Paradoxes of Peace, Or, The Presence of Infinity PDF Download

Author: Nicholas Mosley
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 1564785394
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Paradoxes of Peace continues the meditation of Mosley's Time at War, at the end of which he wrote that humans find themselves at home in war because they feel they know what they have to do, whereas in peace they have to discover this. But what should inform them--custom? need? duty? ambition? desire? Forces pull in different directions--fidelity versus adventurousness, probity versus fun. During the war, Mosley found himself having to combine fondness for his father, Oswald Mosley, with the need to speak out against his post-war politics. In times of peace, his love for his wife and children, too, seemed riddled with paradoxes. He sought answers in Christianity, but came to see organized religion as primarily a social institution. How does caring not become a trap?

Author: Tom Vine
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 100099418X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
History reveals countless attempts by great minds to solve life’s paradoxes. But what if these attempts miss the point? What if paradox is life? Contrary to the supposedly sublime linear logic that underpins our prevalent modes of theoretical and empirical enquiry, in this fascinating book, organizational anthropologist Tom Vine charts the pervasiveness of paradox across the academy: from arithmetic to zoology. In so doing, he reflects on the concept of paradox as a widespread existential ‘pattern’, a pattern which holds significant metatheoretical and pedagogical potential. Paradoxes, he argues, are not inconveniences or ‘fault lines in our common-sense world’ but are coded into our very existence. Paradoxes thus present their own vital logics that shape our lives: they thwart moral and ideological uniformity; they even out subjective experience between ‘the haves’ and ‘the have nots’; and they shed light on the opaque concepts of consciousness and agency. This book will appeal to anybody with a curious mind, particularly scholars and students with an interest in one or more of the following: complexity theory, critical pedagogies, ethnography, nonlinear dynamics, organization theory, and systems theory.

Author: Patrick Hughes
Publisher: Doubleday Books
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
"'There is only one thing that is certain, namely that we can have nothing certain; and therefore it is not certain that we can have nothing certain,' Samuel Butler once said, expressing in that mindbloggler all the elements required to form a classical paradox. Throughout the ages wise men and jesters alike have been intrigued by such mental twists and riddles which defy common sense and yet appear to be true." -- Dust jacket.

Author: K. Ludwig Pfeiffer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110581833
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This book focuses on the tensions between processes of consciousness and their products like worldviews, theories, models of thought etc. Staying close to their technical meanings in chaos and catastrophe theory, chaotic processes are described in mainly neurobiological and evolutionary terms while products are delineated in their evolutionary logic. Given both a relative opacity of processes of the mind and of the outside world, the dramatic quality of the processes, a certain closeness to ‘hysterical’ and ‘schizophrenic’ tendencies and, within the context of the weakening orientating power of worldviews, an alarming catastrophic potential emerge. As a consequence, the book aims at a comparative cost-benefit analysis of the transitionality between ‘chaotic’ processes of consciousness and the often ‘catastrophic’ implications of their products within historical frameworks. The central thesis consists in the increasing failure in the orientation of action which cannot be contained by systems of ethics. Materials for this analysis are mainly drawn from texts normally called literary in which the tension between biographical and historical dimensions provides profiles of chaos and catastrophe.

Author: Nicholas Mosley
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
ISBN: 1564788105
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Returning to London from a trip to the West Indies, an aspiring writer encounters a bewitching trio of friends whose magic lies in their ability to turn any situation into fantasy. Previously out of place in the world, the narrator falls in love with the young brother-sister pair of Peter and Annabelle, as well as the older, more political Marius. Reality soon encroaches upon the foursome, however, in the form of Marius's ailing wife, forcing the narrator to confront the dark emptiness and fear at the heart of his friends' joie de vivre. In this, his second novel—written in the '50s and never before published—Nicholas Mosley weighs questions of responsibility and sacrifice against those of love and earthly desire, the spirit versus the flesh.

Author: Alexander R. Pruss
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191847325
Category : PHILOSOPHY
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Infinity is paradoxical in many ways. Some paradoxes involve deterministic supertasks, such as Thomson's Lamp, where a switch is toggled an infinite number of times over a finite period of time, or the Grim Reaper, where it seems that infinitely many reapers can produce a result without doing anything. Others involve infinite lotteries. If you get two tickets from an infinite fair lottery where tickets are numbered from 1, no matter what number you saw on the first ticket, it is almost certain that the other ticket has a bigger number on it. And others center on paradoxical results in decision theory, such as the surprising observation that if you perform a sequence of fair coin flips that goes infinitely far back into the past but only finitely into the future, you can leverage information about past coin flips to predict future ones with only finitely many mistakes. Alexander R. Pruss examines this seemingly large family of paradoxes. He establishes that these paradoxes and numerous others all have a common structure: their most natural embodiment involves an infinite number of items causally impinging on a single output. These paradoxes, he argues, can all be resolved by embracing 'causal finitism', the view that it is impossible for a single output to have an infinite causal history. Throughout the book, Pruss exposits such paradoxes, defends causal finitism at length, and considers connections with the philosophy of physics (where causal finitism favors but does not require discretist theories of space and time) and the philosophy of religion (with a cosmological argument for a first cause).

Author: Rick Anthony
Publisher: Rick Anthony
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
In a universe where the boundaries of time and space are no longer unyielding barriers, the cosmos extends beyond the limits of human imagination, revealing a multiverse that encompasses an infinity of realities. The concept of a single timeline gives way to a vast, interconnected web of alternate universes, each shaped by the choices, actions, and mere existence of countless beings. This ever-evolving dance of creation and destruction is bound together by a delicate balance that holds the fabric of reality together, an intricate interplay of forces that allows life to flourish in a myriad of forms and manifestations. "The Infinity Paradox" is a tale of adventure, discovery, and sacrifice, exploring the journey of a brilliant scientist, Dr. Isabella Reyes, who inadvertently finds herself entangled in the infinite possibilities of the multiverse. Through her groundbreaking work in the field of time travel, Isabella unwittingly opens a doorway to a cosmic web of parallel universes, each a unique reflection of the choices and actions of their inhabitants. As she navigates the boundless realms of existence, Isabella is confronted with the consequences of her actions, forced to question her own morals, values, and the responsibilities that come with the knowledge she has uncovered. Along her journey, she encounters alternate versions of herself, lost travelers, and tormented souls, each of whom provide her with invaluable insights, wisdom, and a deeper understanding of her own character and the true nature of the multiverse. "The Infinity Paradox" is a story of self-discovery, courage, and the enduring power of hope, empathy, and compassion. As Isabella explores the cosmic web and seeks to restore balance to the multiverse, she uncovers the profound impact that a single individual can have on the fate of countless lives and realities. Through her experiences, she learns that the true measure of her success lies not in the pursuit of scientific achievement, but in the connections she forms and the lives she touches along the way. In this sweeping narrative, we are invited to join Isabella on her journey through the infinity paradox, to venture alongside her into the endless expanse of the multiverse and to bear witness to the transformative power of hope, empathy, and compassion. As we delve into the infinite possibilities that await her, we are reminded of the boundless potential for growth, change, and the indomitable spirit of life that exists within us all. Embark on this thrilling adventure through the cosmic web and explore the depths of the human spirit, as we follow Dr. Isabella Reyes on her quest to unravel the mysteries of the multiverse, to restore balance to the delicate fabric of reality, and to discover the true meaning of courage, sacrifice, and self-discovery in the process. The infinity paradox awaits.

Author: Justin D. Klassen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1608997707
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
In contemporary public discourse, the supposedly comprehensive explanatory power of reason is used to justify a thoroughgoing suspicion of religion. In recent decades, the critiques of postmodernism have generated a different kind of suspicion by construing history as a process that is too arbitrary to be narrated--either by modern reason or by religion. In light of these developments, a question arises regarding the appropriate theological response to such forms of suspicion, both of which threaten not just religion but our sense of human agency as such. Does the retrieval of a meaningful religious subjectivity in a climate of suspicion demand a renewed emphasis upon theology's rhetorical persuasiveness, as Radical Orthodoxy has recently proposed? Or does identifying the believing subject with theology's "grammar" fail to attend to some of the challenges posed by such suspicion? The Paradox of Hope answers these questions in an original and provocative way by clarifying the complex relationship between post-secular theology and the work of Soren Kierkegaard. Ultimately, Klassen argues that Kierkegaard's influence is crucial, albeit obscured, in current post-secular theological imperatives, and that the Dane's eschewal of persuasion in favor of hope's inexplicable resolve provides a more adequate response to the nihilism of contemporary suspicion than do the rhetorical proposals currently on offer. In light of this argument, The Paradox of Hope also rehabilitates some of the voices typically excluded by contemporary theology's rhetoric, including those of Heidegger, Derrida, and Levinas.

Author: Steve McIntosh
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 0835631958
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
The Presence of the Infinite sheds new light on the important subject of spiritual experience. Using the emerging insights of evolutionary spirituality, integral philosopher Steve McIntosh enlarges readers’ capacity to have spiritual experience more abundantly and use it more effectively to improve their lives and the world around them. The Presence of the Infinite starts by providing a timely cultural analysis and critique of the various forms of spirituality that are vying for influence in contemporary American society. Building on this context, McIntosh shows how evolutionary spirituality overcomes the limitations of religious, secular, and New Age spirituality by better harmonizing science and spirit. Evolutionary spirituality’s transcendent potential is found in its deepening realization of the essentially spiritual qualities of beauty, truth, and goodness. McIntosh then uses evolutionary spirituality’s enlarged understanding of what spiritual experience is and how it works to consider the question of ultimate reality. This leads to an examination of conflicting ideas that regard spirit as either formless and nondual, or as loving and creative. By working to harmonize and integrate these alternative conceptions of ultimate reality, McIntosh shows how evolutionary spirituality can achieve a synthesis of nondual and theistic teachings of truth that can produce a spiritual renaissance in America and beyond. The Presence of the Infinite is destined to become a definitive text in the exciting new field of evolutionary spirituality.

Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198755236
Category : Infinite
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Infinity is an intriguing topic, with connections to religion, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and physics as well as mathematics. Its history goes back to ancient times, with especially important contributions from Euclid, Aristotle, Eudoxus, and Archimedes. The infinitely large (infinite) isintimately related to the infinitely small (infinitesimal). Cosmologists consider sweeping questions about whether space and time are infinite. Philosophers and mathematicians ranging from Zeno to Russell have posed numerous paradoxes about infinity and infinitesimals. Many vital areas ofmathematics rest upon some version of infinity. The most obvious, and the first context in which major new techniques depended on formulating infinite processes, is calculus. But there are many others, for example Fourier analysis and fractals.In this Very Short Introduction, Ian Stewart discusses infinity in mathematics while also drawing in the various other aspects of infinity and explaining some of the major problems and insights arising from this concept. He argues that working with infinity is not just an abstract, intellectualexercise but that it is instead a concept with important practical everyday applications, and considers how mathematicians use infinity and infinitesimals to answer questions or supply techniques that do not appear to involve the infinite.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.