Author: Ken CoatesPublisher: Spokesman Books
ISBN: 9780851246970
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Book Description
The Precipice
Author: Toby OrdPublisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 031648489X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time. If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Our species could survive for billions of years - enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and to flourish in ways unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, where we face existential catastrophes - those from which we could never come back. Since then, these dangers have only multiplied, from climate change to engineered pathogens and artificial intelligence. If we do not act fast to reach a place of safety, it will soon be too late. Drawing on over a decade of research, The Precipice explores the cutting-edge science behind the risks we face. It puts them in the context of the greater story of humanity: showing how ending these risks is among the most pressing moral issues of our time. And it points the way forward, to the actions and strategies that can safeguard humanity. An Oxford philosopher committed to putting ideas into action, Toby Ord has advised the US National Intelligence Council, the UK Prime Minister's Office, and the World Bank on the biggest questions facing humanity. In The Precipice, he offers a startling reassessment of human history, the future we are failing to protect, and the steps we must take to ensure that our generation is not the last. "A book that seems made for the present moment." —New Yorker
Einstein on Peace
Author: Albert EinsteinPublisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787204502
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1047
Book Description
“Einstein was not only the ablest man of science of his generation, he was also a wise man, which is something different. If statesmen had listened to him, the course of human events would have been less disastrous than it has been.” This verdict, from the Preface by Bertrand Russell, sums up the importance of this first collection of Albert Einstein’s writings on war, peace, and the atom bomb. In this volume, thanks to the Estate of Albert Einstein, the complete story is told of how one of the greatest minds of modern times worked from 1914 until 1955 on the problem of peace. It is a fascinating record of a man’s courage, his sincerity, and his concern for those who survive him. This book is also a history of the peace movement in modern times. Here are letters to and from some of the most famous men of his generation, including the correspondence between Einstein and Sigmund Freud on aggression and war, and the true story of his famous letter to President Roosevelt reporting the theoretical possibility of nuclear fission. It is the living record of more than forty years of Einstein’s untiring struggle to mobilize forces all over the world for the abolition of war and the creation of a supranational organization to solve conflicts among nations.
Arms for Oil
Author: Michael Barratt BrownPublisher: Spokesman Books
ISBN: 9780851246987
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
It is a fact, an unfortunate fact, that economic relations between the West and the Arab and other Islamic countries could for many years be described accurately in just three words Oil for Arms or alternatively Arms for Oil. This has a long history going back to the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire was broken up between the British and French Empires and client regimes were established in the newly created states. The Second World War brought in the American Empire, but the main purpose of all these empires was to control the rich oil reserves in the region. Arms were supplied as necessary to maintain the client regimes in power. This became essential if oil was to remain cheap.
Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell
Author: Javier Pérez-JaraPublisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793618488
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257
Book Description
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) was a logician, a philosopher, and one of the twentieth century’s most visible public intellectuals. Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell: A Cultural Sociology brings those three aspects together to trace Russell’s changing views on the role of science and technology in society throughout his long intellectual career. Drawing from cultural sociology, history of science, and philosophy, Javier Pérez-Jara and Lino Camprubí provide a fresh multidimensional analysis of the general themes of science, technology, utopia, and apocalypse. The book critically examines Russell’s influential interpretations of the turn-of-the-century mathematical logic, World War I, the metaphysics and epistemology of mind and matter, World War II, nuclear holocaust, and the Vietnam War. In Russell’s compelling narratives, humanity was a powder keg and the match was represented by different and successive meta-adversaries, such as religion, communism, and American imperialism. And the only way to avoid a coming global Holocaust was to follow his own salvific recipes. In working around Russell’s role in the cultural perception of the final destiny of humanity, Science and Apocalypse in Bertrand Russell invites the reader to think about the place of the techno-scientific sphere in human progress and decadence in both our current epoch and the distant future.
The First Fifty Years of Peace Research
Author: David J. DunnPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351146742
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261
Book Description
Peace research first emerged as an explicit academic area of study in the 1950s. Pioneers of peace research included Wright, Richardson and Lenz, and this book examines their contribution and that of the 'frontiersmen' who developed the study further, establishing peace research in its own right. Assessing the evolution, status and significance of peace research after fifty years, this novel and comprehensive book is relevant not only to students of peace research, but also to the developing debates within international relations and security studies. This is where there are real problems associated with the understanding of new problems and issues by reference to traditional concepts and categories. The book will attract a broad market in the fields of international relations, politics and social theory, as well as scholars in peace studies.
The A B C of Relativity
Author: Bertrand RussellPublisher: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
ISBN: 3985101132
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 155
Book Description
The A B C of Relativity - Bertrand Russell - This is a new publication of Bertrand Russell's The A B C of Relativity. What makes it invaluable is that it is written by one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century with the intention to reach a wider circle of readers. The book should be also of interest to students of physics and philosophy of science as well as to all interested in one of the two great scientific discoveries of the twentieth century - the theory of relativity.
The ABC of Relativity
Author: Bertrand RussellPublisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504000994
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 150
Book Description
The Nobel Prize winner offers “an ideal introduction to the theories of special and general relativity” in clear, comprehensible language(Nature). A renowned mathematician and philosopher, and as well as recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Bertrand Russell was acclaimed for his ability to address complex subjects in accessible ways. In this classic reference book, Russell delves into physics and relativity, helping everyday readers grasp the genius and implications of Albert Einstein’s theory. When originally published in 1925, The ABC of Relativity brought science to a more general audience—and it continues to do so in the twenty-first century. “A mind of dazzling brilliance.” —The New York Times
Author: Bertrand RussellCollected Prefaces
Author: Nicholas HaggerPublisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1789042747
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
Nicholas Hagger's 55 books include innovatory works on literature, history, philosophy and international politics. In his first published literary work he revived the Preface, which had fallen into disuse after Wordsworth and Shelley. He went on to write Prefaces (sometimes called ‘Prologues’, ‘Introductions’ or ‘Introductory Notes’) for all his subsequent books. Collected Prefaces, a collection of 55 Prefaces (excluding the Preface to this book), sets out his thinking and the reader can follow the development of his philosophy of Universalism (of which he is the main exponent), his literary approach (particularly his combination of Romanticism and Classicism which he calls "neo-Baroque") and his metaphysical thinking. His Prefaces can be read as essays, and as in T.S. Eliot’s Selected Essays there is an interaction between adjacent Prefaces that brings an entirely new perspective to Hagger's works. These Prefaces cover an enormous range. Nicholas Hagger is a Renaissance man at home in many disciplines. His Universalism focuses on humankind’s relationship to the whole universe as reflected in seven key disciplines seen as wholes: the whole of literature, history, philosophy and the sciences, mysticism, religion, international politics and statecraft and world culture. Behind all the Prefaces is Hagger’s fundamental perception of the unity of the universe as the One and of humankind’s position in it. These Prefaces complement his Selected Letters, a companion volume also published by O-Books, and contain startling insights that illumine and send readers to the works the Prefaces introduce.
