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Osama Bin Laden

9/11 almost instantaneously remade American politics and foreign policy. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, water boarding and Guantanamo are examples of its profound and far-reaching effects. But despite its monumental impact--and a deluge of books about al-Qaeda and Islamist terrorism--no one has written a serious assessment of the man who planned it, Osama bin Laden. Available biographies depict bin Laden as an historical figure, the mastermind behind 9/11, but no longer relevant to the world it created. These accounts, Michael Scheuer strongly believes, have contributed to a widespread and dangerous denial of his continuing significance and power. In this book, Scheuer provides a much-needed corrective--a hard-headed, closely reasoned portrait of bin Laden, showing him to be a figure of remarkable leadership skills, strategic genius, and considerable rhetorical abilities. The first head of the CIA's bin Laden Unit, where he led the effort to track down bin Laden, Scheuer draws from a wealth of information about bin Laden and his evolution from peaceful Saudi dissident to America's Most Wanted. Shedding light on his development as a theologian, media manipulator, and paramilitary commander, Scheuer makes use of all the speeches and interviews bin Laden has given as well as lengthy interviews, testimony, and previously untranslated documents written by those who grew up with bin Laden in Saudi Arabia, served as his bodyguards and drivers, and fought alongside him against the Soviets. The bin Laden who emerges from these accounts is devout, talented, patient, and ruthless; in other words, a truly formidable and implacable enemy of the West. Acclaim for Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terrorism "Pulls few punches...a fascinating window on America's war with Al Qaeda." --Michiko Kakutani, New York Times "No serious observer of the war on terrorism can ignore this scathing critique." --Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. "A powerful, persuasive analysis of the terrorist threat and the Bush administration's failed efforts to fight it." --Richard A. Clarke, Washington Post Book World "A fire-breathing denunciation of U.S. counterterrorism policy." --Julian Borger, The Guardian "Presents overwhelmingly persuasive evidence to buttress a host of significant and controversial arguments." --Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly "Destined to become a classic in the field of counterterrorism analysis." --Bruce Hoffman, author of Inside Terrorism

In this book, Scheuer provides a much-needed corrective--a hard-headed, closely reasoned portrait of bin Laden, showing him to be a figure of remarkable leadership skills, strategic genius, and considerable rhetorical abilities.

Mind, Brain, and Free Will

Richard Swinburne presents a powerful new case for substance dualism and for libertarian free will. He argues that pure mental events (including conscious events) are distinct from physical events and interact with them, and claims that no result from neuroscience or any other science could show that interaction does not take place. Swinburne goes on to argue for agent causation, and claims that it is we, and not our intentions, that cause our brain events. It ismetaphysically possible that each of us could acquire a new brain or continue to exist without a brain; and so we are essentially souls. Brain events and conscious events are so different from each other that it would not be possible to establish a scientific theory which would predict what each ofus would do in situations of moral conflict. Hence, we should believe that things are as they seem to be: that we make choices independently of the causes which influence us. It follows that we are morally responsible for our actions.

But many of the arguments by which I support those conclusions are different,
and—I believe—deeper and stronger, based on a full discussion of underlying
philosophical issues (e. g. the criteria for the identity of events and substances,
and the grounds for asserting that a certain state of affairs is metaphysically
possible) which underlie differences among philosophers about issues of mind
and body. Also, this book includes a far fuller, and to my mind far more
satisfactory, discussion ...

Disorders of Brain and Mind:

This authoritative new book details the most recent advances in clinical neuroscience, from neurogenetics to the study of consciousness.

Psychopathy, in both children and adults, is currently denned by high scores on
clinically based rating scales: for children, the Psychopathy Screening Device (
PSD; Frick and Hare, in press) and for adults, the Revised Psychopathy Checklist
(PCL-R; Hare 1991). Factor analyses of behaviours rated on both the PSD and
PCL reveal two independent factors: (1) an emotion dysfunction factor defined
largely by emotional shallowness and lack of guilt and (2) an antisocial
behaviour factor ...

The Unity of Mind, Brain and World

Current Perspectives on a Science of Consciousness

Issues concerning the unity of minds, bodies and the world have often recurred in the history of philosophy and, more recently, in scientific models. Taking into account both the philosophical and scientific knowledge about consciousness, this book presents and discusses some theoretical guiding ideas for the science of consciousness. The authors argue that, within this interdisciplinary context, a consensus appears to be emerging assuming that the conscious mind and the functioning brain are two aspects of a complex system that interacts with the world. How can this concept of reality - one that includes the existence of consciousness - be approached both philosophically and scientifically? The Unity of Mind, Brain and World is the result of a three-year online discussion between the authors who present a diversity of perspectives, tending towards a theoretical synthesis, aimed to contribute to the insertion of this field of knowledge in the academic curriculum.

A centrally located neural space organized as a rotation-based geometry is
partitioned into three nested zones around the egocentric origin: egocenter, body
zone (here represented by the head alone), and world zone. The latter two house
spatial maps supplied with veridical content reflecting circumstances pertaining
to the physical body and its surrounding world, respectively. In this mapping,
global sensory motion is reflected as movement of the body alone relative to the
world, ...

Mind, Brain and Narrative

Narratives enable readers to vividly experience fictional and non-fictional contexts. Writers use a variety of language features to control these experiences: they direct readers in how to construct contexts, how to draw inferences and how to identify the key parts of a story. Writers can skilfully convey physical sensations, prompt emotional states, effect moral responses and even alter the readers' attitudes. Mind, Brain and Narrative examines the psychological and neuroscientific evidence for the mechanisms which underlie narrative comprehension. The authors explore the scientific developments which demonstrate the importance of attention, counterfactuals, depth of processing, perspective and embodiment in these processes. In so doing, this timely, interdisciplinary work provides an integrated account of the research which links psychological mechanisms of language comprehension to humanities work on narrative and style.

The psychological work we have presented up to now is primarily based on the
idea of a simple, literal interpretation of language. The mapping made from
language input onto world knowledge, particularly scenario-based situational
knowledge, enables language to be interpreted. Yet often language is
multilayered in that it has to be interpreted in different ways. One example of this
is counterfactual worlds: depictions of worlds in which the 'facts' are essentially
false, or not realized, ...

The Brain and the Meaning of Life

Why is life worth living? What makes actions right or wrong? What is reality and how do we know it? The Brain and the Meaning of Life draws on research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the most pressing questions about life's nature and value. Paul Thagard argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality, and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about reality, morality, and the meaning of life. The ongoing Brain Revolution reveals how love, work, and play provide good reasons for living. Defending the superiority of evidence-based reasoning over religious faith and philosophical thought experiments, Thagard argues that minds are brains and that reality is what science can discover. Brains come to know reality through a combination of perception and reasoning. Just as important, our brains evaluate aspects of reality through emotions that can produce both good and bad decisions. Our cognitive and emotional abilities allow us to understand reality, decide effectively, act morally, and pursue the vital needs of love, work, and play. Wisdom consists of knowing what matters, why it matters, and how to achieve it. The Brain and the Meaning of Life shows how brain science helps to answer questions about the nature of mind and reality, while alleviating anxiety about the difficulty of life in a vast universe. The book integrates decades of multidisciplinary research, but its clear explanations and humor make it accessible to the general reader.

No: this chapter will provide good reasons for basing beliefs and decisions on
evidence rather than on faith. After a brief history of the conflict between scientific
evidence and religious faith, I will describe how faith and evidence differ in the
way they affect beliefs and decisions. I will use medicine as an informative area
in which the superiority of evidence over faith is clear, and generalize this
superiority to other domains, including philosophy. Although the tradition of a
priori reasoning ...

Feminist Approaches to Theory and Methodology

An Interdisciplinary Reader

This collection is organized around key issues in feminist theory and empirical research. Essay topics include: tensions between disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge building; the politics of identity and experience; the complex terrain in which difference is used as a tool of oppression; the gender dynamics of power and resistance; and visual and discursive representations of the female body. The volume concludes with some methodological and political dilemmas feminists encounter as they expose the underlying ideological distortions in existing social policies.

This collection is organized around key issues in feminist theory and empirical research.

Hollywood Left and Right

How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics

In Hollywood Left and Right, Steven J. Ross tells a story that has escaped public attention: the emergence of Hollywood as a vital center of political life and the important role that movie stars have played in shaping the course of American politics. Ever since the film industry relocated to Hollywood early in the twentieth century, it has had an outsized influence on American politics. Through compelling larger-than-life figures in American cinema--Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Edward G. Robinson, George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Harry Belafonte, Jane Fonda, Charlton Heston, Warren Beatty, and Arnold Schwarzenegger--Hollywood Left and Right reveals how the film industry's engagement in politics has been longer, deeper, and more varied than most people would imagine. As shown in alternating chapters, the Left and the Right each gained ascendancy in Tinseltown at different times. From Chaplin, whose movies almost always displayed his leftist convictions, to Schwarzenegger's nearly seamless transition from action blockbusters to the California governor's mansion, Steven J. Ross traces the intersection of Hollywood and political activism from the early twentieth century to the present. Hollywood Left and Right challenges the commonly held belief that Hollywood has always been a bastion of liberalism. The real story, as Ross shows in this passionate and entertaining work, is far more complicated. First, Hollywood has a longer history of conservatism than liberalism. Second, and most surprising, while the Hollywood Left was usually more vocal and visible, the Right had a greater impact on American political life, capturing a senate seat (Murphy), a governorship (Schwarzenegger), and the ultimate achievement, the Presidency (Reagan).

With union leaders committing their organizations to Brown, the Republican
reached out to rankandfile members. Judging from popular responses, Reagan's
efforts proved successful. An Orange County union member's wife told him that
despite instructions “from their San Francisco headquarters,” there is “strong
feeling running in your favor.” The Brown forces grew increasingly concerned as
letters poured in from longtime party loyalists warning, “We may be Democrats,
but find more ...

A Guide to the Birds of Colombia

Describing all of Colombia's birds, Steven Hilty and William Brown bring together information on one of the world's largest avifaunas-nearly 1,700 species. Over half of all the species of birds in South America are included, thus making the book useful in regions adjacent to Colombia, as well as in the country itself. The primary purpose of the work is to enable observers to identify the birds of the region, but it also provides detailed species accounts and will serve as an important handbook and reference volume. Fifty-six lavish color plates, thirteen halftone plates, and ninety-nine line drawings in the text illustrate over 85% of the species, including most of the resident birds. Notes on the facing-page of each place, and range maps of 1,475 species, facilitate identification. Written with the field observer in mind, the text gives special attention to comparisons of similar species, transcriptions of voices, and comments on behavior, status, and habitat. It also provides ranges, breeding data, and references. Notes outline taxonomic problems and briefly describe species that eventually may be found in Colombia. Introductory chapters and photographs highlight Colombia's geography, climate, and vegetation, and discuss migration and conservation questions, and the history of Colombian ornithology. Appendices contain a large bibliography, a section on birding locations, and coverage of two of Colombia's far-flung island territories, Isla San Andrés and Providencia. Maps depicting vegetation zones, political boundaries, national parks, and the most text localities are included.

The primary purpose of the work is to enable observers to identify the birds of the region, but it also provides detailed species accounts and will serve as an important handbook and reference volume.

FUGITIVE JUSTICE

Tells the stories of three of the most dramatic fugitive-slave trials of the 1850s, bringing to life the determination of the fugitives, the radical tactics of their rescuers, the brutality of the slave hunters and the response of the federal courts.

trials of the Oberlin rescuers attracted national attention in the spring and summer
of 1859, but they were soon overshadowed by events. Before the end of the year,
John Brown staged his attack at Harpers Ferry, only to be captured and hanged
for murder and treason. Brown's execution was inevitable from the moment of he
was taken prisoner, but the Virginia au- thorities still proceeded with the formality
of a trial. That trial provided Brown with the opportunity to deliver his defiant final
 ...