This text argues that science has established itself as the only legitimate form of human knowledge. The author asserts that the norms of science are by no means self-evident and that it is best seen as a socially constructed discourse that legitimates its power by presenting itself as truth.

"Darwin relegated humanity to a species descended from apes ; Stephen Jay Gould adds that it is bound for extinction. Why all species, including our own, are destined to die out is just one of the fascinating questions addressed in this collection of essays by the author of Ever Since Darwin and The Panda's Thumb. In considering them, Stephen Jay Gould challenges the view that science is irrelevant to life. Darwinism has changed our view of the world and Gould brilliantly conveys here the active excitement of modern evolutionary theory. Fair, amusing, perceptive, eminently readable, Gould looks at facts that -- if we even know them in the first place -- we take for granted and, with a true scientist's desire for knowledge, digs beneath them to uncover their significance for evolutionary theory" -- Back cover.

Freedom is a concept central to many of the social sciences. This book explores the social production of 'free agents', and the intimate connection between this process and the issues of systemic integration and social control.

Non-fiction: history

Entre los siglos V y XII, cuando aún había vastos territorios deshabitados en Europa, se desarrolló una sociedad que tuvo que aprender los rudimentos de la admnistración de la vidá pública. En ese período se formaron, y plasmaron, numerosos conceptos políticos básicos que continúan vigentes en nuestro tiempo. En este libro, el profesor Ullmann traza los orígenes de las ideas políticas de Occidente, ideas tan fundamentales como la soberanía, el parlamento, la ciudadanía, el imperio de la ley y el Estado. Demuestra que el desarrollo de estos conceptos surgen del conflicto entre tesis descendientes y ascendientes de gobierno (con sus fuentes romanas y griegas), y explica el dominio del eclesiástico en la sociedad medieval. Walter Ullmann fue profesor de Historia eclesiástica medieval en la Universidad de Cambridge. Su extensa obra representa un hito en la historiografía de su especialidad. Miembro de la Academia Británica, también fue editor general de los famosos 'Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought'.

"These essays explore the relationship between culture and politics in the modern world. They range in space from Iran to Algeria, and the eastern marchlands of Europe to the Atlantic, and in time over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But they are all inspired by a cluster of linked preoccupations with the nature of the social order now emerging in the world and the kinds of moral and political legitimation it requires and permits. The essays are also linked by Ernest Gellner's distinctive, and highly arresting, intellectual temper and style. The volume will interest a wide range of readers in the social sciences and philosophy."--Book cover.

"How the environment causes, or contributes to, psychic and social conflict is frequently discussed. Less often considered is the theme developed in this Pelican by Professor Rapoport--that human conflict intimately affects the 'symbolic' environment, which may be a more powerful determinant of man's condition than pollution, war or urbanization. By 'symbolic' environment is meant the whole non-material body of knowledge, science, art, history, language, beliefs and ideas which human intelligence has amassed. Outlining various theories of aggression, progress, evolution and the struggle for existence, Professor Rapoport examines in detail the systemic philosophies advanced by Hobbes, Hegel, Clausewitz, Marx, Lenin and the modern 'think-tanks'. He concludes--in a book which from the start is concerned with the functioning of systems--that the 'mind' of a system, backed by power, may be disastrously different from the psychology of any of its members. In this context Professor Rapoport detects a gleam of hope in the growing scepticism about all and any concentrations of power"--Back cover.

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso