the keys someplace else, intelligent design creationism seeks acts of God within the gaps in our scientific knowledge. Creation takes the goodness of this world on faith, but Creationism works to get out of the challenge of the doctrine of creation, not to embrace it.

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323

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

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ISBN 10

1597525936

ISBN 13

9781597525930

In the Beginning, Exodus

The Bible Then and Now

By: Andrew P. Porter

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In the Beginning, Exodus

The Bible Then and Now

By: Andrew P. Porter

How did the Bible come to be written? How did Israelite religion grow out of the surrounding cultures? How did Israelite religion become Christianity and rabbinic Judaism? How did scholars discover this history in the last two centuries? This book is about such questions, and about the ways that Christianity in the modern world became confused, looking for acts of God in the interstices of natural causation rather than in the living-in-history in which the Bible was born. The modern challenges to Christianity are historicism, relativism, and pluralism; and Christianity can learn to receive them as blessings and as offers of grace--as old friends, not as new enemies.

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223

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1556353103

ISBN 13

9781556353109

Unanswerable Questions

Ambiguity and Interpersonhood

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Unanswerable Questions

Ambiguity and Interpersonhood

By: Andrew P. Porter

Transcendence is commonly taken to be about another world, one that transcends this one. Instead, I would say that transcendence is about unanswerable questions, and unanswerable questions arise naturally in human life. We deal with them without answering them (or answer them only with irony), for example, in the comic strips, but philosophers are usually loath to admit that there even are any unanswerable questions. Philosophy of religion usually starts with familiar questions such as ‘‘Is there a God?’’ and the like. (That’s kind of like ‘‘Do neutrinos exist?’’ or ‘‘Is there a luminiferous ether?’’) Begin instead with more basic questions: What is your idea of ultimate reality? What does it mean to ‘‘succeed’’ in life? Where does your ultimate reality show itself in life and the world? Unanswerable Questions is the sequel to The Accountant’s Tale.

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148

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1666717819

ISBN 13

9781666717815

The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012

By: Andrew Burbidge,Peter Harrison,John Woinarski

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The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012

By: Andrew Burbidge,Peter Harrison,John Woinarski

The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 is the first review to assess the conservation status of all Australian mammals. It complements The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010 (Garnett et al. 2011, CSIRO Publishing), and although the number of Australian mammal taxa is marginally fewer than for birds, the proportion of endemic, extinct and threatened mammal taxa is far greater. These authoritative reviews represent an important foundation for understanding the current status, fate and future of the nature of Australia. This book considers all species and subspecies of Australian mammals, including those of external territories and territorial seas. For all the mammal taxa (about 300 species and subspecies) considered Extinct, Threatened, Near Threatened or Data Deficient, the size and trend of their population is presented along with information on geographic range and trend, and relevant biological and ecological data. The book also presents the current conservation status of each taxon under Australian legislation, what additional information is needed for managers, and the required management actions. Recovery plans, where they exist, are evaluated. The voluntary participation of more than 200 mammal experts has ensured that the conservation status and information are as accurate as possible, and allowed considerable unpublished data to be included. All accounts include maps based on the latest data from Australian state and territory agencies, from published scientific literature and other sources. The Action Plan concludes that 29 Australian mammal species have become extinct and 63 species are threatened and require urgent conservation action. However, it also shows that, where guided by sound knowledge, management capability and resourcing, and longer-term commitment, there have been some notable conservation success stories, and the conservation status of some species has greatly improved over the past few decades. The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012 makes a major contribution to the conservation of a wonderful legacy that is a significant part of Australia’s heritage. For such a legacy to endure, our society must be more aware of and empathetic with our distinctively Australian environment, and particularly its marvellous mammal fauna; relevant information must be readily accessible; environmental policy and law must be based on sound evidence; those with responsibility for environmental management must be aware of what priority actions they should take; the urgency for action (and consequences of inaction) must be clear; and the opportunity for hope and success must be recognised. It is in this spirit that this account is offered.

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1865

Publisher

CSIRO PUBLISHING

Published Date

ISBN 10

0643108750

ISBN 13

9780643108752

Unwelcome Good News

Providence in Human Life

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Unwelcome Good News

Providence in Human Life

By: Andrew P. Porter

What if you wanted to treat all of life as good, in full view of its pains? It is not 'simply' that all of life is good, because its pains can clearly be overwhelming. But is it possible to find life good, including its hard and painful parts? How might one live that way? ---------------- This book is written so that rumors of God in his functional presence might not die out. It is written so that those who want to affirm life in full view of its pains and wrongs may do so with recognition and intention.

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158

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

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ISBN 10

1592449387

ISBN 13

9781592449385

By the Waters of Naturalism

Theology Perplexed Among the Sciences

By: Andrew P. Porter

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By the Waters of Naturalism

Theology Perplexed Among the Sciences

By: Andrew P. Porter

We are taught by our culture to think that for God to act, he has to interfere with the natural course of events in one way or another, perhaps through the openings left by quantum indeterminacy. The argument of this book is that the pertinent concepts in religion don't work that way. When the naive concept of divine interference is examined closely, it quickly shows itself to be incoherent and incapable of doing the work assigned to it. If we look at the language of human action in real life, what we find is not nature but history. The supernatural is just naturalism by other means; the real alternative to nature is history. The God of history has a power and majesty that goes quite beyond anything that the naturalists have offered us.

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148

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1579107702

ISBN 13

9781579107703

A Case for Radical Pragmatic Leaders and Personalised Learning Schools

Risky Public Policy Business

By: Andrew Bills

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A Case for Radical Pragmatic Leaders and Personalised Learning Schools

Risky Public Policy Business

By: Andrew Bills

Thousands of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are forsaking education in secondary mainstream schools across Australia. This book places a sociological and lived experience phenomenological lens on public policy that is working against school inclusion, learning engagement and post-school opportunity. The school case studies provided here highlight the damage done and the opportunity for refreshed policy approaches to address this malaise. Across the educational landscape, there are a number of fine examples of schools that are choosing to do schooling ‘against the grain’ of unhelpful regulatory policy that works to exclude many from their educational entitlement. These schools and their practices are examined in this book and are presented as examples for policy learning. If education systems learn to embrace an ongoing culture of research and inquiry, where the evidence-based and contextual learning experiences of students, teachers and Principals are equally valued and heard in the policy realm, the phenomenon of early school leaving can begin to turn around. This work calls upon Principals in the first instance to become more radical and pragmatic in their leadership of schools, collectively working with courage to ensure that the experience of schooling is personalised to the learning needs and career aspirations of all young people.

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329

Publisher

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1527555305

ISBN 13

9781527555303

The new politics of Russia

Interpreting change, revised and updated edition

By: Andrew Monaghan

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The new politics of Russia

Interpreting change, revised and updated edition

By: Andrew Monaghan

This illuminating book explains how and why Russia’s relations with the west have deteriorated to the point of initiating a new era of ‘great power competition’. An updated version of the bestselling 2016 edition, it explores the decline in relations since the early 2000s, taking in the war in Syria and the 2022 escalation in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Beyond geopolitical considerations, the book delves into the nature of power in Russia itself, providing an in-depth examination of the networks of influence that define the country's political landscape. In doing so it moves beyond the simplistic, Putin-centric narratives often found in western accounts, offering readers a fresh perspective on Russian politics. Understanding Russia is crucial for western leaders seeking to establish stable and constructive relations in the future. The new politics of Russia serves as a key resource, challenging conventional wisdom and unpicking the complex dynamics at play in the relationship between Russia and the west.

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207

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1526155605

ISBN 13

9781526155603

The Joker

A Memoir

By: Andrew Hudgins

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The Joker

A Memoir

By: Andrew Hudgins

Since Andrew Hudgins was a child, he was a compulsive joke teller, so when he sat down to write about jokes, he found that he was writing about himself--what jokes taught him and mistaught him, how they often delighted him but occasionally made him nervous with their delight in chaos and sometimes anger. Because Hudgins's father, a West Point graduate, served in the US Air Force, his family moved frequently; he learned to relate to other kids by telling jokes and watching how his classmates responded. And jokes opened him up to the serious, taboo subjects that his family didn't talk about openly--religion, race, sex, and death. Hudgins tells and analyzes the jokes that explore the contradictions in the Baptist religion he was brought up in, the jokes that told him what his parents would not tell him about sex, and the racist jokes that his uncle loved, his father hated, and his mother, caught in the middle, was ambivalent about. This book is both a memoir and a meditation on jokes and how they educated, delighted, and occasionally horrified him as he grew"--

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Page Count

352

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

1476712727

ISBN 13

9781476712727

Unanswerable Questions

Ambiguity and Interpersonhood

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Unanswerable Questions

Ambiguity and Interpersonhood

By: Andrew P. Porter

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Page Count

148

Publisher

Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1666717819

ISBN 13

9781666717815

Andrew Murray and His Message

One of God's Choice Saints

By: W. M. Douglas

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Andrew Murray and His Message

One of God's Choice Saints

By: W. M. Douglas

Murray's lifetime of work to deepen the spiritual life of Christians has touched the church world-wide.

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Page Count

244

Publisher

Emerald House Group Incorporated

Published Date

ISBN 10

1840300426

ISBN 13

9781840300420

Book's by Andrew P. Porter

Living in Spin

Living in Spin

The Accountant's Tale

The Accountant's Tale

The Sum of the People

The Sum of the People

Where Now, O Biologists, is Your Theory?

Where Now, O Biologists, is Your Theory?

In the Beginning, Exodus

In the Beginning, Exodus

Unanswerable Questions

Unanswerable Questions

The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012

The Action Plan for Australian Mammals 2012

Unwelcome Good News

Unwelcome Good News

By the Waters of Naturalism

By the Waters of Naturalism

A Case for Radical Pragmatic Leaders and Personalised Learning Schools

A Case for Radical Pragmatic Leaders and Personalised Learning Schools

The new politics of Russia

The new politics of Russia

The Joker

The Joker

Unanswerable Questions

Unanswerable Questions

Andrew Murray and His Message

Andrew Murray and His Message

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