This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. In Uncertainty, Patrik Aspers provides detailed analysis of publicly available means of uncertainty reduction. Drawing on phenomenology, social constructionism, and the sociology of knowledge, Aspers considers the meaningful differences between uncertainty and risk, the different ways people cope and have coped with uncertainty through history, the importance of knowledge and science to reducing uncertainty, and the trade-offs involved in reducing forms of uncertainty while leaving open opportunities for others. People may have access to unique and private knowledge that reduces their uncertainty when making decisions. Publicly available knowledge is central for building a society that enables communication based on shared ideas and understanding, instead of f
Explores how the movement of people, objects, and ideas from 500 to 1000 CE shaped cultures and historiesIn the ninth century CE, an Arabian ship sank off the coast of Indonesia. The objects found in the wreckage, which include Chinese ceramics and precious metals, have provided extraordinary evidence of the nature, scale, and diversity of trade between Tang China and the Islamic Abbasid dynasty. This is just one example of the sprawling and extensive networks of contacts and exchanges spanning Afro-Eurasia. This richly illustrated book challenges the concept of the "Silk Roads" as a simple history of trade between East and West. Focusing on a series of overlapping geographic zones and interspersed with case studies of particular peoples who were active along these networks--seafarers in the Indian Ocean, Sogdians, Vikings, Aksumites, and the peoples of al-Andalus--it reveals remarkable human stories, innovations, and the transfer of knowledge that emerged from these connections. The v
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND AMAZON BESTSELLER America’s most effective conservative intellectual proves once and for all that Marxist radicals have taken over our nation's institutions. In the 1960s, Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution. Cities grew overcrowded.Technocrats demanded progress from above. Anyone opposed was sent to be “re-educated.” China’s revolution was bloody, fast, and a failure, but what if America started a revolution at the same time, based on the same bad ideas, and it’s just been slower, calmer, and more effective?In his powerful new book, Christopher F. Rufo uncovers the hidden history of left-wing intellectuals and activists who systematically took control of America’s institutions to undermine them from within.America’s Cultural Revolution finally answers so many of the questions normal Americans have, such as:• Why is nearly every major corporation bending the knee to a far-left agenda?• How did DEI suddenly become the department no institut
Dr. Gruman's book examines the quest for longevity and immortality up to the year 1800. He presents multicultural perspectives and attitudes as depicted in Islamic and Chinese societies as well as in
There are many aspects of an education system that only make sense if we know how that system has developed over time. Part of this comes from knowing how institutions have changed, but it is also imp
Blending past and present, this brief history of economics is the perfect book for introducing students to the field.A Brief History of Economics illustrates how the ideas of the great economists not
This is the first exploration of the relationship between the abdomen and British society between 1800 and 1950. Miller demonstrates how the framework of ideas established in medicine related to gastr
Despite the vicissitudes of their anomalous historical experience, the Jews survive as am identifiable entity. They have withstood one challenge after another — both physical and intellectual — someho
This volume, first published in 1988, offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the history of a complex and varied body of ideas over a period of more than a thousand years. A work of both synthesis and assessment, The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought presents the results of several decades of critical scholarship in the field, and reflects in its breadth of enquiry precisely that diversity of focus which characterised the medieval sense of the 'political', preoccupied with universality at some levels, and with almost minute particularity at others. Thus among the vital questions explored by the distinguished team of contributors are the nature of authority, of justice, of property; the problem of legitimacy, of allegiance, of resistance to the powers that be; the character and function of law, and the role of custom in sustaining a social structure. While the predominant emphasis of the volume is necessarily upon those ideas that developed within Latin Christ
Scholarly attempts to explain the development of liberal individualism over the course of modern history have tended to focus on key principles and doctrines. As a correction, this book shows that as
The history of Western philosophy and science is marked by numerous moments when a major development has emerged from conditions that are manifestly adverse to intellectual activity. This book surveys
Celebrates the lives, ideas, and accomplishments of the men and women who transformed human civilization, spanning thousands of years of human history, from ancient times to the eighteenth century.
This is the first book to fully explore the fascinating symbiosis that exists between art and homosexuality. It draws on examples that cover all the important periods in the Western art tradition, in
This history of ideas in American psychology divides 11 decades into three periods, marked out by specific themes central to psychologists over the years. Initially, the legacy of mind-body dualism ch
The debates between various Buddhist and Hindu philosophical systems about the existence, definition and nature of self, occupy a central place in the history of Indian philosophy and religion. These
What is memory? It is at the same time ephemeral, unreliable and essential to everything we do. Without memory we lose our sense of identity, reasoning, even our ability to perform simple physical tasks. Yet it is also elusive and difficult to define, and throughout the ages philosophers and psychologists have used metaphors as a way of understanding it. First published in 2000, this fascinating book takes the reader on a guided tour of these metaphors of memory from ancient times to the present day. Crossing continents and disciplines, it provides a compelling history of ideas about the mind by exploring the way these metaphors have been used - metaphors often derived from the techniques and instruments developed over the years to store information, ranging from wax tablets and books to photography, computers and even the hologram. Accessible and thought-provoking, this book should be read by anyone who is interested in memory and the mind.
