An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why -- despite technological advances -- the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery. "I cannot recommend this book strongly enough."--Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works. In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies. Today we might think the brain is like a supercomputer. In the past, it has been compared to a telegraph, a telephone exchange, or some kind of hydraulic system. What will we think the brain is like tomorrow, when new technology arises? The result is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex processes that drive science and the forces that have shaped our marvelous brains.

For just over fifty years John Stuart Mill contributed articles and letters to the newspapers, setting before the public a radical position on contemporary events. From 1822 to 1873, in newspapers as widely read as The Times and the Morning Chronicle, and as narrowly circulated as the True Sun and the New Times, he praised his friends and damned his opponents, while commenting on a while range of issues at home and abroad, from banking to Ireland, from wife-beating to land nationalization. His main series of newspaper writings concerned France (especially during the first four years of the Revolution of 1830) and Ireland (especially during December 1846 and January 1847, when various proposals for relief of the starving cottiers were being debated). Mill felt himself peculiarly fitted to explain French affairs and Irish solutions to the non-comprehending and wrong-headed English. But his pen was wielded wherever he say stupidity and narrowness, and he found them in astonishingly varied areas. He tried to explain to his obdurate countrymen the first principles of law reform, political economy, relations between the sexes, democracy, international law, and much more. Virtually none of these texts have been reprinted before this volume. The Introduction by Ann Robson sets the items in their historical and personal perspective, and draws out the implications for Mill's life and thought. The Textual Introduction by John Robson gives an account of the sources of the texts, and lays out principles and methods followed in the editing. The Mill that emerges from these pages is a fighting journalist, uninhibited, forthright, and often brilliantly satirical, testing his theoretical opinions in the real world, gradually maturing and developing a practical philosophy whose influence has been felt well into our own time.

Includes the Papers and proceedings of the annual meeting.

David Ricardo’s theories have been widely studied and discussed, including the prominent theory on comparative advantage. Ricardo and International Trade looks at the ongoing renaissance of the Ricardian international trade theory. The book’s interpretation brings fresh insights into and new developments on the Ricardian international trade theory by examining the true meaning of the ‘four magic numbers’. By putting together theories of comparative advantage and international money, the book attempts to elucidate Ricardo’s international trade theory in the real world. This book also features contributions from the Japanese perspective and compares Ricardian theories with those of his contemporaries, such as Malthus, Torrens and J. S. Mill. This book will be a valuable reference for researchers and scholars with interests in history of economic thought and international economics.