“A liberal society stands on the proposition that we should all take seriously the idea that we might be wrong. This means we must place no one, including ourselves, beyond the reach of criticism; it means that we must allow people to err, even where the error offends and upsets, as it often will.” So writes Jonathan Rauch in Kindly Inquisitors, which has challenged readers for more than twenty years with its bracing and provocative exploration of the issues surrounding attempts to limit free speech. In it, Rauch makes a persuasive argument for the value of “liberal science” and the idea that conflicting views produce knowledge within society. In this expanded edition of Kindly Inquisitors, a new foreword by George F. Will strikingly shows the book’s continued relevance, while a substantial new afterword by Rauch elaborates upon his original argument and brings it fully up to date. Two decades after the book’s initial publication, while some progress has been made, the regulation of hate speech has grown domestically—especially in American universities—and has spread even more internationally, where there is no First Amendment to serve as a meaningful check. But the answer to bias and prejudice, Rauch argues, is pluralism—not purism. Rather than attempting to legislate bias and prejudice out of existence or to drive them underground, we must pit them against one another to foster a more vigorous and fruitful discussion. It is this process that has been responsible for the growing acceptance of the moral acceptability of homosexuality over the last twenty years. And it is this process, Rauch argues, that will enable us as a society to replace hate with knowledge, both ethical and empirical. “It is a melancholy fact that this elegant book, which is slender and sharp as a stiletto, is needed, now even more than two decades ago. Armed with it, readers can slice through the pernicious ideas that are producing the still-thickening thicket of rules, codes, and regulations restricting freedom of thought and expression.”—George F. Will, from the foreword

"As a form of power, subjection is paradoxical. To be dominated by a power external to oneself is a familiar and agonizing form power takes. To find, however, that what "one" is, one's very formation as a subject, is dependent upon that very power is quite another. If, following Foucault, we understand power as forming the subject as well, it provides the very condition of its existence and the trajectory of its desire. Power is not simply what we depend on for our existence but that which forms reflexivity as well. Drawing upon Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Foucault, and Althusser, this challenging and lucid work offers a theory of subject formation that illuminates as ambivalent the psychic effects of social power.If we take Hegel and Nietzsche seriously, then the "inner life" of consciousness and, indeed, of conscience, not only is fabricated by power, but becomes one of the ways in which power is anchored in subjectivity. The author considers the way in which psychic life is generated by the social operation of power, and how that social operation of power is concealed and fortified by the psyche that it produces. Power is no longer understood to be "internalized" by an existing subject, but the subject is spawned as an ambivalent effect of power, one that is staged through the operation of conscience.To claim that power fabricates the psyche is also to claim that there is a fictional and fabricated quality to the psyche. The figure of a psyche that "turns against itself" is crucial to this study, and offers an alternative to describing power as "internalized." Although most readers of Foucault eschew psychoanalytic theory, and most thinkers of the psyche eschew Foucault, the author seeks to theorize this ambivalent relation between the social and the psychic as one of the most dynamic and difficult effects of power.This work combines social theory, philosophy, and psychoanalysis in novel ways, offering a more sustained analysis of the theory of subject formation implicit in such other works of the author as Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" and Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity." --

Be prepared for a super-scary summer holiday in Cat Cay. You'll soon find out how it got its name - it'scrawling with creepy cats that turn very nasty after dark. How will you escape their claws and avoid the seriously weird cat-woman Katrina Madd? It'sall up to you!

Ten-year-old Rob thought he knew all there was to know about his parents, but suddenly things have changed. Why do Mom and Dad keep warning him not to ask too many questions? Could aliens from another world really have replaced his parents? And what's happened to Snappy, the family dog? Soon Rob's writing down all the latest weird developments in a notebook entitled REASONS WHY MY PARENTS ARE ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE. Can he figure it out before it's too late? It's another eerily fun thriller from the inventive mind of R.L. Stine.

Having fled her dorm room, college freshman Hope hides out in an abandoned sorority house on campus, where she discovers that the evil she is trying to escape has become a part of her

Corky and the Shadyside cheerleaders are sure the evil that has been terrorizing them is destroyed, until a series of horrifying accidents confirms their greatest fears

Girl in Landscape finds Jonathan Lethem once again twisting forms and literary conventions to create a dazzling, completely unconventional tale that manages to move and amaze the reader at the same time. In his new novel, Lethem blends elements as diverse as John Ford's classic Western "The Searchers" and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita in an utterly unique way. The heroine is fourteen-year-old Pella Marsh, whose mother dies just before her family flees a post-apocalyptic Brooklyn for the frontier of a recently discovered planet. Hating her ineffectual father, and troubled by a powerful attraction to a virile but dangerous loner who holds sway over the little colony, Pella sets out on a course of discovery that will have tragic and irrevocable consequences for the humans in the community and the ancient inhabitants, known only as archbuilders. Girl in Landscape is a daring exploration of the violent nature of sexual awakening, a meditation on language and perception, and an homage to the great American tradition of the Western.

In this sentimental, didactic fable, Masson imagines how the lone, nonsocial, domesticated animal came to share hearth and home.Billi, an Asian leopard cat, lives in a mango forest in ancient India. He enjoys his independence, but he feels pangs of loneliness and curiosity about the "two-foots." He learns their languages - Hindi, Malayam and Sanskrit - and he can "see the appeal of south India's three major religions."Billi embarks on a quest to learn more about humans by discovering what their animals think of them. A water buffalo mourns being underappreciated; a parrot bemoans his cage; a mongoose tells a chilling story about human ingratitude. Billi reminds a cow that it's worshipped by humans. "Oh, great," the cow says. "That and five rupees will get you a chapati."Nine months of travel and no truly good word for humans leaves Billi undeterred and, back home, he seeks out a young girl he'd often watched. It's not easy proving his good intentions or trying to be "the only animal to have a mutually satisfying relationship with humans," but Billi makes it happen in a story that's heartwarming not only for the passionate cat fan but for all readers.A novelette from the author of Raising the Peaceable Kingdom.

1st Orbit Futura 1986 paperback fine condition. In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

The Classic Bestselling Saga by Science Fiction Grand Master Robert Silverberg When Hissune, Lord Valentine’s successor-designate and a clerk in the House of Records, is assigned to organizing the archives of the tax-collectors, he is disheartened to say the least. No one will ever have need of his findings, his useless busywork. But close to the House of Records lies a far more interesting place: the Register of Souls. Home to millions of telepathically recorded stories, the Register contains Majipoor’s infinitely complex histories—tales of love and loss, triumph and heartbreak. And as the young prince-to-be immerses himself in the lives of those who have come before, he creates an enthralling chronicle of his own…

Takes you inside the head of maverick restaurateur, Heston Blumenthal. Separated into three sections (History; Recipes; Science), Blumenthal chronicles his improbable background and unorthodox rise to fame and, for the first time ever, offers a mouth-watering and eyes-widening selection of recipes from his award-winning restaurant. He also explains the science behind his culinary masterpieces, the technology and implements that make his alchemic dishes come to life.

The hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, most opinionated, and most necessary book ever—a brilliantly astute and acerbically funny vivisection of American life, politics, and culture. Some of the smartest commentary about what’s happening in America is coming from a comedian—this comedian being Bill Maher. If you want to understand what’s wrong with this country, it turns out that one of the best informed and most thought-provoking analysts is this very funny pothead. The book was inspired by the “editorial” Bill delivers at the end of each episode of Real Time. These editorials are direct-to-camera sermons about culture, politics, and what’s happening in the world. To put this book together, Maher reviewed more than a decade of his editorials, rewriting, reimagining, and updating them, and adding new material to speak exactly to the moment we’re in. Free speech, cops, drugs, race, religion, the generations, cancel culture, the parties, the media, show biz, romance, health—Maher covers it all. The result is a hugely entertaining work of commentary about American culture in the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and H. L. Mencken.

"When Stephen Wolfram's groundbreaking A New Kind of Science was published in 2002, its exploration and analysis of the computational universe of simple programs launched a scientific revolution. Twenty years later, the ideas and results of the book have found countless applications across science, technology and elsewhere-including the recent Wolfram Physics Project and its breakthrough in fundamental physics-and the book has indeed spawned what can only be described as a new kind of science. Here Wolfram reflects on the first two decades of A New Kind of Science, discussing some of the major implications that have emerged so far, as well as his far-reaching new thinking building on the conceptual framework developed in A New Kind of Science. Written in Wolfram's popular and accessible style, the book provides a window into one of the most vibrant intellectual developments of our time. Recognizing A New Kind of Science's significance not only in science but also in the arts, the book includes a gallery of pieces created over the past 20 years by artists inspired by the book"--

Although Galileo Galilei lived and died centuries ago, his story is more relevant to our lives than we might realize. Today we face enormous challenges such as climate change that are disregarded or questioned by those who fear that their implications will damage business profitability. Others posit a false dichotomy between religion and science in order to reject scientific evidence whose implications they fear. Galileo confronted this problem 400 years ago. His discoveries were based on observation and experiment. His telescopes revealed previously unknown planets, moons orbiting other planets, and other discoveries that essentially confirmed the Copernican universe that the Church had rejected as heretical because Church theologians insisted on a literal reading of the Bible. Even St. Augustine in the fifth century maintained that the Bible pertained to the realm of faith, not reason. But when Galileo argued essentially the same position before an ecclesiastical court in Rome, he was forbidden from publishing any more books. Livio's life of Galileo shows us how the great thinker made his discoveries about the heavens and also formulated fundamental laws of physics. As an astrophysicist, Livio brings insight into how Galileo reasoned his way to his conclusions, which we know today were accurate. Along with Newton, Galileo remains one of the two great figures at the dawn of the scientific revolution. He insisted on reaching the widest audience possible, publishing his work in Italian rather than Latin as had been the case until his time, when vernacular languages were rapidly replacing Latin throughout Europe. Galileo believed that every educated person should know science as well as literature. Did Galileo actually say at the end of his trial when he was forced to recant his discoveries, as legend has it, And still it moves, referring to the motion of the earth around the sun? Not likely, says Livio, but Galileo nonetheless remains an inspiration to scientists and those who value open-minded inquiry, which as Livio reminds us, remains threatened even today.

From Canada's leading mind on contemporary physics, a daring new vision of the universe, and the scandals controversies, and questions that will illuminate our future. Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of our world--atoms, radiation, elementary particles, basic forces and the behavior of materials. But for a century it has also been the problem child of science, plagued by intense disagreements between its inventors, strange paradoxes, and implications that seem like the stuff of fantasy. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution , theoretical physicist Lee Smolin takes us on a journey through the basics of quantum physics, introducing the stories of the experiments and figures that have transformed our understanding of the universe, before wrestling with the puzzles and conundrums that the quantum world presents. Along the way, he illuminates the existing theories that might solve these problems, guiding us towards a vision of the quantum that embraces common sense realism. Vibrant and accessible, Einstein's Unfinished Revolution brings us a step closer to resolving one of the greatest scientific controversies of our age.

A Nobel Laureate offers impressions and recollections of the development of modern physics. Rather than a chronological approach, Segrè emphasizes interesting, complex personalities who often appear only in footnotes. Readers will find that this book adds considerably to their understanding of science and includes compelling topics of current interest. 1980 edition.

Book by Kuhn, Thomas S.

We've shared our lives with dogs for thousands of years, but they still act in ways that baffle us. To help us understand them better, Dr. Stanley Coren, the undisputed expert on dog behavior, intelligence, and training, tells the story of how dogs evolved over time into the myriad forms and breeds we love today. Not simply domesticated wolves, dogs are actually much more complex than wild canines; their ability to adapt to a man-made world is far more flexible, their personalities far more diverse. Fascinating findings reveal which breeds were bred to become more dominant, affectionate, cooperative, or even dangerous. This practical, surprising book also presents -- for the first time -- the "Dog Behavior Inventory," a simple, fun test based on the personality-profiling questionnaires used in human psychological studies that you can administer to your own dog to get a detailed picture of his personality and how he compares to other members of his breed. Then, using the findings of the U.S. Army's once- classified studies of "Superdogs," you can train your pet to become a real-life equivalent of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin -- a dog who is not disturbed, angered, or frightened by anything. Filled with the entertaining anecdotes and scientific data that Dr. Coren's avid followers have come to expect and enjoy, this uniquely complete guide to dog psychology can help you to select a new companion and to understand and communicate better with your old friend.

Cry Wolf! Haste makes waste! Sour grapes! These familiar expressions come from stories that have been told around the world for more than two thousand years. Their reputed author Aesop lived in the 6th century BC, and is said by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been a slave on the island of Samos. Legend has it that Aesop was an ugly, deformed little man whose audience laughed at his appearance but also at his brilliant story-telling. Using mostly animals as characters, especially the fox, the wolf and the lion, each of Aesop's fables demonstrates a moral. The tales stress the value of plain common sense: how to save one's own skin; things are not always as they seem; please all, please none. In this magical presentation Barry Castle's stunning paintings, with their unique other-wordly quality, combine with Naomi Lewis' lyrical retelling of Aesop to create an exciting new version of these classic stories.