How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.--Amazon.com.

The author has built an innovative system for predicting baseball performance, predicted the 2008 election within a hair's breadth, and has become a national sensation as a blogger. Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, he examines the world of prediction

In 1922, Howard Carter peered into Tutankhamun's tomb for the first time, the only light coming from the candle in his outstretched hand. Urged to tell what he was seeing through the small opening he had cut in the door to the tomb, the Egyptologist famously replied, "I see wonderful things." Carter's fabulous discovery is just one of the many spellbinding stories told in Three Stones Make a Wall. Written by Eric Cline, an archaeologist with more than thirty seasons of excavation experience, this book traces the history of archaeology from an amateur pursuit to the cutting-edge science it is today by taking the reader on a tour of major archaeological sites and discoveries. Along the way, it addresses the questions archaeologists are asked most often: How do you know where to dig? How are excavations actually done? How do you know how old something is? Who gets to keep what is found? Taking readers from the pioneering digs of the eighteenth century to today's exciting new discoveries, Three Stones Make a Wall is a lively and essential introduction to the story of archaeology.

2024 Hardcover Reprint of Original 1959 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This book by one of the world's foremost philosophers of science presented a striking new picture of the logical character of scientific discovery--a picture which does full justice to the liberating effect of the Einsteinian revolution in physics and its immense impact upon scientific thought in general. For this new English edition Dr. Popper did his own translation and has written 150 pages of entirely new text. Ernest Nagel considered this work "a first rate contribution to the logic of scientific method. The book contains a very interesting chapter on quantum mechanics, which performs one of the few sensible analyses of the Indeterminacy Principle which I have seen in print... The book is highly stimulating and contains much that is bed-rock for future work."--From the Dusk Jacket.

Consists of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics, economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches, ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style in the early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in the later chapters. The studies range from a simple two-way comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to comparisons of 81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of recent centuries, and non-literate past societies. Geographically, they include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands.

"Weinberg takes us across centuries from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand, or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged"--Amazon.com ; Presents a commentary on the history of science that examines historic clashes and collaborations between science and the competing realms of religion, technology, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy

More than twenty years after Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method was first published in English, this extraordinary collection remains a classic. The book brings together essays about Renaissance witchcraft, National Socialism, sixteenth-century Italian painting, Freud's wolf-man, and other topics. In the influential centerpiece of the volume Carlo Ginzburg places historical knowledge in a long tradition of cognitive practices and shows how a research strategy based on reading clues and traces embedded in the historical record reveals otherwise hidden information. Acknowledging his debt to art history, psychoanalysis, comparative religion, and anthropology, Ginzburg challenges us to retrieve these cultural and social dimensions. In his new preface, Ginzburg reflects on how easily we miss the context in which we read, write, and live. Only hindsight allows some understanding. He examines his own path in research during the 1970s and its relationship to the times, especially the political scenes of Italy and Germany. Was he influenced by the environment, he asks himself, and if so, how? Ginzburg uses his own experience to examine the elusive and constantly evolving nature of history and historical research. Book jacket.

In this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics -- the search for the laws of nature -- losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the public’s imagination -- and the imagination of experts. But these ideas have not been tested experimentally, and some, like string theory, seem to offer no possibility of being tested. Yet these speculations dominate the field, attracting the best talent and much of the funding and creating a climate in which emerging physicists are often penalized for pursuing other avenues. As Smolin points out, the situation threatens to impede the very progress of science. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin offers an unblinking assessment of the troubles that face modern physics -- and an encouraging view of where the search for the next big idea may lead.

The fifth edition of Classical Sociological Theory by George Ritzer, one of the foremost authorities on sociological theory, gives readers a comprehensive overview of the major classical theorists and schools of sociological thought. Key theories are integrated with biographical sketches of theorists, and theories are placed in their historical and intellectual context. This helps students to better understand the original works of classical authors as well as to compare and contrast classical theories.

A preeminent intellectual historian here examines the profound changes in ideas about the nature of history and historiography. Georg G. Iggers traces the basic assumptions upon which historical research and writing have been based since history's emergence as a professional discipline in the nineteenth century, and describes how the newly emerging social sciences transformed historiography following World War II. The discipline's greatest challenge may have come in the last two decades, when postmodern ideas forced a reevaluation of the relationship of historians to their subject and called into question the very possibility of objective history. Iggers sees the contemporary discipline as a hybrid, moving away from a classical, macro-historical approach toward microhistory, cultural history, and the history of everyday life. Still, while the postmodern critique of traditional historiography offers important correctives to historical thought and practice, it "has not destroyed the historian's commitment to recapturing reality or his or her belief in a logic of inquiry."

Inalienable Possessions tests anthropology's traditional assumptions about kinship, economics, power, and gender in an exciting challenge to accepted theories of reciprocity and marriage exchange. Focusing on Oceania societies from Polynesia to Papua New Guinea and including Australian Aborigine groups, Annette Weiner investigates the category of possessions that must not be given or, if they are circulated, must return finally to the giver. Reciprocity, she says, is only the superficial aspect of exchange, which overlays much more politically powerful strategies of "keeping-while-giving." The idea of keeping-while-giving places women at the heart of the political process, however much that process may vary in different societies, for women possess a wealth of their own that gives them power. Power is intimately involved in cultural reproduction, and Weiner describes the location of power in each society, showing how the degree of control over the production and distribution of cloth wealth coincides with women's rank and the development of hierarchy in the community. Other inalienable possessions, whether material objects, landed property, ancestral myths, or sacred knowledge, bestow social identity and rank as well. Calling attention to their presence in Western history, Weiner points out that her formulations are not limited to Oceania. The paradox of keeping-while-giving is a concept certain to influence future developments in ethnography and the theoretical study of gender and exchange.

This new offering from the Time Team duo of Robinson and Aston brings another entertaining and light-hearted book to our shelves. `This is the story of a fantasy dig readers undertake in their back gardens to find out what bits of rubbish are buried there'. What starts out as a small hole grows into a full-scale excavation involving mechanical diggers, and reveals the remains of a Roman villa under a proposed supermarket. In amongst this story, the authors answer many of the frequently asked questions about archaeology and archaeologists, about the history of the discipline and about how a dig works. Robinson and Aston are entertaining and amusing as always.

"This book was originally published as Al Dereckh ha-Emet: ha-Ramban ve-Yezirata shel Masoret (By Way of Truth: Nahmanides and the Creation of Tradition), Jerusalem: Shalom Hartman Institute, 2006. Nahmanides was the greatest Talmudic scholar of the thirteenth century and a distinguished kabbalist and mystic. The book is about Nahmanides's conception of Jewish Law (halakhah) and his understanding of the central features of Jewish tradition such as God, creation, revelation, history, messsianism, the reasons for the commandments, and the relation between miracle and nature. A central concern of the book is the complex relationship between Nahmanides's radical esoteric kabbalistic teachings and the legal and revealed dimensions of his thought"--

"Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World magazine, lays out the foundational principles, practical techniques, and history of journalism, showing us how to become citizen-reporters and discerning consumers of news"--

Computers And Thought by Edward A. Feigenbaum is a comprehensive book that explores the relationship between computers and human thought. The book delves into the history of computer science and artificial intelligence, and how these fields have impacted our understanding of human cognition. It also examines the ways in which computers have been used to model human thought processes, and how these models have been applied to various fields such as psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.Feigenbaum discusses the different approaches to artificial intelligence, including rule-based systems, expert systems, and neural networks. He also explores the limitations of these approaches and the challenges of creating truly intelligent machines. The book includes case studies of successful applications of artificial intelligence, such as the development of chess-playing programs and natural language processing systems.The author also addresses ethical and philosophical questions related to artificial intelligence, such as the possibility of machines surpassing human intelligence and the implications of this for society. He argues that while computers can simulate human thought processes, they cannot replicate the full range of human experience and consciousness.Overall, Computers And Thought is a thought-provoking and informative book that provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between computers and human thought. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history and future of artificial intelligence and its impact on society.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Hans W. Frei (1922-88) was one of the most important American theologians of his generation. This book makes available the work in which he was engaged during the last decade of his life. Based on his 1983 Shaffer Lectures at Yale University and his 1987 Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham, it presents Frei's reflections on issues and options in contemporaryrepresented theology, especially on the relation of theology to biblical interpretation and on the place of theology as an academic tradition. In the book Frei proposes classifying theologians according to whether they see Christian theology primarily as an academic discipline or as an internal activity of Christian communities. He describes fie different variations of these views. the first, represented by Immanuel Kant and Gordon represented, regards theology as a philosophical discipline within the academy. The second, represented by theologians as diverse as represented represented, David Tracy, and Carl Henry, correlates specifically Christian with general cultural structures of meaning. The third type, represetned by represented represented and Paul represented, occupies the middle of the spectrum. The fourth type, represetned by Karl Barth, emphasizes the internal descriptive task of theology but remains open to ad hoc correlations with concerns of the wider culture. the fifth, which includes D. Z. Phillips and other Wittgensteinian fideists, opts for pure self-description though this group defends its position with philosophical arguments that, oddly enough connect it with the other end of the spectrum. Frei argues in favor of the third and fourth options. In his view, theologians like Schleiermacher and, even more, Barth, although often seen as polar opposites, enable theology to remain most faithful to the priority of the ecumenically attested literal sense in biblical interpretation.

"China's past and present have been in a continuous dialogue throughout history, one that is heavily influenced by time and language: the temporal orientation and the linguistic apparatus used to express and solidify identity, ideas, and practices. Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History argues for and demonstrates the significance of "New Sinology" by bringing language/philology back into the research and understanding of how modern China emerged, and presenting a host of concrete, in-depth, case studies, in which the use of "New Sinology" sheds new light on Chinese history. Reading the modern, therefore, as a careful and ongoing conversation with the past, renders the "new" in a different perspective; taken as a whole, this volume is a significant step towards a new historical narrative of China's modern history, one wherein "ruptures" can exist in tandem with continuities. This collection accentuates the deep connection between language and power--one that spans well across China's long past--and hence the immense consequences of linguistic-related methodology to the comprehension of power structures and identity in China. Each of the essays in this volume tackles these issues--the methodological and the thematic--from a different angle, but they all share the Sinological prism of analysis, and the basic understanding that a much longer timeframe is required to make sense of Chinese modernity. The languages examined are diverse: modern and classical Chinese, of course, but also Manchu and Japanese. Taken together they bring a spectrum of linguistic perspectives and hence a spectrum of power relations and identities to the forefront. While the essays focus on late Qing and early twentieth-century eras, they resort, time and again, to earlier periods, which are necessary to making real sense of later eras. Therefore, the methodological and the thematic do not only converge, but also generate a plea for fostering and expanding this approach in current and future studies. These essays use a variety of angles to examine, with the present moment in mind, questions of Chinese perceptions of and engagement with the past"--

Reflects upon the discipline of history, claiming that the writing and teaching of history in higher education is in decline, and explores ways in which the future of the discipline can thrive.