Author : Nicholas Agar
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 222 pages
File Size : 43,92 MB
Release : 2015
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0198717059
In The Paradox of Progress, Nicholas Agar challenges the central claims of 'radical optimism': that technological progress will automatically make us happier and healthier. Using recent psychological studies about human well-being, he instead presents a more realistic approach to understand the positive and negative issues that progress brings.
Author : Nicholas Agar
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 39,81 MB
Release : 2015-07-09
Category : Science
ISBN : 019102662X
The rapid developments in technologies -- especially computing and the advent of many 'smart' devices, as well as rapid and perpetual communication via the Internet -- has led to a frequently voiced view which Nicholas Agar describes as 'radical optimism'. Radical optimists claim that accelerating technical progress will soon end poverty, disease, and ignorance, and improve our happiness and well-being. Agar disputes the claim that technological progress will automatically produce great improvements in subjective well-being. He argues that radical optimism 'assigns to technological progress an undeserved pre-eminence among all the goals pursued by our civilization'. Instead, Agar uses the most recent psychological studies about human perceptions of well-being to create a realistic model of the impact technology will have. Although he accepts that technological advance does produce benefits, he insists that these are significantly less than those proposed by the radical optimists, and aspects of such progress can also pose a threat to values such as social justice and our relationship with nature, while problems such as poverty cannot be understood in technological terms. He concludes by arguing that a more realistic assessment of the benefits that technological advance can bring will allow us to better manage its risks in future.
Author : Rolf P. Lessenich
Publisher : V&R Unipress
Page : 485 pages
File Size : 31,56 MB
Release : 2017-01-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 3847006320
Platonic Romanticism had a dark underside from its inception: Romantic Disillusionism, encompassing the Gothic and the new demonic doppelganger. The Classical Tradition's conflict between Plato and Pyrrho, foundationalism and scepticism, optimism and pessimism was thus continued. Lord Byron's was the most listened-to and echoed voice of Romantic Disillusionism in Europe, though by far not the only one. This comparative study of a multiplicity of sceptical English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, and Czech voices shows how traditional Pyrrhonic arguments were updated to suit the decades of the Romantic Movement, surviving as a subversive countercurrent to later Victorianism and resurging in the literature of the Decadence and Fin de Siècle.
Author : Bjørn Lomborg
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 10,93 MB
Release : 2001-08-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 113964369X
The Skeptical Environmentalist challenges widely held beliefs that the environmental situation is getting worse and worse. The author, himself a former member of Greenpeace, is critical of the way in which many environmental organisations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence. Using the best available statistical information from internationally recognised research institutes, Bjørn Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental problems that feature prominently in headline news across the world. His arguments are presented in non-technical, accessible language and are carefully backed up by over 2500 footnotes allowing readers to check sources for themselves. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, Bjørn Lomborg stresses the need for clear-headed prioritisation of resources to tackle real, not imagined problems. The Skeptical Environmentalist offers readers a non-partisan stocktaking exercise that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favoured by campaign groups and the media.
Author : Hans Gutbrod
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 172 pages
File Size : 20,62 MB
Release : 2023-08-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 3031315944
This book proposes a new Ethics of Political Commemoration adapted from the Just War tradition, reflecting that remembrance is often conducted with political – and even coercive – intent. With its Ius ad Memoriam (what to commemorate) and Ius in Memoria (how to commemorate) criteria, the framework looks to guide debates that are currently inchoate so that remembrance of the past can transform relationships in the present and build a shared future. Offering a moral argument with memorable illustrations, Gutbrod and Wood draw on experiences from Armenia, Georgia, Ireland, Lebanon, and Libya, while connecting to mainstream debates in Western Europe and the United States. Bringing together an ethical tradition with the practice of conflict transformation, the framework fuses two perspectives that enrich each other. The book, in providing a first systematic presentation of the ethics, seeks to engage citizens and scholars, and help those who work to transform conflicts.
Author : David J. Spiegelhalter
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 406 pages
File Size : 50,68 MB
Release : 2004-05-05
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0470092599
READ ALL ABOUT IT! David Spiegelhalter has recently joined the ranks of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking by becoming a fellow of the Royal Society. Originating from the Medical Research Council’s biostatistics unit, David has played a leading role in the Bristol heart surgery and Harold Shipman inquiries. Order a copy of this author’s comprehensive text TODAY! The Bayesian approach involves synthesising data and judgement in order to reach conclusions about unknown quantities and make predictions. Bayesian methods have become increasingly popular in recent years, notably in medical research, and although there are a number of books on Bayesian analysis, few cover clinical trials and biostatistical applications in any detail. Bayesian Approaches to Clinical Trials and Health-Care Evaluation provides a valuable overview of this rapidly evolving field, including basic Bayesian ideas, prior distributions, clinical trials, observational studies, evidence synthesis and cost-effectiveness analysis. Covers a broad array of essential topics, building from the basics to more advanced techniques. Illustrated throughout by detailed case studies and worked examples Includes exercises in all chapters Accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of statistics Authors are at the forefront of research into Bayesian methods in medical research Accompanied by a Web site featuring data sets and worked examples using Excel and WinBUGS - the most widely used Bayesian modelling package Bayesian Approaches to Clinical Trials and Health-Care Evaluation is suitable for students and researchers in medical statistics, statisticians in the pharmaceutical industry, and anyone involved in conducting clinical trials and assessment of health-care technology.
Author : Terry Eagleton
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 19,94 MB
Release : 2015-09-09
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0813937353
In his latest book, Terry Eagleton, one of the most celebrated intellects of our time, considers the least regarded of the virtues. His compelling meditation on hope begins with a firm rejection of the role of optimism in life’s course. Like its close relative, pessimism, it is more a system of rationalization than a reliable lens on reality, reflecting the cast of one’s temperament in place of true discernment. Eagleton turns then to hope, probing the meaning of this familiar but elusive word: Is it an emotion? How does it differ from desire? Does it fetishize the future? Finally, Eagleton broaches a new concept of tragic hope, in which this old virtue represents a strength that remains even after devastating loss has been confronted. In a wide-ranging discussion that encompasses Shakespeare’s Lear, Kierkegaard on despair, Aquinas, Wittgenstein, St. Augustine, Kant, Walter Benjamin’s theory of history, and a long consideration of the prominent philosopher of hope, Ernst Bloch, Eagleton displays his masterful and highly creative fluency in literature, philosophy, theology, and political theory. Hope without Optimism is full of the customary wit and lucidity of this writer whose reputation rests not only on his pathbreaking ideas but on his ability to engage the reader in the urgent issues of life. Page-Barbour Lectures
Author : Racheli Haliva
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 18,20 MB
Release : 2018-09-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 3110553325
The series Studies and Texts in Scepticism contains monographs, translations, and collected essays exploring scepticism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a set of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field - especially in religions, perhaps most notably in Judaism. In such cultural contexts scepticism manifests as a critical attitude towards different dimensions and systems of secular or revealed knowledge and towards religious and political authorities. It is not merely an intellectual or theoretical worldview, but a critical form of life that expresses itself in such diverse phenomena as religion, literature, and society. Further book series of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies are Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion and the Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advances Studies.
Author : Alexander Campbell Fraser
Publisher :
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 26,60 MB
Release : 1900
Category : Religion
ISBN :
Author : Martina Huemann
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 603 pages
File Size : 30,94 MB
Release : 2024-02-28
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 100385091X
This practice-oriented handbook presents practitioners and students with a comprehensive overview of the essential knowledge and current best practices in project management. It includes the most up-to-date thinking in the discipline, describing recent developments in a way that practitioners can immediately use in their work. The Handbook of Project Management was the first “APM Body of Knowledge Approved” title for the Association for Project Management. Over the course of six editions, The Handbook of Project Management has become the definitive desk reference for project management practitioners. The team of expert contributors, selected to introduce the reader to the knowledge and skills required to manage projects, includes many of the most experienced and highly regarded international writers and practitioners. The book is divided into six parts: Projects; Performance; Process; People; Portfolio; and Perspectives. Including over 25 completely new chapters, this sixth edition provides a fully up-to-date encyclopaedia for the discipline and profession of project management. The book will be of use to all project management practitioners, from those starting out in the profession to people with advanced experience. It is also highly relevant to students, with earlier editions being used as a set or recommended text on Masters’ courses in project management.
