A comparison of the cognitive foundations of religion and science and an argument that religion is cognitively natural and that science is cognitively unnatural.
Youth crime is simultaneously a social problem and an intrinsic part of consumer culture: while images of gangs and gangsters are used to sell global commodities, young people not in work and education are labelled as antisocial and susceptible to crime. This book focuses on the lives of a group of young adults living in a deprived housing estate situated on the edge of a large city in the North of England. It investigates the importance of fashion, music and drugs in young people's lives, providing a richly detailed ethnographic account of the realities of exclusion, and explaining how young people become involved in crime and drug use. Young men and women describe their own personal experiences of exclusion in education, employment and the public sphere. They describe their history of exclusion as 'the life', and the term identifies how young people grew up as objects of suspicion in the eyes of an affluent majority. While social exclusion continues to be seen as a consequence of young people's behaviour, Out of Sight: crime, youth and exclusion in modern Britain examines how stigmatising poor communities has come to define Britain's consumer society. The book challenges the view underlying government policy that social exclusion is a product of crime, antisocial behaviour and drug use, and in focusing on one socially deprived neighbourhood it promotes a different way of seeing the problematic relationship between socially excluded young people, society and government.
Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson are considered the founders of the field of the cognitive science of religion. Since its inception over twenty years ago, the cognitive science of religion has raised questions about the philosophical foundations and implications of such a scientific approach. This volume from McCauley, including chapters co-authored by Lawson, is the first book-length project to focus on such questions, resulting in a compelling volume that addresses fundamental questions that any scholar of religion should ask. The essays collected in this volume are those that initially defined this scientific field for the study of religion. These essays deal with issues of methodology, reductionism, resistance to the scientific study of religion, and other criticisms that have been lodged against the cognitive science of religion. The new final chapter sees McCauley reflect on developments in this field since its founding. Tackling these debates head on and in one place for the first time, this volume belongs on the shelf of every researcher interested in this now established approach to the study of religion within a range of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion.
A man with schizophrenia believes that God is instructing him through the public address system in a bus station. A nun falls into a decades-long depression because she believes that God refuses to answer her prayers. A neighborhood parishioner is bedeviled with anxiety because he believes that a certain religious ritual must be repeated, repeated, and repeated lest God punish him. To what extent are such manifestations of religious thinking analogous to mental disorder? Does mental dysfunction bring an individual closer to religious experience or thought? Hearing Voices and Other Unusual Experiences explores these questions using the tools of the cognitive science of religion and the philosophy of psychopathology. Robert McCauley and George Graham emphasize underlying cognitive continuities between familiar features of religiosity, of mental disorders, and of everyday thinking and action. They contend that much religious thought and behavior can be explained as the cultural activation of our natural cognitive systems, which address matters that are essential to human survival: hazard precautions, agency detection, language processing, and theory of mind. Those systems produce responses to cultural stimuli that may mimic features of cognition and conduct associated with mental disorders, but which are sometimes coded as "religious" depending on the context. The authors examine hallucinations of the voice of God and of other supernatural agents, spiritual depression often described as a "dark night of the soul," religious scrupulosity and compulsiveness, and challenges to theistic cognition that Autistic Spectrum Disorder poses. Their approach promises to shed light on both mental abnormalities and religiosity.
In the Eighth Edition of this classic text on the financial history of bubbles and crashes, Robert McCauley joins with Robert Aliber in building on Charles Kindleberger's renowned work. McCauley draws on his central banking experience to introduce new chapters on cryptocurrency and the United States as the 21st Century global lender of last resort. He also updates the book's coverage of the recent property bubble in China, as well as providing new perspectives on the US housing bubble of 2003-2006, and the Japanese bubble of the late 1980s. And he gives new attention to the social psychology that leads people to take the risk of investing in Ponzi schemes and asset price bubbles. For the first time in this revised and updated edition, figures highlight key points to ensure that today’s generation of finance and economic researchers, students, practitioners and policy-makers—as well as investors looking to avoid crashes—have access to this panoramic history of financial crisis.
Seventeen, beautiful, and smart, Jessica Stanchion was adored by everyone. So why did she end up dead on a beach in Newport? Her father wants answers, and hires Samuel Miller to find them. But when Sam starts digging too deeply into the family's sordid past, he is quickly kicked off the case. Of course, when you have friends like Graham Porter and Lil, it's not that easy to tell you what to do...
Bringing Ritual to Mind explores the psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. Participants must recall their rituals well enough to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals must motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals the world over exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation (but not both) to enhance their recollection (literacy does not affect this). McCauley and Lawson argue that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain why. Reviewing a wide range of evidence, they explain religions' evolution.
Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson are considered the founders of the field of the cognitive science of religion. Since its inception over twenty years ago, the cognitive science of religion has raised questions about the philosophical foundations and implications of such a scientific approach. This volume from McCauley, including chapters co-authored by Lawson, is the first book-length project to focus on such questions, resulting in a compelling volume that addresses fundamental questions that any scholar of religion should ask. The essays collected in this volume are those that initially defined this scientific field for the study of religion. These essays deal with issues of methodology, reductionism, resistance to the scientific study of religion, and other criticisms that have been lodged against the cognitive science of religion. The new final chapter sees McCauley reflect on developments in this field since its founding. Tackling these debates head on and in one place for the first time, this volume belongs on the shelf of every researcher interested in this now established approach to the study of religion within a range of disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, anthropology and the psychology of religion.
An entertaining summary of the broad reshaping of U.S. corporate finance in the last decade and a half. The late 1980s saw a huge wave of corporate leveraging. The U.S. financial landscape was dominated by a series of high-stakes leveraged buyouts as firms replaced their equity with new fixed debt obligations. Cash-financed acquisitions and defensive share repurchases also decapitalized corporations. This trend culminated in the sensational debt-financed bidding for RJR-Nabisco, the largest leveraged buyout of all time, before dramatically reversing itself in the early 1990s with a rapid return to equity.This entertaining summary of the broad reshaping of U.S. corporate finance in the last decade and a half looks at three major issues: why corporations leveraged up in the first place, why and how the leverage wave came to an end, and what policy lessons are to be drawn.Using the Minsky-Kindleberger model as a framework, the authors interpret the rise and fall of leveraging as a financial market mania. In the course of chronicling the return to equity in the 1990s, they address a number of important corporate finance questions: How important was the return to equity in relieving corporations' debt burdens? How did the return to equity affect the ability of young high-tech firms to finance themselves without selling out to foreign firms?
This book is an ambitious attempt to develop a cognitive approach to religion. Focusing particularly on ritual action, it borrows analytical methods from linguistics and other cognitive sciences. The authors, a philosopher of science and a scholar of comparative religion, provide a lucid critical review of established approaches to religion, and make a strong plea for the combination of interpretation and explanation. Often represented as competitive approaches, they are rather, complementary, equally vital to the study of symbolic systems.
A throwaway comment about a universally hated judge, "Where is Lee Harvey Oswald, when we need him," lands attorney Dennis McCauley in deep trouble when his alcohol-fueled statement comes hours before the judge is gunned down. The evidence of his guilt is overwhelming. Powerful forces in politically conservative Orange County are mobilized against McCauley, a maverick with a well-documented history of taking action into his own hands. A scandal-plagued sheriff, a career-driven district attorney, and a corrupt cop conspire to bring McCauley down. McCauley's life becomes a nightmare as he seeks to prove his innocence and save his life and his law practice. He enlists the aid of a savvy former cop and a beautiful, former prosecutor. The defense team must unravel a mosaic of corrupt judges, crooked politicians, and the power brokers who control them to prevent McCauley from facing the death penalty. They have a few hopes to solve the case, but no guarantees. As McCauley's defense team maneuvers to protect him and his reputation, a not-guilty verdict is not enough. They intend to uncover the plot and prosecute the real culprit. But the killer has struck before, and there's nothing to stop him now.
Much has been written about how to play Texas Holdem, but most of it deals with post-flop play, which is NOT the most important part. Few books deal with the most important question in any Holdem game: whether to play the starting hand or fold it. By adopting a solid standard of playability, or, in the words of the authors, a mathematically sound Starting Hand Strategy, players increase the likelihood the hands they play will be winners. An effective starting hand strategy is an essential element in the game of any serious player, and the strategy defined in this book is the best systematic method for evaluating the playability of Holdem starting hands yet published. It is expressed in charts and tables that show the correct play for every starting hand, in tight and loose games, in early, middle, late, small blind, and big blind positions. The authors developed their Starting Hand Strategy during three years of computer simulations, data processing, and analysis. A starting hand is regarded as playable if it has a positive expectation of profit. The strategy is based on solid mathematical analysis of billions of computer simulations of every possible Texas Holdem starting hand. The Starting Hand Strategy is full of informative detail and is easy to learn. If readers play often at internet Texas Holdem gaming sites they'll learn even more quickly, because they can open the charts and actually use them while you play. The book contains a thorough discussion for those who want to develop even deeper levels of understanding of the game. Most good players read the literature of the game; this book should be in the Holdem library of every serious player, whether novice or expert. It is the most original contribution to the literature of Texas Holdem in many years.
Although we are a nation of immigrants, an immigrant who becomes a citizen, even as a child, cannot aspire to either of the two highest offices in the land, or so we have been led to believe since the earliest days of the Republic. In 2020, Alexander Morrison becomes the first immigrant to run for and be elected to the office of vice president of the United States, sparking a constitutional challenge of his right to serve. All Enemies chronicles the career of Alexander Morrison and the social, political, and economic challenges faced by America in the third decade of the 21st century. In office, Morrison is confronted with the spectre of an international nuclear catastrophe. Inevitably, the journey that he began as a nine-year-old orphan in Kazan, Russia comes full circle as Alexander Morrison finds himself leading his adopted country in a perilous confrontation with the land of his birth.
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