Everything is Design: The Hidden Ethics of Our Objects and Public Spaces

Alan J. Reid, Johns Hopkins University; Coastal Carolina University

Ethics – to put it concisely – is ‘mindful well-being’. It is a set of standards that guides how we treat ourselves, one another, and the environment. When we design things for public use, we also communicate an ethical perspective. When we use things designed for us, we adopt their ethics. This book synthesizes several different disciplines as they relate to design, ethics, and the built environment. Our objects, according to philosophers like Ihde, Verbeek, and Latour, mediate our experiences with the world around us. Through their designs (and, by extension, our perceived affordances), we largely comply with what our objects and spaces want us to do. At the micro-level, the phones in our pockets command our attentive processes in order to feed an attention economy. At the macro level, urban planning and infrastructure can both promote inclusivity and foment violence. We are deeply intertwined with the objects and spaces that have been designed for us. Baked into every object, process, system, and environment are the remnants of the designer’s morals, ethics, values, and biases. Importantly, this book seeks to cultivate mindfulness of the reader’s interactions with their surrounding world, providing them with a line of inquiry that questions areas of unethical design in their built environment and offers useful critiques and new solutions to these ethical dilemmas. We often have the power to reject those things that are irresponsibly designed and unethical in nature, and it is through this agency as users that we can demand better from designers, developers, and companies. It is imperative to understand our mediated relationships with the built environment that surrounds us and the objects within it; this can help explain our behaviors and empower us to make ethical decisions that serve future generations.

Vagabondage: A Timeless Reaction to the Malignancy of Western Civilization

Ian Cutler

This book concerns why the writers featured sought to exile themselves from mainstream society, not least by embracing the ‘natural’ world and an ascetic lifestyle. With the help of generous references from the 30-plus vagabond writers featured (plus many more contributions from secondary texts), Cutler has identified what he regards as the key features of the temperament and philosophy of those who rejected mannered, conventional society for a vagabond life. Each chapter addresses a different aspect of vagabondage under such themes as: wanderlust; the compulsion not to live a settled existence; asceticism; affinity with nature; the desire to retain the innocence (and mischief) of childhood; aloofness yet compassion for the rest of human-kind; and the rejection of formal education for knowledge experienced via their own senses. Refusing to be compromised by the grand narratives of religion, politics, law, nationalism, and convention, they regarded themselves as ‘citizens of the universe’ rather than slaves of what they regarded as geographical and political states artificially created by humans. Cutler attempts to rescue from obscurity, the philosophy first espoused by the ancient Cynics and now practiced—outside of any organized movement—by this disparate group of thinkers and writers, by presenting arguments and conclusions that are original to this work.

Political Breakout: Situation, Need, Action

Tony Fry

The book is totally preoccupied with thinking beyond existing political thought and institutions. It recognizes that irrespective of who or where we are, and no matter if we know it or not, “we” now all live in “the end times.” Most explicitly, this moment is expressed by evolutionary biology, making clear that planetary life is at the start of the sixth extinction event – a situation indivisible from climate change impacts. The already unstable geopolitical “state of the world” and its dangers will amplify the coming eco-environmental conditions, resulting in population displacement, resource stress, critical conditions of food security, and conflict. Globally, across all political ideologies, existing institutional politics demonstrate an incapability of responding to these situations. There is an evident temporal disjuncture between how extant politics is positioned in time and the moment of an ever-accelerating end times. Effectively, political institutions, their theory and practice, are out-of-step with terminal speeding “defuturing” events. As the book makes clear, this situation needs to be fully recognised. At the same time, there are visions and political positions presenting themselves as directing what will come after the end times. Viewing these positions indicates that the future will be plural and contested. In one direction, technology and corporations will become even more powerful (as a critique of the literature on “accelerationism” shows). But at the other extreme, a huge swathe of displaced humanity is almost certain to be abandoned. In the face of these prospects, new political thinking and practices are essential. But this will not come from the existing political paradigm. Such change needs a new political imagination. Responding to this need is a primary focus of the book. To do this, the influence of Spinoza on political imagination provides a key point of engagement and departure.

Amplifying Student and Youth Voices in Education Research

Edited by Erika Abarca Millán, New York University

When trying to figure out a solution to a problem, wouldn’t you involve in the process those affected by the issue? For the longest time, education research didn’t —the voices of those most affected by educational disparities and inequities were not part of the solution to the very issues which they faced. By including students’ and youth’s perspectives, education researchers can now begin to identify and understand the issues that pervade students’ contexts under a more nuanced light, and thus, embrace the notion that students and youth are not passive recipients of change, but rightful architects of the solutions to the critical challenges affecting them. This edited volume aims to showcase the value that can be created by amplifying the voices of marginalized and minoritized students and youth, and examining their experiences through various qualitative methods. The chapters in this volume include projects conducted in different settings and countries and address important issues concerning students and youth, including post-secondary education, special education, learning disabilities, the juvenile justice system, among others. This volume is for you if you are interested in equity and education research and it will serve you as a reference for research that has actively and consciously included student and youth voices. Whether it be through instruction, research or policy, this volume aims to inspire you to put in motion the work that remains to be done, so that we can provide all students and youth, regardless of their characteristics and context, with the specific resources they need to thrive in their personal and academic journeys.

The Old and the New: Churching a Secular Age from Solovyóv to Bulgakov

Michael Lee Miller, University of Cambridge

In the midst of exile from his native Russia in the mid-1930s, Fr Sergii Bulgakov identified his basic aspiration as an Orthodox theologian to be a ‘positive overcoming of Modernity’ - in fact, a continuation of the efforts of his great 19th-century inspiration, Vladimir Solovyóv, to reconstruct Christian thought and culture in the face of the unprecedented challenges posed by the Enlightenment and the era of revolutionary upheaval. But Bulgakov’s theological vision also involves a distinctive revision of Solovyóv’s programme, whose ‘residual Hegelianism’ continually threatens to level out speculative reason and mystagogical faith, progress in history and ‘the Kingdom not of this World’. Bulgakov refuses any such levelling: instead, he consummates the ‘apocalyptic turn’ Solovyóv had already commenced in the years immediately preceding his premature death in 1900. The resulting preference for the paradox of ‘antinomy’ over the closure of ‘dialectic’ comes to light in relation to four themes running through Bulgakov’s thinking in the decades falling between his rejection of Marxism and the commencement of his mature systematic-theological work in the 1930s: history, work, knowledge, and power.

False Idols: How Diversion is Destroying Democracy

Kurt Warner

The ancient Roman poet and satirist Juvenal stated that people were distracted by “bread and circuses” rather than engaged in their civic duty. Juvenal argued these bread and circuses, or basic needs and entertainment, consumed the thoughts and lives of the average Roman no matter what was happening in the Republic around them. The powerful political forces in society used many different forms of distraction to enable them to do what they wanted unimpeded by the masses. 'False Idols: How Diversion Is Destroying Democracy' picks up where Juvenal left off. The book is a journey through contemporary America and it illustrates how the concept of “bread and circuses” is as powerful and as relevant now as it was in the days of ancient Rome. It examines the deliberate distractions that are created by the cultivation of false idols. The distractions include the adoration of celebrities and parasocial interactions, the economic culture and the implicit belief systems contained within it, sports and the adoration of athletes, the political system and structure, the art, music, and literature we spend our time listening to and watching, the internet and social media that occupies so much of our time, and the video games that occupy the minds and much of the lives of so many people. As long as everybody is chasing and distracted by these bread and circuses, they are willfully negligent to the goings-on in the very fabric of the social network that is of our society, government, and country. The more negligent they become, the more the democracy continues withering and dying. This book systemically deconstructs a modern society that seems designed to consistently pull us away from rather than draw us toward the creation of a better existence for all.

Space, Philosophy and Ethics

Edited by William H. U. Anderson, Concordia University of Edmonton in Alberta

Space is infinitely interesting! Space has both scientific and cultural currency because it has captured the imagination of human beings from ancient times until today. What seemed like science fiction centuries and only decades ago, is now science fact. Technological developments present and on the cusp are putting more and more of space into our hands. That is both exciting and frightening at the same time (think Lovecraft)! This book attempts to speak to the philosophical and ethical issues raised by space. Who owns space? Who should pay for space exploration and what is the impact on human beings on earth today? What happens if we’re not alone in the universe? What is the value and meaning of space exploration? What are the ethical implications of AI and Technology in relation to space exploration (what if they get away from us?!)? Questions! Questions! Questions! The Call for Chapters for this book Space, Philosophy and Ethics read: “For space science people, this conference is a platform to discuss the subconscious philosophical and ethical implications of their research that have been in the back of their minds while researching. For philosophers and non-specialists, it is an opportunity to learn together and struggle to find solutions for the philosophical and ethical quandaries that space science, exploration and technology present to humanity”. The approaches to space seem endless. Physics, as Aristotle discovered, inevitably leads to metaphysics, and metaphysics always have ethical concerns. The book loosely follows this outline. It begins and ends with the metaphysical implications of space, the spiritual, if you will. It leads with poetry. That seems appropriate since while we may ask many questions regarding space, we are likely to find very few answers. Then the book briefly looks at the ethical implications of AI and Technology for space exploration. There are chapters that deal with the material ethics of space commerce and ontology. Telos and Axiology (Value) are also explored. This book hopes to facilitate human struggle with the ethical implications of space rather than presuming to solve all its problems.

Scientific Thought and Research Methodology

Concepts, Principles, Philosophy of Science, and Ontological Dimension

Aydin Beraha, Cankiri Karatekin University, Turkey

This book presents an easy introduction for undergraduate students, graduate students, research assistants, and researchers new to the profession. It is very important to come to a state of scientific mind who are interested in both social and natural sciences. This book provides fertile content, including ontological, cognitive, technic, logical, philosophical, and ethical dimensions of making science. It presents the roles of science, such as classification along with actual examples in both social and natural sciences to readers for a better understanding. It also contains special content to warn readers about pseudoscience and the art of deception and to guide them on how to detect and recognize fake science. The glossary section of this book contains unusual terms related to scientific reasoning. The author’s words to readers –I wish a pleasant reading to the science-loving passengers of this 'pale blue dot.-'

Global Perspectives on Online Education During a Time of Emergency: Conditions, Contexts and Critiques

Edited by Patricia Marybelle Davies, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

‘Global Perspectives on Online Education During a Time of Emergency’ presents viewpoints on the unprecedented shift to online education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to broaden and deepen readers’ understanding of studies that could better address academic issues related to teaching and learning online. The pandemic triggered the disruption of national educational systems and a rapid transition to online education, but there were few guidelines on how to proceed. Consequently, the role of educational technologies and distinctions between formal and informal learning became blurred (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). This volume examines how educators adopted new pedagogical practices, adapted to flexible working environments, and tackled new technologies to maintain educational systems following the global outbreak of the coronavirus. It showcases innovative practices and critiques several learning theories of online education. The chapters are developed using two main approaches: empirical investigations and reviews of existing research. The empirical chapters present significant new findings of broad relevance. The review chapters use established studies to describe recent developments of broad significance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. The volume, as a whole, provides research-based insights on evidence on the contexts and conditions of the emergency transition to online education worldwide and useful recommendations on emergent directions in online education. This is a vital text for educational researchers, technologists, and practitioners. It includes empirical data, theoretical questions, and methodological approaches addressing online education. The volume explores flexible learning, alternative pedagogical practices, and changes in digital environments, examining futuristic approaches at a crucial moment of global reform in online education.

Jesuits in Science Fiction: Reason and Revelation on Other Worlds

Edited by Richard Feist, Saint Paul University

From their founding in 1540 to this day, Jesuits have been controversial. Their centuries of missionary work have taken them to all corners of the world. They have been accused of killing Kings and Presidents and contributing to colonization and destruction of cultures—even participating in enslavement. But the Jesuits have also been seen as bringers of light and education. With their ferocity of purpose and intellectual rigor, the Jesuits’ impact on world history cannot be ignored. No surprise then, that Jesuits appear in literature, especially that literature of ideas, exploration, and social commentary, otherwise known as science fiction. This unique collection of essays explores how the Jesuit has long been part of science fiction’s history and how Jesuit ideas and characters are featured in some of science fiction’s greatest works. In this collection, we see Jesuits continue their missionary spirit as they take leave of the earth, moving their missionary labors literally towards the heavens. Reason and revelation are now indeed on other worlds. In this collection, we have explorations of philosophy, science, theology, and culture, all done in typical Jesuit fashion, always in various and foreign contexts. This collection is akin to others in its linking of religion and science fiction, but it is unique in its concentration on the Jesuits and science fiction. This collection will be of interest to scholars working and researching in the field of science fiction studies and would be suitable for courses on science fiction. But it will also be of interest and accessible to those of us who simply love science fiction for its power to explore other worlds and, in this case, to take some of the deepest human reflections, namely those on God, morals and culture, lift them up, and see what forms they may take on other worlds.

Philosophy’s Gambit: Play and Being Played

Edited by Jeremy Sampson, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Living in an era of immense and bewildering change in technology, pandemic and war, humanity has had cause to challenge the apparent old fixities and certainties of life. Essentially, are we being played? The premise of this volume is that all of human life is underpinned by powerful dynamic systems, so tightly interwoven into our daily lives that we are barely aware of them, whose true nature only comes to light at times of profound disruption or crisis. These powerful dynamic systems, philosophical or otherwise, often fall under the umbrella of ludic theory. Within these pages, some of the leading thinkers of ludic theory from three continents explore its diversity and relevance through the perspectives of some of the world’s most famous philosophers. In many ways, this volume follows on from Sampson’s 'Being Played: Gadamer and Philosophy’s Hidden Dynamic' (2019). It also draws upon other ludic-centred and ludic-inspired texts that include Mattice’s 'Metaphor and Metaphilosophy' (2014) and Arthos’ 'Gadamer’s Poetics: A Critique of Modern Aesthetics' (2014), together with Frazier’s 'Reality, Religion and Passion' (2009) and Homan’s 'A Hermeneutics of Poetic Education' (2020). Although this is not the first volume offering an integrated approach to ludic theory, see Ryall (ed), 'The Philosophy of Play' (2013), it offers a diverse and detailed approach to the subject, including not only Western philosophers, but also thinkers from Ancient China, 16th-century India and modern South America. This volume will be not only of interest to scholars and students of ludic theory and philosophy in general, but because of its deliberate globalised content, it is hoped it might have a wider appeal globally as humanity continues to grapple with significant challenges created by these current winds of change.

Mentoring in STEM Through a Female Identity Lens: Heroes Make a Difference for Women

Edited by Cecilia (Ceal) D. Craig, Druai Education Research, CA

With the stagnant low percentages of women in STEM careers, identifying practices to satisfy the growing need for professionals in those fields is critical to improve recruitment and retention. Supportive relationships, like mentors and sponsors, have been shown to both inspire women to pursue those careers and to help them succeed in them. This book explores how developing supportive connections helps students, faculty, and teachers see STEM professions as being a place for women to grow and succeed. Early chapters provide essential mentor characteristics and explore engineering education gender inequity from a teacher's perspective of stereotypes, stereotype threat, and bias, offering culturally relevant teacher mentoring approaches to promote equitable pre-college engineering education. Middle chapters describe K-12 mentoring programs: mentorship initiatives empowering young South African Women and girls to advance to mathematical-related careers; programs, methods and activities to achieve the desired goal of making young students aspire to become scientists; and engagement year-round in grades 9-12 combined with 40 years of iterative evaluation created a finely-honed enrichment program for low-income Black women in urban public high schools. A longitudinal undergraduate mentoring program for mentoring early college students in Louisiana provides further insights in that section. The final four-chapter section describes mentoring programs for professors and teachers: reciprocal mentor relationships and role shifting within an informal peer mentoring group; differences between mentoring relationships and sponsoring relationships within academia; the impact of culturally responsive mentorship (CRM) on the development and expression of a pre-service teacher’s woman of science identity; and a program that aims to recruit and retain STEM pre-service teachers and STEM teachers of color. With several longitudinal mentoring programs, several programs for women of color, this book fills a gap to help grow the numbers of women in STEM.

Teoría de las maravillas: Evolución, cerebro y la naturaleza radical de la ciencia

Gonzalo Munévar, Lawrence Technological University

'Teoría de las Maravillas: Evolución, cerebro y la naturaleza radical de la ciencia' aspira a determinar la mejor manera en la que la ciencia puede satisfacer nuestros sentidos de maravillarnos a través de la exploración del mundo. El empirismo establece que la ciencia tiene éxito porque sigue el método científico: La observación basa su juicio en la Teoría, apoyándola o rechazándola. Se ha dado mucho crédito al inventor de este método, Galileo, pero cuando los filósofos historicistas de la ciencia, como Kuhn y Feyerabend, llaman nuestra atención sobre lo que Galileo investigó y escribió realmente, nos quedamos en shock al descubrir que lo que hizo fue clavar una daga en el corazón del Empirismo. Derogó la distinción entre teoría y observación. Hechos simples, como la caída en vertical de una piedra, descartaron el movimiento terrestre. Y con esto concluir que, si la piedra cae en vertical, sin embargo, tenemos que asumir que la tierra no se mueve. Si se moviera entonces la piedra solo daría la sensación de caer en vertical. Galileo, de esta manera, reemplazó los “hechos” sobre el movimiento de la tierra con “hechos” que incluían este movimiento. Este proceso es típico de las revoluciones científicas. Una buena estrategia para la ciencia es la elaboración de alternos radicales. De esta manera, y sobre su tesis, se reconsidera lo que cuenta como evidencia. A Feyerabend se le llamó irracional por esta sugerencia. Pero, si miramos la practica de la ciencia desde la perspectiva de la evolución y de la neurociencia, esta nos muestra que la sugerencia, de hecho, es bastante racional y que, además, ofrece una explicación sobre el por qué la ciencia funciona mejor como forma radical de conocimiento. También nos conduce a una forma biológica sensitiva de verdad relativa, con borradores preliminares que llevan a interesantes debates con otros investigadores de la filosofía de la ciencia. Este libro será de gran interés para estudiantes universitarios, profesores e investigadores en el ámbito de la historia o de la filosofía de la ciencia, así como a cualquiera con un interés general en la naturaleza de la ciencia.

En Busca del Mundo Perdido: La búsqueda modernista de la Cosa, la Materia y el Cuerpo

Tsaiyi Wu, Shanghai Normal University

Este libro estudia, desde una perspectiva histórica, como los artistas modernistas, esa primera generación que empezó a reflexionar de manera intensa sobre el legado del Idealismo Alemán, buscó recrear el “yo” para recrear su relación con el mundo material. Teóricamente, el libro mantiene una conversación con los típicos intereses desantropocéntricos del siglo XXI y propone que el artista pueda escapar del antropocentrismo a través de la transformación del yo. La Parte Una, “Artificialidad” abre el debate con el culto del fin de siglo a la artificialidad, en el que los artistas como Theophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, J.K. Huysmans y Gustave Moreau se dedicaron a mostrar su amor por las esfinges pétreas, las estatuas de mármol o las apariencias inorgánicas. El culto a la artificialidad es una subversión perversa de la máxima de Hegel en la que la introspección es superior a la materia. En el culto a la artificialidad, el arte es superlativo a la naturaleza, incluso aunque el arte no se defina ya como imaginación inmaterial sino se reconfigure como una manifestación misteriosa que desafía al significado y subyuga al corazón sensible. La Parte Dos, “Ficción Autofilosófica” argumenta acerca del género en el que los artistas (Marcel, Proust, Walter Pater y Virginia Woolf) fijan las ideas filosóficas en el laboratorio de sus vidas y por lo tanto traducen a sus ideales estéticos —es decir, la manera en la que desean relacionarse con el mundo —en un viaje de auto examinación y autocultivo. En la novela de Pater, 'Mario el Epicúreo' el héroe explora como un percepto filosófico se puede traducir a sentimientos y acciones, demostrando que la literatura es un acercamiento único a la verdad ya que convierte la teoría en una experiencia transformadora. Mediante la exploración de los últimos descubrimientos de la psicología empirista, el artista busca escapar de la trampa Kantiana mediante el desarrollo de sus poderes de recepción y registrar pensamientos pasajeros y sensaciones. En resumen, el libro discute sobre como el desantropocentrismo no puede predicarse a través de una metafísica que presume que la subjetividad universal debe ser una forma de investigación estética que recrea al “yo” para recrear nuestras relaciones con el universo.

Peace Studies and the Color Line

Africana Contributions

Carlos Cordero-Pedrosa and I Jin Jang

The book aims to continue and expand the conversations emerging from the margins of peace studies about race and racism, and their implications for the field. Especially drawing from the often-overlooked African diasporic critical and philosophical tradition —with an emphasis on Africana phenomenology and existentialism— the book addresses questions that are central in Africana thought yet remain under-explored in peace studies. This enables to rethink peace studies’ assumptions, conceptual frameworks, and epistemic and normative elements. Inter- or transdisciplinary dialogue requires a profound re-evaluation of what constitutes the exclusions in both knowledge and politics. This, in turn, necessitates a critical examination of the structures and organization of knowledge, a deeper understanding of the field’s identity, its foundational narratives and presuppositions, a reassessment of the relations with other disciplines and areas of knowledge, and the histories, the subjects and the forms of agency that it privileges. Taking race and racism seriously through African diasporic thought entails, among others, reconsidering the ties of peace studies with international relations and liberal political theory, bringing to the forefront the question of freedom, examining the relationship between the ethical and the political, and complicating the distinction between violence and nonviolence.

The Dark Side of Speech

A Disenchanted Report on the Decade that Preceded the Invasion of Ukraine

Carlo Penco, University of Genoa, Italy

What is disinformation, and why does it matter? How can we understand and detect different kinds of disinformation? The book's four parts provide the reader with answers and a deeper understanding of various concepts and events: (1) On notions of post-truth and fake news, with examples from the last decade. (2) On the notion of conspiracy theory and the influence of “narratives” that obfuscate the truth of the matter. (3) On the role of algorithms in propaganda and their impact on freedom of expression. (4) On “emergency tools” for detecting disinformation at an individual level, understanding the most hidden mechanisms of the dark side of the speech. From the preface by John Perry (Stanford University): “What to do with this book? Read it from start to finish; it is fascinating. Alternatively, pick out a topic, study the index and learn all about it. I think the book would make a great text for an undergraduate course --- a semester or even a year. But by picking one topic or another, historical or philosophical or a combination, one could put together a great lecture or a seminar. If you find your kids seduced by bullshit from the internet, set them down and explain where it really came from. And for that matter, use the book to help determine whether your own beliefs are information or disinformation.”

THAWZEN Moments: Autoethnographic piano teaching and learning stories

Jeeyeon Ryu, Yorkville University

THAWZEN Moments: Autoethnographic Piano Teaching and Learning Stories is a collection of 46 vignettes, digitally edited photographs, poems, and reflective-reflexive narratives about children’s imaginative, creative, and magical lifeworlds of exploring music and piano playing. There are many ways of learning to play the piano, THAWZEN different ways of re/imagining music. There are many stories to share with you, never-ending questions to explore together. The stories included in this book are our happy piano play, our shared musical journeys in re/creating more meaningful and joyful piano teaching and learning experiences.

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Culminating Student Experiences

Edited by Michael G. Strawser, University of Central Florida and Robin Yaure, Penn State Mont Alto

Despite the relatively recent popularity of culminating experiences, a multidisciplinary and practical resource that provides information for all types of culminating student experiences is not yet available. The idea for this volume arose because of the recognition that a holistic and applied resource for those looking to have general knowledge of different ways to assess student learning, especially at the undergraduate level was lacking. This text seeks to fill a gap and provide a historical context for culminating experiences, suggestions for assessment, foundational knowledge for different types of projects, and finally approaches to using these experiences in various disciplines. Because of the information desired, experts in their field from a wide variety of disciplines were approached to be chapter contributors. This resource focuses predominantly on undergraduate students but many of the chapters can either be applied to both undergraduate and graduate students (e.g., thesis) or specifically focus on the graduate student population (e.g., dissertation).

Being and Power. A Phenomenological Ontology of Forms of Life

Daniel Rueda Garrido

Why do we act as we do? Why do we assume that the way of being and behaving in our community is right, good, and common sense? Why do we fail to understand those who are, act, and feel differently? These are some of the questions that this book raises and attempts to answer. This ontology is rooted in the phenomenological tradition but with the innovation of taking the "form of life" as the central ontological unit. We are our form of life, but, as a transcendental-immanent reality, this is not directly equivalent to culture or society; it is rather the "political" realisation in the world of an image of the human being shared by a given community. This overcomes the traditional dualities of individual and society, consciousness and body, facticity and freedom, actuality and possibility. The subject is a subject because it identifies with that image, which is equivalent to the intersubjective consciousness of how one should act and be in the world. This gives rise to multiple forms of life. The latter implies a certain power to be who one wants to be. In this way, the book is an invitation to self-examination, for if our form of life is voluntary (i.e., capitalism), it shatters the illusion that one cannot live in any other way, and places us before the anguished but inevitable task of justifying its adoption or resorting to its abandonment. The book offers a dynamic analysis of human existence as the actualisation of a form of life that is, at the same time, the exercise of a certain power over those who seek to live otherwise, especially when that form is institutionalised by a government as the essence of the national or transnational community.

Practical and Theoretical Reason in Modern Philosophy

Edited by Paniel Reyes Cárdenas, Oblate School of Theology; The University of Sheffield et al.

The present collection aims to examine this fertile period in the history of philosophy concerning its significance for understanding the relation between theoretical and practical reason, or, relatedly, facts and values. Our contributors have explored different important ways in which both the shortcomings and insights of the theoretical/practical distinction have shaped Western philosophy.