Those in the US who get turned on by watching a predator eat a person outnumber the entire population of Massachusetts, a random American is about as likely to be turned on by parent-child roleplay as they are to be Black, and more Americans are turned on by feces than have a PhD. What the heck is going on here? Why do strange, often-inconvenient things activate a system that presumably evolved to compel humans to reproduce? Why do some things arouse some while repulsing others?Have you ever:- Been aroused by something . . . unexpected?- Stumbled upon bizarre porn and wondered how it could possibly turn people on?- Wondered why something that turns on many of your friends is super gross to you?Have we got a book for you! The Pragmatist's Guide to Sexuality takes a deep dive into research surrounding human sexuality while also presenting one of the most comprehensive studies into what arouses people, using this data to explore everything from the social structures of early hominids to the future of dating.As with all Pragmatist Foundation books, the proceeds generated from the sale of this work go to nonprofits.

The Pragmatist's Guide to Relationships presents a data-driven dissection of sex, dating, and marriage by taking a deep dive into academic literature and stress testing strategies advocated by "marriage gurus" and self-styled pick-up artists. Combining insights from these disparate fields, we construct novel models detailing how humans secure partners and make long-term relationships work while exploring how these systems can be exploited to one's advantage in a world of broken dating markets and plummeting marriage rates. This guide acts as an instruction manual for mate acquisition strategies of all stripes, providing the foundation needed to excel at any number of tricky tasks-be it getting laid, writing a marriage contract, training a spouse, determining whether a partner cheated, exploring the world of non-monogamy, or finding the perfect long-term partner. As with all Pragmatist Foundation books, the proceeds from this book go to nonprofits. In line with the foundation's goals, the book attempts to explore the topic of human relationships without pushing the agenda of any particular ideological team.

Provides a novel reading of the relations between two central philosophical disciplines - metaphysics and ethics, from a pragmatist perspective.

A Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize National Bestseller Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book One of TIME’s 100 Must Read Books of the Year One of The Washington Post’s 50 Notable Nonfiction Books of the Year One of Smithsonian Magazine’s 10 Best Science Books of the Year One of Publishers Weekly’s Best Nonfiction Books of the Year A New York Times Editor’s Choice Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world’s most elusive fish—the eel—and a reflection on the human condition Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has become known as the “eel question”: Where do eels come from? What are they? Are they fish or some other kind of creature altogether? Even today, in an age of advanced science, no one has ever seen eels mating or giving birth, and we still don’t understand what drives them, after living for decades in freshwater, to swim great distances back to the ocean at the end of their lives. They remain a mystery. Drawing on a breadth of research about eels in literature, history, and modern marine biology, as well as his own experience fishing for eels with his father, Patrik Svensson crafts a mesmerizing portrait of an unusual, utterly misunderstood, and completely captivating animal. In The Book of Eels, we meet renowned historical thinkers, from Aristotle to Sigmund Freud to Rachel Carson, for whom the eel was a singular obsession. And we meet the scientists who spearheaded the search for the eel’s point of origin, including Danish marine biologist Johannes Schmidt, who led research efforts in the early twentieth century, catching thousands upon thousands of eels, in the hopes of proving their birthing grounds in the Sargasso Sea. Blending memoir and nature writing at its best, Svensson’s journey to understand the eel becomes an exploration of the human condition that delves into overarching issues about our roots and destiny, both as humans and as animals, and, ultimately, how to handle the biggest question of all: death. The result is a gripping and slippery narrative that will surprise and enchant.

It is commonly believed that populist politics and social media pose a serious threat to our concept of truth. Philosophical pragmatists, who are typically thought to regard truth as merely that which is 'helpful' for us to believe, are sometimes blamed for providing the theoretical basis for the phenomenon of 'post-truth'. In this book, Sami Pihlström develops a pragmatist account of truth and truth-seeking based on the ideas of William James, and defends a thoroughly pragmatist view of humanism which gives space for a sincere search for truth. By elaborating on James's pragmatism and the 'will to believe' strategy in the philosophy of religion, Pihlström argues for a Kantian-inspired transcendental articulation of pragmatism that recognizes irreducible normativity as a constitutive feature of our practices of pursuing the truth. James himself thereby emerges as a deeply Kantian thinker.

Sociopragmatics is a rapidly growing field and this is the first ever handbook dedicated to this exciting area of study. Bringing together an international team of leading editors and contributors, it provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge overview of the key concepts, topics, settings and methodologies involved in sociopragmatic research. The chapters are organised in a systematic fashion, and span a wide range of theoretical research on how language communicates multiple meanings in context, how it influences our daily interactions and relationships with others, and how it helps construct our social worlds. Providing insight into a fascinating array of phenomena and novel research directions, the Handbook is not only relevant to experts of pragmatics but to any reader with an interest in language and its use in different contexts, including researchers in sociology, anthropology and communication, and students of applied linguistics and related areas, as well as professional practitioners in communication research.