Mark E. Johnson's sophomore memoir takes you on his improbable odyssey from a North Carolina Christmas tree farm into the blue-collar music business, from Nashville to the Caribbean to South Texas and back again. Follow along as Johnson survives the Nashville music meatgrinder, the Caribbean's most profound island of ill repute, and the temptations of both. "Blow the Man Down" is equal parts hilarious coming-of-age story and one man's search for his artistic niche in the world.
“A welcome renewal and defense of John Dewey's ethical naturalism, which Johnson claims is the only morality ‘fit for actual human beings.’” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews What is the difference between right and wrong? This is no easy question to answer, yet we constantly try to make it so, frequently appealing to absolutes, whether drawn from God, universal reason, or societal authority. Combining cognitive science with a pragmatist philosophical framework, Mark Johnson argues that appealing solely to absolute principles is not only scientifically unsound but even morally suspect. He shows that the standards for the kinds of people we should be and how we should treat one another are frequently subject to change. Taking context into consideration, he offers a nuanced, naturalistic view of ethics that sees us creatively adapt our standards according to given needs, emerging problems, and social interactions. Ethical naturalism is not just a revamped form of relativism. Indeed, Johnson attempts to overcome the absolutist-versus-relativist impasse that has been one of the most intractable problems in the history of philosophy. Much of our moral thought, he shows, is automatic and intuitive, gut feelings that we attempt to justify with rational analysis and argument. However, good moral deliberation is not limited to intuitive judgments supported after the fact by reasoning. Johnson points out a crucial third element: we imagine how our decisions will play out, how we or the world would change with each action we might take. Plumbing this imaginative dimension of moral reasoning, he provides a psychologically sophisticated view of moral problem solving, one perfectly suited for the embodied, culturally embedded, and ever-developing human creatures that we are.
Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor was first published in 1981. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. "We are," says Mark Johnson, "in the midst of metaphormania." The past few years have seen an explosion of interest in metaphor as a vehicle for exploring the relations between language and thought. While a number of recent books have dealt with metaphor from the standpoints of several disciplines, there is no collection that shows the best of the work that has been done in the field of philosophy. Mark Johnson has brought together essays that define the central issues of the discussion in this field. His introductory essay offers a critical survey of historically influential treatments of figurative language (including those of Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, and Nietzsche) and sets forth the nature of various issues that have been of interest to philosophers. Thus, it provides a context in which to understand the motivations, influences, and significance of the collected essays. An annotated bibliography serves as a catalog of all relevant literature. Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor provides an entry point into the philosophical exploration of metaphor for students, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, artists, critics, or anyone interested in language and its relation to understanding and experience.
Using path-breaking discoveries of cognitive science, Mark Johnson argues that humans are fundamentally imaginative moral animals, challenging the view that morality is simply a system of universal laws dictated by reason. According to the Western moral tradition, we make ethical decisions by applying universal laws to concrete situations. But Johnson shows how research in cognitive science undermines this view and reveals that imagination has an essential role in ethical deliberation. Expanding his innovative studies of human reason in Metaphors We Live By and The Body in the Mind, Johnson provides the tools for more practical, realistic, and constructive moral reflection.
Finale offers all the notation tools required to craft virtually any composition. Unfortunately, the imaginative ways these tools are used sometimes becomes an elaborate composition in itself! Composing with Finale shows you the essentials you’ll need in order to make the most of this program’s incredible power. Studying Finale from a compositional perspective eases the learning curve overall, transforming Finale into an extension of your imagination. Instead of describing procedures most beneficial to copyists and engravers, this book isolates the methods crucial to working with a composition in progress— how to efficiently translate directly from your mind to the score.Far from a “point-and-click” guide, Composing with Finale will help you compose more music with one of the most advanced music-composition tools on the market.
Mark Johnson's third memoir chronicles an ironic year of surprise and transformation when one man's life takes an unexpected detour and he discovers his destiny on the way to a new destination. As the story begins, Mark is poised for a new adventure. He has already navigated the ups and downs of his St. Louis childhood and retraced the path of his mother's life from fertile ground. Yet, he doesn't expect his journey with his husband Tom-selling their steady-but-often-snowy Illinois home and resurfacing in the warmth and serenity of Arizona's Sonoran Desert-will prove to be as circuitous. An Unobstructed View is an inspiring story of promise, perseverance and reflection.
Today's digital economy is uniquely dependent on the Internet, yet few users or decision makers have more than a rudimentary understanding of the myriad of online risks that threaten us. Cyber crime is one of the main threats to the integrity and availability of data and systems. From insiders to complex external attacks and industrial worms, modern business faces unprecedented challenges; and while cyber security and digital intelligence are the necessary responses to this challenge, they are understood by only a tiny minority. In his second book on high-tech risks, Mark Johnson goes far beyond enumerating past cases and summarising legal or regulatory requirements. He describes in plain, non-technical language how cyber crime has evolved and the nature of the very latest threats. He confronts issues that are not addressed by codified rules and practice guidelines, supporting this with over 30 valuable illustrations and tables. Written for the non-technical layman and the high tech risk manager alike, the book also explores countermeasures, penetration testing, best practice principles, cyber conflict and future challenges. A discussion of Web 2.0 risks delves into the very real questions facing policy makers, along with the pros and cons of open source data. In a chapter on Digital Intelligence readers are provided with an exhaustive guide to practical, effective and ethical online investigations. Cyber Crime, Security and Digital Intelligence is an important work of great relevance in today's interconnected world and one that nobody with an interest in either risk or technology should be without.
Seditious Theology explores the much analysed British punk movement of the 1970s from a theological perspective. Imaginatively engaging with subjects such as subversion, deconstruction, confrontation and sedition, this book highlights the stark contrasts between the punk genre and the ministry of Jesus while revealing surprising similarities and, in so doing, demonstrates how we may look at both subjects in fresh and unusual ways. Johnson looks at both punk and Jesus and their challenges to symbols, gestures of revolt, constructive use of conflict and the shattering of relational norms. He then points to the seditious pattern in Jesus' life and the way it can be discerned in some recent trends in theology. The imaginative images that he creates provide a challenging image of Jesus and of those who have relooked radically in recent years at what being a ‘seditious’ follower of Christ means for the church. Introducing both a new partner for theological conversation and a fresh way of how to go about the task, this book presents a powerful approach to exploring the life of Christ and a new way of engaging with both recent theological trends and the more challenging expressions of popular culture.
In The Meaning of the Body, Mark Johnson continues his pioneering work on the exciting connections between cognitive science, language, and meaning first begun in the classic Metaphors We Live By. Johnson uses recent research into infant psychology to show how the body generates meaning even before self-consciousness has fully developed. From there he turns to cognitive neuroscience to further explore the bodily origins of meaning, thought, and language and examines the many dimensions of meaning—including images, qualities, emotions, and metaphors—that are all rooted in the body’s physical encounters with the world. Drawing on the psychology of art and pragmatist philosophy, Johnson argues that all of these aspects of meaning-making are fundamentally aesthetic. He concludes that the arts are the culmination of human attempts to find meaning and that studying the aesthetic dimensions of our experience is crucial to unlocking meaning's bodily sources. Throughout, Johnson puts forth a bold new conception of the mind rooted in the understanding that philosophy will matter to nonphilosophers only if it is built on a visceral connection to the world. “Mark Johnson demonstrates that the aesthetic and emotional aspects of meaning are fundamental—central to conceptual meaning and reason, and that the arts show meaning-making in its fullest realization. If you were raised with the idea that art and emotion were external to ideas and reason, you must read this book. It grounds philosophy in our most visceral experience.”—George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics
Business model innovation is the key to unlocking transformational growth—but few executives know how to apply it to their businesses. In Seizing the White Space, Mark Johnson gives them the playbook. Leaving the rhetoric to others, Johnson lays out an eminently practical framework that identifies the four fundamental building blocks that make business models work. In a series of in-depth case studies, he goes on to vividly illustrate how companies are using innovative business models to seize their white space and achieve transformational growth by fulfilling unmet customer needs in their current markets; serving entirely new customers and creating new markets; and responding to tectonic shifts in market demand, government policy, and technologies that affect entire industries. He then lays out a structured process for designing a new model and developing it into a profitable and thriving enterprise, while investigating the vexing and sometimes paradoxical managerial challenges that have commonly thwarted so many companies in their unguided forays into the unknown. Business model innovators have reshaped entire sectors—including retail, aviation, and media—and redistributed billions of dollars of value. With road-tested frameworks, analytics, and diagnostics, this book gives executives everything they need to reshape their businesses and achieve transformative growth.
Bullying and victimization are not new. They have been around since the beginning of time. ABC's for Bully Prevention, Simple as 1, 2, 3 corresponds the letters of the alphabet to words that relate to victimization, bullying, and intervention. The words are simple yet relevant, a toolbox of different ideas and principles that can be used by all ages: students, teachers, parents, children, preachers, parishioners, correctional workers, law enforcement, supervisors, and employees to educate themselves and others. The concepts challenge the reader to develop an out-of-the-box perspective on how to approach bullying and reduce its negative effects. The author's personal opinion is that children are not born to hate; they are taught to hate. Use this book to reverse that cycle.
This unique resource offers over two hundred well-tested bioengineering problems for teaching and examinations. Solutions are available to instructors online.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher chronicle the story of a young boy with a never-before-seen disease and the doctors who take a bold step into the future of medicine to save him"--Page 4 of cover
The rapid pace and increasing convergence of internet, phone and other communications technologies has created extraordinary opportunities for business but the complexity of these new service mixes creates parallel opportunities for fraud and revenue leakage. Companies seeking to use communications technology as a delivery or payment platform for digital services are particularly at risk. They need to understand both their strategic and operational risks as well as those affecting their stakeholders - partners and customers. Effective risk management is as much about awareness, culture, training and organization as it is about technology. Mark Johnson's practical guide, Demystifying Communications Risk, highlights cases from a wide range of geographies and cultures and is designed to raise awareness of the multi-faceted and often complex forms that operational revenue risks take in the communications sector. It provides managers with an understanding of the nature and implications of the risks they face and the human, organizational and technological approaches that can help avoid or mitigate them.
A Minister's Son is a moving nonfiction account of a young man's personal struggle with his strict religious upbringing. It recounts his touching but conflicted relationship with his evangelical father, a minister; his steamy experiences with young women in his father's church; his escapades as a public speaker in both religious and secular settings; and his eventual lapse into addiction. An uplifting memoir spanning the 1960s to the present day, this book will interest anyone who has had a troubled relationship with God, organized religion and/or alcohol.
Superman, Hairspray and the Greatest Goat on Earth is a collection of essays and stories about simple things: the trauma of shopping for shoes with a woman, of being surrounded by literally thousands of vengeful, man-eating bears in the Great Smoky Mountains, of a life-long obsession with empty hairspray cans, and of a little girl's relentless search for a live unicorn. This is a Saturday-in-the-rain book. Maybe it will jog a few memories of your own, take away a little stress, and prompt you to pay the author what he considers the ultimate compliment: "You're really not well, are you?
MAKE OPTICAL MEASUREMENTS WITH MAXIMUM ACCURACY AND MINIMUM COST The "opto-electronics revolution" has made the art and science of making sensitive, accurate, and inexpensive optical measurements must-know information for legions of electronic engineers and research students. And there’s no faster or easier way to master photodetection and measurement techniques than with this hands-on tutorial written by a teacher with experience enough to know the questions you would ask. A clear, easy-to-understand "rules-of-thumb" approach shows you how to make high-performance optical measurements by getting the fundamentals right, often with simple, inexpensive equipment commonly found in laboratories. It includes treatment of: * Photodetectors * Amplifiers * LED sources * Electronic modulation and demodulation * Interference avoidance * Data acquisition and basic DSP You’ll also gain a firm understanding of noise-reduction techniques and the essentials of building-in speed, sensitivity,and stability. If you want to learn the secret of making sound optical measurements without expensive equipment, this is the one resource you shouldn’t work without.
Gold Medal Winner for Best Leadership Book in the 2021 Axiom Business Book Awards Named one of the "Top Ten Technology Books Of 2020" — Forbes Named one of the "10 Best New Business Books of 2020" by Inc. magazine "Johnson and Suskewicz have raised a battle cry for the kind of leadership we need in these uncertain times." -- Sandi Peterson, Member, Board of Directors, Microsoft We all know a visionary leader when we see one. They're bold and prophetic and at the same time pragmatic. They don't just promote change--they drive it, while inspiring and mobilizing others to do the same. Visionaries like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos possess a host of innate qualities that make them extraordinary, but what truly sets them apart is their ability to turn vision into action. In Lead from the Future, Innosight's Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz introduce a new way of thinking and managing, called "future-back," that enables any manager to become a practical visionary. Addressing the many barriers to change that exist in established organizations, they present a systematic approach to overcoming them that includes: The principles and mind-set that allow leadership teams to look beyond typical short-term planning horizons A method for turning emerging challenges into the growth opportunities that can define an organization's future A step-by-step approach for translating a vision into a strategic plan that teams can align around and commit to Ways to ensure that visionary thinking becomes a repeatable organizational capability As practical as it is inspiring, Lead from the Future is the guide you and your team need to develop a vision and translate it into transformative growth.
What makes a fifty-year-old man quit a highly successful career in charity work to take on the low-paid, dangerous job of being a police officer? When Mark Johnson left the United Way to become the oldest rookie in the Mobile, Alabama, police department, he didn’t just have to adjust to a new career—he had to adjust to an entirely new life of danger, violence, and stark moral choices. “Apprehensions and Convictions” is Johnson’s explosive memoir of his second career as a cop. Going from fund-raising with socialites to confronting armed suspects in the streets, Johnson found that poverty and crime were no longer social issues but matters of life and death. A civilized man whose first instinct is to help people in trouble, Johnson learned that some men can only be subdued with brute force and some chronic criminals refuse to be redeemed. Defying the skepticism of his wife, the derision of the younger cops who called him “Pawpaw,” and his own self-doubts, Johnson rose to become a detective and a highly decorated officer. “Apprehensions and Convictions” also tells a personal story of how Johnson overcame his own demons to find a new sense of purpose and identity in midlife. From a troubled drink- and drug-fueled youth, to dealing with both his birth and adoptive parents, to struggling to find a steady career path, Johnson’s story is of a man who found his courage and changed himself. An intense, sweeping narrative that explores the frustrations of an overprivileged youth, delves deeply into the dysfunction of the Mobile ghetto, and ends with an armed standoff between Johnson and an escaped cop-killer, “Apprehensions and Convictions” is a compelling new memoir of a remarkable life.
A dialogue between contemporary neuroscience and John Dewey’s seminal philosophical work Experience and Nature, exploring how the bodily roots of human meaning, selfhood, and values provide wisdom for living. The intersection of cognitive science and pragmatist philosophy reveals the bodily basis of human meaning, thought, selfhood, and values. John Dewey's revolutionary account of pragmatist philosophy Experience and Nature (1925) explores humans as complex social animals, developing through ongoing engagement with their physical, interpersonal, and cultural environments. Drawing on recent research in biology and neuroscience that supports, extends, and, on occasion, reformulates some of Dewey's seminal insights, embodied cognition expert Mark L. Johnson and behavioral neuroscientist Jay Schulkin develop the most expansive intertwining of Dewey's philosophy with biology and neuroscience to date. The result is a positive, life-affirming understanding of how our evolutionary and individual development shapes who we are, what we can know, where our deepest values come from, and how we can cultivate wisdom for a meaningful and intelligent life.
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