Philosophy

Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important and Most Unexpected Questions

Ask a Philosopher: Answers to Your Most Important and Most Unexpected Questions

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A collection of answers to the philosophical questions on people's minds--from the big to the personal to the ones you didn't know you needed answered.

Based on real-life questions from his Ask a Philosopher series, Ian Olasov offers his answers to questions such as:

- Are people innately good or bad?
- Is it okay to have a pet fish?
- Is it okay to have kids?
- Is color subjective?
- If humans colonize Mars, who will own the land?
- Is ketchup a smoothie?
- Is there life after death?
- Should I give money to homeless people?

Ask a Philosopher shows that there's a way of making philosophy work for each of us, and that philosophy can be both perfectly continuous with everyday life, and also utterly transporting. From questions that we all wrestle with in private to questions that you never thought to ask, Ask a Philosopher will get you thinking.

Case for Rage: Why Anger Is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle

Case for Rage: Why Anger Is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle

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When it comes to injustice, especially racial injustice, rage isn't just an acceptable response-it's crucial in order to fuel the fight for change.

Anger has a bad reputation. Many people think that it is counterproductive, distracting, and destructive. It is a negative emotion, many believe, because it can lead so quickly to violence or an overwhelming fury. And coming from people of color, it takes on connotations that are even more sinister, stirring up stereotypes, making white people fear what an angry other might be capable of doing, when angry, and leading them to turn to hatred or violence in turn, to squelch an anger that might upset the racial status quo.

According to philosopher Myisha Cherry, anger does not deserve its bad reputation. It is powerful, but its power can be a force for good. And not only is it something we don't have to discourage, it's something we ought to cultivate actively. People fear anger because they paint it in broad strokes, but we can't dismiss all anger, especially not now. There is a form of anger that in fact is crucial in the anti-racist struggle today. This anti-racist anger, what Cherry calls "Lordean rage," can use its mighty force to challenge racism: it aims for change, motivates productive action, builds resistance, and is informed by an inclusive and liberating perspective. People can, and should, harness Lordean rage and tap into its unique anti-racist potential. We should not suppress it or seek to replace it with friendly emotions. If we want to effect change, and take down racist structures and systems, we must manage it in the sense of cultivating it, and keeping it focused and strong.

Cherry makes her argument for anti-racist anger by putting Aristotle in conversation with Audre Lorde, and James Baldwin in conversation with Joseph Butler. The Case for Rage not only uses the tools of philosophy to articulate its arguments, but it sharpens them with the help of social psychology and history. The book is philosophically rich and yet highly accessible beyond philosophical spheres, issuing an urgent call to all politically and socially engaged readers looking for new, deeply effective tools for changing the world. Its message will resonate with the enraged and those witnessing such anger, wondering whether it can help or harm. Above all, this book is a resource for the activist coming to grips with a seemingly everyday emotion that she may feel rising up within her and not know what to do with. It shows how to make sure anger doesn't go to waste, but instead leads to lasting, long-awaited change.

Preorder a SIGNED COPY! (available at the Windsong concert at the Maltz Center on 4/27/24), or for pickup at Loganberry or mailing after 4/29/24. Please specify yout preference in the comments box at checkout!

Conflict Is Not Abuse

Conflict Is Not Abuse

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From intimate relationships to global politics, Sarah Schulman observes a continuum: that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between Conflict and Abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating. This deep, brave, and bold work reveals how punishment replaces personal and collective self-criticism, and shows why difference is so often used to justify cruelty and shunning. Rooting the problem of escalation in negative group relationships, Schulman illuminates the ways cliques, communities, families, and religious, racial, and national groups bond through the refusal to change their self-concept. She illustrates how Supremacy behavior and Traumatized behavior resemble each other, through a shared inability to tolerate difference.

This important and sure to be controversial book illuminates such contemporary and historical issues of personal, racial, and geo-political difference as tools of escalation towards injustice, exclusion, and punishment, whether the objects of dehumanization are other individuals in our families or communities, people with HIV, African Americans, or Palestinians. Conflict Is Not Abuse is a searing rejection of the cultural phenomenon of blame, cruelty, and scapegoating, and how those in positions of power exacerbate and manipulate fear of the "other" to achieve their goals.

Sarah Schulman is a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and AIDS historian, and the author of eighteen books. A Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellow, Sarah is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island. Her novels published by Arsenal include Rat Bohemia, Empathy, After Delores, and The Mere Future. She lives in New York.


Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics (USED)

Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics (USED)

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"The most exciting intellectual adventure I've been on since reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times

Gary Zukav's timeless, humorous, New York Times bestselling masterpiece, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, is arguably the most widely acclaimed introduction to quantum physics ever written. Scientific American raves: "Zukav is such a skilled expositor, with such an amiable style, that it is hard to imagine a layman who would not find his book enjoyable and informative." Accessible, edifying, and endlessly entertaining, The Dancing Wu Li Masters is back in a beautiful new edition--and the doors to the fascinating, dazzling, remarkable world of quantum physics are opened to all once again, no previous mathematical or technical expertise required.

Diogenes  Defictions
Diogenes  Defictions
Diogenes  Defictions
Diogenes  Defictions
Diogenes  Defictions

Diogenes Defictions

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Berkeley: Peter Koch, Printer, 1994. Designed and printed letterpress from photo-polymer plates by Peter Koch, with the assistance of Richard Seibert, in an edition of 500 copies. The typefaces are Adobe Caslon, designed by Carol Twombly for the text with Monotype Gill Sans, designed by Eric Gill, and Deberny & Peignot Bifur, designed by A.M. Cassandre for display. Photograph of the box and plates by Richard Blair. Color lithography courtesy of George Lithograph. Binding by Arnold Martinez. Printed paper boards with inset cloth spine; no dust jacket; top spine-edge corner bumped; text clean. G+

Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay

Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay

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Named one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time by the Modern Library

Anne Carson's remarkable first book about the paradoxical nature of romantic love

Since it was first published, Eros the Bittersweet, Anne Carson's lyrical meditation on love in ancient Greek literature and philosophy, has established itself as a favorite among an unusually broad audience, including classicists, essayists, poets, and general readers. Beginning with the poet Sappho's invention of the word "bittersweet" to describe Eros, Carson's original and beautifully written book is a wide-ranging reflection on the conflicted nature of romantic love, which is both "miserable" and "one of the greatest pleasures we have."

I and Thou

I and Thou

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100 years after its original publication, Martin Buber's landmark work of philosophy and theology I and Thou remains one of the most important books of Western thought and a seminal work of 20th-century intellectual history.

Considered to be one of the most influential books of Western thought since its original publication in 1923, Martin Buber's slender volume I and Thou influenced the way we think about our relationships with one another and with God. Buber unites currents of modern German philosophy with the Judeo-Christian tradition, powerfully updating faith for modern times.

I and Thou is Martin Buber's pioneering work and the centerpiece of his groundbreaking philosophy. In it, Buber--one of the greatest Jewish minds of the 20th century--lays out a view of the world in which human beings can enter into relationships that enhance their mutual existential dignity (I-Thou relations). These "dialogical" relations contrast with those that tend to prevail in modern society, namely the treatment of others as objects to advance personal and collective interests (I-It relations). Buber demonstrates how I-Thou interhuman meetings reflect and embody the human meeting with God. For Buber, the essence of biblical religion affirms the possibility of a dialogue between man and God.

ILLUMINATING PHILOSOPHY: STORIES BEYOND BOUNDARIES

ILLUMINATING PHILOSOPHY: STORIES BEYOND BOUNDARIES

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In these 25 true stories, a widely published philosopher recounts 60 years of interaction with people in all walks of life - some extremely famous, others complete strangers - from hospitals to restaurants, concert halls to airplanes, in private conversations and nationally broadcast interviews. Stories can be heartbreaking, distracting, funny, shocking, inspiring, revealing, and sometimes unforgettable - and all those attributes appear here. There's no substitute for learning what it's like to be someone else, to see the world as that other person does and reconsider our own views in light of that learning. These compelling and accessible stories motivate and enable us to do that, illuminating the unexpected relationships among all domains of human concern, the wellsprings of creativity, the elusive character of good judgment, and the pathways to social justice. They help us see more clearly what we care most about: deep features of human character and difficult choices, of social structures, of the power of imagination, of how to take account of the importance of what cannot be counted, and of bogus boundaries and assumptions that can repress clear thinking in any domain. These stories will make the reader more powerful in service of those values.
Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments (USED)

Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments (USED)

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From the author of An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language, here's the antidote to fuzzy thinking, with furry animals!

Have you read (or stumbled into) one too many irrational online debates? Ali Almossawi certainly had, so he wrote An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments! This handy guide is here to bring the internet age a much-needed dose of old-school logic (really old-school, a la Aristotle).

Here are cogent explanations of the straw man fallacy, the slippery slope argument, the ad hominem attack, and other common attempts at reasoning that actually fall short--plus a beautifully drawn menagerie of animals who (adorably) commit every logical faux pas. Rabbit thinks a strange light in the sky must be a UFO because no one can prove otherwise (the appeal to ignorance). And Lion doesn't believe that gas emissions harm the planet because, if that were true, he wouldn't like the result (the argument from consequences).

Once you learn to recognize these abuses of reason, they start to crop up everywhere from congressional debate to YouTube comments--which makes this geek-chic book a must for anyone in the habit of holding opinions.

On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy

On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy

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The curious reader's companion to sex.

'Wit, you know, is the unexpected copulation of ideas.' Samuel Johnson

Why is screwing so funny?
How should we think about our most shocking fantasies?
What is so captivating about nudity?

Inspired by philosophy, literature, and private life, Damon Young explores the paradoxes of the bedroom. On Getting Off will f**k with your mind.