Thomas More remains one of the most enigmatic thinkers in history, due in large part to the enduring mysteries surrounding his best-known work, Utopia. He has been variously thought of as a reformer and a conservative, a civic humanist and a devout Christian, a proto-communist and a monarchical absolutist. His work spans contemporary disciplines from history to politics to literature, and his ideas have variously been taken up by seventeenth-century reformers and nineteenth-century communists. Through a comprehensive treatment of More's writing, from his earliest poetry to his reflections on suffering in the Tower of London, Joanne Paul engages with both the rich variety and some of the fundamental consistencies that run throughout More's works. In particular, Paul highlights More's concern with the destruction of what is held 'in common', whether it be in the commonwealth or in the body of the church. In so doing, she re-establishes More's place in the history of political thought, tracing the reception of his ideas to the present day. Paul's book serves as an essential foundation for any student encountering More's writing for the first time, as well as providing an innovative reconsideration of the place of his works in the history of ideas.
Otfried Höffe is one of the foremost political philosophers in Europe today. In this major work, already a classic in continental Europe, he re-examines philosophical discourse on justice – from Classical Greece to the present day. Höffe confronts what he sees as the two major challenges to any theory of justice: the legal, positivist claim that there are no standards of justice external to legal systems; and the anarchist claim that justice demands the rejection and abolition of all legal and state systems. Höffe sets out to continue the 'philosophical project of modernity', the legitimation of human rights, and their guarantee by the state, while at the same time rehabilitating the classical theory of political justice represented by Plato and Aristotle. He questions the success of the positivists in avoiding extra-legal normative claims, and casts doubt on the plausibility of their criticism of the Natural Law tradition. Most anarchists, he argues, rely on an uncritical assumption that social institutions other than states and legal orders do not coerce. In Höffe's view, some coercion is unavoidable, and the grounds for its justification must be examined. Principles of justice will be those principles which define fundamental rights, and which must be enforced if rights are to be respected.
One can rightly say of Peter Sloterdijk that each of his essays and lectures is also an unwritten book. That is why the texts presented here, which sketch a philosophical physiognomy of Martin Heidegger, should also be characterized as a collected renunciation of exhaustiveness. In order to situate Heidegger's thought in the history of ideas and problems, Peter Sloterdijk approaches Heidegger's work with questions such as: If Western philosophy emerged from the spirit of the polis, what are we to make of the philosophical suitability of a man who never made a secret of his stubborn attachment to rural life? Is there a provincial truth of which the cosmopolitan city knows nothing? Is there a truth in country roads and cabins that would be able to undermine the universities with their standardized languages and globally influential discourses? From where does this odd professor speak, when from his professorial chair in Freiburg he claims to inquire into what lies beyond the history of Western metaphysics? Sloterdijk also considers several other crucial twentieth-century thinkers who provide some needed contrast for the philosophical physiognomy of Martin Heidegger. A consideration of Niklas Luhmann as a kind of contemporary version of the Devil's Advocate, a provocative critical interpretation of Theodor Adorno's philosophy that focuses on its theological underpinnings and which also includes reflections on the philosophical significance of hyperbole, and a short sketch of the pessimistic thought of Emil Cioran all round out and deepen Sloterdijk's attempts to think with, against, and beyond Heidegger. Finally, in essays such as «Domestication of Being» and the «Rules for the Human Park,» which incited an international controversy around the time of its publication and has been translated afresh for this volume, Sloterdijk develops some of his most intriguing and important ideas on anthropogenesis, humanism, technology, and genetic engineering.
We see nonviolent resistance all over today’s world, from Egypt’s Tahrir Square to New York Occupy. Although we think of the last century as one marked by wars and violent conflict, in fact it was just as much a century of nonviolence as the achievements of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. and peaceful protests like the one that removed Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines clearly demonstrate. But what is nonviolence? What makes a campaign a nonviolent one, and how does it work? What values does it incorporate? In this unique study, Todd May, a philosopher who has himself participated in campaigns of nonviolent resistance, offers the first extended philosophical reflection on the particular and compelling political phenomenon of nonviolence. Drawing on both historical and contemporary examples, he examines the concept and objectives of nonviolence, and considers the different dynamics of nonviolence, from moral jiu-jitsu to nonviolent coercion. May goes on to explore the values that infuse nonviolent activity, especially the respect for dignity and the presupposition of equality, before taking a close-up look at the role of nonviolence in today’s world. Students of politics, peace studies, and philosophy, political activists, and those interested in the shape of current politics will find this book an invaluable source for understanding one of the most prevalent, but least reflected upon, political approaches of our world.
Epidemiological Criminology: A Public Health Approach to Crime and Violence Epidemiological Criminology offers an introduction to the sources and methods of epidemiological criminology and shows how to apply these methods to some of the most vexing problems now confronting researchers and practitioners in public health epidemiology, criminology, and criminal justice. The book describes, explains, and applies the newly formulated practice of epidemiological criminology, an emerging discipline that finds the intersection across theories, methods, and statistical models of public health with their corresponding tools of criminal justice and criminology. The authors show how to apply epidemiological criminology as a practical tool to address population issues of violence and crime nationally and globally. In addition, they look at future directions and the application of this emerging field in corrections, public health and law, gangs and gang violence, victimology, mental health and substance abuse, environmental justice, international human rights, and global terrorism. For students, the book presents an exciting approach to understanding epidemiology as a means with which to tackle some of the worst problems for vulnerable populations. For researchers and policymakers, the book offers a new methodological perspective that recognizes the significance of social disparities and the built environment as factors in the formulation of public health policy, and provides a tool with which to produce more effective interventions, preventive measures, and policy formulations.
The book «Drug Selectivity – An Evolving Concept in Medicinal Chemistry» provides a current overview and comprehensive compilation for medicinal chemists that discusses the effects of aiming for multiple targets on the entire drug development process. The result is a broad survey of current and future strategies for drug selectivity in medicinal chemistry with theoretical but also practical aspects. Different strategies are presented and evaluated, such as various design approaches, merged multiple ligands, discovery technologies and a broad range of successful examples of unselective drugs taken from all major disease areas. With its wide-ranging view of an emerging new paradigm in drug development, this handbook is of prime importance for every medicinal and pharmaceutical chemist.
A new edition of this popular text on robust statistics, thoroughly updated to include new and improved methods and focus on implementation of methodology using the increasingly popular open-source software R. Classical statistics fail to cope well with outliers associated with deviations from standard distributions. Robust statistical methods take into account these deviations when estimating the parameters of parametric models, thus increasing the reliability of fitted models and associated inference. This new, second edition of Robust Statistics: Theory and Methods (with R) presents a broad coverage of the theory of robust statistics that is integrated with computing methods and applications. Updated to include important new research results of the last decade and focus on the use of the popular software package R, it features in-depth coverage of the key methodology, including regression, multivariate analysis, and time series modeling. The book is illustrated throughout by a range of examples and applications that are supported by a companion website featuring data sets and R code that allow the reader to reproduce the examples given in the book. Unlike other books on the market, Robust Statistics: Theory and Methods (with R) offers the most comprehensive, definitive, and up-to-date treatment of the subject. It features chapters on estimating location and scale; measuring robustness; linear regression with fixed and with random predictors; multivariate analysis; generalized linear models; time series; numerical algorithms; and asymptotic theory of M-estimates. Explains both the use and theoretical justification of robust methods Guides readers in selecting and using the most appropriate robust methods for their problems Features computational algorithms for the core methods Robust statistics research results of the last decade included in this 2nd edition include: fast deterministic robust regression, finite-sample robustness, robust regularized regression, robust location and scatter estimation with missing data, robust estimation with independent outliers in variables, and robust mixed linear models. Robust Statistics aims to stimulate the use of robust methods as a powerful tool to increase the reliability and accuracy of statistical modelling and data analysis. It is an ideal resource for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students in statistics, engineering, computer science, and physical and social sciences.
Presents a unified approach to parametric estimation, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and statistical modeling, which are uniquely based on the likelihood function This book addresses mathematical statistics for upper-undergraduates and first year graduate students, tying chapters on estimation, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and statistical models together to present a unifying focus on the likelihood function. It also emphasizes the important ideas in statistical modeling, such as sufficiency, exponential family distributions, and large sample properties. Mathematical Statistics: An Introduction to Likelihood Based Inference makes advanced topics accessible and understandable and covers many topics in more depth than typical mathematical statistics textbooks. It includes numerous examples, case studies, a large number of exercises ranging from drill and skill to extremely difficult problems, and many of the important theorems of mathematical statistics along with their proofs. In addition to the connected chapters mentioned above, Mathematical Statistics covers likelihood-based estimation, with emphasis on multidimensional parameter spaces and range dependent support. It also includes a chapter on confidence intervals, which contains examples of exact confidence intervals along with the standard large sample confidence intervals based on the MLE's and bootstrap confidence intervals. There’s also a chapter on parametric statistical models featuring sections on non-iid observations, linear regression, logistic regression, Poisson regression, and linear models. Prepares students with the tools needed to be successful in their future work in statistics data science Includes practical case studies including real-life data collected from Yellowstone National Park, the Donner party, and the Titanic voyage Emphasizes the important ideas to statistical modeling, such as sufficiency, exponential family distributions, and large sample properties Includes sections on Bayesian estimation and credible intervals Features examples, problems, and solutions Mathematical Statistics: An Introduction to Likelihood Based Inference is an ideal textbook for upper-undergraduate and graduate courses in probability, mathematical statistics, and/or statistical inference.
Medieval Lyric is a colourful collection of lyrical poems, carols, and traditional British ballads written between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, together with some twentieth-century American versions of them. A lively and engaging collection of lyrical poems, carols, and traditional British ballads written in between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, together with some twentieth-century American versions of them. Introduces readers to the rich variety of Middle English poetry. Presents poems of mourning and of celebration, poems dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and to Christ, poems inviting or disparaging love, poems about sex, and more. Reader-friendly – uses modernized letter forms, punctuation and capitalization, and side glosses explaining difficult words. Opens with a substantial introduction by the editor to the medieval lyric as a genre, and features short introductions to each section and poem. Also includes an annotated bibliography, glossary, index of first lines, and list of manuscripts cited.
Roman Disasters looks at how the Romans coped with, thought about, and used disasters for their own ends. Rome has been famous throughout history for its great triumphs. Yet Rome also suffered colossal disasters. From the battle of Cannae, where fifty thousand men fell in a single day, to the destruction of Pompeii, to the first appearance of the bubonic plague, the Romans experienced large scale calamities.Earthquakes, fires, floods and famines also regularly afflicted them.This insightful book is the first to treat such disasters as a conceptual unity. It shows that vulnerability to disasters was affected by politics, social status, ideology and economics. Above all, it illustrates how the resilience of their political and cultural system allowed the Romans to survive the impact of these life-threatening events. The book also explores the important role disaster narratives played in Christian thought and rhetoric.Engaging and accessible, Roman Disasters will be enjoyed by students and general readers alike.