Philosophy Books

The Way of the Small: Why Less Is More

Michael Gellert

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A practical and spiritual guide to making everyday living sacred.

The Way of the Small: Why Less is Truly More explores the principals of a sound, wholesome exisistence for both the individual and society. Addressing the search for finding true happiness, meaning and success, The Way of the Small gives us new perspectives based on old wisdom on what makes for a truly lived life. A practical and spiritual guide to fulfillment, it illustrates that happiness is found in "the small"-in ways to celebrate the precious small gifts of ordinary life and experiencing the sacred in all aspects of life. We are reminded that "Less Is More, Simpler Is Better."

The Way of the Small teaches ways to embrace even life's more difficult passages such as aging, failure, illness, or the loss of a loved one, making even our pain a path to the sacred that helps us find meaning in life as it happens.

* Offers 22 key principles to activate the way of the small--simplify and discover true happiness.
* Especially relevant for mid-lifers, helping the process of sifting through life experience and finding what is of true essence, personally, spiritually and worldly.
* Relates the how "smallness" is part of established major religions and spiritual teachings. * A practical and spiritual guide to help us navigate a way of living in our complex times that leads to a happier and more meaningful and balanced life.

"Society Must Be Defended": Lectures at the College de France, 1975-1976 (Lectures at the College de France)

Michel Foucault

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Offering an unusually insightful perspective 5 out of 5 stars.
49 of 56 people found this review helpful.

Capably and collaboratively edited by Mauro Bertani and Allesandro Fontana, "Society Must Be Defended" is a collection of French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault's eleven lectures given at the College de France from 1975 to 1976, and which are ably translated into English for an American readership by David Macey. Offering an unusually insightful perspective and wisdom on a wide variety of educational topics ranging from the origin of feudalism, to the functions and domains of racism, to Hobbes' ideas on war and sovereignty, and a great deal more, "Society Must Be Defended" is a very thought-provoking and instructive collection from a uniquely informed and informative point of view. As Michel Foucault writes about this compilation of his views: "The role of history will, then, be to show that laws deceive, that kings wear masks, that power creates illusions, and that historians tell lies. This will not, then, be a history of continuity, but a history of deciphering, the detection of the secret, the outwitting of the ruse, and the reappropriation of a knowledge that has been distorted or buried. It will decipher a truth that has been sealed".

Editorial Review:

An examination of the relation between war and politics, by one of the twentieth century’s most influential thinkersFrom 1971 until 1984 at the Collège de France, Michel Foucault gave a series of lectures ranging freely and conversationally over the range of his research. In Society Must Be Defended, Foucault deals with the emergence in the early seventeenth century of a new understanding of war as the permanent basis of all institutions of power, a hidden presence within society that could be deciphered by an historical analysis. Tracing this development, Foucault outlines the genealogy of power and knowledge that had become his dominant concern.

Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach

Andrew Sayer

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A philosophical approach 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Intense book. You can summarize it by saying "The book is readable independently of your ability to understand it". Is best if is used in a doctorate program where you can extrapolate the philosophy between the lines and the author's point of view. Final warning: Do not read this before going to bed.

Editorial Review:

Method in Social Science was widely praised on its first publication for providing a series of penetrating reflections on central questions in social science discourse. This second edition directly reflects new developments in the areas of philosophy and methodology. Sayer has rewritten and substantially enlarged the introduction, clarifying many of the arguments that appear in the text. There is also a short discussion of the importance of narrative form, particularly useful for students concerned with the problems of writing, composition, and presentation of their own material.

Philosophy of Social Science

Alexander Rosenberg

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

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Philosophy of Social Science provides a tightly argued yet accessible introduction to the philosophical foundations of the human sciences, including economics, anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology, history, and the disciplines emerging at the intersections of these subjects with biology. Philosophy is unavoidable for social scientists because the choices they make in answering questions in their disciplines force them to take sides on philosophical matters. Conversely, the philosophy of social science is equally necessary for philosophers since the social and behavior sciences must inform their understanding of human action, norms and social institutions. The third edition retains from previous editions an illuminating interpretation of the enduring relations between the conduct of inquiry in the social sciences and the fundamental problems of philosophy, with accessible considerations of positivism, European philosophy of history, causation, statistical laws, quantitative models, and postempiricist social science. Features new to this edition include: Overview of the eclipse of behaviorism in psychology and the rise of game theory in economics; Consideration of problems for functionalism in social science that must be addressed by an appeal to biology and especially Darwinian thinking; Analysis of the debate between “nativists” and exponents of the “standard social science model” that emphasizes nurture over nature as the source of significant human traits; Expanded discussion of feminism in the human sciences; These issues reflect developments in social research over the last two decades that have informed and renewed debate in the philosophy of social science

Living Theory: The Application of Classical Social Theory to Contemporary Life (2nd Edition)

Charles E. Hurst

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This book is provocative and current in the issues it addresses. Although the book presents substantial information on the core content of classical social theories, its focus is on the application of theoretical arguments to social distance and separation in the U.S. Hurst chose Marx, Durkheim, Simmel, and Weber as classical representatives. Readers will be interested in social theory if they can understand its relevance to what's happening in society today. This engaging new book does just that! Living Theory analyzes major features of modern society from the classical theory point of view, and suggests how postmodern qualities might be accounted for by this theory. Chapters focus on specific issues such as the conflict between the rights of individuals and their obligations to society, the Internet's influence on transforming private lives into public information, gated communities and racial ghettos, political corruption, treating individuals as commodities in the world of beauty, entertainment and medicine, and the growing discrepancies in economic resources between individuals and groups. For anyone interested in classical social theory and social problems.

Primer in Theory Construction, An A&B Classics Edition (Allyn and Bacon Classics Edition)

Paul D Reynolds

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The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)

Axel Honneth

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Meadian Variations 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Although you'd hardly know it by looking at recent sales, Axel Honneth is one of the world's major intellectuals; and has perhaps the most advanced sensibility in social theory today, as evidenced by this book and his earlier *Critique of Power*. Both are crisp, lucid expositions of themes drawn both from classic sociology and German Idealism. Honneth has done much to "re-sociologize" the work of the *second* Frankfurt School workgroup. Here he follows the lead of Hans Joas and treats George Herbert Mead as a substantive social theorist rather than a "pragmatic" wish-fulfiller; and this according to the principles of *ego psychology*.

In the 80s and 90s ego psychologists were scorned as psychological "River Rouge workers", but worse things have existed -- and furthermore, the principles of ego psychology provide a firm grounding for discussing questions of desert and other "normativities" found in moral discourse. Which discourse perhaps ordinarily obeys a none-too-transparent logic, a question raised by the recent work of Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen on "welfare economics" outside questions of political desert; and Honneth's none-too-opaque constructions provide a solid grounding for raising necessary question the legitimacy of socialist strategies still obsessed with unclear questions of "micropower".

Editorial Review:

In this pathbreaking study, Axel Honneth argues that "the struggle for recognition" is, and should be, at the center of social conflicts. Moving smoothly between moral philosophy and social theory, Honneth offers insights into such issues as the social forms of recognition and nonrecognition, the moral basis of interaction in human conflicts, the relation between the recognition model and conceptions of modernity, the normative basis of social theory, and the possibility of mediating between Hegel and Kant.

The Final Foucault

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Michel Foucault left a rich legacy of ideas and approaches, many of which still await exposition and analysis. The Final Foucault is devoted to his last published (and some as yet unpublished) work and includes a translation of one of his last interviews, a comprehensive bibliography of his publications, and a biographical chronology.

Foucault was still working on his history of sexuality when he died in 1984, but his main concern remained, as throughout his career, a deeper understanding of the nature of truth. His final set of lectures at the College de France, described here by Thomas Flynn, focused on the concept of truth-telling as a moral virtue in the ancient world.

In the other essays, Karlis Racevskis examines the questions of identity at the core of Foucault's work; Garth Gillan takes up the problems inherent in any attempt to characterize Foucault's philosophy; James Bernauer explores the ethical basis of Foucault's work and offers a context for understanding his late interest in the Christian experience; and Diane Rubenstein offers a Lacanian interpretation of the last work.

James Bernauer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. The Final Foucault is based on a special issue of the Journal Philosophy and Social Criticism, edited by David Rasmussen and published at Boston College.

The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences (Canto)

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The one best single source on the topic 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

If you are looking for the one best single source that will supply you (or your students) with a sound understanding of the salient "Grand" social and critical thinkers of the last 50 years, this is it! Not only are "all the usual suspects" covered (Derrida, Foucault, Kuhn Habermas, etc.), but they are covered by the leading commentators in the philosophical world (Barnes on Kuhn, Giddens on Habermas, Philp on Foucault). Most remarkably, however, the essays are well written, clear, and comprehensive. The book has become a staple on my syllabi.

Editorial Review:

The past quarter of a century has seen dramatic developments in social and political thought. These essays offer an indispensable introduction to some of the most influential amongst them. Quentin Skinner's Introduction traces broad transformations such as the erosion of empiricist assumptions and the undermining of the positivist ideal of the unification of the sciences by the impact of foreign traditions on English-speaking social science. The essays themselves discuss major figures such as Gadamer, Derrida, Foucault, Habermas, Althusser and Levi-Strauss, giving valuably lucid introductory studies of some difficult but unquestionably major thinkers of our time. Professer Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http://www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474

Introduction to the Philosophies of Research and Criticism in Education and the Social Sciences

James Paul

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Intellectually challenging, yet perfectly clear 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Paul's book is excellent for making clear to readers the essential differences between philosophies of research, largely through the second part of the book, in which research questions are developed by alternative methodologies. While the book is structured as a text, it will be of interest to anyone who is a critical consumer of research reports. Not only will I use this with my research students, but I will also use it as a refresher for course design.

Editorial Review:

This rigorous volume focuses on the underlying perspectives justifying the major approaches currently being used in educational research. Introductory chapters lay the foundation for exploring varying research perspectives. Nine specific perspectives on research—post positivism, pragmatism, constructivism, ethics and deliberate democracy, criticism, interpretivism, race/ethnicity/gender, arts-based research, and post structuralism—are examined, through discussions written by senior scholars known for their expertise in the perspective. And, a “guided tour” of criticism is given, in which these same scholars demonstrate the use of the “critical method” by critiquing six studies selected as exemplars of different research approaches. For education students who aspire to become researchers, and for those who simply need to read and understand research literature.