Hermeneutics, Metacognition, and Writing

Edited by Maryann Pasda DiEdwardo, Lehigh University; University of Maryland Global Campus

December 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-822-9
Availability: In stock
124pp. ¦ $41 £31 €35

'Hermeneutics, Metacognition, and Writing' investigates the social functionality of actions as an essential criterion of study. It focuses on hermeneutics: interpretation through the lens of philosophy of metacognition. Vital contributions to the book include several chapters by Dr. Maryann P. DiEdwardo herself, which explore various facets of the central topic, including the intersectionality of hermeneutics, metacognition, and semiotics, as well as social movements. Dr. Juliet Emmanuel writes on the subject of the connections between hermeneutics, metacognition, and writing, and Jill Kroeger Kinkade presents a chapter on D.H.Lawrence, Hilda Doolittle, and Virginia Woolf’s portrayals of consciousness. Patricia Pasda discusses what links Sr. Francis of Assisi, dogs, and hermeneutics; Dr. T. Madison Peschock presents a feminist paper concerning abuse of those not wielding power. Susan Stangeland offers her expertise and scholarship in the area of Biblical Hermeneutics. This collection of critiques and case studies examines the imagined cultural landscape of specific works and associated activities such as fine art, music, poetry, and digital humanities, which aim to initiate self-monitoring as metacognition, or meta-reflection, by creating interior interpersonal space to overcome adversity. This edited volume will be of particular interest to scholars and students of textual hermeneutics as it relates to prose writing and artistic works in non-verbal media.

New Asian Approaches to Africa: Rivalries and Collaborations

Edited by Takuo Iwata, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan

September 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-809-0
Availability: In stock
296pp. ¦ $62 £47 €53

| Winner of the The Japan Consortium for Area Studies' 2021 Research Project Award | The 21st century has seen an increase in the presence and influence of Asian governments, firms and other stake-holders in Africa. With the changing times, changes in approaches to Africa by four major Asian countries (China, India, Japan and South Korea) have taken place. By tracing the history between these Asian countries and African countries, this collection reflects on the “new” phases of Asian Approaches to Africa. Composed by authors who are not only experienced expert scholars of African Studies, but also prominent specialists on African policies of Asian countries, this collection focuses on the official development assistance (ODA) as well as other crucial issues and actors such as business, civil society, and media to explore the new Asian approaches to Africa in a comprehensive manner. Organised into three sections, this collection explores the experiences of the “forums” (conferences, or summits) for Africa’s development hosted by four major Asian countries, reflects on Asian cultural influence in Africa, and highlights new phases of Asian approaches to Africa. This book looks to the future collaboration of Asian actors/ partners working in/ with Africa, rather than exaggerating rivalries and disputes in order to grasp the potentialities and challenges in the relationship between the two regions; an emerging and ongoing agenda that we will encounter further in the coming years. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and professors in universities, as well as research institutes on Asian and African Studies. It will also be of value to journalists, and government officials; particularly diplomats.

Jesus and his Two Fathers: The Person and the Legacy

Uri Wernik

October 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-770-3
Availability: In stock
232pp. ¦ $62 £46 €52

Who was Jesus in real life? What inspired his ideas? What did he aim to achieve? What drew his disciples to him? How was he influenced by them? Unlike the many “quests for the historical Jesus”, as a psychologist, Wernik answers these questions from the perspectives of psychology and the social sciences. This book’s central axis is the theme of the father. It looks at the family constellation into which Jesus was born, where he was raised by a stepfather. It also investigates the relationship he develops with God, his father in heaven; and examines how he became a father figure to his disciples and followers. It is hoped that readers will also think about their own father when reading, the one usually called “dad”. Jesus and His Two Fathers sees Jesus’ love of peace and appeasement doctrine, as well as his difficulty with anger control, in the context of his upbringing and family constellation. Wernik offers a solution to the problem of the “missing years” which were unaccounted in the New Testament. He examines the internal conflicts in Jesus’ movement, and the tensions with the religious establishment, which led to his death. Jesus did not see himself as the Messiah, and Wernik shows him in fact as a great reformer of Judaism, who changed the notions of righteousness, the relation of the believers to God, and the status of the commandments. This book will be of interest to scholars, teachers and students in the humanities and social sciences, among others in the fields of religion, especially Christianity and Judaism. It is aimed at interested discerning readers of non-fiction in these areas.

Revisiting Richard Rorty

Edited by Pedro Góis Moreira, Catholic University of Portugal, Portugal

December 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-761-1
Availability: In stock
275pp. ¦ $63 £47 €53

Richard Rorty is considered one of the most original philosophers of the last decades, and he has generated warm enthusiasm on the part of many intellectuals and students, within and outside the field of philosophy. The collection opens with an essay by Robert Brandom, in which he continues the discussion of Rorty’s “vocabulary vocabulary” that he began in Rorty and his Critics, and ends with an interview in which Brandom talks about Rorty himself as a teacher and friend. The collection is then divided into three further sections, each addressing an aspect of Rorty’s thought. First, a political section contains several essays discussing Rorty’s notorious “prophecy” in Achieving our Country and the idea that he would have foreseen the rise of a political “strongman.” Also discussed are Rorty's view of the cultural left, his view of the relation between truth and democracy, and Rorty on the concept of fraternity. In a second, epistemological section, several essays address Rorty’s historicism, anti-representationalism, and his views on truth and on religion, often through the lenses of his critics (Putnam, Habermas, Dews). A final section addresses the relations between Rorty and other philosophers such as Hume, Heidegger, and Ortega y Gasset. This works contains valuable essays in three languages — English, Portuguese, and Spanish — and is a small example of the reach of Rorty’s thought and its expansion beyond the Anglo-Saxon world in only ten years after his death. It will appeal to Rorty’s scholars and researchers as well as any student of pragmatism and anti-foundationalist thought.

Spiritualities, ethics, and implications of human enhancement and artificial intelligence

Edited by Christopher Hrynkow, University of Saskatchewan

October 2019 / ISBN: 978-1-62273-823-6
Availability: In stock
302pp. ¦ $64 £48 €54

By taking a religiously and spiritually literature approach, this volume gets the heart of several emerging ethical issues crucial to both human identity and personhood beyond the human as technology advances in the areas of human enhancement and artificial intelligence (AI). Several significant questions are addressed by the contributors, such as: How far should we go in improving our biological selves? How long should we aspire to live? What are fair and just human enhancements? When will AIs become people? What does AI spirituality consist of? Can AIs do more than project humour and emotions? What are the religious undertones of these high technology quests for better AI and improved human existence? Established and emerging voices explore these questions, and more, in Spiritualities, ethics, and implications of human enhancement and artificial intelligence. This volume will be of interest to university students and researchers absorbed by issues surrounding spiritualities, human enhancement, and artificial intelligence; while also providing points for reflection for the wider public as these topics become increasingly important to our common future.