Historians have long been interested in knowledge - its nature and origin, and the circumstances under which it was createdbut it has only been in recent years that the history of knowledge has emerged as an academic field in its own right. In Circulation of Knowledge, a group of Nordic scholars explore a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to this new and exciting area of historical research. The question of knowledge in motion is central to their investigations, and especially how knowledge is transformed when it circulates between different societal arenas, literary genres, or forms of media. Reflecting on twelve empirical studies, from sixteenth-century cartography to sexology in the 1970s, the authors make a significant contribution to the growing international research on the history of knowledge.

Everything we know about what goes on in the world comes to us through reports, information transmitted through human communication. We rely on reports, which can take any number of forms, to convey useful information, and we derive knowledge from that information. It's no surprise, then, that reporting has many philosophical dimensions. Because it plays such a major role in knowledge management, as Nicholas Rescher argues, the epistemology of reporting not only deserves our attention but also sheds important light on how we understand the theory of knowledge. This book offers a clear, accessible introduction to the theory of reporting, with a special emphasis on national security, particularly military and diplomatic reporting, drawing on examples from historical accounts of espionage and statecraft from the Second World War. Rescher explores the various issues and problems related to the production and reception of reports—including reporter expertise and trustworthiness, transmission modalities, confidentiality, cognitive importance, and the interpretation, evaluation, and utilization of reports—providing readers with a distinctive and well organized philosophical clarification of some central features of the theory of reporting.

The starting point of Joseph Margolis’ last philosophical effort is represented by the problem of the human “gap” in animal continuity: “There appear to be no comparable variants of animal evolution [..

Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on education has received comparatively little attention. Berry has been eloquently unmasking America's cultural obsession with restless mobility for decades, arguing that it causes damage to both the land and the character of our communities. Education, he maintains, plays a central role in this obsession, inculcating in students' minds the American dream of moving up and moving on. Drawing on Berry's essays, fiction, and poetry, Jack R. Baker and Jeffrey Bilbro illuminate the influential thinker's vision for higher education in this pathbreaking study. Each chapter begins with an examination of one of Berry's fictional narratives and then goes on to consider how the passage inspires new ways of thinking about the university's mission. Throughout, Baker and Bilbro argue that instead of training students to live in their careers, universities should educate students to inhabit and serve their places. The authors also offer practical suggestions for how students, teachers, and administrators might begin implementing these ideas.Baker and Bilbro conclude that institutions guided by Berry's vision might cultivate citizens who can begin the work of healing their communities -- graduates who have been educated for responsible membership in a family, a community, or a polity.

With this volume, we present a collection of writings, each offering their own novel perspective regarding the question of realism. Realism has undoubtedly attracted a lot of attention during recent philosophical debates, and one of its characteristic aspects that has made the most notable impact is the way it challenges rigid traditional demarcations between “continental” and “analytic” philosophy. We maintain that there is still much more to be said on the matter and that a renewal of the discussion on realism is necessary and should bypass old divisions. Therefore, this volume offers a contribution to some of the many discussions on the subject without entirely departing from the “old” realism and without treating its object of study as something that can be created ex nihilo. Instead, this work is based on the broadly shared conviction that a certain historicism cannot be left out of the picture if we are to reposition realism and see its present or future as yet to be determined rather than set in stone.

The book addresses Merleau-Ponty’s so-called ontology of the flesh, a rather obscure expression that the book explains in depth by drawing from Merleau-Ponty’s lecture courses, published in the last years. In light of these publications, the book shows the importance and the novelty of Merleau-Ponty’s later philosophy, which until recently has been seldom addressed in its entirety. Thanks to the knowledge of the whole range of Merleau-Ponty’s now published body of work and of the as yet unpublished texts, as well as a scholarship acquired through more than 20 years spent working on these themes, the author of the book is able to offer a ground-breaking interpretation of one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, whose philosophical relevance is now widely acknowledged both in Europe and the USA, and whose scholarship is fast growing, while at the same time still lacking an overall systematic assessment, which this book aims to provide.

Publication trilingue atour de la pensée de Merleau-PontyTrilingual studies concerning the thought of Merleau-PontyPubblicazione trilingue intorno al pensiero di Merleau-Ponty

The seven chapters of this book cover a variety of concepts (liberalism, freedom, Marxism) and classic thinkers (Mill, Marx, Hayek, Popper) in order to disclose several myths we’ve become accustomed to taking for granted in the West. It posits that exploration of these myths is crucial to understanding the essence of the West or, better, to seeing what has been “removed” from the West as the title of this book implies. What emerges is a rigorous and surprising counter-history of our civilization.

Surrounded by potential adversaries, nineteenth-century Prussia and twentieth-century Germany faced the formidable prospect of multifront wars and wars of attrition. To counteract these threats, generations of general staff officers were educated in operational thinking, the main tenets of which were extremely influential on military planning across the globe and were adopted by American and Soviet armies. In the twentieth century, Germany's art of warfare dominated military theory and practice, creating a myth of German operational brilliance that lingers today, despite the nation's crushing defeats in two world wars. In this seminal study, Gerhard P. Gross provides a comprehensive examination of the development and failure of German operational thinking over a period of more than a century. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of five different armies, from the mid--nineteenth century through the early days of NATO. He also offers fresh interpretations of towering figures of German military history, including Moltke the Elder, Alfred von Schlieffen, and Erich Ludendorff. Essential reading for military historians and strategists, this innovative work dismantles cherished myths and offers new insights into Germany's failed attempts to become a global power through military means.

Even in well-established democratic societies, the political system currently faces a crisis of civic engagement and participation. Increasingly, this lack of engagement and the accompanying erosion of institutional legitimacy result in antidemocratic, populist currents gaining ground.It is an important challenge for both the humanities and the social sciences to analyse this crisis and discuss possible answers that may contribute to strengthening the position of the democratic public sphere in the political process, thus emphasising the crucial role of civic engagement and participation in renewing democracy. The articles in this volume seek the sources for such democratic innovations in a variety of existing, less formalised practices and experiences in public space: in citizens' forums and other concrete arenas for democratic debate and participation in the media in general, including social media and other digital platforms; in social movements; and in artistic interventions in the public sphere.The volume presents selected and edited papers and keynote lectures from the international research conference The Democratic Public Sphere - Current Challenges and Prospects, which was held at Aarhus University on November 5-7, 2015. It includes contributions by keynote speakers Mark E. Warren, Nick Couldry, Donatella della Porta, and Stephen Duncombe.

Nihilism and/or community. The European matter. The gift of the in-common. Touching on different themes and authors, the papers presented here probe the prolificness that the terms sacred and community could have – if subtracted from the game of reactive nihilism – in checking the violence of the diverse political and religious ideologies that the West administers. An escape opens in the implementation of critical thinking and ethical behaviour that involve the “sacrifice” of thought and of the thinking subject. The disputing, therefore, of all the semantics of the logic of the recognition and the convenience that regulate life in advanced democracies.

The “birth” could be the main concept of a philosophy of the commencement: indeed it is not only a biological event or an effective metaphor for new beginning, but also the sign that being, knowledge and action, born themselves, have the power to give birth to something. Birth is essentially which has neither memory nor appropriation of itself: it’s a destiny and a choice that confirm the features of necessity and freedom bound in every coming into the world. Thoughts about birth can be found per exempla in Arendt’s, Nietzsche’s and Vico’s works as well as in the ancient and modern age, wherever the burden of the change has been felt. The concept of birth passes through the contemporary philosophy which wants to rebuild the historical framework of the critical reflection.

German philosopher and social critic Theodor Adorno (1903--1969) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers. A leading member of the Frankfurt School, Adorno advanced an unconventional type of Marxist analysis in books such as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), Minima Moralia (1951), and Negative Dialectics (1966). Forced out of Nazi Germany because of his Jewish heritage, Adorno lived in exile in the United States for nearly fifteen years. In Adorno and Democracy, Shannon Mariotti explores how this extended visit prompted a concern for and commitment to democracy that shaped the rest of his work.Mariotti analyzes the extensive and undervalued works Adorno composed in English for an American audience and traces the development of his political theory during the World War II era. Her unique study examines how Adorno changed his writing style while in the United States in order to directly address the public, which lay at the heart of his theoretical concerns. Despite his apparent contempt for popular culture, his work during this period clearly engages with a broader public in ways that reflect a deep desire to understand the problems and possibilities of democracy as enacted through the customs and habits of Americans. Ultimately, Adorno advances a theory of democratic leadership that works through pedagogy to cultivate a more robust and meaningful practice of citizenship.Mariotti incisively demonstrates how Adorno's unconventional and challenging interpretations of US culture can add conceptual rigor to political theory and remind Americans of the normative promise of democracy. Adorno and Democracy is an innovative contribution to critical debates about contemporary US politics.

This book presents a comprehensive and systematic description of the underlying pedagogy inherent in doctoral supervision and its institutional context. It argues that doctoral supervision relies on an advanced form of pedagogy that is often tacit for both students and supervisors. The target audience for this book includes doctoral supervisors and students, people conducting research and developmental work in the field of doctoral education, and stakeholders and intellectual leaders in a broader academic context. The author of this book presents the results of an extensive study of the research on doctoral supervision and education together with his own empirical findings from qualitative observation and interview studies at both Danish and British universities.

The present book comprises thirteen chapters written by Nordic scholars in the human and social sciences, and developed out of conference papers presented at regular winter and summer symposia held by two research groups emanating from the Nordic Summer University. Born within and informed by this specific milieu, the chapters address significant sociopolitical implications for contemporary societies emerging from the ethical reflections of leading 20th century thinkers (e.g. Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas), important procedural as well as substantive aspects of democracy, and pivotal ethico-political issues arising from the abstract logic and concrete manifestations of market economies. Though by no means devoid of their own economic, cultural and political problems, the Nordic countries are still paramount examples of humane prosperity, democratic civility, environmentally sound policy, and peaceful resolution of social and industrial conflicts. Year after year, if not decade after decade, they keep topping the international charts for socio-economic indicators about sostainable development, healthcare quality and accessibility, educational levels, crime control, preceived happiness and much else. As such, the scholarly and scientific reflections orginating within the Nordic Summer University might prove to be useful sources of insight for policy-makers, intellectuals and interested persons outside the Nordic context, and not solely inside it.