What are the sources of solidarity? Do universalist motives have an important place among them? And how are they related to arguments about human nature and about truth? In this new book, Norman Geras engages with the work of Richard Rorty to explore the paradoxes of a liberalism which rejects any determinate view of human nature. He begins by examining Rorty's thesis concerning rescuer behavior during the Holocaust. Measuring it against existing research on the subject and the testimony of rescuers themselves, Geras questions Rorty's use of their moral example as a challenge to universalist assumptions. He then considers some of the problems in Rorty's anti-essentialism: his shifting usages of "human nature"; the paradoxical plea for extensive forms of solidarity on the basis of parochial communitarian premises; the relationship of pragmatist notions of truth to issues of justice; and the project of a democratic, would-be "humanist" utopia grounded only on contingencies. Solidarity in the Conversation of Humankind is an imagined dialogue with Rorty-influential, eloquent and unorthodox champion of a human radical liberalism.

Philosophical Reflections on Antiquity: Historical Change addresses the question of whether there is a logic of historical change, and whether the collapse of teleology should deter us from inquiring anew whether any recurring patterns and themes show themselves amid the complexity of historical life. Paul Fairfield argues that if any conception of universal history remains possible, it is one that rejects teleology and causal laws while identifying thematic tendencies that afford some semblance of unity, including the enduring phenomena that are interlocution, the struggle for predominance, and the endless back and forth that play out between them. This book examines the transitional periods of archaic Greece and late antiquity, the ostensible birth and death of the ancient west. Fairfield argues that an interpretation of the social, political, and intellectual history of these important turning points brings to light some philosophical understanding of the dynamics of change itself, observing that the transition from archaic to classical Greece was no miracle, while the end of the Roman era can no longer be conceived as a story of decline and fall. Rather, Fairfield posits, these were not complete breaks, but relative beginnings and endings in narratives that are ongoing. Scholars of philosophy, history, and anthropology will find this book particularly useful.

Demonstrating Richard Rorty’s breadth of scholarship and his influence on diverse issues across the social sciences and humanities, this comprehensive bibliography contains 1,165 citations. A unique reference work on neo-pragmatism, this bibliography is essential for anyone researching Rorty’s work and its impact on philosophy, literature, the arts, religion, the social sciences, politics, and education.

Papers presented at the FOIM Biannual Mission Studies Research Seminar, held at Srinagar during 8-23 October 2007.

The aim of this unique book is to provide an overview of recent advances bridging the gap between psychiatry and neuroscience, allowing a fruitful dialogue between both sciences. The emerging interactions and mutual contributions between neuroscience and psychiatry are here recognized. This book is designed to identify the borders, trends and implications in both fields today. Comprehensive and developed by a renowned group of experts from both fields, the book is divided into four parts: Epistemological Considerations About the Study of Normal and Abnormal Human Behaviors; From Basic Neurosciences to Human Brain; Neurosciences, Learning, Teaching and the Role of Social Environment; and Explaining Human Pathological Behaviors: From Brain Disorders to Psychopathology. A unique and invaluable addition to the literature in psychiatry and neuroscience, Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update – Vol. II: A Translational Approach offers an important and clearer understanding of the relationship between these two disciplines. This book is directed to students, professionals and researchers of medicine, psychology, psychopedagogy and nursery./div

Media and culture are deeply intertwined in contemporary society. Religions have problems relating to this media culture, which is shaped by media processes and conditioned by digital media and interactive forms of communication. Media set the agenda and they profoundly challenge religions, both with respect to their public communication, and their very existence and public relevance. People increasingly use media for shaping their religious identity and their search with respect to questions of ultimate meaning. Barely any theological studies exist that reflect on religious policies, and their subsequent praxis, in the field of communication. The author analyzes Christian policy views and identifies the main problems and opportunities in relating to media culture.

Karl Barth was an eminently conversational theologian, and with the Internet revolution, we live today in an eminently conversational age. Being the proceedings of the 2010 Karl Barth Blog Conference, Karl Barth in Conversation brings these two factors together in order to advance the dialogue about Barth's theology and extend the online conversation to new audiences. With conversation partners ranging from Wesley to iek, from Schleiermacher to Jenson, from Hauerwas to the Coen brothers, this volume opens up exciting new horizons for exploring Barth's immense contribution to church and world. The contributors, who represent a young new generation of academic theologians, bring a fresh perspective to a topic--the theology of Karl Barth--that often seems to have exhausted its range of possibilities. This book proves that there is still a great deal of uncharted territory in the field of Barth studies. Today, more than forty years since the Swiss theologian's death, the conversation is as lively as ever.

Women’s studies programs and departments face ongoing fall-out from an economic crisis in higher education. Taking the form of budget-cuts, reduction of faculty lines and other resource allocations, for some programs and departments it has meant at best, a loss of disciplinary autonomy through consolidation, and at worst, academic foreclosure. Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads articulates a politics of commitment, hope, and possibility wrought in the coming-together of a group of feminist women and men—across racial, cultural, nation/state, sexual, and gender differences—during a tough budgetary time threatening Women’s Studies programs across the nation. This anthology affirms the continued necessity of bridge-building alliances in women’s studies and contemplates with promise the theory and practice of feminist solidarity forged through the course of its production. While the essays in this book display a complex diversity of feminist thought and modes of intersectional strategies, they reflect a unity of comradery and a spirit of collectivity so necessary for these turbulent times.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An urgent primer on race and racism, from the host of the viral hit video series “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” “You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.” In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity—but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.