This second edition of David-Hillel Ruben's influential and highly acclaimed book on the philosophy of explanation has been revised and expanded, and the author has made substantial changes in light of the extensive reviews the first edition received. Ruben's views on the place of laws in explanation has been refined and clarified. What is perhaps the central thesis of the book, his realist view of explanation, describing the way in which explanation depends on metaphysics, has been updated and extended and engages with some of the work in this area published since the book's first edition.
This book challenges the status quo where profligate building and urban development is described as ‘green’ and ‘low carbon’, exposing a number of ‘elephants in the big green room’ that severely impact upon society and the environment. It questions the ethics, equity and sustainability of continued growth of the building stock in industrialized contexts amid diminishing demand, whilst the developing world is deprived of basic resources and infrastructure. Even a ‘circular’ built environment may not go far enough, when dramatic reduction in consumption of resources is required to meet ‘sufficient’ service levels. More socio-economic value may be derived from built resources by their stewardship, adaptation, reuse and equitable sharing, while ameliorating the adverse impacts of overconsumption. By taking a wider perspective of a sustainable built environment, the text—illustrated by case studies from the Olympics and nine countries—reframes the policy debate and reforms current approaches through a new theory and manifesto. It will appeal to policy makers, architects, urban designers, educators, students and green building practitioners.
This book represents one of the first attempts by a multidisciplinary research team, encompassing the social sciences, business, architecture and planning, engineering, and finance and economics, to help rural communities discover sustainable and self-reliant paths to development and transformation. The opening chapter outlines the background of the research, its importance in the context of China and other countries, the rationale for choosing the case study communities in rural China, and the composition of the research team. Chapter 2 explores key issues in the role of social entrepreneurship and leadership in rural community development. Chapter 3 analyses a green platform for a pilot transaction of China forest carbon sinks led by the Huadong Forestry Exchange. The fourth chapter examines carbon trade, forestry land rights, and the livelihoods of farmers in rural Chinese communities. Chapter 5 explores alternative energy development in rural Chinese communities, where the poor are often disproportionately dependent on fuel wood and solid biomass, causing environmental degradation, reduced productivity and the decline of income generating opportunities. Chapter 6 examines and tests the proposition that stronger communities will result from ‘connected up’, holistic, synergistic and inclusive planning of services and supporting infrastructure. Chapter 7 analyzes information and communications technology (ICT) based service innovations for supporting rural community enterprises. Chapter 8 highlights key elements of stronger rural communities, drawing together the themes and proposals of preceding chapters and constructing an integrated model. The authors demonstrate that interconnected community enterprises based on clean forest products, forest carbon and ecotourism can be underpinned by local infrastructure enterprises such as renewable energy, water, waste management, ICT and transport, and financial mechanisms like carbon finance, all involving skills development, leadership and social entrepreneurship coupled with corporate and investment partnerships. Such interconnected approaches are expected to generate increased employment and prosperity, improve social livelihoods, and benefit the environment.
Ubuntu and Buddhism in Higher Education theorizes the equal privileging of ontology and epistemology towards a balanced focus on ‘being-becoming’ and knowledge acquisition within the field of higher education. In response to the shift in higher education’s aims and purposes beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, this book reconsiders higher education and Western subjectivity through southern African (Ubuntu) and Eastern (Buddhist) onto-epistemologies. By mapping these other-than-West ontological viewpoints onto the discourse surrounding higher education, this volume presents a vision of colleges and universities as transformational institutions promoting our shared connection to the human and non-human world, and deepens our understanding of what it means to be a human being.
Rich detail and vivid anecdotes of adventure....A treasure trove of exotic fact and hard thinking." —New York Times Book Review For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above—so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem. Casting his expert eye over the rapidly diminishing areas of wilderness where predators still reign, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo and The Tangled Tree examines the fate of lions in India's Gir forest, of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, of brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and of Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East. In the poignant and troublesome ferocity of these embattled creatures, we recognize something primeval deep within us, something in danger of vanishing forever.
What does the word "Bible" mean? Who wrote the Bible? Has it changed over time? Why are there so many translations? A General Introduction to the Bible answers these questions and more. Without becoming too technical for the average layperson, David Ewert surveys the history, formation, transmission, and translation of the Christian Bible in an informative and captivating way. Topics include: Meaning of "Bible" and the naming of biblical books Transmission of sacred scriptures The thousand-year story of the English Bible Bible organization Development of biblical languages Canon of the testaments Extracanonical books Early versions of the Bible Choosing a translation Features include: Photographs of ancient texts, Bible pages, key individuals, and settings Maps and charts that show the development of languages, textual families, and the relationship of various translations and revisions Suggested readings and an extensive glossary and index From ancient tablets to modern translations—God's Word to humanity has been profoundly impacting the world for several millennia. And after learning about its fascinating history, your appreciation for the Bible will surely increase even more.
The very best book about how to do quantum mechanics explained in simple English. Ideal for self study or for understanding your professor and his traditional textbook.
On Goodness attempts to answer the question "What is goodness?" It is natural to associate this question with ethics; but goodness is not confined to ethics. Water and wine, a strategy for streamlining maintenance operations, and an oil painting may all be good and in non-ethical ways. Goodness figures prominently in ethics; so the study serves ethics. But it serves other domains as well. On Goodness is a contribution to the foundations of value theory. It is also a metaphysical inquiry, for two reasons. As the examples indicate, the entity under investigation is extremely general. Goodness occurs in potables, plans, and paintings, among countless other kinds of things. Second, it is particularly obscure what sort of being the entity is. Besides the description "good," is there a single thing that good drinks, strategies, and artworks share? Is their goodness related in a more complex way? And regardless of these relations, in any instance, just what is that goodness? The question "What is goodness?" has been central to philosophy since Socrates and Plato made it their polestar. The distinctive contribution of On Goodness lies in its methodology. The method of pursuing the metaphysical question is linguistic. The basic proposal is that achieving the answer depends on clarifying the meaning and use of the words "good" and "goodness." Consequently, the study is pervasively informed by and critically engaged with contemporary linguistic theories and ideas.
This book provides the essential, primary documentation needed to clarify, readjust, and, in some cases, destroy the many commonly held myths of America's colonial past. America's past is in many respects misunderstood and distorted. Even our secondary-level and college classrooms are not always capable of correcting the common misconceptions about Columbus and his discovery; Jamestown, John Smith, and Pocahontas; the Salem Witch Trials; and even the American Revolution. What is often lacking in texts on these events and people is a narrative with a solid underpinning of primary sources that clearly explains how misconceptions began, how they were perpetuated, and finally how they made their way into contemporary American popular culture. Colonial America: Facts and Fictions separates myth from reality. The authors explore 10 popular myths about the period, each of which is examined in terms of its origin and how it became ensconced in American memory. It uses primary sources to explain the evolution of the myths and to inform readers about what actually happened. This book explains all of this, and most importantly exposes the modern reader to those essential primary source documents that clarify the distortions and disprove the popular misconceptions of the past.
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