Robert Leslie Ellis's Books

The Very Nearly Man

An Autobiography

By: Robert Hounsome

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An autobiography that recounts Robert Hounsome's varied and exciting life that has seen him come into contact with aristocrats, Nazis, criminals, film stars, singers, beauty queens and ghosts. As well as a moving account of one man's life, it also captures the golden age of Fleet Street journalism after the Second World War.

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275

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Troubador Publishing Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

1905237723

ISBN 13

9781905237722

Instruments and the Imagination

By: Thomas L. Hankins,Robert J. Silverman

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Instruments and the Imagination

By: Thomas L. Hankins,Robert J. Silverman

Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman investigate an array of instruments from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century that seem at first to be marginal to science--magnetic clocks that were said to operate by the movements of sunflower seeds, magic lanterns, ocular harpsichords (machines that played different colored lights in harmonious mixtures), Aeolian harps (a form of wind chime), and other instruments of "natural magic" designed to produce wondrous effects. By looking at these and the first recording instruments, the stereoscope, and speaking machines, the authors show that "scientific instruments" first made their appearance as devices used to evoke wonder in the beholder, as in works of magic and the theater. The authors also demonstrate that these instruments, even though they were often "tricks," were seen by their inventors as more than trickery. In the view of Athanasius Kircher, for instance, the sunflower clock was not merely a hoax, but an effort to demonstrate, however fraudulently, his truly held belief that the ability of a flower to follow the sun was due to the same cosmic magnetic influence as that which moved the planets and caused the rotation of the earth. The marvels revealed in this work raise and answer questions about the connections between natural science and natural magic, the meaning of demonstration, the role of language and the senses in science, and the connections among art, music, literature, and natural science. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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352

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Princeton University Press

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ISBN 10

1400864119

ISBN 13

9781400864119

Sovereignty and the Sacred

Secularism and the Political Economy of Religion

By: Robert A. Yelle

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Sovereignty and the Sacred

Secularism and the Political Economy of Religion

By: Robert A. Yelle

Sovereignty and the Sacred challenges contemporary models of polity and economy through a two-step engagement with the history of religions. Beginning with the recognition of the convergence in the history of European political theology between the sacred and the sovereign as creating “states of exception”—that is, moments of rupture in the normative order that, by transcending this order, are capable of re-founding or remaking it—Robert A. Yelle identifies our secular, capitalist system as an attempt to exclude such moments by subordinating them to the calculability of laws and markets. The second step marshals evidence from history and anthropology that helps us to recognize the contribution of such states of exception to ethical life, as a means of release from the legal or economic order. Yelle draws on evidence from the Hebrew Bible to English deism, and from the Aztecs to ancient India, to develop a theory of polity that finds a place and a purpose for those aspects of religion that are often marginalized and dismissed as irrational by Enlightenment liberalism and utilitarianism. Developing this close analogy between two elemental domains of society, Sovereignty and the Sacred offers a new theory of religion while suggesting alternative ways of organizing our political and economic life. By rethinking the transcendent foundations and liberating potential of both religion and politics, Yelle points to more hopeful and ethical modes of collective life based on egalitarianism and popular sovereignty. Deliberately countering the narrowness of currently dominant economic, political, and legal theories, he demonstrates the potential of a revived history of religions to contribute to a rethinking of the foundations of our political and social order.

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281

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022658559X

ISBN 13

9780226585598

The Language of Disenchantment

Protestant Literalism and Colonial Discourse in British India

By: Robert A. Yelle

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The Language of Disenchantment

Protestant Literalism and Colonial Discourse in British India

By: Robert A. Yelle

The Language of Disenchantment explores how Protestant ideas about language inspired British colonial critiques of Hindu mythological, ritual, linguistic, and legal traditions.

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322

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199925011

ISBN 13

9780199925018

Semiotics of Religion

Signs of the Sacred in History

By: Robert A. Yelle

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Semiotics of Religion

Signs of the Sacred in History

By: Robert A. Yelle

Following the heyday of Lévi-Straussian structuralism in the 1970s-80s, little attention has been paid by scholars of religion to semiotics. Semiotics of Religion reassesses key semiotic theories in the light of religious data. Yelle examines the semiotics of religion from structural and historical perspectives, drawing on Peircean linguistic anthropology, Jakobsonian poetics, comparative religion and several theological traditions. This book pays particular attention to the transformation of religious symbolism under modernization and the rise of a culture of the printed book. Among the topics addressed are: - ritual repetition and the poetics of ritual performance - magic and the belief in a natural (iconic) language - Protestant literalism and iconoclasm - disenchantment and secularization - Holiness, arbitrariness, and agency Building from the legacy of structuralism while interrogating several key doctrines of that movement, Semiotics of Religion both introduces the field to a new generation and charts a course for future research.

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258

Publisher

A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

144116765X

ISBN 13

9781441167651

Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Knt., LL. D., D.C.L., M.R.I.A., Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland

Vol. III

By: Robert Perceval Graves

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Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Knt., LL. D., D.C.L., M.R.I.A., Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland

Vol. III

By: Robert Perceval Graves

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

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Page Count

722

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3385479746

ISBN 13

9783385479746

Writing for Science

By: Robert Goldbort

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Writing for Science

By: Robert Goldbort

This book encompasses the entire range of writing skills that today's experimental scientist may need to employ. Chapters cover routine forms, such as laboratory notes, abstracts, and memoranda; dissertations; journal articles; and grant proposals. Robert Goldbort discusses how best to approach various writing tasks as well as how to deal with the everyday complexities that may get in the way of ideal practice--difficult collaborators, experiments gone wrong, funding rejections. He underscores the importance of an ethical approach to science and scientific communication and insists on the necessity of full disclosure.

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344

Publisher

Yale University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0300117930

ISBN 13

9780300117936

Boyle on Atheism

By: Robert Boyle

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Boyle on Atheism

By: Robert Boyle

With Boyle on Atheism, J.J. MacIntosh has culled the Boyle manuscripts held at the Royal Society Library in London and transcribed the portions that relate to atheism, arranging them in the order Boyle appears to have intended.

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Page Count

521

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802090184

ISBN 13

9780802090188

Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth-Century England

By: Robert Appelbaum

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Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth-Century England

By: Robert Appelbaum

Hundreds of writers in the English-speaking world of the seventeenth-century imagined alternative ideal societies. Sometimes they did so by exploring fanciful territories, such as the world in the moon or the nations of the Antipodes; but sometimes they composed serious disquisitions about the here and now, proposing how England or its nascent colonies could be conceived of as an 'Oceana,' or a New Jerusalem. This book provides a comprehensive view of the operations of the utopian imagination in literature from 1603 to the 1660s. Appealing to social theorists, literary critics, and political and cultural historians, this volume revises prevailing notions of the languages of hope and social dreaming in the making of British modernity during a century of political and intellectual upheaval.

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270

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139432869

ISBN 13

9781139432863

Social Theory and Social Structure

By: Robert King Merton

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Social Theory and Social Structure

By: Robert King Merton

This new printing is not a newly revised edition, only an enlarged one. The revised edition of 1957 remains intact except that its short introduction has been greatly expanded to appear here as Chapters I and II. The only other changes are technical and minor ones: the correction of typographical errors and amended indexes of subjects and names.

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744

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

ISBN 10

0029211301

ISBN 13

9780029211304

Back to Nature

The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance

By: Robert Watson

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Back to Nature

The Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance

By: Robert Watson

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Sweeping across scholarly disciplines, Back to Nature shows that, from the moment of their conception, modern ecological and epistemological anxieties were conjoined twins. Urbanization, capitalism, Protestantism, colonialism, revived Skepticism, empirical science, and optical technologies conspired to alienate people from both the earth and reality itself in the seventeenth century. Literary and visual arts explored the resulting cultural wounds, expressing the pain and proposing some ingenious cures. The stakes, Robert N. Watson demonstrates, were huge. Shakespeare's comedies, Marvell's pastoral lyrics, Traherne's visionary Centuries, and Dutch painting all illuminate a fierce submerged debate about what love of nature has to do with perception of reality.

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446

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812204255

ISBN 13

9780812204254

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science

By: Robert K. Merton,Elinor Barber

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The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science

By: Robert K. Merton,Elinor Barber

From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences. The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy. The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist Robert Merton and Elinor Barber, the book--though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited--was intentionally never published. This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding--many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work. Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance--anything other than serendipity.

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342

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691126305

ISBN 13

9780691126302

The Excellencies of Robert Boyle

The Excellency of Theology and The Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis

By: Robert Boyle

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The Excellencies of Robert Boyle

The Excellency of Theology and The Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis

By: Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle, one of the most important intellectuals of the seventeenth century, was a gifted experimenter, an exceptionally able philosopher, and a dedicated Christian. In Boyle’s two Excellencies, The Excellency of Theology Compared with Natural Philosophy and About The Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis, he explains and justifies his new philosophy of science while reconciling it with Christian theology. These pioneering works of early science and theology are now available in a modernized and accessible new edition. This Broadview edition brings spelling and punctuation into line with current conventions and includes notes and references to set the works in their historical and philosophical context. The appendices include works by Boyle’s predecessors in the philosophy of science, other philosophical writings by Boyle, and an appendix of the other figures mentioned in the texts.

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Page Count

363

Publisher

Broadview Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1551114666

ISBN 13

9781551114668

The Copernican Question

Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order

By: Robert S. Westman

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The Copernican Question

Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order

By: Robert S. Westman

In 1543, Copernicus defended his hypothesis that the Earth is a planet and the sun a body resting near the centre of a finite universe. This volume reframes this pivotal moment in the history of science, centring the story on a conflict over the credibility of astrology that erupted in Italy just as Copernicus arrived in 1496.

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702

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520254813

ISBN 13

9780520254817

Politicized Physics in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

Essays on Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinoza

By: Robert J. Roecklein

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Politicized Physics in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

Essays on Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinoza

By: Robert J. Roecklein

In the origins of Western philosophical thought, doctrines of physics intertwined with the debate between political philosophers. It is for this reason that Plato devoted his dialogues Theatetus and Parmenides to investigating and meeting the arguments of his principal philosophical adversaries. The doctrine of atomism, which developed under the influence of Parmenides’ philosophy, is one that Plato refutes directly. In the modern era of philosophy and science, a revived doctrine of atomism has been treated as apolitical. Atomistic postulates lay at the root of the doctrines of Early Modern philosophers and exert a great influence upon cultural and political teachings. In order to understand Early Modern Philosophy, therefore, and especially in order to examine Early Modern political science, one must address the atomistic theory of body which lies at the root of Early Modern metaphysics. In the metaphysical domain, or in the domain of natural philosophy, the Early Modern philosophers radically reduce the role that ordinary opinion may play in political and cultural life. The majestic declarations concerning the rights of man, and the gospel of utility characteristic of the political domain of Early Modernity, therefore conceal a shrunken influence fated for the demos in the new politics. In order to take the measure of the new political science, it is necessary to take the measure of the revived doctrines of atomism. If these doctrines can be disproved, by reviving Plato’s critique, we will be able to take a critical look at the political doctrines that lie upon the foundations of the politicized atomism.

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Page Count

267

Publisher

Lexington Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0739188542

ISBN 13

9780739188545

Book's by Robert Leslie Ellis

The Very Nearly Man

The Very Nearly Man

Instruments and the Imagination

Instruments and the Imagination

Sovereignty and the Sacred

Sovereignty and the Sacred

The Language of Disenchantment

The Language of Disenchantment

Semiotics of Religion

Semiotics of Religion

Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Knt., LL. D., D.C.L., M.R.I.A., Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland

Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Knt., LL. D., D.C.L., M.R.I.A., Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland

Writing for Science

Writing for Science

Boyle on Atheism

Boyle on Atheism

Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth-Century England

Literature and Utopian Politics in Seventeenth-Century England

Social Theory and Social Structure

Social Theory and Social Structure

Back to Nature

Back to Nature

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

The Excellencies of Robert Boyle

The Excellencies of Robert Boyle

The Copernican Question

The Copernican Question

Politicized Physics in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

Politicized Physics in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy

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