The March of Unreason

The March of Unreason PDF Author: Dick Taverne
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191578614
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Our daily news bulletins bring us tales of the wonder of science, from Mars rovers and intelligent robots to developments in cancer treatment, and yet often the emphasis is on the potential threats posed by science. It appears that irrationality is on the rise in western society, and public opinion is increasingly dominated by unreflecting prejudice and unwillingness to engage with factual evidence. From genetically modified crops and food, organic farming, the MMR vaccine, environmentalism, the precautionary principle and the new anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements, the rejection of the evidence-based approach nurtures a culture of suspicion, distrust, and cynicism, and leads to dogmatic assertion and intolerance. In this compelling and timely examination of science and society, Dick Taverne argues that science, with all the benefits it brings, is an essential part of civilised and democratic society: it offers the most hopeful future for mankind.

The March of Unreason

The March of Unreason PDF Author: Dick Taverne
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191578614
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
Our daily news bulletins bring us tales of the wonder of science, from Mars rovers and intelligent robots to developments in cancer treatment, and yet often the emphasis is on the potential threats posed by science. It appears that irrationality is on the rise in western society, and public opinion is increasingly dominated by unreflecting prejudice and unwillingness to engage with factual evidence. From genetically modified crops and food, organic farming, the MMR vaccine, environmentalism, the precautionary principle and the new anti-capitalist and anti-globalisation movements, the rejection of the evidence-based approach nurtures a culture of suspicion, distrust, and cynicism, and leads to dogmatic assertion and intolerance. In this compelling and timely examination of science and society, Dick Taverne argues that science, with all the benefits it brings, is an essential part of civilised and democratic society: it offers the most hopeful future for mankind.

The Age of American Unreason

The Age of American Unreason PDF Author: Susan Jacoby
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400096383
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
A scathing indictment of American modern-day culture examines the current disdain for logic and evidence fostered by the mass media, religious fundamentalism, poor public education, a lack of fair-minded intellectuals, and a lazy, credulous public, condemning our addiction to infotainment, from TV to the Web, and assessing its repercussions for the country as a whole. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.

Science and Unreason

Science and Unreason PDF Author: Daisie Radner
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description


A Lover of Unreason

A Lover of Unreason PDF Author: Yehuda Koren
Publisher: Robson
ISBN: 1909396834
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
'Assia was my true wife, and the best friend I ever had', wrote Ted Hughes, after his lover surrendered her life and that of their young daughter in 1969, six years after Sylvia Plath had suffered a similiar fate. Diva, she-devil, enchantress, muse, Lillith, Jezebel - Assia inspired many epithets during her life. The tragic story of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes has always been related from one of two points of view: hers or his. Missing for over four decades had been a third: that of Hughes's mistress. This first biography of Assia Wevill views afresh the Plath-Hughes relationship and at the same time, recounts the journey that shaped her life. Wevill's is a complex story, formed as it is by the pull of often contrary forces.

The Seduction of Unreason

The Seduction of Unreason PDF Author: Richard Wolin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691192103
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
Ever since the shocking revelations of the fascist ties of Martin Heidegger and Paul de Man, postmodernism has been haunted by the specter of a compromised past. In this intellectual genealogy of the postmodern spirit, Richard Wolin shows that postmodernism’s infatuation with fascism has been extensive and widespread. He questions postmodernism’s claim to have inherited the mantle of the Left, suggesting instead that it has long been enamored with the opposite end of the political spectrum. Wolin reveals how, during in the 1930s, C. G. Jung, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Georges Bataille, and Maurice Blanchot were seduced by fascism's promise of political regeneration and how this misapprehension affected the intellectual core of their work. The result is a compelling and unsettling reinterpretation of the history of modern thought. In a new preface, Wolin revisits this illiberal intellectual lineage in light of the contemporary resurgence of political authoritarianism.

Songs of Unreason

Songs of Unreason PDF Author: Jim Harrison
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
ISBN: 161932038X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
One of America's leading novelists and poets, "Jim Harrison is a writer with immortality in him."-The Sunday Times

The Threat to Reason

The Threat to Reason PDF Author: Dan Hind
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1789603994
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Today, media commentators, intellectuals and politicians declare that western science and rationality are threatened by irrational enemies. Evangelicals, postmodernists, and Islamists are on the march, they say. The Rome that science built is under siege. But there's a problem with these stirring attempts to defend the truth. They aren't true. In this urgent new book, Dan Hind confronts the great machinery of deception in which we live, and which now threatens to destroy our civilization. In particular, he takes to task a group of prominent intellectuals who have exaggerated the threat posed by the so-called forces of unreason-religion, postmodernism and other "mumbo-jumbo." The commentators, says Hind, distract us from much more pressing threats to an open democratic society based on freedom of speech and inquiry. This book shows that the real threats to reason aren't wacky or foreign or stupid; they reside in our state and corporate bureaucracies - and, one way or another, they probably pay your salary. In recovering the idea of Enlightenment, Hind explores its vital importance and reveals how it can help us to achieve a truly democratic politics, in which we have a genuine say in the decisions that are taken on our behalf.

The Embrace of Unreason

The Embrace of Unreason PDF Author: Frederick Brown
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307742369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Spanning the turbulent decades between the World Wars, The Embrace of Unreason casts new light on the darkest years in modern French history. It is a fascinating reconsideration of the political, social, and religious movements that led to France’s move away from the humanistic traditions and rationalistic ideals of the Enlightenment and towards submission to authority—and the dramatic rise of Fascism and anti-Semitism. Drawing on newspaper articles, journals, and literary works of the time, acclaimed biographer and cultural historian Frederick Brown explores the forces unleashed by the Dreyfus Affair and how clashing ideologies and new artistic movements led France to an era of violence and nationalistic fervor.

The Psychoanalytic Movement

The Psychoanalytic Movement PDF Author: Ernest Gellner
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810113701
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The aim of this book is the understanding of how psychoanalysis came to be so generally accepted by the public at large. The author, a sociologist, focuses on reconstructing the system of ideas upon which the theory and practice of psychoanalysis rests.

Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason

Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason PDF Author: William Davies
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393635392
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
“Wide-ranging yet brilliantly astute. . . . Davies is a wild and surprising thinker who also happens to be an elegant writer.” — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Hailed as a “masterpiece” (Mark Green, New York Times Book Review), Nervous States offers an astute diagnosis for why our politics has become so fractious and warlike. In this bold and far- reaching book, political economist William Davies argues that our increasing reliance on feeling over fact has transformed democracies. The spread of media technology and the intrusion of mass shootings and terrorist attacks into everyday life has reduced a world of logic and fact into one driven by fear and anxiety. As emotions supplant facts in our politics, we lose the basis for consensus among people who otherwise have little in common. Nervous States “sits at the intersection of ongoing debates about post-truth, the assault on reason, the privileging of personal feelings and the rise of populism” (Financial Times) and provides an essential guide to the turbulent times in which we now live. “An insightful and well- written book that explores the deep roots of the current crisis of expertise.” — Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times best-selling author of Sapiens