Breakdown of Will

Breakdown of Will
Title Breakdown of Will PDF eBook
Author George Ainslie
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 274
Release 2001-03-19
Genre Business & Economics
ISBN 9780521596947

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Ainslie argues that our responses to the threat of our own inconsistency determine the basic fabric of human culture. He suggests that individuals are more like populations of bargaining agents than like the hierarchical command structures envisaged by cognitive psychologists. The forces that create and constrain these populations help us understand so much that is puzzling in human action and interaction: from addictions and other self-defeating behaviors to the experience of willfulness, from pathological over-control and self-deception to subtler forms of behavior such as altruism, sadism, gambling, and the 'social construction' of belief. This book integrates approaches from experimental psychology, philosophy of mind, microeconomics, and decision science to present one of the most profound and expert accounts of human irrationality available. It will be of great interest to philosophers and an important resource for professionals and students in psychology, economics and political science.

Stand Out of Our Light

Stand Out of Our Light
Title Stand Out of Our Light PDF eBook
Author James Williams
Publisher
Pages 151
Release 2018-05-31
Genre Computers
ISBN 1108429092

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Argues that human freedom is threatened by systems of intelligent persuasion developed by tech giants who compete for our time and attention. This title is also available as Open Access.

The Diversity Bargain

The Diversity Bargain
Title The Diversity Bargain PDF eBook
Author Natasha K. Warikoo
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 304
Release 2016-11-15
Genre Education
ISBN 022640028X

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We’ve heard plenty from politicians and experts on affirmative action and higher education, about how universities should intervene—if at all—to ensure a diverse but deserving student population. But what about those for whom these issues matter the most? In this book, Natasha K. Warikoo deeply explores how students themselves think about merit and race at a uniquely pivotal moment: after they have just won the most competitive game of their lives and gained admittance to one of the world’s top universities. What Warikoo uncovers—talking with both white students and students of color at Harvard, Brown, and Oxford—is absolutely illuminating; and some of it is positively shocking. As she shows, many elite white students understand the value of diversity abstractly, but they ignore the real problems that racial inequality causes and that diversity programs are meant to solve. They stand in fear of being labeled a racist, but they are quick to call foul should a diversity program appear at all to hamper their own chances for advancement. The most troubling result of this ambivalence is what she calls the “diversity bargain,” in which white students reluctantly agree with affirmative action as long as it benefits them by providing a diverse learning environment—racial diversity, in this way, is a commodity, a selling point on a brochure. And as Warikoo shows, universities play a big part in creating these situations. The way they talk about race on campus and the kinds of diversity programs they offer have a huge impact on student attitudes, shaping them either toward ambivalence or, in better cases, toward more productive and considerate understandings of racial difference. Ultimately, this book demonstrates just how slippery the notions of race, merit, and privilege can be. In doing so, it asks important questions not just about college admissions but what the elite students who have succeeded at it—who will be the world’s future leaders—will do with the social inequalities of the wider world.

Nervous Fictions

Nervous Fictions
Title Nervous Fictions PDF eBook
Author Jess Keiser
Publisher University of Virginia Press
Pages 444
Release 2020-09-21
Genre History
ISBN 0813944791

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"The brain contains ten thousand cells," wrote the poet Matthew Prior in 1718, "in each some active fancy dwells." In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, just as scientists began to better understand the workings of the nerves, the nervous system became the site for a series of elaborate fantasies. The pineal gland is transformed into a throne for the sovereign soul. Animal spirits march the nerves like parading soldiers. An internal archivist searches through cerebral impressions to locate certain memories. An anatomist discovers that the brain of a fashionable man is stuffed full of beautiful clothes and billet-doux. A hypochondriac worries that his own brain will be disassembled like a watch. A sentimentalist sees the entire world as a giant nervous system comprising sympathetic spectators. Nervous Fictions is the first account of the Enlightenment origins of neuroscience and the "active fancies" it generated. By surveying the work of scientists (Willis, Newton, Cheyne), philosophers (Descartes, Cavendish, Locke), satirists (Swift, Pope), and novelists (Haywood, Fielding, Sterne), Keiser shows how attempts to understand the brain’s relationship to the mind produced in turn new literary forms. Early brain anatomists turned to tropes to explicate psyche and cerebrum, just as poets and novelists found themselves exploring new kinds of mental and physical interiority. In this respect, literary language became a tool to aid scientific investigation, while science spurred literary invention.

Holy Humanitarians

Holy Humanitarians
Title Holy Humanitarians PDF eBook
Author Heather D. Curtis
Publisher Harvard University Press
Pages 385
Release 2018-04-16
Genre Religion
ISBN 0674737369

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On May 10, 1900, an enthusiastic Brooklyn crowd bid farewell to the Quito. The ship sailed for famine-stricken Bombay, carrying both tangible relief—thousands of tons of corn and seeds—and “a tender message of love and sympathy from God’s children on this side of the globe to those on the other.” The Quito may never have gotten under way without support from the era’s most influential religious newspaper, the Christian Herald, which urged its American readers to alleviate poverty and suffering abroad and at home. In Holy Humanitarians, Heather D. Curtis argues that evangelical media campaigns transformed how Americans responded to domestic crises and foreign disasters during a pivotal period for the nation. Through graphic reporting and the emerging medium of photography, evangelical publishers fostered a tremendously popular movement of faith-based aid that rivaled the achievements of competing agencies like the American Red Cross. By maintaining that the United States was divinely ordained to help the world’s oppressed and needy, the Christian Herald linked humanitarian assistance with American nationalism at a time when the country was stepping onto the global stage. Social reform, missionary activity, disaster relief, and economic and military expansion could all be understood as integral features of Christian charity. Drawing on rigorous archival research, Curtis lays bare the theological motivations, social forces, cultural assumptions, business calculations, and political dynamics that shaped America’s ambivalent embrace of evangelical philanthropy. In the process she uncovers the seeds of today’s heated debates over the politics of poverty relief and international aid.

Novel Engineering, K-8

Novel Engineering, K-8
Title Novel Engineering, K-8 PDF eBook
Author Elissa Milto
Publisher National Science Teachers Association
Pages 0
Release 2020
Genre Science
ISBN 9781681406428

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"Picture your students designing a hearing aid for the main character in El Deafo-and then disguising it as a fashion accessory. Or imagine them helping the shipwrecked Swiss Family Robinson build a structure to keep them cool under the hot sun. Novel Engineering shows how your students can use anything from a picture book to a novel to a historical text as the basis for an engineering design challenge. This innovative resource will have your students pulling information from literature to identify a problem. Then, using details from the story, they'll apply the engineering design process to develop functional solutions for their "clients"-the book's characters. Novel Engineering provides you with plenty of practical guidance for integrating engineering and English language arts (ELA), including a thorough introduction to the concept and detailed implementation advice. But the book comes to life through five in-depth case studies featuring the use of novels, a biography, and a nonfiction historical text. In addition to demonstrating Novel Engineering projects in the classroom, the case studies let you practice thinking about what your own students' work could look like and how you would respond. You'll see that this approach doesn't require books outside your existing ELA or social studies curriculum or a specific building-materials kit. You'll also see that Novel Engineering can help you engage students in a powerful new way. As the authors write, "We have been encouraged by the excitement that students and teachers have shown for their work during Novel Engineering units. ... Students have taken ownership of their learning and are able to navigate the steps of the engineering design process, creating functional solutions to problems they have identified in texts.""--

Promoting Positive Youth Development

Promoting Positive Youth Development
Title Promoting Positive Youth Development PDF eBook
Author Edmond P. Bowers
Publisher Springer
Pages 296
Release 2015-07-13
Genre Psychology
ISBN 3319171666

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This book presents the results of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. The volume discusses how self-regulation and contextual resources (e.g., strong relationships with parents, peers, and the community) can be fostered in young people to contribute to the enhancement of functioning throughout life. Each chapter examines a particular aspect of youth thriving, and offers findings on either the bases or the role of positive development in a variety of outcomes, from reduced risk of emotional problems and harmful behaviors to increased participation in the community. Contributors introduce a contemporary model of positive development for diverse youth, provide examples of effective youth development programs, and suggest applications for informing the next generation of policies and practices. Among the featured topics: The regulation of emotion in adolescence. School engagement, academic achievement, and positive youth development. Peer relationships and positive youth development. Identity development in adolescence and the implications for youth policy and practice. Promoting adolescent sexual health in youth programming. A positive youth development approach to bullying. Researchers in developmental psychology as well as practitioners in educational or youth development programs or policies will gain from Promoting Positive Youth Development a new appreciation of the central role of young people's strengths, and initiatives to build effective youth programs. “This volume is destined to become the handbook for anyone interested in the bourgeoning field of positive youth development. Based on ground breaking, longitudinal research from top researchers in the field, Promoting Healthy Development for America’s Youth presents a rich, theoretically grounded understanding of the landscape today’s youth and programs. The contributors provide clear, data-driven guidance regarding the types of programs and settings that are most beneficial to young people.” Jean E. Rhodes, Ph.D. Frank L. Boyden Professor Department of Psychology University of Massachusetts, Boston