Achieving Our Country

Achieving Our Country PDF Author: Richard Rorty
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674003125
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
One of America's foremost philosophers challenges the lost generation of the American Left to understand the role it might play in the great tradition of democratic intellectual labor that started with writers such as Walt Whitman and John Dewey.

Achieving Our Country

Achieving Our Country PDF Author: Richard Rorty
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674003125
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 159

Get Book

Book Description
One of America's foremost philosophers challenges the lost generation of the American Left to understand the role it might play in the great tradition of democratic intellectual labor that started with writers such as Walt Whitman and John Dewey.

Facing East from Indian Country

Facing East from Indian Country PDF Author: Daniel K. Richter
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674042727
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers. Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center-stage throughout the story of the origins of the United States. Viewed from Indian country, the sixteenth century was an era in which Native people discovered Europeans and struggled to make sense of a new world. Well into the seventeenth century, the most profound challenges to Indian life came less from the arrival of a relative handful of European colonists than from the biological, economic, and environmental forces the newcomers unleashed. Drawing upon their own traditions, Indian communities reinvented themselves and carved out a place in a world dominated by transatlantic European empires. In 1776, however, when some of Britain's colonists rebelled against that imperial world, they overturned the system that had made Euro-American and Native coexistence possible. Eastern North America only ceased to be an Indian country because the revolutionaries denied the continent's first peoples a place in the nation they were creating. In rediscovering early America as Indian country, Richter employs the historian's craft to challenge cherished assumptions about times and places we thought we knew well, revealing Native American experiences at the core of the nation's birth and identity.

Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity

Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity PDF Author: Richard Rorty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521367813
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In this 1989 book Rorty argues that thinkers such as Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein have enabled societies to see themselves as historical contingencies, rather than as expressions of underlying, ahistorical human nature or as realizations of suprahistorical goals. This ironic perspective on the human condition is valuable on a private level, although it cannot advance the social or political goals of liberalism. In fact Rorty believes that it is literature not philosophy that can do this, by promoting a genuine sense of human solidarity. A truly liberal culture, acutely aware of its own historical contingency, would fuse the private, individual freedom of the ironic, philosophical perspective with the public project of human solidarity as it is engendered through the insights and sensibilities of great writers. The book has a characteristically wide range of reference from philosophy through social theory to literary criticism. It confirms Rorty's status as a uniquely subtle theorist, whose writing will prove absorbing to academic and nonacademic readers alike.

The Ethics, Epistemology, and Politics of Richard Rorty

The Ethics, Epistemology, and Politics of Richard Rorty PDF Author: Giancarlo Marchetti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000472744
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This book features fourteen original essays that critically engage the philosophy of Richard Rorty, with an emphasis on his ethics, epistemology, and politics. Inspired by James’ and Dewey’s pragmatism, Rorty urged us to rethink the role of science and truth with a liberal-democratic vision of politics. In doing so, he criticized philosophy as a sheer scholastic endeavor and put it back in touch with our most pressing cultural and human needs. The essays in this volume employ the conceptual tools and argumentative techniques of analytic philosophy and pragmatism and demonstrate the relevance of Rorty’s thought to the most urgent questions of our time. They touch on a number of topics, including but not limited to structural injustice, rule-following, Black feminist philosophy, legal pragmatism, moral progress, relativism, and skepticism. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars across disciplines who are engaging with the work of Richard Rorty.

Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism

Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism PDF Author: Richard Rorty
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674248910
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
The last book by the eminent American philosopher and public intellectual Richard Rorty, providing the definitive statement of his mature philosophical and political views. Richard RortyÕs Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism is a last statement by one of AmericaÕs foremost philosophers. Here Rorty offers his culminating thoughts on the influential version of pragmatism he began to articulate decades ago in his groundbreaking Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Marking a new stage in the evolution of his thought, RortyÕs final masterwork identifies anti-authoritarianism as the principal impulse and virtue of pragmatism. Anti-authoritarianism, on this view, means acknowledging that our cultural inheritance is always open to revision because no authority exists to ascertain the truth, once and for all. If we cannot rely on the unshakable certainties of God or nature, then all we have left to go onÑand argue withÑare the opinions and ideas of our fellow humans. The test of these ideas, Rorty suggests, is relatively simple: Do they work? Do they produce the peace, freedom, and happiness we desire? To achieve this enlightened pragmatism is not easy, though. Pragmatism demands trust. Pragmatism demands that we think and care about what others think and care about, which further requires that we account for othersÕ doubts of and objections to our own beliefs. After all, our own beliefs are as contestable as anyone elseÕs. A supple mind who draws on theorists from John Stuart Mill to Annette Baier, Rorty nonetheless is always an apostle of the concrete. No book offers a more accessible account of RortyÕs utopia of pragmatism, just as no philosopher has more eloquently challenged the hidebound traditions arrayed against the goals of social justice.

On War

On War PDF Author: Carl von Clausewitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Military art and science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description


One Billion Americans

One Billion Americans PDF Author: Matthew Yglesias
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593190211
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER What would actually make America great: more people. If the most challenging crisis in living memory has shown us anything, it’s that America has lost the will and the means to lead. We can’t compete with the huge population clusters of the global marketplace by keeping our population static or letting it diminish, or with our crumbling transit and unaffordable housing. The winner in the future world is going to have more—more ideas, more ambition, more utilization of resources, more people. Exactly how many Americans do we need to win? According to Matthew Yglesias, one billion. From one of our foremost policy writers, One Billion Americans is the provocative yet logical argument that if we aren’t moving forward, we’re losing. Vox founder Yglesias invites us to think bigger, while taking the problems of decline seriously. What really contributes to national prosperity should not be controversial: supporting parents and children, welcoming immigrants and their contributions, and exploring creative policies that support growth—like more housing, better transportation, improved education, revitalized welfare, and climate change mitigation. Drawing on examples and solutions from around the world, Yglesias shows not only that we can do this, but why we must. Making the case for massive population growth with analytic rigor and imagination, One Billion Americans issues a radical but undeniable challenge: Why not do it all, and stay on top forever?

Soft Power

Soft Power PDF Author: Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786738960
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Joseph Nye coined the term "soft power" in the late 1980s. It is now used frequently—and often incorrectly—by political leaders, editorial writers, and academics around the world. So what is soft power? Soft power lies in the ability to attract and persuade. Whereas hard power—the ability to coerce—grows out of a country's military or economic might, soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. Hard power remains crucial in a world of states trying to guard their independence and of non-state groups willing to turn to violence. It forms the core of the Bush administration's new national security strategy. But according to Nye, the neo-conservatives who advise the president are making a major miscalculation: They focus too heavily on using America's military power to force other nations to do our will, and they pay too little heed to our soft power. It is soft power that will help prevent terrorists from recruiting supporters from among the moderate majority. And it is soft power that will help us deal with critical global issues that require multilateral cooperation among states. That is why it is so essential that America better understands and applies our soft power. This book is our guide.

Achieving Health for All

Achieving Health for All PDF Author: David Bishai
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421438135
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
How did seven low- and middle-income countries, inspired by the landmark Alma-Ata Declaration, dramatically improve citizen health by focusing on primary health care? The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 marked a potential turning point in global health, signaling a commitment to primary health care that could have improved the safety of air, food, water, roads, homes, and workplaces in all 180 countries that signed it. Unfortunately, progress in many countries stalled in the 1980s. The declaration was, however, embraced by a number of countries, where its implementation led to substantial improvement in citizen health. Achieving Health for All reveals how, inspired by Alma-Ata, the governments of seven countries executed comprehensive primary health care systems, deploying new cadres of community-based health workers to bring relevant services to ordinary households. Drawing on a set of narrative case studies from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam,the book explains how a primary health care focus succeeded in improving population health. The book also conclusively demonstrates that comprehensive, multisector, community-controlled, and population-level primary health care is a viable strategy that, against the odds, has led to sustainable, scalable good health at lower cost. Bringing together a group of experts to analyze the forty-year legacy of the Alma-Ata Declaration, Achieving Health for All is a fascinating look at the work needed to transform nations from places that make people sick to places where they stay healthy. An inspiring array of lessons learned along the way shows how readers can make policies that support the health of all people. Contributors: Onaopemipo Abiodun, Vinya Ariyaratne, John Koku Awoonor-Williams, Kedar Prasad Baral, Ayaga A. Bawah, Pedro Más Bermejo, Fred N. Binka, David Bishai, Carolina Cardona, Dennis Carlson, Chala Tesfaye Chekagn, Hoang Khanh Chi, Svea Closser, Luc Barrière Constantin, Zufan Abera Damtew, Marlou de Rouw, Nadia Diamond-Smith, Philip Forth, Mignote Solomon Haile, Nguyen Thanh Huong, Taufique Joarder, Alice Kuan, Seblewengel Lemma, Sasmira Matta, Ahmed Moen, Rituu B. Nanda, Frank K. Nyonator, Ferdous Arfina Osman, Claudia Pereira, Henry B. Perry, James F. Phillips, Meike Schleiff, Melissa Sherry, Rita Thapa, Kebede Worku

We Were There, Too!

We Were There, Too! PDF Author: Phillip Hoose
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374382522
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
THE STORY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE PLAYED IN AMERICAN HISTORY.