Essays Social

Does it take faith to be a Jedi? Are droids capable of thought? Should Jar Jar Binks be held responsible for the rise of the Empire? Presenting entirely new essays, no aspect of the myth and magic of George Lucas's creation is left philosophically unexamined in The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy.

Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories, entitled Censorship Now!!, is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea, documentary film-making, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more. It’s an underground smash which has been met with horrified gasps in all respectable quarters and gog-eyed enthusiasm in artist garrets the world over.

How did the banks run wild for so long? Why are so many aged-care residents malnourished? And how is it that arms manufacturers sponsor the Australian War Memorial? In this passionate essay, Richard Denniss explores what neoliberalism has done to Australian society.

"Je suis convaincue de l'urgence morale qu'il y a à nous atteler à imaginer ensemble une éducation différente pour nos enfants, pour tenter de créer un monde plus juste à l'égard des femmes et des hommes." À une amie qui lui demande quelques conseils pour élever selon les règles de l'art du féminisme la petite fille qu'elle vient de mettre au monde, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie répond sous la forme d'une missive enjouée, non dénuée d'ironie, qui prend vite la tournure d'un manifeste.

Public school is a daunting, tedious, occasionally bloody experience shared by millions of students, current and former. Classroom fights, incompetent teachers, sex in bathrooms, rigid social castes - it's shocking most of us graduated able to read. Take Out Your Earrings Before You Fight takes a dry, witty look at all the things you learn - and everything you don't - while slogging through the K-12 system.

Marco Balzano ispirandosi nel titolo al film di Nanni Moretti Palombella Rossa, si interroga sul perché l'etimologia sia una scienza che non riceve la considerazione che merita nonostante eserciti, in chi ci si avvicina, un forte fascino. Attraverso quelli che a tutti gli effetti potremmo definire dieci scavi etimologici, ci dice che ogni parola ha un corpo da rispettare che non può essere stravolto a nostro piacimento. Perché ogni parola ha una sua identità e una sua vita autonoma.

In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of the most important and influential pieces written in the last 15 years of Judt's life, the years in which he found his voice in the public sphere. Included are seminal essays on the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality, before 1989 and thereafter; Israel, the Holocaust and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11.

In this perceptive, compelling essay, Katharine Murphy offers a profile of Anthony Albanese in motion – a piece about character, the balance of forces, and the mood of the nation. Are Albanese and his party up for change? Are Australians up for it? What does the new prime minister embody, if anything? Has the centre of the polity shifted, with the success of the Teals and the Greens? Where could – and should – the new government be ambitious?

Culto della giovinezza, idolatria dell'intelligenza, ossessione della crescita economica, tirannia della moda: sono alcuni dei miti di oggi che Umberto Galimberti passa in rassegna per smontarli e denunciarne la natura ingannevole, mostrando come i falsi miti siano in realtà "idee malate", non avvertite come tali, e quindi tanto più capaci di diffondere i loro effetti nefasti senza trovare la minima resistenza. Sono i miti del nostro tempo, le idee che più di altre ci pervadono e ci plasmano come individui e come società.

Love or Laws: When Law Punishes Life (Essays on Law, Policy and Psychiatry, Vol. 4, 2018) is a study on so-called "sex laws" or age-of-consent laws. The study takes a critical point of departure and attempts to demonstrate that ages of consent are rather arbitrary legal instruments for so-called child protection. In fact, they are ineffective and do not protect children effectively against sexual abuse.

Brave, clear-eyed, and passionate, Stakes Is High is the book we need to guide us past crisis mode and through an uncertain future. The events of the past decade have forced us to reckon with who we are and who we want to be. We have been invested in a set of beliefs about our American identity...

The Burden, edited by award-winning Detroit newspaper columnist Rochelle Riley, is a powerful collection of essays that create a chorus of evidence that the burden is real. The Burden expresses the voices of well-known Americans, such as actor/director Tim Reid who compares slavery to a cancer diagnosis, and former Detroit News columnist Betty DeRamus who recounts the discrimination she encountered as a young Black Detroiter in the south.

So erklärt Heinrich Heine den Franzosen die Religion und Philosophie ihrer deutschen Nachbarn. "Und es entstand der Aberglaube, dass man kein Philosoph sei, wenn man gut schriebe" (Heine). Heine sagt von sich selbst, er sei kein Mann der Wissenschaft. Aber schreiben kann er!

Так казав Заратустра — філософський тритомний роман-трактат Фрідріха Ніцше, зміст якого обертається навколо ідей вічного повторення, "смерті Бога" та пророцтва про надлюдину. Головний персонаж — переосмислений Ніцше пророк зороастризму Заратустра, що повертається з проповіддю до людства після тривалого усамітнення в горах.

The Great Barrier Reef is dying. Extreme weather is becoming all too familiar. And the Coalition government is divided and paralysed. In this vivid, urgent essay, Anna Krien explores the psychology and politics of a warming world.

First, Catch is a cookbook without recipes, an invitation to journey through the digressive mind of a chef at work, and a hymn to a singular nine-dish festive spring lunch. In Eagle’s kitchen, open shelves reveal colorful jars of vegetables pickling over months, and a soffritto of onions, celery, and carrots cook slowly under a watchful gaze in a skillet heavy enough to double as a murder weapon. He is a tour guide to the world of ingredients, a culinary explorer, and thoughtful commentator on the ways immigration, technology, and fashion has changed the way we eat.

In diesem Werk sind vier Essays versammelt, die sich verschiedensten Themen widmen. Von Fragen nach Glaubensgewissheit, über Betrachtungen von Selbstentfremdung, bis hin zu Ideen für eine Geschichte der Philosophie, in all diese Themen wird der Hörer durch die Stimme von Wolfgang Nogler eingeführt. Der Autor Ortega ist nach nur wenigen Sätzen tief in der Thematik und ihren Problemen angekommen - und denkt über den im Wesentlichen utopischen Charakter menschlichen Tuns nach. Dem Hörer werden die Augen geöffnet durch Einsichten und Zusammenhänge, die ihm bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht bewusst waren.

Black Music is a book about the brilliant young jazz musicians of the early 1960s: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and others. It is composed of essays, reviews, interviews, liner notes, musical analyses, and personal impressions from 1959-1967. Also includes Amiri Baraka's reflections in a 2009 interview with Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly.

In her literary debut, internationally award-winning writer Courtney Zoffness considers what we inherit from generations past - biologically, culturally, spiritually - and what we pass on to our children.

Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism, memoir, and biography, one of our most celebrated critics writes about the importance of reading - and re-reading - as life progresses. Guided by Gornick’s trademark verve and insight, Unfinished Business is a masterful appreciation of literature’s power to illuminate our lives from a peerless writer and thinker.