From Descartes to Popper, philosophers have criticized and tried to improve the strategies of reasoning invoked in science and in everyday life. In recent years leading cognitive psychologists have painted a detailed, controversial, and highly critical portrait of common sense reasoning. Stephen Stich begins with a spirited defense of this work and a critique of those writers who argue that widespread irrationality is a biological or conceptual impossibility. Stich then explores the nature of rationality and irrationality: What is it that distinguishes good reasoning from bad? He rejects the most widely accepted approaches to this question approaches which unpack rationality by appeal to truth, to reflective equilibrium or conceptual analysis. The alternative he defends grows out of the pragmatic tradition in which reasoning is viewed as a cognitive tool. Stich's version of pragmatism leads to a radical epistemic relativism and he argues that the widespread abhorrence of relativism is ill founded. Stephen Stich is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science.

Habitat loss and degradation that comes as a result of human activity is the single biggest threat to biodiversity in the world today. Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change is a groundbreaking work that brings together a wealth of information from a wide range of sources to define the ecological problems caused by landscape change and to highlight the relationships among landscape change, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity conservation. The book: synthesizes a large body of information from the scientific literature considers key theoretical principles for examining and predicting effects examines the range of effects that can arise explores ways of mitigating impacts reviews approaches to studying the problem discusses knowledge gaps and future areas for research and management Habitat Fragmentation and Landscape Change offers a unique mix of theoretical and practical information, outlining general principles and approaches and illustrating those principles with case studies from around the world. It represents a definitive overview and synthesis on the full range of topics that fall under the widely used but often vaguely defined term "habitat fragmentation."

The Fragmentation of Being offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions in ontology. There are many kinds of beings but are there also many kinds of being? The world contains a variety of objects, each of which, let us provisionally assume, exists, but do some objects exist in different ways? Do some objects enjoy more being or existence than other objects? Are there different ways in which one object might enjoy more being than another? Most contemporary metaphysicians would answer "no" to each of these questions. So widespread is this consensus that the questions this book addressed are rarely even raised let alone explicitly answered. But Kris McDaniel carefully examines a wide range of reasons for answering each of these questions with a "yes". In doing so, he connects these questions with many important metaphysical topics, including substance and accident, time and persistence, the nature of ontological categories, possibility and necessity, presence and absence, persons and value, ground and consequence, and essence and accident. In addition to discussing contemporary problems and theories, McDaniel also discusses the ontological views of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Aquinas, Aristotle, Descartes, Heidegger, Husserl, Kant, Leibniz, Meinong, and many more.

Doing business in the digital age The Great Fragmentation: And Why the Future of All Business is Small is a business survival manifesto for the technology revolution. As the world moves from the industrial era to the digital age, power is shifting and fragmenting. Power is no longer about might and ownership; power in a digital world is about access. Existing businesses need to understand this shift and position themselves to survive and thrive in an environment where entrepreneurs and start-ups enabled by access to technology are genuine threats. Author Steve Sammartino is widely regarded as a thought leader on the subject of technology and business, and helps companies transition from industrial-era thinking to the mindset and processes required to compete in today's digital marketplace. The Great Fragmentation shows how technological changes such as Big Data, gamification, crowdfunding, Bitcoin, 3D printing, social media, mashup culture and artisanal production will forever change business and the way we live our lives. Examine how the digital era has altered where we work, how we work, where we live and what we do Discover how the digital era has impacted social and economic structures, including educational systems, financial systems and government policy Understand that the social media and collecting 'friends' is just the tip of the iceberg in a digital business environment Weaving together insights from business, technology and anthropology, The Great Fragmentation provides both corporations and entrepreneurs with a playbook for the future of work, life and business in the digital era.

How did the interplay between class and ethnicity play out within the working class during the Gilded Age? Richard Jules Oestreicher illuminates the immigrant communities, radical politics, worker-employer relationships, and the multiple meanings of workers' affiliations in Detroit at the end of the nineteenth century.

Discover the rich creative possibilities of fragmentation and repair in textile art. Fragmentation and repair are two of the biggest buzzwords in textile and mixed-media art. In this fascinating book, renowned artist Shelley Rhodes explores both concepts, with a wealth of fresh ideas and practical advice. Drawing on her own practice, Shelley explains how she reconstructs and reassembles cloth, paper and other materials to create new pieces, often incorporating found objects and items she has collected over the years to add depth and emotional resonance. From piercing and devoré to patching and darning, techniques include: Fragmentation of materials, text and image. Repair using darning and patching along with pins, tape, adhesive and plaster. The Japanese concepts of wabi-sabi (finding beauty in imperfection) and mottainai (using every last scrap). Using salvaged and recycled materials, and repurposing household items. Methods of distressing and manipulating surfaces including weathering, abrasion, burning, piercing, staining and burying. Collage, working in a series and collecting fragments. Beautifully illustrated with Shelley's own pieces alongside those of other leading artists, this fascinating book is the ideal companion for any textile artist wanting to bring notions of fragility, fragmentation and repair into their own work.

For a brief period during the latter part of World War II, Nevill F. Mott led a theoretical group at Fort Halstead in the United Kingdom that tackled scientific issues related to pressing war-time concerns. Among later awards and honors, Mott was knighted and a recipient of the Nobel Prize. While at Fort Halstead, he undertook an effort to theoretically describe the statistical fragmentation of munitions subjected to intense explosive loading. Mott`s original internal reports contain seminal theoretical concepts on the physics and statistics of dynamic fracture and fragmentation, which have provided the inspiration for numerous later modeling efforts and engineering formulae. Some of his most forward-looking thoughts on the micromechanical and molecular aspects of fracture are included in these publications. The present book surveys the theoretical analysis put forth by Mott with particular focus on his efforts to characterize the size and distribution of fragments resulting from a dynamic fragmentation event. Copies of the original internal reports of Mott and his co-workers are included. The book also pursues additional theoretical analysis with the intent of delving further into the physical ideas and unfinished analysis implicit in Mott`s original studies. This book will be of interest to all scientists and engineers concerned with the dynamic fracture and fragmentation of solid bodies subject to intense transient loads imparted by explosive detonation and high-velocity impact from both the historical and modern perspective.