Why the “nature versus nurture” debate persists despite widespread recognition that human traits arise from the interaction of nature and nurture. If everyone now agrees that human traits arise not from nature or nurture but from the interaction of nature and nurture, why does the “nature versus nurture” debate persist? In Beyond Versus, James Tabery argues that the persistence stems from a century-long struggle to understand the interaction of nature and nurture—a struggle to define what the interaction of nature and nurture is, how it should be investigated, and what counts as evidence for it. Tabery examines past episodes in the nature versus nurture debates, offers a contemporary philosophical perspective on them, and considers the future of research on the interaction of nature and nurture. From the eugenics controversy of the 1930s and the race and IQ controversy of the 1970s to the twenty-first-century debate over the causes of depression, Tabery argues, the polarization in these discussions can be attributed to what he calls an “explanatory divide”—a disagreement over how explanation works in science, which in turn has created two very different concepts of interaction. Drawing on recent developments in the philosophy of science, Tabery offers a way to bridge this explanatory divide and these different concepts integratively. Looking to the future, Tabery evaluates the ethical issues that surround genetic testing for genes implicated in interactions of nature and nurture, pointing to what the future does (and does not) hold for a science that continues to make headlines and raise controversy.

"Beyond Mobility" also seeks to rethink how projects are planned and designed in cities and suburbs at multiple geographic scales, from micro-designs such as parklets to corridors and city-regions. The book closes with a reflection on the opportunities and challenges in moving beyond mobility, with attention to emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and ride-hailing services and social equity topics such as accessibility, livability, and affordability.

“Gives to anthropological reflection a new starting point and will become the compulsory reference for all our debates in the years to come.” —Claude Lévi-Strauss, on the French edition Beyond Nature and Culture has been a major influence in European intellectual life since its French publication in 2005. Here, finally, it is brought to English-language readers. At its heart is a question central to both anthropology and philosophy: what is the relationship between nature and culture? Culture—as a collective human making, of art, language, and so forth—is often seen as essentially different from nature, which is portrayed as a collective of the nonhuman world, of plants, animals, geology, and natural forces. Philippe Descola shows this essential difference to be not only a Western notion, but also a very recent one. Drawing on ethnographic examples from around the world and theoretical understandings from cognitive science, structural analysis, and phenomenology, he formulates a sophisticated new framework, the “four ontologies” —animism, totemism, naturalism, and analogism—to account for all the ways we relate ourselves to nature. By thinking beyond nature and culture as a simple dichotomy, Descola offers a fundamental reformulation by which anthropologists and philosophers can see the world afresh. “A compelling and original account of where the nature-culture binary has come from, where it might go—and what we might imagine in its place.” —Somatosphere “The most important book coming from French anthropology since Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Anthropologie Structurale.” —Bruno Latour, author of An Inquiry into Modes of Existence “Descola’s challenging new worldview should be of special interest to a wide range of scientific and academic disciplines from anthropology to zoology . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

"I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. . . . Plastics." This line from the film The Graduate has come to symbolize the hubris, promise, and disappointment embodied in one of the world's most ubiquitous materials. At present, plastics are cheap, widely used, and durable. But that durability means that plastics persist in the environment for decades. Images of swaths of the ocean or beaches awash in plastic trash are regularly in the news. To address the ever-growing mass of plastic waste, entire countries are banning single-use plastic items, and solutions for recycling plastic effectively and for creating eco-friendly plastics are active fields of research. A little over a century ago, however, Leo Baekeland's invention of the first synthetic plastic-Bakelite-earned him the then-laudatory moniker "Father of Plastics" in the press. Bakelite proved to be an extremely useful product, with applications ranging from radio cabinets and electrical insulators to colorful Art Deco jewelry. Yet there is much more to Leo Baekeland's story than Bakelite. In his exploration of Baekeland's long career, Joris Mercelis traces Baekeland's life from his youth in Belgium through his education and immigration to the United States, and highlights Baekeland's other best-known invention, Velox photographic paper. Throughout, Baekeland maintained his American and European professional connections and continued to cross boundaries between the academy, business, and industrial research. While the book does not offer a full biography of Baekeland, Mercelis does use Baekeland's career as tool for examining the changing relations between (academic) science and industry, with special attention to intellectual property strategies and scientific entrepreneurship. Mercelis argues that a transatlantic perspective is necessary to appreciate the role of scientific entrepreneurship and intellectual property in the development of the science-industry nexus, and ultimately asks the question when and where to draw the line between the academic research and industrial pursuits"--

A brilliant new survey and intelligent exploration of progressive rock, from its origins through to contemporary artists. Nicely illustrated, it includes rare photos of artists like Kate Bush and Genesis.