The Lost Spirit of Capitalism

The Lost Spirit of Capitalism PDF

Author: Bernard Stiegler

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2014-05-19

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780745648149

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Max Weber famously argued that the rise of capitalism in early modern Europe was premised on the emergence of a distinctive set of attitudes - including the pursuit of profit for its own sake - which he called ‘the spirit of capitalism’. Today, when capitalism has spread across the globe, the spirit of capitalism would appear to reign supreme. In this important book Bernard Stiegler takes a very different view: what we are witnessing today is not the triumph of the spirit of capitalism but rather its demise, as our contemporary ‘hyper-industrial’ societies become increasingly uncontrollable, profoundly irrational and incapable of inspiring hope. Disenchantment and despair have become the everyday lived experiences of countless individuals. Far from being a moment of liberation, May '68 was just the first symptom of our increasing disenchantment and 'spiritual misery'. The libidinal energy that originally underpinned capitalism has become an unbound force, unleashing drives that can no longer be contained. Is there an alternative? Stiegler argues that the development of alternatives must begin with a new industrial policy, designed to recognize that technologies are what Plato called pharmaka, meaning both poison and cure. Industrial society has a future only if we can create technologies that foster relations of care (otium) for people whose spirit has been exhausted by contemporary consumerism. We must develop an ecology not only to protect the planet but also to renew the exploited energies of human desire. This volume - the third in a trilogy that includes The Decadence of Industrial Democracies and Uncontrollable Societies of Disaffected Individuals - will consolidate Stiegler's reputation as one of the most original philosophers and cultural theorists of our time.

Philosophical Engineering

Philosophical Engineering PDF

Author: Harry Halpin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-11-20

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1118700163

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This is the first interdisciplinary exploration of the philosophical foundations of the Web, a new area of inquiry that has important implications across a range of domains. Contains twelve essays that bridge the fields of philosophy, cognitive science, and phenomenology Tackles questions such as the impact of Google on intelligence and epistemology, the philosophical status of digital objects, ethics on the Web, semantic and ontological changes caused by the Web, and the potential of the Web to serve as a genuine cognitive extension Brings together insightful new scholarship from well-known analytic and continental philosophers, such as Andy Clark and Bernard Stiegler, as well as rising scholars in “digital native” philosophy and engineering Includes an interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web

Great Britain and the American Civil War (Civil War Classics)

Great Britain and the American Civil War (Civil War Classics) PDF

Author: Ephraim Douglass Adams

Publisher: Diversion Books

Published: 2014-06-24

Total Pages: 780

ISBN-13: 1626813167

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To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Diversion Books is publishing pivotal works of the era: stories told by the men and women who led, who fought, and who lived in an America that had come apart at the seams. Readers of Amanda Forman’s seminal work, A World on Fire will become enthralled reading the British take on a war they did not start, but set in motion centuries before in colonizing the New World. This not-often-read take on the war offers new insights and remains a must-have for the Civil War completist.

Beyond Nineteen Eighty-four

Beyond Nineteen Eighty-four PDF

Author: William Lutz

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13:

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This book probes the efforts at manipulation individuals face daily in this information age and the tactics of persuaders from many sectors of society using various forms of Orwellian "doublespeak." The book contains the following essays: (1) "Notes toward a Definition of Doublespeak" (William Lutz); (2) "Truisms Are True: Orwell's View of Language" (Walker Gibson); (3) "Mr. Orwell, Mr. Schlesinger, and the Language" (Hugh Rank); (4) "What Do We Know?" (Charles Weingartner); (5) "The Dangers of Singlespeak" (Edward M. White); (6) "The Fallacies of Doublespeak" (Dennis Rohatyn); (7) "Doublespeak and Ethics" (George R. Bramer); (8) "Post-Orwellian Refinements of Doublethink: Will the Real Big Brother Please Stand Up?" (Donald Lazere); (9) "Worldthink" (Richard Ohmann); (10)"'Bullets Hurt, Corpses Stink': George Orwell and the Language of Warfare" (Harry Brent); (11) "Political Language: The Art of Saying Nothing" (Dan F. Hahn); (12) "Fiddle-Faddle, Flapdoodle, and Balderdash: Some Thoughts about Jargon" (Frank J. D'Angelo); (13) "How to Read an Ad: Learning to Read between the Lies" (D. G. Kehl); (14) "Subliminal Chainings: Metonymical Doublespeak in Advertising" (Don L. F. Nilsen); (15) "Doublespeak and the Polemics of Technology" (Scott Buechler); (16) "Make Money, Not Sense: Keep Academia Green" (Julia Penelope); (17) "Sensationspeak in America" (Roy F. Fox); and (18) "The Pop Grammarians--Good Intentions, Silly Ideas, and Doublespeak" (Charles Suhor). Three appendixes are attached: "The George Orwell Awards,""The Doublespeak Award," and "The Quarterly Review of Doublespeak." (MS)

Shooting an Elephant

Shooting an Elephant PDF

Author: George Orwell

Publisher: Renard Press Ltd

Published: 2022-02-14

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1913724867

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George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. Shooting an Elephant, the fifth in the Orwell’s Essays series, tells the story of a police officer in Burma who is called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant. Thought to be loosely based on Orwell’s own experiences in Burma, the tightly written essay weaves together fact and fiction indistinguishably, and leaves the reader contemplating the heavy topic of colonialism, with the words ‘when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys’ echoing from the page. 'A remarkable piece.' (Jeremy Paxman) 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' (Irish Times)

A Woman Rides the Beast

A Woman Rides the Beast PDF

Author: Dave Hunt

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Published: 1994-08-15

Total Pages: 582

ISBN-13: 1565071999

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Are you missing half the story about the last days? Virtually all attention these days is focused on the coming Antichrist—but he is only half the story. Many people are amazed to discover in Revelation 17 that there is also another mysterious character at the heart of prophecy—a woman who rides the beast. Who is this woman? Tradition says she is connected with the church of Rome. But isn’t such a view outdated? After all, today’s Vatican is eager to join hands with Protestants worldwide. “The Catholic church has changed” is what we hear. Or has it? In A Woman Rides the Beast, prophecy expert Dave Hunt sifts through biblical truth and global events to present a well-defined portrait of the woman and her powerful place in the Antichrist’s future empire. Eight remarkable clues in Revelation 17 and 18 prove the woman’s identity beyond any reasonable doubt. A provocative account of what the Bible tells us is to come.

Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, 1939-1945

Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project, 1939-1945 PDF

Author: Paul Lawrence Rose

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-11-10

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 0520927168

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No one better represents the plight and the conduct of German intellectuals under Hitler than Werner Heisenberg, whose task it was to build an atomic bomb for Nazi Germany. The controversy surrounding Heisenberg still rages, because of the nature of his work and the regime for which it was undertaken. What precisely did Heisenberg know about the physics of the atomic bomb? How deep was his loyalty to the German government during the Third Reich? Assuming that he had been able to build a bomb, would he have been willing? These questions, the moral and the scientific, are answered by Paul Lawrence Rose with greater accuracy and breadth of documentation than any other historian has yet achieved. Digging deep into the archival record among formerly secret technical reports, Rose establishes that Heisenberg never overcame certain misconceptions about nuclear fission, and as a result the German leaders never pushed for atomic weapons. In fact, Heisenberg never had to face the moral problem of whether he should design a bomb for the Nazi regime. Only when he and his colleagues were interned in England and heard about Hiroshima did Heisenberg realize that his calculations were wrong. He began at once to construct an image of himself as a "pure" scientist who could have built a bomb but chose to work on reactor design instead. This was fiction, as Rose demonstrates: in reality, Heisenberg blindly supported and justified the cause of German victory. The question of why he did, and why he misrepresented himself afterwards, is answered through Rose's subtle analysis of German mentality and the scientists' problems of delusion and self-delusion. This fascinating study is a profound effort to understand one of the twentieth century's great enigmas.