Author: James T. Costa File Type: pdf A giant of the discipline of biogeography and co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace was the most famous naturalist in the world when he died in 1913. To mark the centennial of Wallaces death, James Costa offers an elegant edition of the Species Notebook of 1855-1859, which Wallace kept during his legendary expedition in peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia, and western New Guinea. Presented in facsimile with text transcription and annotations, this never-before-published document provides a new window into the travels, personal trials, and scientific genius of the co-discoverer of natural selection. In one section, headed Note for Organic Law of Change--an extended critique of geologist Charles Lyells anti-evolutionary arguments--Wallace sketches a book he would never write, owing to the unexpected events of 1858. In that year he sent to Charles Darwin an essay announcing his discovery of the mechanism for species change natural selection. Darwins friends Lyell and the botanist Joseph Hooker proposed a delicate arrangement a joint reading at the Linnean Society of his essay with Darwins earlier private writings on the subject. Darwin would publish On the Origin of Species in 1859, to much acclaim pre-empted, Wallaces first book on evolution waited two decades, but by then he had abandoned his original concept. On the Organic Law of Change realizes in spirit the project Wallace left unfinished, and asserts his stature as not only a founder of biogeography and the preeminent tropical biologist of his day but as Darwins equal among the pioneers of evolution. **Review On the Organic Law of Change offers the first detailed analysis of Wallaces Species Notebook by an evolutionary biologist and is the most important study of the development of Wallaces evolutionary ideas attempted by anyone so far. Costa is uniquely placed to have done this work not only does he have an excellent grasp of evolutionary theory, but he also has a detailed understanding of the early history of the subject including the development of Darwins ideas about evolution. (George Beccaloni, Curator of Orthopteroid Insects and Director of the A.R. Wallace Correspondence Project, Natural History Museum, London) A triumph of careful research. The annotations are illuminating in all regards. (Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science and Chair of the Department of the History of Science, Harvard University) Alfred Russel Wallaces Species Notebook is surely one of the most important documents in the history of science. Jim Costas deft annotations do more than just explain, synthesize, and contextualize this day-to-day account of Wallace at work they bring his interests and ideas--and Wallace himself--to life. It is truly an unusual privilege to have such a direct view into the workings of an extraordinary mind in the act of formulating some of the most powerful and effective ideas in all of science. (Andrew Berry, Lecturer on Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University) An important new bookThe notebook itself is part diary, part field notes and part log of each days collecting. Its pages are filled with observations, beautiful drawings and daily tallies of specimens. But this is also where Wallace wrote his thoughts, analyzed papers and developed his evolutionary ideas. (Stephanie Pain New Scientist 2013-11-11) Costas book is thus the first publication of what has been left to us of Wallaces intended book and we owe a debt to him for making it available at lastWallace was a polymath, to be sure, and probably among the last to be so, which makes him one of the most interesting figures in the history of English-language ideasYou need to read the man for yourself, and Costas book provides you with one more important way to do this. (David A. Morrison Systematic Biology 2014-03-01) This is a very fine treatment of a complicated story it benefits from being told by a scientist who understands the biology involved, and who has not taken liberties with documenting the history of Wallaces thought process. This may well be the best single overview of this important episode in the history of thought yet produced, and I highly recommend it. (Charles H. Smith Reports of the National Center for Science Education 2015-03-01) Let me say it right up front I love this book! Reading it is a bit like listening in on the musings of an eminent colleague, trying to follow their train of thought, catching bits of their reasoning and ideas, and being impressed by their knowledge and insights. Tracing the development of Wallaces thinking on biogeography and evolution as shown through this notebook is both a challenge and a pleasure. Watching him tussle with concepts, such as the definition of a species or the distinction between variety and species, is fascinating. These are concepts that biologists and palaeontologists still struggle with and discuss. Reading about his energetic collecting activities is also absorbing, even though his accounts of orangutan hunts are harrowingIn presenting the Species Notebook to us, Costa has produced a work of admirable scholarship. This book will certainly help to elevate Wallace to his rightful place in the pantheon of 19th century natural scientists and garner him additional respect as an original and perceptive thinker. (Alwynne B. Beaudoin Canadian Field-Naturalist 2014-10-01) The Species Notebook constitutes a major document in the development of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought, and Costas beautifully produced and deftly annotated facsimile edition now makes this previously unpublished record of Wallaces observations and thinking from the crucial preOrigin of Species period widely available to scholars and the general publicCosta and Harvard University Press are to be congratulated for this handsome addition to Wallace studies. (Martin Fichman Isis 2014-09-01) About the Author James T. Costa is Executive Director of Highlands Biological Station and Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University.

Author: Mario D'Amato File Type: pdf This volume collects essays by philosophers and scholars working at the interface of Western philosophy and Buddhist Studies. Many have distinguished scholarly records in Western philosophy, with expertise in analytic philosophy and logic, as well as deep interest in Buddhist philosophy. Others have distinguished scholarly records in Buddhist Studies with strong interests in analytic philosophy and logic. All are committed to the enterprise of cross-cultural philosophy and to bringing the insights and techniques of each tradition to bear in order to illuminate problems and ideas of the other. These essays address a broad range of topics in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, and demonstrate the fecundity of the interaction between the Buddhist and Western philosophical and logical traditions. **

Author: Boris Groys File Type: pdf The Berlin Wall was coming down, the Soviet Union was dissolving, Communist China was well on its way down the capitalist path the world was witnessing political and social transformations without precedent. Artists, seeing it all firsthand, responded with a revolution of their own. What form this revolution took--how artists in the 1980s marked their societies traumatic transition from decaying socialism to an insecure future--emerges in this remarkable volume. With in-depth perspectives on art and artists in the former Soviet Union, the Balkans and Mitteleuropa, China, and Cuba--all from scholars and art critics who were players in the tumultuous cultural landscapes they describe--this stunningly illustrated collection captures a singular period in the history of world art, and a critical moment in the cultural and political transition from the last century to our own.Authors Ales Erjavec, Gao Minglu, Boris Groys, Peter Gyorgy, Gerardo Mosquera, and Misko Suvakovic observe distinct national differences in artistic responses to the social and political challenges of the time. But their essays also reveal a clear pattern in the ways in which artists registered the exhaustion of the socialist vision and absorbed the influence of art movements such as constructivism, pop art, and conceptual art, as well as the provocations of western pop culture. Indebted to but not derived from capitalist postmodernism, the result was a unique version of postsocialist postmodernism, an artisticpolitical innovation clearly identified and illustrated for the first time in these pages.ReviewA fascinating document in the understanding of one of the decisive cultural moments in the postmodern world. The books diversity of approaches illuminates both postmodern art and politics from a distinctive angle. Postmodernism and the Postsocialist Condition is likely to become a significant primary source for future cultural historians. From the Inside FlapThis crucial study presents an epic narrative of how postmodernism gave the artists of Eastern and Central Europe the expressive means to work their way out from the ruins of state socialism into the global art world in which their compatriots in the West are themselves struggling to find their identity. The authors bring to consciousness the art history of the present from important and unsuspected perspectives. This is not just a book for specialists-it is for everyone who lives the life of art in unprecedented times.--Arthur C. Danto, author of After the End of Art Contemporary Art and the Pale of HistoryA fascinating document in the understanding of one of the decisive cultural moments in the postmodern world. The books diversity of approaches illuminates both postmodern art and politics from a distinctive angle. Postmodernism and the Postsocialist Condition is likely to become a significant primary source for future cultural historians.--Paul Crowther, author of The Transhistorical Image Philosophizing Art and Its HistoryThis fine volume deals with the postmodernist approaches that helped artists and intellectuals cope with political reality after socialism and provided the means to face the cultural vacuum without regressing to premodern attitudes. The book suggests that dissenting voices have a better chance to be heard in smaller countries like Hungary, Cuba, Slovenia, and other republics of the former Yugoslavia. It should indeed make us pay more attention to what has happened and is happening in these countries as well as in larger countries like Russia and China.--Wolfgang Welsch, author of Undoing AestheticsThis collection genuinely crackles with vitality. Tracking postmodernism far away from the canonical centers of the modern, it presents an exhilarating patchwork of mythic repetitions, sociopolitical reflections, and sheer creative exuberance.--Stephen Bann, University of Bristol

Author: Zeynep Tufekci File Type: pdf A firsthand account and incisive analysis of modern protest, revealing internet-fueled social movements greatest strengths and frequent challenges To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an antiWall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer, writer, and participant in todays social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protestshow they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico, the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring, the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York, and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbuls Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and cultureand offer essential insights into the future of governance. **