Michael Strevens's Books

The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

By: Michael Strevens

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The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

By: Michael Strevens

“The Knowledge Machine is the most stunningly illuminating book of the last several decades regarding the all-important scientific enterprise.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex A paradigm-shifting work, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. • Why is science so powerful? • Why did it take so long—two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics—for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe? In a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument. Like such classic works as Karl Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine grapples with the meaning and origins of science, using a plethora of vivid historical examples to demonstrate that scientists willfully ignore religion, theoretical beauty, and even philosophy to embrace a constricted code of argument whose very narrowness channels unprecedented energy into empirical observation and experimentation. Strevens calls this scientific code the iron rule of explanation, and reveals the way in which the rule, precisely because it is unreasonably close-minded, overcomes individual prejudices to lead humanity inexorably toward the secrets of nature. “With a mixture of philosophical and historical argument, and written in an engrossing style” (Alan Ryan), The Knowledge Machine provides captivating portraits of some of the greatest luminaries in science’s history, including Isaac Newton, the chief architect of modern science and its foundational theories of motion and gravitation; William Whewell, perhaps the greatest philosopher-scientist of the early nineteenth century; and Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark. Today, Strevens argues, in the face of threats from a changing climate and global pandemics, the idiosyncratic but highly effective scientific knowledge machine must be protected from politicians, commercial interests, and even scientists themselves who seek to open it up, to make it less narrow and more rational—and thus to undermine its devotedly empirical search for truth. Rich with illuminating and often delightfully quirky illustrations, The Knowledge Machine, written in a winningly accessible style that belies the import of its revisionist and groundbreaking concepts, radically reframes much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world.

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368

Publisher

Liveright Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1631491385

ISBN 13

9781631491382

Bigger than Chaos

Understanding Complexity through Probability

By: Michael Strevens

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Bigger than Chaos

Understanding Complexity through Probability

By: Michael Strevens

Michael Strevens shows how simplicity can co-exist with the tangled interconnections within complex systems. By looking at the foundations of statistical reasoning about complex systems (gases, ecosystems and even social systems) he provides an understanding of how simplicity emerges from complexity.

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430

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674044061

ISBN 13

9780674044067

Thinking Off Your Feet

How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy

By: Michael Strevens

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Thinking Off Your Feet

How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy

By: Michael Strevens

Many philosophers believe they can gain knowledge about the world from the comfort of their armchairs, simply by reflecting on the nature of things. But how can the mind arrive at substantive knowledge of the world without seeking its input? Michael Strevens proposes an original defense of the armchair pursuit of philosophical knowledge, focusing on “the method of cases,” in which judgments about category membership—Does this count as causation? Does that count as the right action to take?—are used to test philosophical hypotheses about such matters as causality, moral responsibility, and beauty. Strevens argues that the method of cases is capable of producing reliable, substantial knowledge. His strategy is to compare concepts of philosophical things to concepts of natural kinds, such as water. Philosophical concepts, like natural kind concepts, do not contain the answers to philosophers’ questions; armchair philosophy therefore cannot be conceptual analysis. But just as natural kind concepts provide a viable starting point for exploring the nature of the material world, so philosophical concepts are capable of launching and sustaining fruitful inquiry into philosophical matters, using the method of cases. Agonizing about unusual “edge cases,” Strevens shows, can play a leading role in such discoveries. Thinking Off Your Feet seeks to reshape current debates about the nature of philosophical thinking and the methodological implications of experimental philosophy, to make significant contributions to the cognitive science of concepts, and to restore philosophy to its traditional position as an essential part of the human quest for knowledge.

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213

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674989708

ISBN 13

9780674989702

On the Nature of Ecological Paradox

By: Michael Charles Tobias,Jane Gray Morrison

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On the Nature of Ecological Paradox

By: Michael Charles Tobias,Jane Gray Morrison

This work is a large, powerfully illustrated interdisciplinary natural sciences volume, the first of its kind to examine the critically important nature of ecological paradox, through an abundance of lenses: the biological sciences, taxonomy, archaeology, geopolitical history, comparative ethics, literature, philosophy, the history of science, human geography, population ecology, epistemology, anthropology, demographics, and futurism. The ecological paradox suggests that the human biological–and from an insular perspective, successful–struggle to exist has come at the price of isolating H. sapiens from life-sustaining ecosystem services, and far too much of the biodiversity with which we find ourselves at crisis-level odds. It is a paradox dating back thousands of years, implicating millennia of human machinations that have been utterly ruinous to biological baselines. Those metrics are examined from numerous multidisciplinary approaches in this thoroughly original work, which aids readers, particularly natural history students, who aspire to grasp the far-reaching dimensions of the Anthropocene, as it affects every facet of human experience, past, present and future, and the rest of planetary sentience. With a Preface by Dr. Gerald Wayne Clough, former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Foreword by Robert Gillespie, President of the non-profit, Population Communication.

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894

Publisher

Springer Nature

Published Date

ISBN 10

3030645266

ISBN 13

9783030645267

Depth

An Account of Scientific Explanation

By: Michael Strevens

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Depth

An Account of Scientific Explanation

By: Michael Strevens

What does it mean for scientists to truly understand, rather than to merely describe, how the world works? Michael Strevens proposes a novel theory of scientific explanation and understanding that overhauls and augments the familiar causal approach to explanation. What is replaced is the test for explanatorily relevant causal information: Strevens discards the usual criterion of counterfactual dependence in favor of a criterion that turns on a process of progressive abstraction away from a fully detailed, physical causal story. The augmentations include the introduction of a new, non-causal explanatory relevance relation—entanglement—and an independent theory of the role of black-boxing and functional specification in explanation. The abstraction-centered notion of difference-making leads to a rich causal treatment of many aspects of explanation that have been either ignored or handled inadequately by earlier causal approaches, including the explanation of laws and other regularities, with particular attention to the explanation of physically contingent high-level laws, idealization in explanation, and probabilistic explanation in deterministic systems, as in statistical physics, evolutionary biology, and medicine. The result is an account of explanation that has especially significant consequences for the higher-level sciences: biology, psychology, economics, and other social sciences.

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537

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674062574

ISBN 13

9780674062573

Bigger than Chaos

Understanding Complexity through Probability

By: Michael Strevens

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Bigger than Chaos

Understanding Complexity through Probability

By: Michael Strevens

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430

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Harvard University Press

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ISBN 10

0674044061

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9780674044067

Volcanoes: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael J Branney,Jan Zalasiewicz

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Volcanoes: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael J Branney,Jan Zalasiewicz

Volcanoes are some of the most dramatic expressions of the powerful tectonic forces at work in the Earth beneath our feet. But volcanism, a profoundly important feature of Earth, and indeed of other planets and moons too, encompasses much more than just volcanoes themselves. On a planetary scale, volcanism is an indispensable heat release mechanism, which on Earth allows the conditions for life. IIt releases gases into the atmosphere and produces enormous volumes of rock, and spectacular landscapes - landscapes which, during major eruptions, can be completely reshaped in a matter of hours. Through geological time volcanism has shaped both climate and biological evolution, and volcanoes can affect human life, too, for both good and ill. Yet, even after much study, some of the fundamental aspects of volcanicity remain mysterious. This Very Short Introduction takes the readers into the inferno of a racing pyroclastic current, and the heart of a moving lava flow, as understood through the latest scientific research. Exploring how volcanologists forensically decipher how volcanoes work, Michael Branney and Jan Zalasiewicz explain what we do (and don't) understood about the fundamental mechanisms of volcanism, and consider how volcanoes interact with other physical processes on the Earth, with life, and with human society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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144

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191024724

ISBN 13

9780191024726

Tychomancy

By: Michael Strevens

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Tychomancy

By: Michael Strevens

Michael Strevens makes three claims about rules for inferring physical probability. They are reliable. They constitute a key part of the physical intuition that allows us to navigate the world safely in the absence of scientific knowledge. And they played a crucial role in scientific innovation, from statistical physics to natural selection.

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280

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Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674075986

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9780674075986

Thinking Off Your Feet

How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy

By: Michael Strevens

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Thinking Off Your Feet

How Empirical Psychology Vindicates Armchair Philosophy

By: Michael Strevens

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213

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Harvard University Press

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ISBN 10

0674989708

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9780674989702

Simulation and Similarity

Using Models to Understand the World

By: Michael Weisberg

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Simulation and Similarity

Using Models to Understand the World

By: Michael Weisberg

This book is an account of modeling and idealization in modern scientific practice, focusing on concrete, mathematical, and computational models. The main topics of this book are the nature of models, the practice of modeling, and the nature of the relationship between models and real-world phenomena. In order to elucidate the model/world relationship, Weisberg develops a novel account of similarity called weighted feature matching.

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211

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OUP USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199933669

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9780199933662

An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research

By: Diane Larsen-Freeman,Michael H. Long

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An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research

By: Diane Larsen-Freeman,Michael H. Long

Understanding how people learn and fail to learn second and foreign languages is increasingly recognised as a critical social and psycholinguistic issue. Second languages are vitally important to diverse groups of people, ranging from refugees to college students facing foreign language requirements. This book provides a synthesis of empirical findings on second and foreign language learning by children and adults, emphasising the design and execution of appropriate research.

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387

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317869230

ISBN 13

9781317869238

Shakespeare's Sense of Character

On the Page and From the Stage

By: Michael W. Shurgot

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Shakespeare's Sense of Character

On the Page and From the Stage

By: Michael W. Shurgot

Making a unique intervention in an incipient but powerful resurgence of academic interest in character-based approaches to Shakespeare, this book brings scholars and theatre practitioners together to rethink why and how character continues to matter. Contributors seek in particular to expand our notions of what Shakespearean character is, and to extend the range of critical vocabularies in which character criticism can work. The return to character thus involves incorporating as well as contesting postmodern ideas that have radically revised our conceptions of subjectivity and selfhood. At the same time, by engaging theatre practitioners, this book promotes the kind of comprehensive dialogue that is necessary for the common endeavor of sustaining the vitality of Shakespeare's characters.

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281

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317056027

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9781317056027

Making World English

Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919-39

By: Michael G. Malouf

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Making World English

Literature, Late Empire, and English Language Teaching, 1919-39

By: Michael G. Malouf

Uncovering the role of literature, late imperialism, and the rise of new models of internationalism as integral to the invention of Global English, this book focuses on three key figures from the “Vocabulary Control Movement” - C.K. Ogden, Harold Palmer, and Michael West - who competed for market share for their respective language teaching systems - Basic English, the Palmer Method, and the New Method - through battles over word lists and teaching methods in the 1920s and 30s. Drawing on archives from the Carnegie Corporation and considering language teaching in eight global sites, this book analyzes how a series of conferences in New York and London resolved their conflicts and produced a consolidated, international standard form of English. As a postcolonial approach to the development of the field of English Language Teaching, it reveals how these language debates were proxy battles over an idealized global subject: an urban, secular, consumer moving seamlessly between the tribal and global, speaking both mother tongues and an international lingua franca, Global English. Featuring analysis of the primary texts of each of the three key figures in this book as well as close readings of their readers, which featured adaptations of well-known literary texts from writers like Poe, Dickens, Wordsworth, Milton and Wells, it recovers a neglected history of English as it was redefined as an international language through anti-colonial resistance in the peripheries and transatlantic power struggles in the metropole during the interwar period.

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432

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

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ISBN 10

1350243876

ISBN 13

9781350243873

Philosophy in the Roman Empire

Ethics, Politics and Society

By: Michael Trapp

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Philosophy in the Roman Empire

Ethics, Politics and Society

By: Michael Trapp

Drawing on unusually broad range of sources for this study of Imperial period philosophical thought, Michael Trapp examines the central issues of personal morality, political theory, and social organization: philosophy as the pursuit of self-improvement and happiness; the conceptualization and management of emotion; attitudes and obligations to others; ideas of the self and personhood; constitutional theory and the ruler; the constituents and working of the good community. Texts and thinkers discussed range from Alexander of Aphrodisias, Aspasius and Alcinous, via Hierocles, Seneca, Musonius, Epictetus, Plutarch and Diogenes of Oenoanda, to Dio Chrysostom, Apuleius, Lucian, Maximus of Tyre, Pythagorean pseudepigrapha, and the Tablet of Cebes. The distinctive doctrines of the individual philosophical schools are outlined, but also the range of choice that collectively they presented to the potential philosophical 'convert', and the contexts in which that choice was encountered. Finally Trapp turns his attention to the status of philosophy itself as an element of the elite culture of the period, and to the ways in which philosophical values may have posed a threat to other prevalent schemes of value; Trapp argues that the idea of 'philosophical opposition', though useful, needs to be substantially modified and extended.

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516

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351911414

ISBN 13

9781351911412

Telling Stories

Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative

By: Michael Roemer

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Telling Stories

Postmodernism and the Invalidation of Traditional Narrative

By: Michael Roemer

Asks important questions about the very nature of stories and examines why we read stories rather than just learning the endings.

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516

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Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0847680428

ISBN 13

9780847680429

The Emergent Method: A Modern Science Approach to the Phenomenology and Ethics of Emergentism

By: Michael E. Kean

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The Emergent Method: A Modern Science Approach to the Phenomenology and Ethics of Emergentism

By: Michael E. Kean

Emergentism - New form of Emergentism; Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy of Mind; Popular Science; Self-Improvement; Phenomenology; Existentialism.Emergentism is the study and tentative explanation of how order arises in everything from quantum fluctuations to human consciousness. The aim of The Emergent Method is to use the new philosophy of Emergentism and the findings of modern science to challenge the way we think, and thereby help fulfil our highest purposes.

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736

Publisher

Lulu.com

Published Date

ISBN 10

0994586825

ISBN 13

9780994586827

Emotional Insight

The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience

By: Michael S. Brady

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Emotional Insight

The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience

By: Michael S. Brady

Michael S. Brady presents a fresh perspective on how to understand the difference that emotions can make to our lives. It is a commonplace that emotions can give us information about the world: we are told, for instance, that sometimes it is a good idea to 'listen to our heart' when trying to figure out what to believe. In particular, many people think that emotions can give us information about value: fear can inform us about danger, guilt about moral wrongs, pride about achievement. But how are we to understand the positive contribution that emotions can make to our beliefs in general, and to our beliefs about value in particular? And what are the conditions in which emotions make such a contribution? Emotional Insight aims to answer these questions. In doing so it illuminates a central tenet of common-sense thinking, contributes to an on-going debate in the philosophy of emotion, and illustrates something important about the nature of emotion itself. For a central claim of the book is that we should reject the idea that emotional experiences give us information in the same way that perceptual experiences do. The book rejects, in other words, the Perceptual Model of emotion. Instead, the epistemological story that the book tells will be grounded in a novel and distinctive account of what emotions are and what emotions do. On this account, emotions help to serve our epistemic needs by capturing our attention, and by facilitating a reassessment or reappraisal of the evaluative information that emotions themselves provide. As a result, emotions can promote understanding of and insight into ourselves and our evaluative landscape.

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215

Publisher

OUP Oxford

Published Date

ISBN 10

019150873X

ISBN 13

9780191508738

A Commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto

By: Michael Petrus Josephus Van Den Hout,Marco Cornelio Frontón

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A Commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto

By: Michael Petrus Josephus Van Den Hout,Marco Cornelio Frontón

This is the first commentary on the letters of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 90-95 - c. 167). It aims at an extensive grammatical, stylistic and historical interpretation of the letters and the ancient testimonies on Fronto. The author demonstrates where he stands in Latin literature; hence the numerous quotations of parallel, similar and dissentient passages from Fronto and other writers. This commentary, based on the Teubner-edition by the author (Leipzig 1988), offers a thorough explanation of the letters, a close examination of Fronto's style and language, e.g., of his archaisms and colloquialisms, identification of the persons mentioned, and the chronology of the letters. Seven elaborate indices complete this book.

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752

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004109579

ISBN 13

9789004109575

A Survey of Modern English

By: Stephan Gramley,Michael Pátzold

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A Survey of Modern English

By: Stephan Gramley,Michael Pátzold

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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513

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134944276

ISBN 13

9781134944279

Standard Languages and Language Standards – Greek, Past and Present

By: Michael Silk

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Standard Languages and Language Standards – Greek, Past and Present

By: Michael Silk

Standard Languages and Language Standards: Greek, Past and Present is a collection of essays with a distinctive focus and an unusual range. It brings together scholars from different disciplines, with a variety of perspectives, linguistic and literary, historical and social, to address issues of control, prescription, planning and perceptions of value over the long history of the Greek language, from the age of Homer to the present day. Under particular scrutiny are the processes of establishing a standard and the practices and ideologies of standardization. The diverse points of reference include: the Hellenistic koine and the literary classics of modern Greece; lexicography in late antiquity and today; Byzantine Greek, Pontic Greek and cyber-Greek; contested educational initiatives and competing understandings of the Greek language; the relation of linguistic study to standardization and the logic of a standard language. The aim of this ambitious project is not a comprehensive chronological survey or an exhaustive analysis. Rather, the editors have set out to provide a series of informed overviews and snapshots of telling cases that both illuminate the history of the Greek language and explore the nature of language standardization itself. The volume will be important for students and scholars of the Greek language, past and present, and, beyond the Greek example, for sociolinguists, historians and social scientists with interests in the role of language in the construction of identities.

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396

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317050592

ISBN 13

9781317050599

Archaeology

The Discipline of Things

By: Bjørnar Olsen,Michael Shanks,Timothy Webmoor,Christopher Witmore

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Archaeology

The Discipline of Things

By: Bjørnar Olsen,Michael Shanks,Timothy Webmoor,Christopher Witmore

Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past. Literally the "science of old things," archaeology does not discover the past as it was but must work with what remains. Such work involves the tangible mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us. This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things.

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266

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Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520954009

ISBN 13

9780520954007

St. Anne in Renaissance Music

Devotion and Politics

By: Michael Alan Anderson

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St. Anne in Renaissance Music

Devotion and Politics

By: Michael Alan Anderson

Michael Alan Anderson explores the political implications of music devoted to St Anne in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

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365

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1107056241

ISBN 13

9781107056244

Listening in Language Learning

By: Michael Rost,C N Candlin

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Listening in Language Learning

By: Michael Rost,C N Candlin

Examines listening as both a means of achieving understanding and as a teachable skill. The underlying theme of the volume is that an integration of cognitive, social, and educational perspectives is necessary in order to characterise effectively what listening ability is and how it may develop. It introduces listening from a cognitive perspective, and presents a detailed investigation of listening in social and educational contexts. The study concludes with an analysis of how listening development can be incorporated effectively into curriculum design.

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317

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317901630

ISBN 13

9781317901631

Social Situations

By: Michael Argyle,Adrian Furnham,Jean Ann Graham

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Social Situations

By: Michael Argyle,Adrian Furnham,Jean Ann Graham

Documents the authors' own studies of real life social situations and reviews the other literature in the field.

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466

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521298814

ISBN 13

9780521298810

Biometrics

A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael Fairhurst

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Biometrics

A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael Fairhurst

We live in a society which is increasingly interconnected, in which communication between individuals is mostly mediated via some electronic platform, and transactions are often carried out remotely. In such a world, traditional notions of trust and confidence in the identity of those with whom we are interacting, taken for granted in the past, can be much less reliable. Biometrics - the scientific discipline of identifying individuals by means of the measurement of unique personal attributes - provides a reliable means of establishing or confirming an individual's identity. These attributes include facial appearance, fingerprints, iris patterning, the voice, the way we write, or even the way we walk. The new technologies of biometrics have a wide range of practical applications, from securing mobile phones and laptops to establishing identity in bank transactions, travel documents, and national identity cards. This Very Short Introduction considers the capabilities of biometrics-based identity checking, from first principles to the practicalities of using different types of identification data. Michael Fairhurst looks at the basic techniques in use today, ongoing developments in system design, and emerging technologies, all aimed at improving precision in identification, and providing solutions to an increasingly wide range of practical problems. Considering how they may continue to develop in the future, Fairhurst explores the benefits and limitations of these pervasive and powerful technologies, and how they can effectively support our increasingly interconnected society. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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149

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192536796

ISBN 13

9780192536792

The History of Life: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael J. Benton

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The History of Life: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael J. Benton

This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct and accessible guide to the key episodes in the story of life on earth - from the very origins of life four million years ago to the extraordinary diversity of species around the globe today.

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185

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Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199226326

ISBN 13

9780199226320

Crystallography

A Very Short Introduction

By: Anthony Michael Glazer

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Crystallography

A Very Short Introduction

By: Anthony Michael Glazer

A long history -- Symmetry -- Crystal structures -- Diffraction -- Seeing atoms -- Sources of radiation

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169

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Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198717598

ISBN 13

9780198717591

Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael Allingham

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Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael Allingham

We make choices all the time - about trivial matters, about how to spend our money, about how to spend our time, about what to do with our lives. And we are also constantly judging the decisions other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational? What guides our own choices, especially in cases where we don't have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making decisions which affect a lot of people, as in the case of government policy? This book explores what it means to be rational in all these contexts. It introduces ideas from economics, philosophy, and other areas, showing how the theory applies to decisions in everyday life, and to particular situations such as gambling and the allocation of resources. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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144

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OUP Oxford

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191579262

ISBN 13

9780191579264

Language as Discourse

Perspectives for Language Teaching

By: Michael Mccarthy,Ronald Carter

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Language as Discourse

Perspectives for Language Teaching

By: Michael Mccarthy,Ronald Carter

In this book Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter describe the discoursal properties of language and demonstrate what insights this approach can offer to the student and teacher of language. The authors examine the relationship between complete texts, both spoken and written, and the social and cultural contexts in which they function. They argue that the functions of language are often best understood in a discoursal environment and that exploring language in context compels us to revise commonly-held understandings about the forms and meanings of language. In so doing, the authors argue the need for language teachers, syllabus planners and curriculum organisers to give greater attention to language as discourse.

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223

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Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317896718

ISBN 13

9781317896715

The Brain: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael O'Shea

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The Brain: A Very Short Introduction

By: Michael O'Shea

How does the brain work? How different is a human brain from other creatures' brains? Is the human brain still evolving? In this fascinating book, Michael O'Shea provides a non-technical introduction to the main issues and findings in current brain research, and gives a sense of how neuroscience addresses questions about the relationship between the brain and the mind. Chapters tackle subjects such as brain processes, perception, memory, motor control and the causes of 'altered mental states'. A final section discusses possible future developments in neuroscience, touching on artificial intelligence, gene therapy, the importance of the Human Genome Project, drugs by design, and transplants. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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149

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OUP Oxford

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191578355

ISBN 13

9780191578359

What's the Point of Knowledge?

A Function-first Epistemology

By: Michael J. Hannon

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What's the Point of Knowledge?

A Function-first Epistemology

By: Michael J. Hannon

This book is about knowledge and its value. The central hypothesis is that humans think and speak of knowing in order to identify reliable informants, which is vital for human survival, cooperation, and flourishing. This simple idea is used to answer an array of complex and consequential philosophical questions.

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289

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ISBN 10

0190914726

ISBN 13

9780190914721

Studies in Stoicism

By: P. A. Brunt,Michael Crawford

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Studies in Stoicism

By: P. A. Brunt,Michael Crawford

This important volume fulfills one of Peter Brunt's (1917 - 2005) last wishes: a collection of his most important papers in the area of scholarship that had occupied him in his earliest years of research, and which largely absorbed his attention after his retirement from the Camden Chair of Roman History at Oxford University in 1982. Brunt was interested primarily in Stoicism in the Roman period, and his chief concern was the practical influence of its ethical teaching on political and social life. Although his investigations were historical, they required a complete mastery of the Stoic texts and doctrine. Basing his work almost entirely on the ancient sources, Brunt provides the most complete account and comparison available today not only of the ideas of the Roman Stoic moralists, but also of the political philosophy of the Greek founders of the Stoa. He believed that the ideas of the Stoics of the Roman period were essentially continuous with the thinking of the founders, and he did not accept that the concern with practical everyday morality in later Stoicism was a new development. Studies in Stoicism contains six unpublished and seven republished essays, the latter incorporating additions and changes which Brunt wished to be made. The papers have been integrated and arranged in roughly chronological order and by subject matter, with an accessible lecture to the Oxford Philological Society serving as Brunt's own introduction.

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529

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Oxford University Press (UK)

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ISBN 10

0199695857

ISBN 13

9780199695850

Humanism: In Command or in Crisis?

Disciples, Doubters, and Despisers Weigh In

By: Michael A. Schuler

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Humanism: In Command or in Crisis?

Disciples, Doubters, and Despisers Weigh In

By: Michael A. Schuler

According to bestselling historian Yuval Noah Harari, today’s average American has their foot in three ideological camps: nationalism, free market capitalism, and humanism. The first two might seem obvious, but the third? It’s entirely possible that most who qualify for that label would be hard pressed to explain its meaning, much less use it self-descriptively. This book is designed to serve two important purposes: First, to provide an accessible resource for anyone curious about the humanist tradition and the arguments advanced by leading contemporary proponents. Second, to address what the author believes is a critical question for our time, the era of the Anthropocene: Is humanism’s seemingly benign package of values at least partially responsible for some of the world’s most pressing problems? To answer the last question, Schuler draws from an elective collection of commentators, including life scientists, spiritual writers, public intellectuals, technologists, novelists, and even poets. In the end, this wide-ranging survey will help the reader determine whether humanism makes sense for them.

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275

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Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published Date

ISBN 10

1666774375

ISBN 13

9781666774375

Organic Bionics

By: Gordon G. Wallace,Simon E. Moulton,Robert M.I. Kapsa,Michael Higgins

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Organic Bionics

By: Gordon G. Wallace,Simon E. Moulton,Robert M.I. Kapsa,Michael Higgins

The first reference on this emerging interdisciplinary research area at the interface between materials science and biomedicine is written by pioneers in the field, who address the requirements, current status and future challenges. Focusing on inherently conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes and graphene, they adopt a systematic approach, covering all relevant aspects and concepts: synthesis and fabrication, properties, introduction of biological function, components of bionic devices and materials requirements. Established bionic devices, such as the bionic ear are examined, as are emerging areas of application, including use of organic bionic materials as conduits for bone re-growth, spinal cord injury repair and muscle regeneration. The whole is rounded off with a look at future prospects in sustainable energy generation and storage. Invaluable reading for materials scientists, polymer chemists, electrotechnicians, chemists, biologists, and bioengineers.

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241

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

3527328823

ISBN 13

9783527328826

Language in Culture

Lectures on the Social Semiotics of Language

By: Michael Silverstein

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Language in Culture

Lectures on the Social Semiotics of Language

By: Michael Silverstein

Language enables us to represent our world, rendering salient the identities, groups, and categories that constitute social life. Michael Silverstein (1945–2020) was at the forefront of the study of language in culture, and this book unifies a lifetime of his conceptual innovations in a set of seminal lectures. Focusing not just on what people say but how we say it, Silverstein shows how discourse unfolds in interaction. At the same time, he reveals that discourse far exceeds discrete events, stabilizing and transforming societies, politics, and markets through chains of activity. Presenting his magisterial theoretical vision in engaging prose, Silverstein unpacks technical terms through myriad examples – from brilliant readings of Marcel Marceau's pantomime, the class-laced banter of graduate students, and the poetics/politics of wine-tasting, to Fijian gossip and US courtroom talk. He draws on forebears in linguistics and anthropology while offering his distinctive semiotic approach, redefining how we think about language and culture.

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371

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1009198823

ISBN 13

9781009198820

Writing Science

Literacy And Discursive Power

By: Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday,J. R. Martin

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Writing Science

Literacy And Discursive Power

By: Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday,J. R. Martin

Discusses the evolution of scientific discourse for learning in secondary schools and examines the form and function of language across a variety of levels including lexiogrammar, discourse semantics and register, genre and ideology. Special attention is paid to how this knowledge is imparted.

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325

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0750700467

ISBN 13

9780750700467

Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment

By: Michael A. Bishop,Michael A Bishop,J. D. Trout

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Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment

By: Michael A. Bishop,Michael A Bishop,J. D. Trout

Bishop & Trout present a new approach to epistemoloy, aiming to liberate the subject from the 'scholastic' debates of analytic philosophy. Rather, they wish to treat epistemology as a branch of the philosophy of science.

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219

Publisher

Oxford University Press on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195162293

ISBN 13

9780195162295

Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures

By: R.Michael Hord

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Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures

By: R.Michael Hord

Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is devoted to supercomputing on a wide variety of Multiple-Instruction-Multiple-Data (MIMD)-class parallel machines. This book describes architectural concepts, commercial and research hardware implementations, major programming concepts, algorithmic methods, representative applications, and benefits and drawbacks. Commercial machines described include Connection Machine 5, NCUBE, Butterfly, Meiko, Intel iPSC, iPSC/2 and iWarp, DSP3, Multimax, Sequent, and Teradata. Research machines covered include the J-Machine, PAX, Concert, and ASP. Operating systems, languages, translating sequential programs to parallel, and semiautomatic parallelizing are aspects of MIMD software addressed in Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures. MIMD issues such as scalability, partitioning, processor utilization, and heterogenous networks are discussed as well.This book is packed with important information and richly illustrated with diagrams and tables, Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures is an essential reference for computer professionals, program managers, applications system designers, scientists, engineers, and students in the computer sciences.

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Page Count

483

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351092235

ISBN 13

9781351092234

Book's by Michael Strevens

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