What Kind Of Creatures Are We

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231540922
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What Kind of Creatures Are We? written by Noam Chomsky and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned philosopher and political theorist presents a summation of his influential work in this series of Columbia University lectures. A pioneer in the fields of modern linguistics and cognitive science, Noam Chomsky is also one of the most avidly read political theorist of our time. In this series of lectures, Chomsky presents more than half a century of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas. In precise yet accessible language, Chomsky elaborates on the scientific study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, its eventual biological basis. He expounds and criticizes many alternative theories, such as those that emphasize the social, the communicative, and the referential aspects of language. He also investigates the apparent scope and limits of human cognitive capacities. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, Chomsky concludes with a philosophical defense of a position he describes as "libertarian socialism," tracing its links to anarchism and the ideas of John Dewey, and even briefly to the ideas of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. Demonstrating its conceptual growth out of our historical past, he also shows its urgent relation to our present moment.

Author : Michael Hearst
Publisher : Chronicle Books
ISBN 13 : 1452104670
Total Pages : 111 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unusual Creatures written by Michael Hearst and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2012-09-26 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Introduces the reader to a wealth of extraordinary life forms"-- P. [4] of cover.

Author : Sasha Sagan
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 073521879X
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book For Small Creatures Such as We written by Sasha Sagan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A charming book, ringing with the joy of existence." --Richard Dawkins The perfect gift for a loved one or for yourself, For Small Creatures Such as We is part memoir, part guidebook, and part social history, a luminous celebration of Earth's marvels that require no faith in order to be believed. Sasha Sagan was raised by secular parents, the astronomer Carl Sagan and the writer and producer Ann Druyan. They taught her that the natural world and vast cosmos are full of profound beauty, and that science reveals truths more wondrous than any myth or fable. When Sagan herself became a mother, she began her own hunt for the natural phenomena behind our most treasured occasions--from births to deaths, holidays to weddings, anniversaries, and more--growing these roots into a new set of rituals for her young daughter that honor the joy and significance of each experience without relying on a religious framework. As Sagan shares these rituals, For Small Creatures Such as We becomes a moving tribute to a father, a newborn daughter, a marriage, and the natural world--a celebration of life itself, and the power of our families and beliefs to bring us together.

Author : John Gray
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374718792
Total Pages : 99 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Feline Philosophy written by John Gray and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Straw Dogs, famous for his provocative critiques of scientific hubris and the delusions of progress and humanism, turns his attention to cats—and what they reveal about humans' torturous relationship to the world and to themselves. The history of philosophy has been a predictably tragic or comical succession of palliatives for human disquiet. Thinkers from Spinoza to Berdyaev have pursued the perennial questions of how to be happy, how to be good, how to be loved, and how to live in a world of change and loss. But perhaps we can learn more from cats--the animal that has most captured our imagination--than from the great thinkers of the world. In Feline Philosophy, the philosopher John Gray discovers in cats a way of living that is unburdened by anxiety and self-consciousness, showing how they embody answers to the big questions of love and attachment, mortality, morality, and the Self: Montaigne's house cat, whose un-examined life may have been the one worth living; Meo, the Vietnam War survivor with an unshakable capacity for "fearless joy"; and Colette's Saha, the feline heroine of her subversive short story "The Cat", a parable about the pitfalls of human jealousy. Exploring the nature of cats, and what we can learn from it, Gray offers a profound, thought-provoking meditation on the follies of human exceptionalism and our fundamentally vulnerable and lonely condition. He charts a path toward a life without illusions and delusions, revealing how we can endure both crisis and transformation, and adapt to a changed scene, as cats have always done.

Author : Robert Boyd
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691195900
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Different Kind of Animal written by Robert Boyd and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Human beings are a very different kind of animal. We have evolved to become the most dominant species on Earth. We have a larger geographical range and process more energy than any other creature alive. This astonishing transformation is usually explained in terms of cognitive ability--people are just smarter than all the rest. But in this compelling book, Robert Boyd argues that culture--our ability to learn from each other--has been the essential ingredient of our remarkable success. A Different Kind of Animal demonstrates that while people are smart, we are not nearly smart enough to have solved the vast array of problems that confronted our species as it spread across the globe. Over the past two million years, culture has evolved to enable human populations to accumulate superb local adaptations that no individual could ever have invented on their own. It has also made possible the evolution of social norms that allow humans to make common cause with large groups of unrelated individuals, a kind of society not seen anywhere else in nature. This unique combination of cultural adaptation and large-scale cooperation has transformed our species and assured our survival--making us the different kind of animal we are today. Based on the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, A Different Kind of Animal features challenging responses by biologist H. Allen Orr, philosopher Kim Sterelny, economist Paul Seabright, and evolutionary anthropologist Ruth Mace, as well as an introduction by Stephen Macedo."--

Author : Christine Marion Korsgaard
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198753853
Total Pages : 267 pages
Book Rating : 4.58/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fellow Creatures written by Christine Marion Korsgaard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a compelling new view of our moral relationships to the other animals

Author : Crissy Van Meter
Publisher : Algonquin Books
ISBN 13 : 1643750208
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.00/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Creatures written by Crissy Van Meter and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] kaleidoscopic narrative . . . Tenacious, wildly original, and full of insight.” —San Francisco Chronicle “An alluring, atmospheric debut.” —People A Belletrist Book Club Pick A Most Anticipated Book of the Year Entertainment Weekly • The Millions • Bustle On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding on Winter Island, the groom may be lost at sea, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue. From there, in this mesmerizing, provocative debut, the narrative flows back and forth through time as Evie reckons with her complicated upbringing—a weed-dealing, charming but neglectful father, a wild-child best friend—in this lush land off the coast of Southern California. With wit, love, and bracing flashes of anger, Creatures probes the complexities of family and abandonment, guilt and forgiveness, betrayal and grief—and exerts a pull as strong as the tides.

Author : Ruby Roth
Publisher : North Atlantic Books
ISBN 13 : 1556437854
Total Pages : 50 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book That's Why We Don't Eat Animals written by Ruby Roth and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals uses colorful artwork and lively text to introduce vegetarianism and veganism to early readers (ages six to ten). Written and illustrated by Ruby Roth, the book features an endearing animal cast of pigs, turkeys, cows, quail, turtles, and dolphins. These creatures are shown in both their natural state—rooting around, bonding, nuzzling, cuddling, grooming one another, and charming each other with their family instincts and rituals—and in the terrible conditions of the factory farm. The book also describes the negative effects eating meat has on the environment. A separate section entitled “What Else Can We Do?” suggests ways children can learn more about the vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, such as:“Celebrate Thanksgiving with a vegan feast” or “Buy clothes, shoes, belts, and bags that are not made from leather or other animal skins or fur.” This compassionate, informative book offers both an entertaining read and a resource to inspire parents and children to talk about a timely, increasingly important subject. That's Why We Don't Eat Animals official website: http://wedonteatanimals.com/

Author : Frans B. M. DE WAAL
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674033175
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Good Natured written by Frans B. M. DE WAAL and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To observe a dog's guilty look. to witness a gorilla's self-sacrifice for a wounded mate, to watch an elephant herd's communal effort on behalf of a stranded calf--to catch animals in certain acts is to wonder what moves them. Might there he a code of ethics in the animal kingdom? Must an animal be human to he humane? In this provocative book, a renowned scientist takes on those who have declared ethics uniquely human Making a compelling case for a morality grounded in biology, he shows how ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait, in humans and animals alike. World famous for his brilliant descriptions of Machiavellian power plays among chimpanzees-the nastier side of animal life--Frans de Waal here contends that animals have a nice side as well. Making his case through vivid anecdotes drawn from his work with apes and monkeys and holstered by the intriguing, voluminous data from his and others' ongoing research, de Waal shows us that many of the building blocks of morality are natural: they can he observed in other animals. Through his eyes, we see how not just primates but all kinds of animals, from marine mammals to dogs, respond to social rules, help each other, share food, resolve conflict to mutual satisfaction, even develop a crude sense of justice and fairness. Natural selection may be harsh, but it has produced highly successful species that survive through cooperation and mutual assistance. De Waal identifies this paradox as the key to an evolutionary account of morality, and demonstrates that human morality could never have developed without the foundation of fellow feeling our species shares with other animals. As his work makes clear, a morality grounded in biology leads to an entirely different conception of what it means to he human--and humane.

Author : Sharon Kirsch
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book What Species of Creatures written by Sharon Kirsch and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Europeans who colonized North America more than three centuries ago encountered fantastical creatures: flying squirrels, ruby-throated hummingbirds, the easily tamed beaver. Their literature of discovery - by turns comic, cruel, and adulatory - provides a revealing glimpse of the taxonomies they carried with them into their so-called New World. Sharon Kirsch weaves early settler accounts, fables, children's stories, natural histories and 21st century science in a quirky narrative that probes our complicated relationship with the other creatures that share the planet. Illustrated with twenty period drawings, and peppered with verbatim accounts by these early settlers, What Species of Creatures is a rich and satisfying stew of odd historical facts and figures.