Pure Inspiration emerged unexpectedly from our Calendar & Journal event. The idea stemmed from a desire to preserve the beauty of entries beyond the year’s end. The theme, Composites, encouraged experimentation, resulting in stunning artworks that blend multiple techniques that seemed to spark creativity. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or a newcomer, this book will inspire you to explore alternative photography and unleash your own creativity.

Can you really use black beans to print a photograph? What about moss or mushrooms? Discover the anthotype process and follow artists who explore plants or pigments to create colourful eco-friendly prints. Every August, during World Anthotype Day, artists surpass the boundaries of what is possible. For a third year, artists from all over the world came together and extended our knowledge and stretched the limits to discover unusual emulsions from plants, powders and pigments to make photographic emulsions, and then print their images using the sun. The artists documented their process, research and observations and their notes are collected in this book.

This study focuses on the metaphysics of the great Arabic philosopher Avicenna (or Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037 C.E.). More specifically, it delves into Avicenna’s theory of quiddity or essence, a topic which seized the attention of thinkers both during the medieval and modern periods. Building on recent contributions in Avicennian studies, this book proposes a new and comprehensive interpretation of Avicenna’s theory of ‘the pure quiddity’ (also known as ‘the quiddity in itself’) and of its ontology. The study provides a careful philological analysis of key passages gleaned from the primary sources in Arabic and a close philosophical contextualization of Avicenna’s doctrines in light of the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy in Islam and the early development of Arabic philosophy (falsafah) and theology (kalām). The study pays particular attention to how Avicenna’s theory of quiddity relates to the ancient Greek philosophical discussion about the universals or common things and Mu’tazilite ontology. Its main thesis is that Avicenna articulated a sophisticated doctrine of the ontology of essence in light of Greek and Bahshamite sources, which decisively shaped subsequent intellectual history in Islam and the Latin West.

Collected in this volume are some of the most important articles published on the philosophy of the Greeks before Socrates. They cover: The nature of Presocratic thought The sources of our knowledge of the Presocratics The earliest philosophers up to Heraclitus

"MONEYED MONEY" offers insight into how the term 'money', uttered by over 7 billion people daily, often remains largely misunderstood. Despite numerous attempts by governments, scholars, bankers, and international organisations to pin down a definition, the conclusion typically echoes Jean Gabin's sentiment: "Maintenant je sais" (this time I know). However, the true understanding often resides with the ordinary person grappling with daily concerns about meeting basic needs. The book guides readers through a brief history of the concept of money, explores reflections by significant historical academics, and delves into the fundamental element of trust and confidence in relation to the precious metal "gold". Moneyed Money's conclusion clarifies how, with technological innovations, even the most impoverished individuals may metaphorically purchase a single 'onion' by utilizing a pure gold instrument for indirect exchange. ADDENDA: ADD1 -'Fauteuil'-Academics on Money -- ADD2 -A Monetary Pitfall called... Value -- ADD3 -A 'Quixotic' Relic -- ADD4 -John Maynard Keynes - Locke(d) -- ADD5 -Lowndes-Locke Controversy in the 21th-C. -- ADD6 -Golden Governments -- ADD7 -Deceitful Banking Doctrines -- ADD8 -A Chronology of Monetary Evolution. Eight addenda explore various perspectives, each adding to the ultimate conclusion of Moneyed Money. I am convinced that not every reader will appreciate my subtly sarcastic tone towards well-known political and academic figures appearing in these addenda.

Augustine of Hippo is history's best-known Christian convert. The very concept of conversio owes its dissemination to Augustine's Confessions, and yet, as Jason BeDuhn notes, conversion in Augustine is not the sudden, dramatic, and complete transformation of self we likely remember it to be. Rather, in the Confessions Augustine depicts conversion as a lifelong process, a series of self-discoveries and self-departures. The tale of Augustine is one of conversion, apostasy, and conversion again. In this first volume of Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, BeDuhn reconstructs Augustine's decade-long adherence to Manichaeism, apostasy from it, and subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity. Based on his own testimony and contemporaneous sources from and about Manichaeism, the book situates many features of Augustine's young adulthood within his commitment to the sect, while pointing out ways he failed to understand or put into practice key parts of the Manichaean system. It explores Augustine's dissatisfaction with the practice-oriented faith promoted by the Manichaean leader Faustus and the circumstances of heightened intolerance, anti-Manichaean legislation, and pressures for social conformity surrounding his apostasy. Seeking a historically circumscribed account of Augustine's subsequent conversion to Nicene Christianity, BeDuhn challenges entrenched conceptions of conversion derived in part from Augustine's later idealized account of his own spiritual development. He closely examines Augustine's evolving self-presentation in the year before and following his baptism and argues that the new identity to which he committed himself bore few of the hallmarks of the orthodoxy with which he is historically identified. Both a historical study of the specific case of Augustine and a theoretical reconsideration of the conditions under which conversion occurs, this book explores the role religion has in providing the materials and tools through which self-formation and reformation occurs.