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Showing 121 - 140 of 2236 items
From here to eternity: traveling the world to find the good death
By Caitlin Doughty. 2017
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for…
their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes. With curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty encounters vividly decomposed bodies and participates in compelling, powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in America. Introduces death-care innovators researching green burial and body composting, explores new spaces for mourning--including a glowing Buddha columbarium in Japan and America's only open-air pyre--and reveals unexpected new possibilities for our own death rituals. Bestseller. 2017.Happiness: a history
By Darrin M McMahon. 2006
Before therapy and self-help, the idea of happiness in this life was virtually unknown. McMahon looks back on 2,000 years…
of thought, from the plays of ancient Greece to the rhetoric of Rousseau and Jefferson, to examine texts that elucidate and confirm the development of Western notions of this elusive ideal. Some descriptions of sex. 2006.How to live: or, A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer
By Sarah Bakewell. 2010
Explores the inner world of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1553-1592) by examining his essays and the social context in…
which they were written. Discusses twenty questions he posed about the art of living, which address topics like friendship, death, and travel. Nat'l Book Critics Circle Award. Some descriptions of sex. 2010.Heidegger (Fontana Modern Masters Ser.)
By George Steiner. 1978
With characteristic lucidity and style, Steiner makes Heidegger's immensely difficult body of work accessible to the general reader. In a…
new introduction, Steiner addresses language and philosophy and the rise of Nazism. 1978.Gaia: a new look at life on Earth
By James Lovelock. 2000
In this work Jim Lovelock puts forward his idea that life on earth functions as a single organism. Written for…
non-scientists, Gaia is a journey through time and space in search of evidence with which to support a new and radically different model of our planet. In contrast to conventional belief that living matter is passive in the face of threats to its existence, the book explores the hypothesis that the earth's living matter, air, ocean, and land surfaces forms a complex system that has the capacity to keep the Earth a fit place for life. Since Gaia was first published, many of Jim Lovelock's predictions have come true and his theory has become a hotly argued topic in scientific circles. In a new Preface to this reissued title, he outlines his present state of the debate. 2000.Freedom from the known
By J Krishnamurti, Mary Lutyens. 1983
The author shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what…
their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships. 1983.Forbidden knowledge: from Prometheus to pornography
By Roger Shattuck. 1996
An inquiry into "dangerous knowledge" scientific and literary in Western civilization, along with ethical questions that are raised. Examines "forbidden"…
sources that range from folklore and myth to the writings of Marquis de Sade. Considers human conscience related to research such as the development of the atomic bomb. Strong language, violence, and descriptions of sex. c1996.Chinese New Year: a celebration for everyone (Orca origins.)
By Jen Sookfong Lee. 2017
From its beginnings as a farming celebration marking the end of winter to its current role as a global party…
featuring good food, lots of gifts and public parades, 'Chinese New Year' is a snapshot of Chinese culture. Award-winning author and broadcaster Jen Sookfong Lee recalls her childhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, and weaves family stories into the history, traditions and evolution of Chinese New Year. Grades 3-6. 2017.Evil in modern thought: an alternative history of philosophy (Princeton Classics Series)
By Susan Neiman. 2002
Examines our understanding of evil from the Inquisition to contemporary terrorism. The author also posits that debating the nature of…
evil impelled modern philosophy, and eroded belief in God's benevolence, power, and relevance. Lastly, Neiman turns to consider philosophy's response to the Holocaust as a final moral evil. Some descriptions of violence. 2002.Existentialism and humanism
By Philip Mairet, Jean-Paul Sartre. 1973
Sartre has laid the foundations for an original doctrine of Existentialism. His concern, however, has been to relate his theory…
to human response and the practical demands of living. To this end, he has carried his concepts into his novels and plays. He has demonstrated the utility of Existentialist doctrine while creating works of high literary merit. 1973. Uniform title: Existentialisme est un humanisme.Essays and aphorisms
By Arthur Schopenhauer, R J Hollingdale. 1970
One of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, Schopenhauer (1788-1860) believed that human action is determined not by reason…
but by 'will' - the blind and irrational desire for physical existence. This selection of his writings on religion, ethics, politics, women, suicide, books and many other themes is taken from Schopenhauer's last work, "Parerga and Paralipomena", which he published in 1851. These pieces depict humanity as locked in a struggle beyond good and evil, and each individual absolutely free within a Godless world, in which art, morality and self-awareness are our only salvation. 1970. Uniform title: Parerga und ParalipomenaDark age ahead
By Jane Jacobs. 2004
Architectural and city-planning scholar Jacobs argues that Western civilization in general and North American society in particular are headed for…
a period of reconfiguration, chaos, and lost cultural memory. She credits this to the erosion of five key pillars of Western civilization: community and family, higher education, scientific advancement, taxation, and self-policing by learned professions, as well as changes in agriculture and transportation. 2004.Derrida: Modern Masters (Fontana modern masters)
By Christopher Norris. 1987
Jacques Derrida is one of the most important people in contemporary Anglo-American literary theory. This book sets out to explain…
the significance of Derrida's writings and to place them within the western philosophical tradition. The author also discusses some reasons for the massive institutional resistance which has prevented philosophers from engaging seriously with Derrida's work. 1987.Confessions of a philosopher
By Bryan Magee. 1997
The author tells the story of his discovery of philosophy, and in doing so introduces the subject to his reader.…
Experiences of everyday life provide discussion of philosophers and explain why certain philosophical questions persistently exercise our minds. 1997.Casanova: the man who really loved women
By Lydia Flem. 1997
A psychoanalyst examines the life and memoirs of the self-professed great lover. Describes Giacomo Casanova's pleasure in reliving his experiences…
as he wrote twelve volumes of his reflections. Analyzes his amorous pursuit of women. Some descriptions of sex. c1997. Uniform title: Casanova, ou, L'exercise du bonheur.Being and nothingness: an essay on phenomenological ontology (Routledge classics)
By Jean-Paul Sartre, Hazel Estella Barnes. 2003
This monumental book, regarded by many as Sartre's greatest achievement, is one of the most influential philosophical works of the…
20th century. In it Sartre set out his fundamental views on philosophy and laid the foundations of existentialism. 2003.Becoming human (CBC Massey lectures)
By Jean Vanier. 1998
Jean Vanier shares his vision for creating a common good that radically changes our communities, our relationships, and ourselves. He…
proposes that by opening ourselves to others, those we perceive as weak, different, or inferior, we can achieve true personal and societal freedom. 1998.Aristotle's children: how Christians, Muslims, and Jews rediscovered ancient wisdom and illuminated the Dark Ages
By Richard E Rubenstein. 2003
Europe was in the long slumber of the Dark Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language…
was all but forgotten, until a group of Arab, Jewish, and Christian scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread across Europe like wildfire, offering the scientific point of view that the natural world, including the soul of man, was a proper subject of study. The Catholic Church convulsed, and riots took place at the universities of Paris and Oxford. 2003.Apron strings: navigating food and family in France, Italy, and China
By Jan Wong. 2017
Jan Wong knows food is better when shared, so when she set out to write a book about home cooking…
in France, Italy, and China, she asked her 22-year-old son, Sam, to join her. While he wasn't keen on spending excessive time with his mom, he dreamed of becoming a chef. Ultimately, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. On their journey, Jan and Sam live and cook with locals, seeing how globalization is changing food, families, and cultures. In southeast France, they move in with a family sheltering undocumented migrants. From Bernadette, the housekeeper, they learn classic French family fare such as blanquette de veau. In a hamlet in the heart of Italy's Slow Food country, the locals teach them how to make authentic spaghetti alle vongole and a proper risotto with leeks. In Shanghai, they cook firecracker chicken and scallion pancakes with the nouveaux riches and their migrant maids, who are part of the biggest demographic shift in world history. Along the way, mother and son explore their sometimes-fraught relationship, uniting--and occasionally clashing--over their mutual love of cooking. 2017.Aesthetic theory (Impacts Ser.)
By Rolf Tiedemann, Theodor W Adorno, Robert Hullot-Kentor, Gretel Adorno. 1997
Aesthetic Theory is Adorno's posthumous magnum opus and the culmination of a lifetime's investigation. Analysing the sublime, the ugly and…
the beautiful, Adorno shows how such concepts frame and distil human experience and that it is human experience that ultimately underlies aesthetics. In Adorno's formulation 'art is the sedimented history of human misery'. 1997.