Emma Borg examines the relation between semantics (roughly, features of the literal meaning of linguistic items) and pragmatics (features emerging from the context within which such items are being used), and assesses recent answers to the fundamental questions of how and where to draw the divide between the two. In particular, she offers a defence of what is commonly known as 'minimal semantics'. Minimal semantics, as the name suggests, wants to offer a minimal account of the interrelation between semantics and pragmatics. Specifically, it holds that while context can affect literal semantic content in the case of genuine (i.e. lexically or syntactically marked) context-sensitive expressions, this is the limit of pragmatic input to semantic content. On all other occasions where context of utterance appears to affect content, the minimalist claims that what it affects is not literal, semantic content but what the speaker conveys by the use of this literal content—it affects what a speaker says but not what a sentence means. As Borg makes clear, the minimalist must allow some contextual influence on semantic content, but her claim is that this influence can be limited to 'tame' pragmatics—the kind of rule-governed appeals to context which won't scare formally minded horses. Pursuing Meaning aims to make good on this claim. The book also contains an overview of all the main positions in the area, clarification of its often complex terminology, and an exploration of key themes such as word meaning, mindreading, and the relationship between semantics and psychology.

Pursuing justice is daunting. It plays out in a variety of contexts — like the environment, employment, the criminal justice system — and raises tough issues like racism, gender discrimination and poverty. But ultimately the aim of studying justice is to achieve it. This book is about justice in Canada: its definition, its boundaries, its contradictions and its nuances. It is also about the mechanisms and practices that enable the pursuit of justice. It problematizes the notion of justice while defining and pursuing the illusive notion of justice in Canadian society. This second edition features updated content from the popular first edition as well as new content about social justice and racism, the experiences of racialized persons with police, settler colonialism and issues of justice for gender and sexual minorities — all from a Canadian perspective. Additionally, each chapter contains objectives of the chapter, case studies and discussion questions.

In a culture obsessed with happiness, this wise, stirring book points the way toward a richer, more satisfying life. Too many of us believe that the search for meaning is an esoteric pursuit—that you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to discover life’s secrets. The truth is, there are untapped sources of meaning all around us—right here, right now. To explore how we can craft lives of meaning, Emily Esfahani Smith synthesizes a kaleidoscopic array of sources—from psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists to figures in literature and history such as George Eliot, Viktor Frankl, Aristotle, and the Buddha. Drawing on this research, Smith shows us how cultivating connections to others, identifying and working toward a purpose, telling stories about our place in the world, and seeking out mystery can immeasurably deepen our lives. To bring what she calls the four pillars of meaning to life, Smith visits a tight-knit fishing village in the Chesapeake Bay, stargazes in West Texas, attends a dinner where young people gather to share their experiences of profound loss, and more. She also introduces us to compelling seekers of meaning—from the drug kingpin who finds his purpose in helping people get fit to the artist who draws on her Hindu upbringing to create arresting photographs. And she explores how we might begin to build a culture that leaves space for introspection and awe, cultivates a sense of community, and imbues our lives with meaning. Inspiring and story-driven, The Power of Meaning will strike a profound chord in anyone seeking a life that matters.

Examines the concept of biblical justice and the meaning of righteousness, using evangelical theology and personal narratives to show the importance of giving one's life away and living with justice, mercy, and humility.

Minimal Semantics asks what a theory of literal linguistic meaning is for--if you were to be given a working theory of meaning for a language right now, what would you be able to do with it? Emma Borg sets out to defend a formal approach to semantic theorizing from a relatively new type of opponent--advocates of what she calls "dual pragmatics." According to dual pragmatists, rich pragmatic processes play two distinct roles in linguistic comprehension: as well as operating in a post-semantic capacity to determine the implicatures of an utterance, they also operate prior to the determination of truth-conditional content for a sentence. That is to say, they have an integral role to play within what is usually thought of as the semantic realm. Borg believes dual pragmatic accounts constitute the strongest contemporary challenge to standard formal approaches to semantics since they challenge the formal theorist to show not merely that there is some role for formal processes on route to determination of semantic content, but that such processes are sufficient for determining content. Minimal Semantics provides a detailed examination of this school of thought, introducing readers who are unfamiliar with the topic to key ideas like relevance theory and contextualism, and looking in detail at where these accounts diverge from the formal approach. Borg's defense of formal semantics has two main parts: first, she argues that the formal approach is most naturally compatible with an important and well-grounded psychological theory, namely the Fodorian modular picture of the mind. Then she argues that the main arguments adduced by dual pragmatists against formal semantics--concerning apparent contextual intrusions into semantic content--can in fact be countered by a formal theory. The defense holds, however, only if we are sensitive to the proper conditions of success for a semantic theory. Specifically, we should reject a range of onerous constraints on semantic theorizing (e.g., that it answer epistemic or metaphysical questions, or that it explain our communicative skills) and instead adopt a quite minimal picture of semantics.

New York Police Department "cop doc" Dr. Dan Rudofossi delves into what it meant to live as a deep-cover operative through narratives with Joe Pistone, the FBI agent who spent six years living as Donnie Brasco as a member of the Bonanno crime family. When Operation Donnie Brasco abruptly closed, it was the longest and most successful infiltration of a Mafia family. Dr. Rudofossi underscores Pistone’s genius to survive daily challenges of infiltration by using innovations in the ecological niches of Mafia violence. Donnie Brasco’s "mental toughness," resilience, and ingenuity are understood through Rudofossi’s signature Eco-Ethological Existential Analysis. Mapping out why and how trauma shaped functional dissociation as unconscious adaptation, the author’s experience as a police psychologist—that is, a "cop doc"—helps decode the bigger picture of conflict, resolution, and compromise in the disparate worlds of policing and organized crime. This unique look at the costs and successes of tracking, infiltrating, arresting, and convicting those involved in organized crime is a groundbreaking read for law enforcement personnel, criminal justice, homeland security, law students, police psychologists, as well as anyone fascinated by the world of organized crime.

These three volumes sort out the science behind nightly news reports and magazine cover stories, and help define the interdisciplinary field of lifestyle medicine and health.