Today culture is everywhere as maybe never before. We read culture reviews, watch culture shows, live in Cities of Culture, and witness the Cultural Olympiad. Government, museums and arts councils worry that we are not getting enough culture and shape policy around notions of art and culture for all. Access and inclusion are in. Difficulty and exclusivity out. In "Being Cultured: in defence of discrimination" Angus Kennedy asks if this explosion of culture, and the breaking down of distinctions between high and low culture, has emancipated us or left us adrift without cultural moorings. Is it true that all cultures are equal? Is cultural diversity a good thing? Is it unacceptably elitist to insist on the highest standards of judgment? To argue that some cultural works stand the test of time and some don't? Can anyone dare to call themselves cultured anymore? Might it even be the case that culture no longer actually means anything much to us? That our nervousness about exercising discrimination and good taste - the erosion of cultural authority - might have left us with a culture that may be open to all, but lacking in depth? This provocative book strikes a blow for discrimination in culture and argues that there is a responsibility on each of us as individuals to always be becoming more cultured beings: our best selves. Kennedy revisits the tradition - from Cicero to Kant, Arnold to Arendt - of autonomy in culture: both in the sense of its intrinsic value and how it rests on our individual freedom - quite apart from state and society - to discriminate and judge. A freedom, without which, we risk a widening culture of consensus and conformity. But which is the constitutive element of a world in common.

Today culture is everywhere as maybe never before. We read culture reviews, watch culture shows, live in Cities of Culture, and witness the Cultural Olympiad. Government, museums and arts councils worry that we are not getting enough culture and shape policy around notions of art and culture for all. Access and inclusion are in. Difficulty and exclusivity out. In "Being Cultured: in defence of discrimination" Angus Kennedy asks if this explosion of culture, and the breaking down of distinctions between high and low culture, has emancipated us or left us adrift without cultural moorings. Is it true that all cultures are equal? Is cultural diversity a good thing? Is it unacceptably elitist to insist on the highest standards of judgment? To argue that some cultural works stand the test of time and some don't? Can anyone dare to call themselves cultured anymore? Might it even be the case that culture no longer actually means anything much to us? That our nervousness about exercising discrimination and good taste - the erosion of cultural authority - might have left us with a culture that may be open to all, but lacking in depth? This provocative book strikes a blow for discrimination in culture and argues that there is a responsibility on each of us as individuals to always be becoming more cultured beings: our best selves. Kennedy revisits the tradition - from Cicero to Kant, Arnold to Arendt - of autonomy in culture: both in the sense of its intrinsic value and how it rests on our individual freedom - quite apart from state and society - to discriminate and judge. A freedom, without which, we risk a widening culture of consensus and conformity. But which is the constitutive element of a world in common.

“THIS BOOK’S purpose is to tell you what a cultivated person is, what the value of the cultured person is to himself, his fellows, and his society, and finally, the kind of things the cultured person knows, thinks, and feels. The point of the book is that it may succeed in giving you a fair idea of where you stand in relation to the continuum of culture, and help you understand in what further direction you need to proceed.”—Ashley Montagu, Ph. D. This provocative book, first published in 1958, is an inquiry into, and an answer to, three very important questions: 1) What is a cultured man? 2) What does “culture” mean in America? 3) What is YOUR “culture quotient”? Dr. Montagu analyzes and evaluations the first two questions above in a brilliant opening essay. He then provides 50 tests (1,500 questions with answers) which explore YOUR knowledge and attitudes and which enable you not only to determine where you stand as a truly cultured person but also to find out precisely in what directions you need to move to improve your “culture quotient.” From ballet to biology, from psychology to sex, this is an instructive test of your own intellectual status, a challenge and a guide to self-improvement. Dr. Montagu was a professor of anthropology at Rutgers University before retiring in order to devote all his time to writing. He was well-known for his TV and radio appearances, and became a renowned author.

Winner of the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. One of Buzzfeed's Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2021, NBC's 10 Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021, and Pink News' Best LGBTQ Books of 2021. "This hurricane of delirious, lonely, lewd tales is a taxonomy and grand unified theory of the boyfriend, in every tense." —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times "I loved this book—raunchy, irreverent, deliberate, sexy, angry, and tender, in its own way." —Roxane Gay An irrerverent, sensitive, and inimitable look at gay dysfunction through the eyes of a cult hero Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure—from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama—Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it—or perhaps because of it—they shine. Armed with a deadpan wit, Purnell finds humor in even the darkest of nadirs with the peerless zeal, insight, and horniness of a gay punk messiah. Together, the slice-of-life tales that writhe within 100 Boyfriends are an inimitable tour of an unexposed queer underbelly. Holding them together is the vision of an iconoclastic storyteller, as fearless as he is human.

Art can be confusing. Luckily, there’s marijuana. This book pairs fifty classic works from all around the world with unique cannabis recommendations. High Art gives you answers to questions that have long plagued art history students, such as Is there an edible that will help me understand Cubism? (Yes!) Can a cannabis strain connect me more deeply to late-period Van Gogh? (Of course!) And Should I be intimidated by the work of William Blake? (Very much so—but cannabis extracts can help.) To get in touch with your inner self while viewing Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, toke on some of Gravita’s Red-Headed Stranger and really feel the brush strokes wash over you. Or while viewing Henri Rousseau’s 1910 Tropical Forest with Monkeys, you might smoke some mild Purple Monkey followed by a snack of THC-infused dried fruits for a body float that will allow you to connect with your primitive nature. So whether you know a lot about art and nothing about cannabis or a lot about cannabis and nothing about art, it’s high time you expanded your mind.

The importance of science and technology and future of education and research are just some of the subjects discussed here.

Understanding “what something is” has long occupied philosophers, and no Western thinker has had more influence on the nature of being than Aristotle. Focusing on a reinterpretation of the concept of energeia as “activity,” Aryeh Kosman reexamines Aristotle’s ontology and some of our most basic assumptions about the great philosopher’s thought.