God, unhappy with mankind, has sent a blue comet to destroy the earth, but has offered one chance and set a nearly impossible task; to place a golden disc on the outstretched left hand of a tall, gilded statue of Mother Mary atop a cathedral in Avignon, France. The golden disc must be found in one month’s time. Once the disc is in place God will cause the comet to miss the planet. The story involves the search for the golden disc and includes the Inca of Peru, the Hopi people of Arizona, a secret space program, an underground base on the Martian moon Phobos and its large, sustainable, ecological farm. Faced with a daunting mission, the main characters, knowing that the fate of the world lies in their hands, proceed with determination, courage and, above all, faith. This is a timely story that comprises politics, the environment, the worldview of indigenous peoples, spirituality, and, most importantly, man’s relationship with God.

This book is about normativity and reasons. By the end, however, the subject becomes the relation between self, thought, and world. If we understand normativity, we are on the road to understanding this relation. John Skorupski argues that all normative properties are reducible to reason relations, so that the sole normative ingredient in any normative concept is the concept of a reason. This is a concept fundamental to all thought. It is pervasive (actions, beliefs, and sentiments all fall within its range), primitive (all other normative concepts are reducible to it), and constitutive of the idea of thought itself. Thinking is sensitivity to reasons. Thought in the full sense of autonomous cognition is possible only for a being sensitive to reasons and capable of deliberating about them. In Part II of the book Skorupski examines epistemic reasons, and shows that aprioricity, necessity, evidence, and probability, which may not seem to be normative at all, are in fact normative concepts analysable in terms of the concept of a reason. In Part III he shows the same for the concept of a person's good, and for moral concepts including the concept of a right. Part IV moves to the epistemology and metaphysics of reasons. When we make claims about reasons to believe, reasons to feel, or reasons to act we are asserting genuine propositions: judgeable, truth-apt contents. But these normative propositions must be distinguished from factual propositions, for they do not represent states of affairs. So Skorupski's ambitious theory of normativity has broad and deep implications for philosophy. It shows how reflection on the logic, epistemology, and ontology of reasons finally leads us to an account of the interplay of self, thought, and world.

This new translation brings to life Prudentius' Psychomachia, one of the most widely read poems in western Europe from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance. With accompanying notes and introduction, this volume provides a fresh exploration of its themes and influence. The Psychomachia of Prudentius (348–c. 405), an allegorical epic poem of nearly 1,000 lines about the battle between the virtues and the vices for possession of the human soul, led early modern scholars to refer to the late antique poet as "the Christian Vergil." Combining depictions of violent, single combats with allusions to pagan epic poetry, biblical scenes, and Christian doctrine, the poem captures the dynamism of the later Roman Empire in which the pagan world was giving way to a new, Christian Europe. In this volume, the introduction sets the historical and literary context and illuminates the Psychomachia’s prominent role in western literary history. Mastrangelo’s translation aims to capture the rhetorical power of the author’s Roman Christian Latin for the 21st-century reader. The notes provide the reader with in-depth information on Prudentius’ Latinity, the Roman epic tradition, and Christian doctrine. This volume is directed at students and scholars across the disciplines of comparative literature, classics, religion, and ancient and medieval studies, as well as any reader interested in the history and development of literature in the West.

The corpus-based approach to humor offers innovative and more than plausible objectives, supported by sound arguments, which underline the need to analyze humor both verbally and non-verbally. The cognitive linguistic account of humor sets to analyze a corpus of humorous meanings in interaction and to present the elements that help to create the humorous effects: common ground, intersubjectivity, facial expressions, speakers' attitude, etc. The large corpus of examples annotated in ELAN offers a much-needed multimodal perspective of humor, which encompasses all the different techniques used by speakers. The present analysis offers inspiring insight for future research, in different fields of study: multimodality, humor, and psycholinguistics. The study reveals the need of analyzing both verbal and non-verbal elements in discourse in general and humor in particular as co-speech gestures are essential for the understanding of the message as intended by the speakers.

Polarisation, intransigence and dogmatism in political and moral debate have in recent years threatened to overwhelm many Western-style democracies, where for centuries reasoned argument has been a hallmark feature of tackling disagreement. For many people, this marks a worrying deterioration in the moral and political climate, threatening to create a divisive environment of "us" versus "them". In this superb collection a team of international contributors examine these pressing issues from a philosophical perspective. Topics explored include: the problem of "deep disagreements"; martial conceptions of argumentation and the motivation to argue to win; epistemic egocentrism; intellectual trust; bullshit and dogmatism; intellectual humility and the internet; epistemic and "tribal" arrogance and authoritarianism; empathy and polarisation; and epistemic rights violations. Polarisation, Arrogance, and Dogmatism: Philosophical Perspectives will be of great interest to researchers in political philosophy, applied and social epistemology, ethics and feminist philosophy, as well as those working in politics and sociology.

Is it good to be proud? We sometimes happily speak of being proud of our achievements, ethnicities and identities, yet pride is also often described as the most serious of the seven deadly sins. This edited collection of original essays examines pride from a variety of perspectives in philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology. The volume seeks to explore such topics as the nature of pride, its connection to other human emotions, whether it is a virtue or vice (or both), and what role it might play in both our intellectual and moral lives. Containing diverse voices and viewpoints, this book aims to illuminate the various and complex dimensions of pride.

Every new president raises many questions in the public mind. Because Barack Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, he raised more questions than most. Would he prove to be a pragmatic centrist or would his politics of hope ultimately flounder on the rocky shoals of America’s deep political divisions? What of his leadership style? How would the uncommonly calm character he demonstrated on the campaign trail shape Obama’s political style as commander-in-chief? Based on extensive biographical, psychological, and political research and analysis, noted political psychologist Stanley Renshon follows Obama’s presidency through the first two years. He digs into the question of who is the real Obama and assesses the advantages and limitations that he brings to the presidency. These questions cannot be answered without recourse to psychological analysis. And they cannot be answered without psychological knowledge of presidential leadership and the presidency itself. Renshon explains that Obama’s ambition has been fueled by a desire for redemption—his own, that of his parents, and ultimately for the country he now leads, which has enormous consequences for his choices as president of a politically divided America.