Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms

Once seen as synonymous with "anti-feminism" postfeminism i now understood as the theoretical meeting ground between feminism and anti-foundationalist movements such as postmodernism, post-structuralism and post-colonialsm. In this clear exposition of some of the major debates, theorists and practitioners, Ann Brooks shows how feminism is being redefined for the twenty first century. Individual chapters look at postfeminism in relation to feminist epistemology, Foucault, psychoanalytic theory and semiology postmodernism and postcolonialism, cultural politics, popular culture, film and media, and sexuality and identity For all students looking for guidance through the sometimes murky waters of contemporary feminist theory, this book wil provide a reassuring first port of call.

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Marilyn Monroe and the Camera

The most beautiful photo book on Marilyn ever published! All iconic images from Avedon to Weegee. Marilyn Monroe posed for nearly every major photographer of her day. This pictorial chronicle features pictures by Richard Avendon, Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Elliott Erwitt, Philippe Halsman, Weegee, and thirty other artists: her early days as a model for ads and pinup calendars, film stills that follow her career from a minor actress to a major star, famous master portraits and shots by paparazzi who trailed her every move.

Marilyn emerges in all her moods - young and carefree, sexy and serious, glamorous and girl-next-door. In a fascinating and revealing interview with French writer Georges Belmont Marilyn sets the record straight about her early life, her ambitions, fears, and dreams. Jane Russell, a friend of Marilyn's and her co-star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, wrote an affectionate foreword.

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Democracy and Moral Conflict

Why democracy? Most often this question is met with an appeal to some decidedly moral value, such as equality, liberty, dignity or even peace. But in contemporary democratic societies, there is deep disagreement and conflict about the precise nature and relative worth of these values. And when democracy votes, some of those who lose will see the prevailing outcome as not merely disappointing, but morally intolerable. How should citizens react when confronted with a democratic result that they regard as intolerable? Should they revolt, or instead pursue democratic means of social change? In this book, Robert Talisse argues that each of us has reasons to uphold democracy - even when it makes serious moral errors - and that these reasons are rooted in our most fundamental epistemic commitments. His original and compelling study will be of interest to a wide range of readers in political philosophy and political theory. 

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Cosmopolis: The HiddenAgenda of Modernity

In the seventeenth century, a vision arose which was to captivate the Western imagination for the next three hundred years: the vision of Cosmopolis, a society as rationally ordered as the Newtonian view of nature. While fueling extraordinary advances in all fields of human endeavor, this vision perpetuated a hidden yet persistent agenda: the delusion that human nature and society could be fitted into precise and manageable rational categories. Stephen Toulmin confronts that agenda—its illusions and its consequences for our present and future world.

"By showing how different the last three centuries would have been if Montaigne, rather than Descartes, had been taken as a starting point, Toulmin helps destroy the illusion that the Cartesian quest for certainty is intrinsic to the nature of science or philosophy."—Richard M. Rorty, University of Virginia

"[Toulmin] has now tackled perhaps his most ambitious theme of all. . . . His aim is nothing less than to lay before us an account of both the origins and the prospects of our distinctively modern world. By charting the evolution of modernity, he hopes to show us what intellectual posture we ought to adopt as we confront the coming millennium."—Quentin Skinner, New York Review of Books.

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The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965

Phayer makes an important addition to the literature of Holocaust studies: he provides evidence that Pope Pius XII (who reigned over the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958) knew in early 1942 what was happening to Europe's Jews (and to non-Jews in Croatia and Poland)Ayet he remained silent. The pope, he argues, was a Germanophile who had been schooled as a diplomat: treaties (particularly one he'd drafted between Germany and Rome in 1933) and the Communist threat were his main priorities. Protection of Vatican City from Allied or Axis bombs was another. Phayer contends that, had the pope resisted the Nazis and informed his flockAeither overtly or through existing secret channelsAabout what was happening, there would have been many more Catholic rescuers and fewer collaborators than there were. Phayer also details the Church's postwar policies; it played its part in helping Nazis escape justice, he contends, rather than support efforts to force Germany to pay reparations to survivors. Phayer, however, doesn't only describe the years of Pius XII; he contrasts him with Pope Pius XI and Pope John XXIII (who respectively preceded and followed him), and in doing so he makes a forceful point about the difference strong leadership can make. Both Pius XI and John XXIII used their positions of infallibility to openly and publicly encourage cordiality and acceptance of Jews, culminating in the Church's 1965 declaration that the Jews were not responsible for crucifying Jesus. Pius XII, says Phayer, was in contrast a weak leader and a cowardly oneAand the author argues that, given the conditions under which he served, his lack of courage proved devastating.

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Introduction to The Philosophy of 'Religion

FOR some years I have been teaching the philosophy of religion to students interested in the foundations of religious belief but with no preparation in philosophy. Coming from courses in literature and in the physical and social sciences, these students brought with them many questions involving values, the nature of truth, the compatibility of religious faith with the findings of science, and the nature of man and his destiny. As discussion proceeded it became increasingly clear that I could not assume that they had even an elementary knowledge of the physical world as a whole, let alone any appreciation of the basic problems involved in the interpretation of scientific discoveries. They tended to take for granted that what had been taught in biology, psychology, and sociology was all that was to be known about man's nature—the more since they had little knowledge of their own religious tradition at its best. Moreover, they were relatively unaware of the problems involved in interpreting "facts," having had little practice in considering man's world as a whole. Yet these students were particularly anxious to know whether one could find any basis for religious belief in a world whose energies might any day blow up in their faces.

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The Interpretation of Cultures

In The Interpretation of Cultures, the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This groundbreaking book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is ultimately about.

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Hippocrates : Making the Way for Medicine

Hippocrates was a Greek doctor who is called The Father of Medicine. Before he was born around 460 B.C., there was little science in medicine. Doctors thought the gods were to blame for illness. Hippocrates studied the human body and tried to figure out what caused disease so he could develop cures. Hippocrates suggested rules for doctors to follow. The Hippocratic Oath, which doctors still follow, was based on his teachings. 

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Runtuhnya Teori Evolusi

Teori evolusi sudah berusia 150 tahun, dan juga telah berpengaruh besar pada pandangan hidup yang dianut masyarakat. Teori ini menyatakan sebuah dusta, yaitu bahwa manusia muncul ke dunia ini sebagai akibat faktor kebetulan, dan bahwa manusia adalah suatu “spesies binatang”. Lebih jauh lagi, teori ini mengajarkan bahwa satusatunya hukum yang berlaku adalah usaha makhluk hidup, yang hanya mementingkan diri sendiri, untuk bertahan hidup. Pengaruh gagasan ini tampak di abad kesembilan belas dan kedua puluh: manusia semakin egois, akhlak masyarakat yang memburuk, semakin merebaknya sikap mementingkan diri sendiri, sikap tidak berperikemanusiaan, dan kekerasan, tumbuh berkembangnya ideologi berdarah dan diktator seperti fasisme dan komunisme, krisis individual dan sosial karena manusia semakin jauh dari akhlak agama,…
Berbagai akibat sosial yang disebabkan oleh teori evolusi telah dibahas dalam buku Harun Yahya lainnya. (Lihat karya Harun Yahya The Disasters Darwinism Brought to Humanity, Communism Lies in Ambush, The Black Magic of Darwinism, serta The Religion of Darwinism). Dalam buku-buku tersebut diungkapkan bahwa teori ini, yang disebut-sebut sebagai “ilmiah”, sebenarnya sama sekali tidak memiliki dasar ilmiah; bahwa teori tersebut hanyalah sebuah skenario yang terus dipaksakan walaupun dihadapkan kepada semua fakta yang berbicara sebaliknya; dan isi teori ini tak lain takhayul belaka. Bagi mereka yang ingin memahami seperti apa sesungguhnya teori evolusi dan “pandangan hidup” Darwinisme, yang selama 150 tahun terakhir ini secara sistematis telah menyeret dunia ke jurang kekerasan, kebiadaban, kekejaman, dan pertikaian, sangat dianjurkan untuk membaca buku-buku tersebut. Buku ini akan membahas ketidakabsahan teori evolusi pada tingkat umum. Di sini dikupas pernyataan evolusionis tentang beberapa hal, menggunakan beberapa pertanyaan yang sering diajukan orang, yang belum sepenuhnya dipahami. Jawaban yang tertera
dalam buku ini secara ilmiah diperinci lebih jauh dalam buku lain karya penulis seperti The Evolution Deceit, dan Darwinism Refuted.(pengantar)

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MARXISME Ilmu dan Amalnya

“Suatu pandangan yang sempit akan memberikan suatu tinjauan yang palsu dan sesat. Marxisme bukanlah suatu cara dan rancangan pemerintahan saja, juga bukan suatu pemecahan teknis untuk masalah perekonomian, bukan pula suatu pendirian yang bolak-balik atau suatu semboyan dalam suatu pidato yang mengharukan. Ia menyebutkan dirinya suatu tafsiran yang luas tentang manusia dan sejarah, tentang makhluk dan masyarakat, tentang alam dan Tuhan; suatu sintesis umum, menurut teori dan praktek, pendek kata, suatu sistem yang menyeluruh.”

*) Kuliah Njoto di depan Universitas Rakyat, Jakarta, 19 Desember 1958.

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Atheism and Theism (Great Debates in Philosophy)

This is a good introduction to many of the main arguments concerning theism and atheism. Smart and Haldane manage to cover most of the main issues while at the same time making original contributions to the debate. The book is especially helpful for giving clear account of the issues surrounding the "fine-tuning" argument due e.g., to Richard Swinburne.
As they mention in the Introduction, neither Smart nor Haldane is a specialist precisely in philosophy of religion--both are well known especially for contributions to philosophy of mind--and this affects the book's overall approach. Smart begins with a defense of physicalism (the view that only objects whose existence is required by physical theory exist), arguing that this position should be accepted on the methodological ground that it is most compatible with the results of modern science. Smart also responds to various theistic arguments and defends a version of the "problem of evil" objection to theism. Haldane follows this with a series of arguments against materialist reductionism, taking the failure of reductionism to entail some kind of design and so theism. Haldane also defends versions of the cosmological ("firt cause") argument and attempts a solution to the problem of evil. Smart then briefly responds to Haldane and Haldane to Smart. For Smart, atheism is part of a general commitment to physicalism, whereas Haldane seems no less interested in defending a general antireductionism (e.g., with respect to intentionality) than in defending theism specifically.
The book covers a great deal of ground and offers much food for thought. The downside to this is discussions of particular issues are sometimes sketchier than one would like. Perhaps it would have been more effective to focus the book more tightly on the aspect of the debate that raises issues of reductionism vs. antireductionism. I also wish the book had been organized so as encourage a more extended response from Smart to Haldane's antireductionist arguments. Smart's methodological principles may well establish a presumption against theism, but surely this presumption is defeasible, and Haldane's contribution is effect an attempt to defeat precisely this presumption.

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Elements of Semiology

"In his Course in General Linguistics, first published in 1916, Saussure postulated the existence of a general science of signs, or Semiology, of which linguistics would form only one part. Semiology, therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification . . . The Elements here presented have as their sole aim the extraction from linguistics of analytical concepts which we think a priori to be sufficiently general to start semiological research on its way. In assembling them, it is not presupposed that they will remain intact during the course of research; nor that semiology will always be forced to follow the linguistic model closely. We are merely suggesting and elucidating a terminology in the hope that it may enable an initial (albeit provisional) order to be introduced into the heterogeneous mass of significant facts. In fact what we purport to do is furnish a principle of classification of the questions. These elements of semiology will therefore be grouped under four main headings borrowed from structural linguistics: I. Language and Speech; II. Signified and Signifier; III. Syntagm and System; IV. Denotation and Connotation."--Roland Barthes, from his Introduction

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Enlightenment's Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age

Enlightenment's Wake stakes out the elements of John Gray's new position. He argues that all schools of contemporary political thought are variations on the Enlightenment Project--the Westernizing project of a universal civilization--and that this Enlightenment Project has proved self-undermining and is now exhausted. Fresh thought is needed on the dilemmas of the late modern age.

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Fictionalism in Metaphysics

Fictionalism is the view that a serious intellectual inquiry need not aim at truth. Since 1980, fictionalist accounts of science, mathematics, morality, and other domains of inquiry have been developed. In metaphysics fictionalism is now widely regarded as an option worthy of serious consideration. This volume represents a major benchmark in the debate: it brings together an impressive international team of contributors, whose essays (all but one of them appearing here for the first time) represent the state of the art in various areas of metaphysical controversy, relating to language, mathematics, modality, truth, belief, ontology, and morality.

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Time, Space, and Metaphysics

Time, Space, and Metaphysics engages with major philosophical questions concerning time and space, a framework for the investigation being provided by the debate between the absolutists and the relationists, so between Newton and Leibniz, and their followers. The investigation brings to the fore questions of the nature and reality of time and space, and leads on to more recent debates, such as those relating to anti-realism, time travel, temporal parts, geometry, convention, and the infinitude of time and space. These in turn raise more general issues, issues involving such concepts as those of identity, objectivity, causation, facts, and verifiability. Their examination falls within metaphysics, thought of as the investigation and analysis of fundamental philosophical concepts, but there is also metaphysics of a more contentious character, where the subject-matter is provided by propositions which transcend what can be known either through experience or by pure reasoning. In this connection, a central aim is to show how, without dismissing them as nonsensical, we may arrive at a fruitful interpretation of such propositions.

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The Philosophy of Time: Time Before Times (Routledge Studies in Twentieth Century Philosophy)

The question of the existence and the properties of time has been subject to debate for thousands of years. This considered and complete study offers a contrastive analysis of phenomenologies of time from the perspective of the problematics of the visibility of time. Is time perceptible only through the veil of change? Or is there a naked presence of "time itself"? Or has time always effaced itself?
McClure's new work also stages confrontations between phenomenology of time and analytical philosophy of time. By doing so he explores ancient issues from a fresh perspective, such as whether time passes, whether experimental time is "real time," and whether the very concept of time is contradictory.

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Socializing Metaphysics

Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers to the basic questions of social metaphysics, from a broad array of voices. It will interest all philosophers and social scientists concerned with mind, action, or the foundations of social theory.

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Modernism and the Ordinary

Traditionally literary modernism has been seen as a movement marked by transcendent epiphanies, episodes of estrangement, and a privileging of the extraordinary. Yet modernist writings often take great pains to describe the material, seemingly insignificant details of daily life. Modernism and the Ordinary upends our perceived notions of the period's literature as it recognizes just how pivotal commonplace activities are to modernist aesthetics.
Through pointed readings of prose and poetry from both the U. S. and abroad, Liesl Olson highlights the variety of ways modernist writers represented the quotidian details of modern life, even during times of political crisis and war. Run of the mill experiences like walking to work, eating a sandwich, or mending a dress were often resistant to shock, and these daily actions presented a counter-force to the aesthetic of heightened affect with which modernism is often associated. In a series of persuasively argued chapters, we see how the ordinary operates in its many modernist manifestations: the minutiae of list-making and the decidedly unheroic qualities of Bloom in Joyce's Ulysses; Virginia Woolf's rendering of the ordinary as an affective experience in Mrs. Dalloway; the retreat into daily routine as a refuge from the tumult of World War II in Gertrude Stein's Mrs. Reynolds; Wallace Stevens's conception of the commonplace as rooted in pragmatist philosophy; and how Beckett and Proust are simultaneously compelled and repelled by the banalities of modern life. These works are read alongside the ideas of philosophers such as William James, Henri Bergson, and Henri Lefebvre to illustrate how these artists responded to the difficulty of representing the mundane without making it transcendent.
A trenchant, richly textured monograph, Modernism and the Ordinary reveals how the non-transformative power of everyday experiences-what Virginia Woolf called the "cotton wool of daily life"-exerts a profound influence on the epoch-defining art of some of the twentieth century's most celebrated writers.

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Fifty Major Political Thinkers 1st ed

Fifty Major Political Thinkers introduces the life and thought of major figures in Western political thought, from ancient Greece to the present day. The entries provide an accessible and clearly written introduction to the major ideas and schools of thought which have shaped contemporary politics, including figures such as: Aristotle, Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Karl Marx, Mohandas Ghandi, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Jurgen Habermas. Fully cross-referenced and including a glossary of theoretical terms, this wide ranging and accessible book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the evolution and history of contemporary political thought.

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Fifty Major Political Thinkers 2nd edition

Fifty Major Political Thinkers 2nd edition introduces the lives and ideas of some of the most influential figures in Western political thought, from ancient Greece to the present day. The entries provide a fascinating introduction to the major figures and schools of thought that have shaped contemporary politics, including:

• Aristotle
• Simone de Beauvoir
• Michel Foucault
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Jurgen Habermas
• Machiavelli
• Karl Marx
• Thomas Paine
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Mary Wollstonecraft

Fully cross-referenced and including a glossary of theoretical terms, this wide-ranging and accessible book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the evolution and history of contemporary political thought.

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The Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas: A Critical Introduction

Jürgen Habermas seeks to defend the Enlightenment and with it an "emphatical", "uncurtailed" conception of reason against the post-modern critique of reason on the one hand, and against so-called scientism (which would include critical rationalism and the greater part of analytical philosophy) on the other. His objection to the former is that it is self-contradictory and politically defeatist; his objection to the latter is that, thanks to a standard of rationality derived from the natural sciences or from Weber's concept of purposive rationality, it leaves normative questions to irrational decisions. Habermas wants to offer an alternative, trying to develop a theory of communicative action that can clarify the normative foundations of a critical theory of society as well as provide a fruitful theoretical framework for empirical social research.

This study is a comprehensive and detailed analysis and sustained critique of Habermas' philosophical system since his pragmatist turn in the seventies. It clearly and precisely depicts Habermas' long chain of arguments leading from an analysis of speech acts to a discourse theory of law and the democratic constitutional state. Along the way the study examines, among other things, Habermas' theory of communicative action, transcendental and universal pragmatics and the argument from "performative contradictions", discourse ethics, the consensus theory of truth, Habermas' ideas on developmental psychology, communicative pathologies and social evolution, his theory of social order, the analysis of the tensions between system and lifeworld, his theory of modernity, and his theory of deliberative democracy. For all Habermas students this study will prove indispensable.

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Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics

The politics of the Internet has entered the social science mainstream. Internet politics and policy are continually hitting the headlines; from debates about the medium’s impact on parties and election campaigns following the momentous US 2004 presidential contest to concerns over international security, privacy and surveillance post 9/11.

The Handbook of Internet Politics is concerned with theoretical and conceptual debates, political institutions and practices, and how the Internet creates new policy problems for liberal democratic and non liberal-democratic states, not to mention their roles in the global system. There has been a steady stream of high quality research literature in this field over the last five years and this Handbook calls upon contributions from some of the leading scholars in the field from the UK, Europe and US.

Providing the first comprehensive overview of Internet politics, this will be a helpful companion to students and scholars of politics, international relations, communication studies and sociology.

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Ethics, Psyche and Social Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility Series)

This important volume considers the psychological aspects of organizational life, particularly in the context of firms' ethical behaviour and its implications for corporate social responsibility. The authors consider the effects of corporate activity and change on individuals, not just in their working lives, but also in their family and social lives.

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Cindy Adams: Bung Karno Penjambung Lidah Rakjat Indonesia

Sekitar tahun 60-an, Howard Jones, dubes AS untuk Indonesia saat itu mengajukan usul kepada Bung Karno untuk menuliskan biografinya. Maka akhirnya lahirlah buku biografi ini yang ditulis oleh wartawati AS, Cindy Adams. Buku ini merupakan terjemahan oleh Major Abdul Bar Salim dari buku "SUKARNO, AN AUTHOBIOGRAPHY AS TOLD TO CINDY ADAMS". Buku setebal 470 halaman ini diterbitkan oleh GUNUNG AGUNG. 

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Hackers & Painters Big Ideas from the Computer Age

"The computer world is like an intellectual Wild West, in which you can shoot anyone you wish with your ideas, if you're willing to risk the consequences. "
--from Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham

We are living in the computer age, in a world increasingly designed and engineered by computer programmers and software designers, by people who call themselves hackers. Who are these people, what motivates them, and why should you care?

Consider these facts: Everything around us is turning into computers. Your typewriter is gone, replaced by a computer. Your phone has turned into a computer. So has your camera. Soon your TV will. Your car was not only designed on computers, but has more processing power in it than a room-sized mainframe did in 1970. Letters, encyclopedias, newspapers, and even your local store are being replaced by the Internet.

Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age, by Paul Graham, explains this world and the motivations of the people who occupy it. In clear, thoughtful prose that draws on illuminating historical examples, Graham takes readers on an unflinching exploration into what he calls "an intellectual Wild West."

The ideas discussed in this book will have a powerful and lasting impact on how we think, how we work, how we develop technology, and how we live. Topics include the importance of beauty in software design, how to make wealth, heresy and free speech, the programming language renaissance, the open-source movement, digital design, Internet startups, and more.

And here's a taste of what you'll find in Hackers & Painters:

"In most fields the great work is done early on. The paintings made between 1430 and 1500 are still unsurpassed. Shakespeare appeared just as professional theater was being born, and pushed the medium so far that every playwright since has had to live in his shadow. Albrecht Durer did the same thing with engraving, and Jane Austen with the novel.

Over and over we see the same pattern. A new medium appears, and people are so excited about it that they explore most of its possibilities in the first couple generations. Hacking seems to be in this phase now.

Painting was not, in Leonardo's time, as cool as his work helped make it. How cool hacking turns out to be will depend on what we can do with this new medium."

Andy Hertzfeld, co-creator of the Macintosh computer, says about Hackers & Painters: "Paul Graham is a hacker, painter and a terrific writer. His lucid, humorous prose is brimming with contrarian insight and practical wisdom on writing great code at the intersection of art, science and commerce."

Paul Graham, designer of the new Arc language, was the creator of Yahoo Store, the first web-based application. In addition to his PhD in Computer Science from Harvard, Graham also studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence.

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Human Rights A Very Short Introduction

Today it is usually not long before a problem gets expressed as a human rights issue. An appeal to human rights in the face of injustice can be a heartfelt and morally justified demand for some, while for others it remains merely an empty slogan. Taking an international perspective and focusing on highly topical issues such as torture, arbitrary detention, privacy, health and discrimination, this Very Short Introduction will help readers to understand for themselves the controversies and complexities behind this vitally relevant issue. Looking at the philosophical justification for rights, the historical origins of human rights and how they are formed in law, Andrew Clapham explains what our human rights actually are, what they might be, and where the human rights movement is heading.

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Habermas: A Very Short Introduction

This book gives a clear and readable overview of the philosophical work of Jurgen Habermas, the most influential German philosopher alive today, who has commented widely on subjects such as Marxism, the importance and effectiveness of communication, the reunification of Germany, and the European Union. Gordon Finlayson provides readers with a clear and readable overview of Habermas's forbiddingly complex philosophy using concrete examples and accessible language. He then goes on to analyse both the theoretical underpinnings of Habermas's social theory, and its more concrete applications in the fields of ethics, politics, and law; and concludes with an examination how Habermas's social and political theory informs his writing on contemporary, political, and social problems.

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Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction

One of the finest introductions to Existentialism, regardless of length

Most introductions to Existentialism make either of a couple of mistakes: they either focus on the style rather than the substance of the thinkers subsumed under the label or they focus on the mood evoked. Anyone who has read much about the philosophy knows that it is all too easy to degenerate into a meditation on the angst of human existence. By centering their discussions on moods and attitudes rather than concrete philosophical positions, Existentialism as it emerges from far too many introductions become anything and everything, yet nothing at all. Not so with Flynn.

The book is broken into six (necessarily) short chapters. The first five justify the cost of the book. The last one, on "Existentialism in the 21st Century," is an unhappy addendum. It seeks to hint at ways that Existential thought can engage some of the ongoing philosophical debates that continue into the 21st century. But the various ideas are simply dealt with too briefly and the possibilities of engagement are more gestured at than explained. The intentions were good, but there simply wasn't enough room to produce more than an outline of a chapter. But the first five chapters are all lucid and sharply focused. The first chapter deals with the central tenet of all thinkers who can be considered Existentialists (it is important to remember that most "Existentialists" did not so consider themselves), that philosophy is a practical discipline, dealing with actual lived life, not an inhuman scienticity far removed from concrete human concerns. The second deals with what it means to become an individual and how that is achieved. The third begins with Sartre's famous lecture on humanism and uses this as a springboard to talk of both theistic and atheistic forms of existential thought, but showing how both nonetheless place human beings at the center. The fourth chapter delves into the important ethical concept of authenticity. Finally, the fifth chapter deals with an aspect of Existentialism that many books on it neglect, the social philosophy promulgated by many of the movement's leading thinkers.

Not all those considered Existentialists receive equal attention in this intro. There is a great deal more about Kierkegaard and Sartre than any other thinkers, though there are significant discussions of a host of additional philosophers including Merleau-Ponty, Camus, Heidegger, Nietzsche, de Beauvoir, and Marcel. I have read fairly widely in all of those thinkers except Merleau-Ponty and can attest that his discussions of all these individuals are consistently accurate and fair. I admire how clearly he is able to get to the crux of their central ideas without distorting their thought. I'm especially conversant with Kierkegaard and while I often would have like to seen certain points expanded, I cannot say that he says anything misleading.

I recommend this as an introduction to Existentialism over all other such books with which I am familiar. Though still of value, some of the older intros by people like Walter Kaufman and William Barrett are definitely showing their age. They also suffer from the disadvantage of having been written while Existentialism was still in its hey day and they had less of a sense of what would be deemed of ongoing value in the movement. Flynn has the advantage of hindsight and knowledge of what parts retain interest. I have read several outstanding entries in this series by Oxford and feel that this is one of the best volumes yet.

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Atheism: A Very Short Introduction

Atheism is often considered to be a negative, dark, and pessimistic belief which is characterised by a rejection of values and purpose and a fierce opposition to religion. Atheism: A Very Short Introduction sets out to dispel the myths that surround atheism and show how a life without religious belief can be positive, meaningful, and moral. It also confronts the failure of officially atheist states in the Twentieth Century. The book presents an intellectual case for atheism that rests as much upon positive arguments for its truth as on negative arguments against religion.

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Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

The tradition of ancient philosophy is a long, rich and varied one, in which the notes of discussion and argument constantly resound. This book introduces ancient debates, engaging us with the ancient developments of their themes. Moving away from the presentation of ancient philosophy as a succession of great thinkers, the book gives readers a sense of the freshness and liveliness of ancient philosophy, and of its wide variety of themes and styles. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam. 

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The Sublime Object of Ideology

Slavoj Zizek, the maverick philosopher, author of over 30 books, acclaimed as the "Elvis of cultural theory", and today's most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory, taking in film, popular culture, literature and jokes—all to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated philosophy. His recent films The Pervert's Guide to the Cinema and Zizek! reveal a theorist at the peak of his powers and a skilled communicator. Now Verso is making his classic titles, each of which stand as a core of his ever-expanding life's work, available as new editions. Each is beautifully re-packaged, including new introductions from Zizek himself. Simply put, they are the essential texts for understanding Zizek's thought and thus cornerstones of contemporary philosophy.

The Sublime Object of Ideology: Slavoj Zizek's first book is a provocative and original work looking at the question of human agency in a postmodern world. In a thrilling tour de force that made his name, he explores the ideological fantasies of wholeness and exclusion which make up human society.
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Dalih Pembunuhan Massal: Gerakan 30 September dan Kudeta Suharto

catatan penulis:

Ketika Suharto jatuh dari kekuasaannya pada 1998 saya tidak memxvi KATA PENGANTAR EDISI BAHASA INDONESIA bayangkan bahwa satu dekade kemudian pemerintah akan terus melarang buku-buku yang tidak sesuai dengan propaganda rezim yang lalu. Rezim Suharto mengklaim bahwa PKI bertanggung jawab atas G-30-S; partai itu memimpin atau mengorganisasikan G-30-S. Klaim serupa itu dapat diterima sebagai sebuah hipotesa tetapi kita seharusnya berharap diberi sejumlah bukti sebelum kita menerimanya sebagai kesimpulan. Kita juga harus berharap ada rumusan yang lebih persis. PKI adalah sebuah partai dengan anggota kurang lebih tiga juta orang. Kalau pemerintah berniat bersikukuh bahwa “PKI” mengorganisasikan G-30-S, maka pemerintah harus mampu menjelaskan siapa di dalam PKI yang mengorganisasikan gerakan tersebut. Apakah tiga juta anggota partai secara keseluruhan bertanggung jawab? Atau kah sebagian? Atau hanya pimpinan partai? Apakah pihak pimpinan itu Central Comite atau Politbiro? Sepanjang masa kepemimpinan Suharto pemerintah tidak pernah dengan telak mengidentifi kasi siapa di dalam PKI yang bertanggung jawab. Malahan, dengan secara terus-menerus menggunakan istilah “PKI” masyarakat digiring untuk percaya bahwa bukan hanya seluruh tiga juta anggota partai yang bertanggung jawab, tetapi juga siapa pun yang berhubungan dengan partai, seperti para anggota organisasi-organisasi sealiran (seperti Lekra), bertanggung jawab.
Dokumen-dokumen internal rezim Suharto lebih terus terang. Kebetulan saya menemukan buku yang ditulis Lemhanas pada 1968 untuk pejabat-pejabat pemerintah yang persis mengajukan pertanyaanpertanyaan di atas. Buku 80 halaman ini ditulis dalam bentuk tanyajawab. Berikut satu bagian tentang tanggung jawab “PKI”: Pertanyaan: Apakah benar bahwa G-30-S/PKI yang menggerakkan adalah PKI dan apakah setiap anggota PKI tentu terlibat dalam G-30-S/PKI?
Jawab: Benar

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Zaman Edan - Indonesia di Ambang Kekacauan

Ditulis dengan lancar, akrab, dan enak dibaca, buku ini membuka mata kita akan pelbagai peristiwa kelam di negeri ini yang kerap ditutup-tutupi, sekaligus sebagai cermin untuk kita merenungkan kembali makna reformasi setelah 10 tahun rezim Orde Baru tumbang dan memaknai momen 100 tahun kebangkitan nasional.

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Catatan Hitam Lima Presiden Indonesia

Judul ini seolah ingin merepresentasikan kabinet yang sudah dilalui negara ini sejak terbentuknya NKRI, buku ini mencoba mengupas sedikit banyak orang-orang nomor satu yang pernah duduk dinegara ini sebagai pemimpin bangsa.

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Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia

In May 1998 the fall of Suharto marked the beginning of a difficult and multi-layered transition process. It was accompanied by intensified conflict in the political arena, a dramatic increase of ethnic and religious violence and the danger of national disintegration. Ten years after the collapse of the New Order, Indonesia has made significant progress, however the quality of democracy is still low. Theoretically innovative and empirically sound, this book is an in-depth analysis of the Indonesian reform process since 1998. Marco Bünte and Andreas Ufen bring together a selection of noted Indonesia experts to provide new insights into the restructuring of core state institutions, the empowerment of Parliament, the slow and difficult evolution of the rule of law, and the transfer of power to locally elected regional governments (decentralization). Based on the results of extensive fieldwork, Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia will be an important read for scholars engaged in research on Indonesia and the politics of Southeast Asia.

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Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism

Justice, Gender and the Politics of Multiculturalism explores the tensions that arise when culturally diverse democratic states pursue both justice for religious and cultural minorities and justice for women. Sarah Song provides a distinctive argument about the circumstances under which egalitarian justice requires special accommodations for cultural minorities while emphasizing the value of gender equality as an important limit on cultural accommodation. Drawing on detailed case studies of gendered cultural conflicts, including conflicts over the 'cultural defense' in criminal law, aboriginal membership rules and polygamy, Song offers a fresh perspective on multicultural politics by examining the role of intercultural interactions in shaping such conflicts. In particular, she demonstrates the different ways that majority institutions have reinforced gender inequality in minority communities and, in light of this, argues in favour of resolving gendered cultural dilemmas through intercultural democratic dialogue.

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Politics of Multiculturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia

Few challenges to the modern dream of democratic citizenship appear greater than the presence of severe ethnic, religious, and linguistic divisions in society. With their diverse religions and ethnic communities, the Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia have grappled with this problem since achieving independence after World War II. Each country has on occasion been torn by violence over the proper terms for accommodating pluralism. Until the Asian economic crisis of 1997, however, these nations also enjoyed one of the most sustained economic expansions the non-Western world has ever seen. This volume brings together 15 leading specialists of the region to consider the impact of two generations of nation-building and market-making on pluralism and citizenship in these deeply divided Asian societies. Examining the new face of pluralism from the perspective of markets, politics, gender, and religion, the studies show that each country has developed a strikingly different response to the challenges of citizenship and diversity. The contributors, most of whom come Southeast Asia, pay particular attention to the tension between state and societal approaches to citizenship. They suggest that the achievement of an effectively participatory public sphere in these countries will depend not only on the presence of an independent "civil society," but on a synergy of state and society that nurtures a public culture capable of mediating ethnic, religious, and gender divides. "The Politics of Multiculturalism" should be of special interest to students of Southeast Asian history and society, anthropologists grappling with questions of citizenship and culture, political scientists studying democracy across cultures, and all readers concerned with the prospects for civility and tolerance in a multicultural world.

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World Religions and Multiculturalism

This book is about new forms of religious activities emerging in the context of their dialectic relations with contemporary multicultural realities. World religions are effectively a major agent of the multiculturalization of contemporary societies. However, multiculturalism pushes them not only toward change but also toward new conflicts.

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The Second Sex

Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.   Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir posed questions many men, and women, had yet to ponder when the book was released in 1953. "One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should ...," she says in this comprehensive treatise on women. She weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to show women's place in the world and to postulate on the power of sexuality. This is a powerful piece of writing in a time before "feminism" was even a phrase, much less a movement.

 

This massive, classic tome is still a delight to read. Simone de Beauvoir is intelligent, scholarly, lucid, and witty; her thesis is simple: early western philosophers established the female sex as "the other" to rationalize and promote the development and growth of fledgling patriarchy. "'The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities,' said Aristotle; 'we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.'" Referring to the earlier research of noted anthropologist Levi-Strauss on the development of the category of "other" - "as primordial as consciousness itself" in all known human cultures - Simone de Beauvoir analyses the depth, breadth, purpose, and result of the western notion of woman as not-man. The book is sub-divided into two sections, "Facts and Myths" and "Woman's Life Today," in which she examines and documents such subjects as "The Data of Biology," "History," "Myths," "The Formative Years," "Situation," "Justification," and, finally "Towards Liberation." Simone de Beauvoir - literary artist, philosopher, and founding mother of twentieth-century feminism - wrote The Second Sex "less by a wish to demand our rights than by an effort towards clarity and understanding." Forty-five years after the book's publication, it remains true to its intent.

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The Reality of the Mass Media

No doubt of that, the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann is one the most intriguing thinker of the 20th century, admired by many and misunderstood by other many. To build his theory of society he departed from the observation of the hypercomplexity of modern society. He sets aside what he called the old European tradition that conveived society as a sum of men - indivivuals - (in this way he conveives modern society as a nonhuman society!). This hypercomplexity gave birth to functional social systems (subsystems) to face the need to reduce the increasing complexity and deal with all the possibilities of communication and processing of information. To achieve this task the subsystems that emerged in society had to operate in a closed operative mode and in a cognitive openness. This theoretical framework allow the subsystems to evolve in an autopoietic (= self-reproduction) manner. The idea of "autopoiese" Luhmann gets from the biological theory from Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, originally applied to living organisms and psychic systems (also read from the same author: "Social Systems").
Thus these subsystems of society (Economy, Law, Religion, Politics) had to establish operational conditions creating their own programmes on base of a binary code (positive x negative). For instance, Economy's binary code - money x no money -, Law's - legal x illegal- , Religion's - faith x no faith.
The most interestin thing concerning Luhmann's theory is that it is based on interdisciplinarity. He mixes theories from cybernetic epistemology (Heinz von Foerster)and mathematics (Spencer Brown) to permit the observation of social systems through the study of mathematical forms, second order cybernetics and constructivist epistemology.
In this context we have one of this most interesting book ever written by Niklas Luhmann, which focus on what is known as the MASS MEDIA. He approaches the MASS MEDIA as one of the most important and interesting subsystem in modern society. This subsystem encloses the press, entertainmente and advertising. He postulates a "contructivist" stance to this subsystem that is not based on the binary code of real x unreal (real x false), because differently as people may think it is not operating on "the reality", as a kind of ontology, but this subsystem constructs its own "reality" based on its own programmes and codification. This perspective Luhmann gets from the second order cybernetics (Heinz von Foerster) and second order obsevation (Maturana & Varela). Luhmann points out that the MASS MEDIA is a system of self-observation of modern society. He refuses the idea that there is someone controlling the public opinion, because it is simply impossible as the hypercomplexity of our society cannot be controlled by a human being. The MASS MEDIA, as all other susbsystems in modern society, only communicate through communication. He claims: only communication can communicate!!.
If you want to look at press, entertainment and advertising from a different point of observation and to get rid of all humanistic theories that tried to describe and conceptualize what is called THE MASS MEDIA, DO NOT miss to read the book. I can assure that you will never more conceive of modern society in the old same way we were taught to. Open your mind and read The Reality of the Mass Media by Niklas Luhmann, although you may find it a difficult reading!! 

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Corruption, Inequality, and the Rule of Law: The Bulging Pocket Makes the Easy Life

Corruption flouts rules of fairness and gives some people advantages that others don't have. Corruption is persistent; there is little evidence that countries can escape the curse of corruption easily-or at all. Instead of focusing on institutional reform, Uslaner suggests that the roots of corruption lie in economic and legal inequality and low levels of generalized trust (which are not readily changed) and poor policy choices (which may be more likely to change). Economic inequality provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption-and, in turn, it leads to further inequalities. Just as corruption is persistent, inequality and trust do not change much over time in my cross-national aggregate analyses. Uslaner argues that high inequality leads to low trust and high corruption, and then to more inequality-an inequality trap and identifies direct linkages between inequality and trust in surveys of the mass public and elites in transition countries. Eric M. Uslaner is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland-College Park, where he has taught since 1975. He has written seven books including The Moral Foundations of Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2002), and The Decline of Comity in Congress (University of Michigan Press, 1993). In 1981-82 he was Fulbright Professor of American Studies and Political Science at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel and in 2005, he was a Fulbright Senior Specialist Lecturer at Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia. In 2006 he was appointed the first Senior Research Fellow at the Center for American Law and Political Science at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China.

 

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The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law

What is liberty, as opposed to license, and why is it so important? Drawing upon insights from philosophy, economics, political theory, and law, Randy Barnett examines the serious social problems that are addressed by liberty--and the background or "natural" rights and "rule of law" procedures that distinguish liberty from license. He then skillfully outlines the constitutional framework that is needed to protect this structure of liberty. Although this controversial work is intended to challenge specialists, its clear and accessible prose ensure that it will be of immense value to those working in a range of disciplines.

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