What's wrong with plastic trees?

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Stuart Peterfreund

"Turning Points in Natural Theology from Bacon to Darwin discusses important changes that took place in the argument from design, the staple rhetorical formation of natural theology, during the period from Francis Bacon (1561-1626) to Charles Darwin (1809-82). After a discussion of the circumstances under which Bacon came to be the first to use the term natural theology in English, the book shows that the object of design undergoes a shift. For Bacon, the object of design is the creature. For Robert Boyle and those following his lead, the object of design is the mechanism. For Isaac Newton and those following him, the object of design is the nested system. For William Paley and the writers of the Bridgewater Treatises, the object of design is the system more generally. And for Darwin, the object of design is interactive systems"--

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Dieter Rasch ... [et al

"Experimental design is often overlooked in the literature of applied and mathematical statistics: statistics is taught and understood as merely a collection of methods for analyzing data. Consequently, experimenters seldom think about optimal design, including prerequisites such as the necessary sample size needed for a precise answer for an experimental question. Providing a concise introduction to experimental design theory, Optimal Experimental Design with R: Introduces the philosophy of experimental design Provides an easy process for constructing experimental designs and calculating necessary sample size using R programs Teaches by example using a custom made R program package: OPDOE. Consisting of detailed, data-rich examples, this book introduces experimenters to the philosophy of experimentation, experimental design, and data collection. It gives researchers and statisticians guidance in the construction of optimum experimental designs using R programs, including sample size calculations, hypothesis testing, and confidence estimation. A final chapter of in-depth theoretical details is included for interested mathematical statisticians"--Back cover.

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Genevieve Lloyd

In this lucid and elegantly written book, Genevieve Lloyd reads Spinoza's philosophy as a profound articulation of ideas of individuality, selfhood, and freedom. Focusing on Spinoza's Ethics, Lloyd illuminates as well his transformation of Descartes's concepts of substance, mind, and body, and the relations between Spinoza's metaphysics and his ethical views. Spinoza's doctrine of the uniqueness of substance has been interpreted as absorbing individual self-consciousness into an all-embracing whole. Here, Lloyd addresses the dilemmas posed by the Cartesian legacy of what it means to be a self: the sense of isolation of a contained intellectual substance trying to establish contact with an "external" world, the limitations of an idea of knowledge that sharply distinguishes between reason and the passions, problems in thinking about time and mortality in ways that allow no middle ground between an afterlife and annihilation, and tensions in ideals of personhood that claim to transcend sexual difference. Throughout, Lloyd emphasizes the ethical importance of Spinoza's metaphysics. Out of his treatment of substance and its modes emerge new ways of thinking about self-consciousness, freedom, gender difference, the passions, and time. As the influence of Descartes wanes, Lloyd suggests that Spinoza's philosophy may help us rethink some of the most troubling issues surrounding our understanding of the self.

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Jaap Hagen

If Nietzsche's contemporary popularity implies that his political values inadvertently creep in, then it is relevant to trace his revaluation historically: to provide insight into the problematic sides of his ideas. After all, inspiration by Nietzsche has its daunting parallel in history and his 'influence' in nazi Germany has never been seriously debated. What happened at that time is generally in advance considered as abuse. The question was firstly what passages in Nietzsche's work the nazi's referred to, and secondly how his impact was interpreted by others. To establish whether the assertions are justified an account is given of the main interpretations that, from different perspectives, relate Nietzsche to nazism. Causality assumes necessity, as the only possible thing, which in the strict sense of the term cannot be proven in the history of ideas. So it is essential to distinguish between tendentious and teleological interpretation. The latter assumes an explanation with a purpose it serves, but its target does not exclude other approaches.