by Matthias Gross (2010)
"The image of the addict in popular culture combines victimhood and moral failure; we sympathize with addicts in films and novels because of their suffering and their hard-won knowledge. And yet actual scientific knowledge about addiction tends to undermine this cultural construct. In What Is Addiction? leading addiction researchers from neuroscience, psychology, genetics, philosophy, economics, and other fields survey the latest findings in addiction science. They discuss such questions as whether addiction is one kind of condition, or several; if addiction is neurophysiological, psychological, or social, or incorporates aspects of all of these; to what extent addicts are responsible for their problems, and how this affects health and regulatory policies; and whether addiction is determined by inheritance or environment or both. The chapter authors discuss the possibility of a unifying basis for different addictions (considering both substance addiction and pathological gambling), offering both neurally and neuroscientifically grounded accounts as well as discussions of the social context of addiction. There can be no definitive answer yet to the question posed by the title of this book; but these essays demonstrate an advance over the simplistic conception embedded in popular culture."--Jacket.
Carolyn Merchant
An examination of the Scientific Revolution that shows how the mechanistic world view of modern science has sanctioned the exploitation of nature, unrestrained commercial expansion, and a new socioeconomic order that subordinates women.
Gerhard Roth
On the basis of evolutionary and behavioral biology, neuroscience and anthropology, this book investigates to which extent it is possible to reconstruct the evolution of nervous systems and brains as well as of mental-cognitive abilities, in short “intelligence”, and to which extent we can correlate the one with the other. One central question is, whether or not abilities exist that make humans truly unique, or whether the evolution of the human mind was a gradual process. Exactly which neural features make animals and humans intelligent and creative? Is it absolute or relative brain size or the size of “intelligence centers” inside the brains, the number of nerve cells inside the brain in total or in such “intelligence centers” decisive for the degree of intelligence, of mind and eventually consciousness? Which are the driving forces behind these processes? Here, many different answers exist.^ For some experts the driving force for brains and minds are the conditions for biological survival: the more complex these conditions, the more effective need to be sense organs, nervous systems and brains, and the stronger is the tendency to an increase in learning abilities, behavioral flexibility and innovation power of animals. This is the ecological intellicence hypothesis. Other authors believe that the true driving force is the challenge from social life of an animal: the more complex the social conditions, the more sophisticated are abilities such as social learning, imitation, empathy, knowledge transfer, consciousness and the development of a theory of mind and meta-cognition. This, again, needs progressive changes inside the brains. This is the social intelligence hypothesis. Again other authors distinguish physical intelligence as a third form of cognitive functions mostly related to tool use, tool fabrication and understanding of the principles of how things work.^ Finally, some experts believe that the decisive factor in the evolution of brains and minds consisted in an increase in the speed and efficacy of information processing in cognitive brain centers. This is the general intelligence or information processing hypothesis. It is discussed, which of these hypotheses is the most convincing one. At its end, the book deals with the eminent question of whether we can arrive at a naturalistic concept of mind and consciousness. Is it possible to explain mind and intelligence within the framework of the natural science, or do mind and intelligence as found in humans, transcend nature?
Larry A. Hickman and Thomas M. Alexander
In addition to being one of the greatest technical philosophers of the 20th century, John Dewey was one of America's last great public intellectuals. Based on the award-wining 37-volume critical edition of Dewey's work, THE ESSENTIAL DEWEY presents in two volumes a collection that represents Dewey's thinking on every major issue to which he turned his attention. Vol.
Mary Zey
Prevailing, highly conservative rational choice theories are challenged in this illuminating volume. Mary Zey and other outstanding contributors expand our understanding of decision-making theory by presenting evidence that points to the wide range and complexity of human decision making. Labeled deviations from formal rationality, other models of decision making--habit, emotion, and moral and ethical values--are shown to be alternative and dominant, not deviating motives behind decision making. Written at an accessible level, this volume examines criticisms of rational choice models (rational choice, public choice, neoclassical economic theories) from a wide range of perspectives within and external to the rational choice model. In Parts II and III, the chapters concentrate on micro and macro alternatives to rational choice models, including a balance of theoretical and empirical pieces. This is the first volume to assemble and further legitimize the alternative models of decision making. Decision Making is essential reading for scholars and students of organization studies, socio-economics, management, sociology, economics, psychology, political science, business ethics, and policy studies.