Showing titles in Society

Need a rental person who does nothing? Shoji Morimoto provides a fascinating service to the lonely and socially anxious. After an old boss told him that he contributed nothing and that it made no difference whether he showed up to work or not, he wondered if a person who ‘does nothing’ could...

Charles Handy is one of the giants of contemporary thought. His books on management - including Understanding Organizations and Gods of Management - have changed the way we view business. His work on broader issues and trends - such as Beyond Certainty and The Second Curve - has changed the way we view society. In his new book, Handy builds on a life's work to glimpse into the future and see what challenges and opportunities the next generation faces.

È vero che sono i più capaci ad avere successo nella vita? Questo audiolibro parla della fortuna. O meglio, del ruolo che gioca il caso nella nostra vita in generale, nei nostri affari in particolare. Ma parla anche di quella fortuna che, non essendo percepita come tale, viene scambiata per abilità: una confusione presente in molteplici campi, dalla scienza alla politica, dall'arte alla finanza. Quante volte abbiamo visto un idiota baciato dalla fortuna trovarsi nel posto giusto al momento giusto, dimostrazione vivente della "sopravvivenza del meno adatto"?

The lack of intellect has caused the mind’s attachment to spouses, children, wealth, religion, practically everything. The virus of attachment has reached epidemic proportions and the world is in a state of emergency. Yet none seems to recognise the problem, much less tackle it. The solution lies in a concerted effort worldwide to resurrect the fallen intellect. A powerful intellect alone would destroy the virus and generate peace and harmony in the society.

As we emerge (though perhaps only temporarily) from the pandemic, other crises move center stage: outrageous inequality, climate disaster, desperate refugees, mounting tensions of a new cold war. The abiding motif of our time is relentless chaos.

A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. 

Lovers know that love is both vast and intense. This would seem to make it resistant to philosophical or rational analysis. Yet love's vastness and intensity are what carry it into all spheres of our lives—ethical, political, spiritual, physical. As a result, considerations of what it means to...

Solitude is a rapidly vanishing experience. Our society now embraces sharing like never before: time alone is being forced out of our lives by the constant pings of smartphones and prods of social media. But what if being alone still has something to offer us - something we have forgotten but that we still desperately need? In Solitude, award-winning author Michael Harris examines why being alone matters now more than ever before.

In four decades, bookended by the Pope’s visits to Ireland in September 1979 and August 2018, Ireland has become one of the wealthiest and most progressive nations in the world. Characteristically brilliant and timely, Renaissance Nation is a thrilling account of Ireland’s vertiginous rise and a timely exploration of its conflicted present, where stark decisions await the next generation of would-be revolutionaries.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is now generally recognized as one of the most influential thinkers of the last century. This Very Short Introduction explores his extraordinary life and thought. His complex system of criticism is difficult for many, but it is coherent in its combination of a Judaic theological perspective with cultural Marxism. Benjamin's distinctive approach considered literary criticism, visual media, and the impact of cosmopolitanism. This innovative messianic understanding of history would go on to inspire countless critics and even entire schools of academia.

Worried that old age will inevitably mean losing your libido, your health, and possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero has some good news for you. In How to Grow Old, the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all - and why you might discover that reading and gardening are actually far more pleasurable than sex ever was.

Steven Pinker's 12-part guide to thinking better 'A paean to human potential' The Telegraph Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him. With the aid of his critical thinking toolkit, he hopes to help us make smarter...

Byung-Chul Han si focalizza con particolare attenzione sul disagio dell'individuo tardo-moderno nella società odierna, caratterizzata dalla prestazione, dalla competizione e, soprattutto, dall'appiattimento delle contraddizioni e dal venir meno della negatività. Le analisi sviluppate mettono in luce, nello specifico, come l'ossessione dell'iperattività e la tendenza sempre piú forte al multitasking arrivino a produrre disturbi di natura depressiva e nevrotica.

If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones! He's both a mild-mannered archaeology professor and an intrepid adventurer traversing the globe in search of lost artifacts. Whether seeking the Ark of the Covenant in Egypt, the Sankara Stones in India, the Holy Grail in Turkey, or a mysterious crystal skull in Peru, Indy's adventures never fail to delight audiences. Indiana Jones and Philosophy takes you on a whirlwind journey to investigate some of the most enduring questions about the human condition.

We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible—a good-enough life for all.

On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro", and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event.

In this short accessible book, leading democratic theorist Jason Brennan guides listeners through the evolution of the concept of democracy and actual democratic practice over time to help them understand the foundations of this longstanding and yet newly fragile political system. In his wide-ranging tour of the concept, Brennan will examine what democracy meant to the Greeks who first developed the concept before examining how it changed throughout European and later Western history.

The French thinker and political theorist Georges Sorel (1847-1922), fired up by his interest in Marxism and his anger at the injustice of the Dreyfus case, faced this challenge and in the seven chapters of Reflections on Violence he explored the question. It proved sufficiently stimulating over succeeding decades to be espoused by both Marxists and Fascists alike: class struggle, revolution and above all radical change were central to Sorel’s thought.  

In this sweeping philosophical work, Amartya Sen proposes that the murderous violence that has riven our society is driven as much by confusion as by inescapable hatred. Challenging the reductionist division of people by race, religion, and class, Sen presents an inspiring vision of a world that can be made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward brutality and war.

In a time of rising social isolation, ideological division, and technological upheaval, libraries stand at a crossroads. In Triptych: Death, AI, and Librarianship, acclaimed scholar R. David Lankes—joined by Jain Orr and Qianzi Cao—delivers a bold, urgent, and deeply human call to action for the library profession. Structured around three provocative lectures, this book challenges librarians to move beyond traditional service models and embrace their role as agents of social transformation.