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Philosophical Problems in Sense Perception: Testing the Limits of Aristotelianism (Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind #26)
By David Bennett, Juhana Toivanen. 2020
This volume focuses on philosophical problems concerning sense perception in the history of philosophy. It consists of thirteen essays that…
analyse the philosophical tradition originating in Aristotle’s writings. Each essay tackles a particular problem that tests the limits of Aristotle’s theory of perception and develops it in new directions. The problems discussed range from simultaneous perception to causality in perception, from the representational nature of sense-objects to the role of conscious attention, and from the physical/mental divide to perception as quasi-rational judgement. The volume gives an equal footing to Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophical traditions. It makes a substantial contribution not just to the study of the Aristotelian analysis of sense perception, but to its reception in the commentary tradition and beyond. Thus, the papers address developments in Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius, Avicenna, John of Jandun, Nicole Oresme, and Sayf al-Din al-Amidi, among others. The result of this is a coherent collection that attacks a well-defined topic from a wide range of perspectives and across philosophical traditions.The CEO Whisperer: Meditations on Leadership, Life, and Change (The Palgrave Kets de Vries Library)
By Manfred F. Kets de Vries. 2021
At this critical junction in the history of humankind, leaders that are proficient in magical thinking aren’t going to solve…
our problems. Creating alternative realities is not the answer. We need a very different kind of leadership—leaders who can resist the calls of regression and whose outlook is firmly based in reality. We need leaders who analyze and draw conclusions from, or use their own experiences as a development tool, face their strengths and weaknesses, and critique their own experiences in order to build new understandings. In this very personal and entertaining book, Manfred Kets de Vries, one of the “gurus” in the field of leadership studies offers his thoughts on leadership and life, reflections written for executives and the people who deal with them. As a psychoanalyst and leadership professor let loose in the world of renowned global organizations—as a passionate educator and scholar, or just a human being at the receiving end of heart-rending emails—he examines the pitfalls of leadership and the challenges for the professionals who work with senior executives in today’s AI-focused world. He points out why leaders can derail, and what steps they can take to prevent this from happening. Ultimately, this book encourages you to “Know yourself,” but makes no bones about the challenge it represents. Understanding our “inner theatre” will always be an uphill struggle. Kets de Vries points out why deep dives into our inner world are always fraught with many anxieties. Included in the many subjects covered by the author are the loneliness of command, the management of disappointment, the destructive role of greed, the impact of stubbornness, the role of storytelling, the importance of wellness, and the role of corporate culture. In addition, the book addresses the important topic of how to create great teams and best places to work. Furthermore, the book touches on endings– the ending of our career and the growing realization of the inevitable ending of our life. As time grows short, Kets de Vries emphasizes that we have no time to lose in dealing with our anxieties, regrets, and the things we spend much of our life determined not to see. Taking a deep dive into self-knowledge requires courage and support, and he is here to guide you through it.Innovationsdynamik aktivieren: Integration von Vielfalt - Schlüssel zum Unternehmenserfolg
By Gerhard Schwarz, Walter Friederichs. 2020
In diesem Buch wird beschrieben wie Innovationsdynamik aktiviert wird. Am Beispiel des traditionellen Executive Onboarding wird gezeigt, dass der Fokus…
auf Anpassung des neuen Organisationsmitglieds an die bestehenden Regeln Innovationspotential vernichtet. Das steht im Widerspruch zu der Notwendigkeit, sich im Zuge der zunehmenden Komplexität auf unvorhergesehene Veränderungen in kürzester Zeit einzustellen. Durch die Integration neuer Perspektiven können Unternehmen eine Dynamik entwickeln, die den schnellen Veränderungen gewachsen ist. Dafür müssen Teams in heterogener Zusammensetzung funktionsfähig werden und neue Perspektiven so integrieren, dass sie Teil ihrer Teamidentität werden. Das leisten wir durch Überwinden emotionaler und sozialer Barrieren gegen Neues.William James: Psychical Research and the Challenge of Modernity
By Krister Dylan Knapp. 2017
In this insightful new book on the remarkable William James, the American psychologist and philosopher, Krister Dylan Knapp provides the…
first deeply historical and acutely analytical account of James's psychical research. While showing that James always maintained a critical stance toward claims of paranormal phenomena like spiritualism, Knapp uses new sources to argue that psychical research held a strikingly central position in James's life. It was crucial to his familial and professional relationships, the fashioning of his unique intellectual disposition, and the shaping of his core doctrines, especially the will-to-believe, empiricism, fideism, and theories of the subliminal consciousness and immortality.Knapp explains how and why James found in psychical research a way to rethink the well-trodden approaches to classic Euro-American religious thought, typified by the oppositional categories of natural vs. supernatural and normal vs. paranormal. He demonstrates how James eschewed these choices and instead developed a tertiary synthesis of them, an approach Knapp terms tertium quid, the third way. Situating James's psychical research in relation to the rise of experimental psychology and Protestantism's changing place in fin de siecle America, Knapp asserts that the third way illustrated a much broader trend in transatlantic thought as it struggled to navigate the uncertainties and religious adventurism of the modern age.Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It
By Richard Stengel. 2019
From former Time editor and Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel, this is the first and only insider account of…
how the U.S. tried--and failed--to combat the global rise of disinformation that eventually spilled into the 2016 election. In February of 2013, Richard Stengel, the former editor of Time, joined the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Within days, two shocking events made worldwide headlines: ISIS executed American journalist James Foley in a graphic video seen by millions, and Vladimir Putin's "little green men"--Russian special forces--invaded Crimea, accompanied by a blizzard of Russian denials and false flags. What these events had in common besides their violent lawlessness is that they were the opening salvos in a new era of global information warfare, in which countries and non-state actors use social media and disinformation to create their own narratives and undermine anyone who opposes them. Stengel was thrust onto the front lines of this battle as he was tasked with responding to the relentless weaponizing of information by ISIS, Russia, China, and others. He saw the scale of what he was up against and found himself hopelessly outgunned. Then, in 2016, the wars Stengel was fighting abroad came home during the presidential election, as "fake news" became a rallying cry and the Russians used the techniques they learned in Ukraine to influence the election here. Rarely has an accomplished journalist been not only a close observer but also a principal participant in American foreign policy as events unfold, issues are debated, and decisions are made. Stengel takes you behind the scenes in the ritualized world of diplomacy, from the daily 8:30 morning huddle with a restless John Kerry to a midnight sit-down in Saudi Arabia with the prince of darkness, Mohammed bin Salman. The result is a compulsively readable account of how this new kind of warfare works and how difficult it is to fight. RICHARD STENGEL was the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs from 2013 to 2016. Before working at the State Department, he was the editor of Time for seven years, from 2006 to 2013. From 1992 to 1994, he collaborated with Nelson Mandela on the South African leader's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. Stengel later wrote Mandela's Way, a New York Times bestseller, on his experience working with Mandela. He is the author of several other books, including January Sun, a book about life in a small South African town, as well as You're Too Kind: A Brief History of Flattery. He is an NBC/MSNBC analyst and lives in New York.The Palgrave Handbook of Institutional Ethnography
By Paul C. Luken, Suzanne Vaughan. 2021
A comprehensive guide to the alternative sociology originating in the work of Dorothy E. Smith, this Handbook not only explores…
the basic, founding principles of institutional ethnography (IE), but also captures current developments, approaches, and debates. Now widely known as a “sociology for people,” IE offers the tools to uncover the social relations shaping the everyday world in which we live and is utilized by scholars and social activists in sociology and beyond, including such fields as education, nursing, social work, linguistics, health and medical care, environmental studies, and other social-service related fields. Covering the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of IE, recent developments, and current areas of research and application that have yet to appear in the literature, The Palgrave Handbook of Institutional Ethnography is suitable for both experienced practitioners of institutional ethnography and those who are exploring this approach for the first time.The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision required desegregation of America's schools, but it also set in motion an…
agonizing multidecade debate over race, class, and IQ. In this innovative book, Michael E. Staub investigates neuropsychological studies published between Brown and the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve. In doing so, he illuminates how we came to view race and intelligence today.In tracing how research and experiments around such concepts as learned helplessness, deferred gratification, hyperactivity, and emotional intelligence migrated into popular culture and government policy, Staub reveals long-standing and widespread dissatisfaction—not least among middle-class whites—with the metric of IQ. He also documents the devastating consequences—above all for disadvantaged children of color—as efforts to undo discrimination and create enriched learning environments were recurrently repudiated and defunded. By connecting psychology, race, and public policy in a single narrative, Staub charts the paradoxes that have emerged and that continue to structure investigations of racism even into the era of contemporary neuroscientific research.Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion
By Ira Helderman. 2019
Interest in the psychotherapeutic capacity of Buddhist teachings and practices is widely evident in the popular imagination. News media routinely…
report on the neuropsychological study of Buddhist meditation and applications of mindfulness practices in settings including corporate offices, the U.S. military, and university health centers. However, as Ira Helderman shows, curious investigators have studied the psychological dimensions of Buddhist doctrine for well over a century, stretching back to William James and Carl Jung. These activities have shaped both the mental health field and Buddhist practice throughout the United States.This is the first comprehensive study of the surprisingly diverse ways that psychotherapists have related to Buddhist traditions. Through extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with clinicians, many of whom have been formative to the therapeutic use of Buddhist practices, Helderman gives voice to the psychotherapists themselves. He focuses on how they understand key categories such as religion and science. Some are invested in maintaining a hard border between religion and psychotherapy as a biomedical discipline. Others speak of a religious-secular binary that they mean to disrupt. Helderman finds that psychotherapists' approaches to Buddhist traditions are molded by how they define what is and is not religious, demonstrating how central these concepts are in contemporary American culture.Social Ecology of a Chinese Kindergarten: Where culture grows (Cultural Psychology of Education #12)
By Giuseppina Marsico, Shuangshuang Xu. 2020
This book is the outcome of a joint collaboration between East China Normal University and the University of Luxembourg, initiated…
by the Center of Ideas for the Basic Education of the Future (IBEF), and focuses on kindergartens in China from a cultural psychology perspective. By coupling young scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds as research tandems, this book uses an innovative methodological method to reveal a deeply immersing research perspective of the often complicated issues in the Chinese social reality, where long historical tradition and strong motivation for a “modernized” future are fused together and continuously evolve itself into a vibrant and intricate landscape. Meanings and values consciously or unconsciously promoted and conducted in the kindergarten are semiotic devices and they mediate children’s and educator’s daily behaviours and activities, which are constantly navigating among different social institutions and crossing the border of kindergarten. The book discusses the process of children’s socialization in the kindergarten from different angles such as cultural objects, moral education, conflict negotiation, children's drawing analysis and the role of Lego in numeracy development. It also provides an overview of basic educational needs in Chinese kindergartens as well as three commentaries to provide background information and to add a reflective angle for the readers. By reading the book, readers will hopefully go through a constantly transforming process between familiarizing and de-familiarizing along with the research tandem and develop their own understanding of the complex landscape of the Chinese kindergarten and its children as developing subjects constantly living and transcending the context.The Behaviourally Informed Organization (Behaviourally Informed Organizations)
By Cass R. Sunstein, Dilip Soman and Catherine Yeung, eds.. 2020
Every organization is fundamentally in the business of behavior change. Whether it be a government trying to get business to…
comply with environmental regulation, a business trying to get its customers to be loyal to their products, or a financial advisor encouraging a client to start saving for retirement, behavior change is critical to organizational success. Despite its centrality to organizations, we do not have a good scientific framework for behavior change or a good understanding of how organizations can embed insights from behavioral science into their operations. To overcome this void, this book develops an overarching framework for using behavioral science. It shows how behavioral insights (BI) can be embedded in organizations to achieve better outcomes, improve the efficiency of processes, and maximize stakeholder engagement. This edited volume will provide an enterprise-wide strategic perspective of how governments, businesses, and other organizations have embedded BI into their operations. It is based on research by academics and practitioners from the Behaviourally Informed Organizations Partnership and will highlight ideas, pragmatic frameworks, and prescriptive outcomes, based on illustrative case studies. Featuring a foreword by Cass Sunstein, this book investigates key findings from BI, with an eye toward how it can be used to solve problems and seize opportunities in diverse organizations.Human behavior is a subject so vast that it would seem to defy one's ability to comfortably and confidently grasp…
its varieties, nuances, shapes, and dynamics. But in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of the contexts of human behavior, Dennis Saleebey examines the different social science approaches to understanding the way humans react to and are affected by their environment.Using a biopsychosocial perspective, this book demonstrates that there are many paths of knowledge, many methods of inquiry, and many perspectives that can guide one's understanding of human behavior. Resilience (how we cope with trauma) and meaning-making (how we see and make sense of the world around us) provide the conceptual framework of the book. Saleebey examines a number of specific theories relevant to the biopsychosocial approach: part/whole analysis, psychodynamic theory, ecological theory, cognitive theory, and radical/critical theory. Human development is presented as a continuing interaction between individual, family, community, social institutions, and culture. Pedagogical devices to aid the student include chapter overviews, case studies, and meaning-making dialogues at the end of each chapter that pose questions for further thought.How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories: Evolutionary Enigmas
By Judith Eve Lipton, David Barash. 2009
So how did women get their curves? Why do they have breasts, while other mammals only develop breast tissue while…
lactating, and why do women menstruate, when virtually no other beings do so? What are the reasons for female orgasm? Why are human females kept in the dark about their own time of ovulation and maximum fertility, and why are they the only animals to experience menopause?David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton, coauthors of acclaimed books on human sexuality and gender, discuss the theories scientists have advanced to explain these evolutionary enigmas (sometimes called "Just-So stories" by their detractors) and present hypotheses of their own. Some scientific theories are based on legitimate empirical data, while others are pure speculation. Barash and Lipton distinguish between what is solid and what remains uncertain, skillfully incorporating their expert knowledge of biology, psychology, animal behavior, anthropology, and human sexuality into their entertaining critiques. Inviting readers to examine the evidence and draw their own conclusions, Barash and Lipton tell an evolutionary suspense story that captures the excitement and thrill of true scientific detection.I Speak, Therefore I Am: Seventeen Thoughts About Language
By Andrea Moro. 2016
There are no men so dull and stupid, not even idiots, as to be incapable of joining together different words,…
and thereby constructing a declaration by which to make their thoughts understood.... On the other hand, there is no other animal, however perfect or happily circumstanced which can do the like.—DescartesLanguage is more like a snowflake than a giraffe's neck. Its specific properties are determined by laws of nature, they have not developed through the accumulation of historical accidents.—Noam ChomskyIn I Speak, Therefore I Am, the Italian linguist and neuroscientist Andrea Moro composes an album of his favorite quotations from the history of linguistics, beginning with the Book of Genesis and the power of naming and concluding with Noam Chomsky's metaphor that language is a snowflake. Moro's seventeen linguistic thoughts and his commentary on them display the humanness of language: our need to name and interpret this world and create imaginary ones, to express and understand ourselves. This book is sure to delight anyone who enjoys the ineffable paradox that is human language.Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants: An Introduction to Ethics
By Ruwen Ogien. 2015
Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants makes philosophy fun, tactile, and popular. Moral thinking is simple, Ruwen Ogien…
argues, and as inherent as the senses. In our daily experiences, in the situations we confront and in the scenes we witness, we develop an understanding of right and wrong as sophisticated as the moral outlook of the world's most gifted philosophers. By drawing on this knowledge to navigate life's most perplexing problems, ethics becomes second nature.Ogien explores, through experimental philosophy and other methods, the responses nineteen real-world conundrums provoke. Is a short, mediocre life better than no life at all? Is it acceptable to kill a healthy person so his organs can save five others? Would you swap a "natural" life filled with frustration, disappointment, and partial success for a world in which all of your needs are met, but through artificial and mechanical means? Ogien doesn't seek to show how difficult it is to determine right from wrong or how easy it is for humans to become monsters or react like saints. Helping us tap into the wisdom and feeling we already possess in our ethical "toolboxes," Ogien instead encourages readers to question moral presuppositions and rules; embrace an intuitive sense of dignity, virtue, and justice; and pursue a pluralist ethics suited to the principles of human kindness.Research Methods in Psychology (Fourth Edition): Evaluating A World Of Information
By Beth Morling. 2020
The #1 research methods text—loved by instructors and students Featuring an emphasis on future consumers of psychological research and examples…
drawn from popular media, Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information develops students’ critical-thinking skills as they evaluate information in their everyday lives. The Fourth Edition of this best-selling text takes learning to a new level for both consumers and producers by offering new content to help them master the concepts. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.Psychologie bei Gericht (Die Wirtschaftspsychologie)
By Michaela Pfundmair. 2020
Dieses Buch bietet einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Fragestellungen der Rechtspsychologie, die sich im Rahmen von Gerichtsverhandlungen ergeben. Sie erfahren,…
wie forensisch-psychologische Gutachter ihre Bewertungen im Einzelfall vornehmen. Im Zentrum stehen Themen wie die Aussagepsychologie und die Familienrechtspsychologie. Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen werden mit zahlreichen Fallbeispielen und Bezügen zur Praxis verbunden. So ist das Buch auch für Leser ohne Fachkenntnisse leicht lesbar. Im Buch erfahren Sie… wie überprüft werden kann, ob eine Schilderung auf wahrem Erleben basiert.wie bewertet werden kann, wer Sorgerecht und Umgang bei einem Kind erhält und was bei Kindeswohlgefährdung passiert.wie abgeschätzt werden kann, ob ein Rechtsbrecher rückfällig wird.wie geprüft werden kann, ob ein Rechtsbrecher schuldfähig oder strafmündig ist.wie die Zuverlässigkeit einer Personenbeschreibung oder -identifizierung bewertet und wie sie verbessert werden kann.welchen psychologischen Effekten Richter und andere urteilende Verfahrensbeteiligte unterliegen. Zielgruppen: "Psychologie bei Gericht“ ist für alle lesenswert, die im weitesten Sinne mit Gerichten arbeiten – von psychologischen Gutachtern über Staatsanwälte bis hin zu Sozialarbeitern, aber auch Studierende und interessierte Laien, die mehr über die Themen und Tätigkeitsfelder der Forensischen Psychologie erfahren wollen. Die Autorin Michaela Pfundmair, Prof. Dr. phil. habil., Psychologin, ist Professorin an der Hochschule des Bundes in Berlin, wo sie zu sozial- und rechtspsychologischen Themen forscht und lehrt. Zu diesen Themenkomplexen publizierte sie international zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Artikel. Zudem arbeitet sie als aussagepsychologische Sachverständige, prüft und supervidiert Personen in der Weiterbildung für Rechtspsychologie BDP/DGPs und ist Vorsitzende der Sektion Rechtspsychologie im BDP.Dit boek is dé onmisbare gids voor de juiste aanpak bij veelvoorkomende obstakels in acceptatie and commitmenttherapie (ACT). Loskomen als…
je vastzit in ACT biedt praktische strategieën met een stapsgewijze aanpak voor het overwinnen van de meest voorkomende obstakels en valkuilen van ACT. Elk hoofdstuk behandelt nieuwe methoden voor het motiveren van cliënten, het ondermijnen van moeilijk gedrag tijdens de sessies en het in gang zetten van defusie. Het overkomt alle therapeuten weleens dat ze ‘vast komen te zitten’. In dit boek onderzoekt Russ Harris het ‘vastzitten’ van zowel cliënten als therapeuten. Door middel van pragmatisme, ervaring, technieken, humor en menselijkheid reikt hij zowel de meer ervaren ACT-therapeuten als beginnelingen in ACT een aantal heldere, behulpzame lessen aan. Ook leert u hoe u cliënten in eenvoudige bewoordingen uitleg geeft over de belangrijke concepten van ACT, hoe u ook met snel afgeleide cliënten op het goede spoor blijft, en hoe u uw eigen belemmeringen bij het toepassen van ACT overwint. [aanbeveling]‘Russ Harris geniet zeer verdiend en wereldwijd de reputatie dat hij helderheid kan scheppen waar verwarring heerst en eenvoud kan brengen waar onnodige complexiteit heerst. Wanneer we ‘vastzitten’ in ons klinische werk, helpt het terugdringen van verwarring en complexiteit ons om weer een weg vooruit te gaan zien. Op bijna iedere bladzijde van dit boek is wel een wijze les te vinden. Ik heb veel geleerd van het lezen van dit boek, en als jij met ACT werkt, zal dat zeker ook voor jou gelden. Van harte aanbevolen.’ ̶ Steven C. Hayes, PhD, mede-ontwikkelaar van de acceptatie- en commitmenttherapie (ACT) Loskomen als je vastzit in ACT: een praktijkgids voor de omgang met veelvoorkomende obstakels in acceptatie- en commitmenttherapie verscheen oorspronkelijk onder de titel Getting Unstuck in ACT: a clinician’s guide to overcoming common obstacles in acceptance and commitment therapy.Russ Harris is medicus, psychotherapeut en organisatiecoach. Hij is wereldwijd bekend als trainer in acceptatie- en commitmenttherapie. Eerder schreef hij onder meer De klappen van het leven, De valstrik van het geluk en ACT in de praktijk. Harris woont en werkt in Melbourne, Australië.Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics: Volume 1 1990–2000 (Studies in the Psychosocial)
By Bracha L. Ettinger. 2020
This book is the first of two volumes that, together, present for the first time a comprehensive collection of three…
decades of the theoretical writings of artist and theorist Bracha L Ettinger. Edited and introduced by Griselda Pollock they provide a systematic anthology of Ettinger’s path-breaking and influential concept of Matrixial subjectivity-as-encounter and jointness-in-difference, and chart her radical intervention in aesthetics, ethics and theories of subjectivity far beyond classical feminist and current gender/queer theory.This first volume includes the writings in which Ettinger elaborates her original concepts of Matrixial space-time and metramorphosis, fascinance, wit(h)nessing, resonance, transcryptum, com-passion, self-fragilization and resistance, co-emergence and copoiesis transform theories of the subject, Eros, alliance and love, sexual difference, alterity, relationality, trauma and violence. Her critical dialogue with theorists including Levinas, Lacan, Lyotard and Deleuze & Guattari, Butler, Cavarero and Irigaray is evident here.A leading authority on Matrixial theory, Griselda Pollock provides explanatory prefaces to each chapter and a lengthy introduction that situates Ettinger’s work in relation to socio-psychoanalytical theory and practice and current social and philosophical debates. Ettinger’s interlacing of psychoanalysis, ethics, and aesthetics can be seen here to address some of the deepest challenges of our social, cultural and political existence today.Das Ich kann!-Prinzip: Wie die Balance zwischen Tun und Lassen gelingt
By Alexander H ttner. 2017
Dieses Buch wird Ihnen helfen schneller und klarer zu erkennen wie Sie Verantwortung f 65533 r Ihr Leben…
65533 bernehmen Das Buch ist ein Kompass und Ratgeber damit Selbststeuerung und Gelassenheit gelingt Im Mittelpunkt steht die Unterscheidungsf 65533 higkeit Was kann ich als Mensch beeinflussen sogenannter Ich-Bereich Was liegt au 65533 erhalb meiner Macht Nicht-Bereich Dazu geh 65533 rt sowohl die M 65533 glichkeiten des Handelns beherzt in Angriff zu nehmen wie die Grenzen des Tuns zu erkennen um entsprechend auch loslassen zu k 65533 nnen Mit Beispielen und Hintergrundwissen aus der Psychologie und Beratungspraxis - sowie zielf 65533 hrenden Fragen zur Selbstreflexion am Ende eines jeden KapitelsStupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card - and Lose
By Larry Elder. 2008
IS LIFE UNFAIR FOR BLACK AMERICANS? IS RACIAL EQUALITY THE ANSWER TO EVERY QUESTION OF PUBLIC POLICY? IS A HUGE…
GROUP OF CITIZENS BEING KEPT DOWN BY "THE MAN"? RADIO HOST AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR Larry Elder has made a career out of being a thorn in the side of the conventional-wisdom crowd. He deflates the pompous and points out the completely logical truths hidden behind the nutty rhetoric and out-of-control pandering of politicians and the so-called leaders of a variety of special-interest groups. In Stupid Black Men, he takes on the mind-set of those people who always capture the most media attentionas well as masses of public moneypeople who say that racism is the root of all problems and who end up hurting precisely those they claim to be helping. Whether they are demagogues like Al Sharpton, established politicians like Hillary Clinton, or entertainers like Danny Glover, no one escapes Elder's cogent arguments and rapier wit. His sometimes hilarious and always infuriating examples of wrong-headedness skewer not just politicians for their smugness and hypocrisy but also actors, educators, religious leaders, and the "mainscream media" for keeping the story in the headlines. But Elder has a positive message, too: though they are fewerand generally not as loudmouthedthere are leaders and role models today who want to sweep away race-based whining and urge everyone in America to share in the hard work, smart thinking, and optimism that make this country great.