Author: Mark Sinnett
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: series, poetry, harbinger, landing
Number of Pages: 59
Published: 1999-03
List price: $27.95
ISBN-10: 0886293243
ISBN-13: 9780886293246

The poems in The Landing, Sinnett’s first collection, reflect on a life divided in two by a move from England to Canada. Ontario’s glacial landscape is the backdrop for a darkly humorous, often unsettling look at the nature of love and commitment at the end of the twentieth century. This is a time when lurid close-ups of brain surgery are beamed into the home; when the sight of a woman pulling on her wool sweater drives a man mad; when a bored lover considers digging an escape tunnel through the backyard ...

Author: Jack Ritchie
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: understanding, thought, modern, movements, naturalism
Number of Pages: 218
Published: 2009-02
List price: $22.95
ISBN-10: 1844650790
ISBN-13: 9781844650798

Many contemporary Anglo-American philosophers describe themselves as naturalists. But what do they mean by that term? Popular naturalist slogans like, "there is no first philosophy" or "philosophy is continuous with the natural sciences" are far from illuminating. "Understanding Naturalism" provides a clear and readable survey of the main strands in recent naturalist thought. The origin and development of naturalist ideas in epistemology, metaphysics and semantics is explained through the works of Quine, Goldman, Kuhn, Chalmers, Papineau, Millikan and others. The most common objections to the

Author: Wayne Grennan
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: techniques, issues, logic, informal
Number of Pages: 309
Published: 1997-05
List price: $95.00
ISBN-10: 0773515429
ISBN-13: 9780773515420

This critique of informal logic and critical thinking strategies and techniques examines argument evaluation techniques being used in both formal and informal logic texts and, finding them lacking, proposes a new system for evaluation. This evaluation is based on two criteria - logical adequacy and pragmatic adequacy for evaluating everyday arguments. The work asserts that the common formal logic systems, while logically sound, are not very useful for evaluating everyday inferences, which are almost all deductively invalid as stated. Turning to informal logic, it is pointed out that while more

Author: Samuel H. S. Hughes
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: memoir, course, steering
Number of Pages: 294
Published: 2000-07
List price: $85.00
ISBN-10: 0773520422
ISBN-13: 9780773520424

With the frankness and clarity of someone whose life has been lived to the full, Sam Hughes tells the story of that life, from his early years in Victoria, BC - his father was a chief engineer at Canadian Northern Railway - to his many years on the bench in Ontario as a Supreme Court judge. Hughes gives moving details about his life, from his time in England as a child while his father was in action in France during World War I, to time abroad in the army during World War II, to events during his twenty-six-year tenure on the bench. His passion for family and for law shine through his account.

Author: Patricia A. Morley
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: story, kennedy, leo, mattered, life
Number of Pages: 264
Published: 1994-05
List price: $95.00
ISBN-10: 0773511474
ISBN-13: 9780773511477

Born of Irish immigrant stock, Kennedy earned his own living from the age of fourteen after his formal education ended at Grade Six. In a circle of privilege, he was the outsider. Despite this, his intelligence, imagination, and wit, coupled with an intense love of language and learning, opened many doors. Kennedy’s choices in religion, friendship, marriage, and business were deeply influenced by the same yearning for justice and defence of humane values that informed his verse, stories, and essays. A successfully published poet at the age of 26 (The Shrouding, 1933), Kennedy soon left h

Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: manipulation, mental, critique, mindfucking
Number of Pages: 76
Published: 2008-06
List price: $18.95
ISBN-10: 1844651142
ISBN-13: 9781844651146

Being surrounded by bullshit is one thing. Having your mind fucked is quite another. The former is irritating, but the latter is violating and intrusive (unless you give your consent). If someone manipulates your thoughts and emotions, messing with your head, you naturally feel resentment: he or she has distorted your perceptions, disturbed your feelings, maybe even usurped your self. Mindfucking is a prevalent aspect of contemporary culture and the agent can range from an individual to a whole state, from personal mind games to wholesale propaganda.In "Mindfucking", Colin McGinn investigates

Author: Michael Grenfell
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Keywords: concepts, key, bourdieu, pierre
Number of Pages: 248
Published: 2008-08
List price: $24.95
ISBN-10: 1844651185
ISBN-13: 9781844651184

The French social philosopher Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) is now recognised as one of the major thinkers of the twentieth century. In a career of over fifty years, Bourdieu studied a wide range of topics: education, culture, art, politics, economics, literature, law, and philosophy. Throughout these studies, Bourdieu developed a highly specialised series of concepts that he referred to as his "thinking tools", which were used to uncover the workings of contemporary society. "Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts" takes a selection of his most important concepts and examines them in detail. Each chapte