Algebra has moved well beyond the topics discussed in standard undergraduate texts on 'modern algebra'. Those books typically dealt with algebraic structures such as groups, rings and fields: still very important concepts However Quantum Groups: A Path to Current Algebra is written for the reader at ease with at least one such structure and keen to learn algebraic concepts and techniques. A key to understanding these new developments is categorical duality. A quantum group is a vector space with structure. Part of the structure is standard: a multiplication making it an 'algebra'. Another...

In the last generation, Northern Ireland has undergone a tortuous yet remarkable process of social and political change. This collection of essays aims to capture the complex and shifting realities of a society in the process of transition from war to peace.
The book brings together commentators from a range of academic backgrounds and political perspectives. As well as focusing upon those political divisions and disputes that are most readily associated with Northern Ireland, it provides a rather broader focus than is conventionally found in books on the region. It examines the cultural...

In the last generation, Northern Ireland has undergone a tortuous but nonetheless remarkable process of social and political change. The intention of this particular collection of essays is to capture the complex and shifting realities of a society as it moves between what often felt like war to what increasingly feels like peace. Northern Ireland after the troubles? brings together commentators from a range of academic backgrounds and political perspectives. The essays that open the collection focus upon those political divisions and disputes that are most readily associated with Northern...

While the problem of evil remains a perennial challenge to theistic belief, little attention has been paid to the special problem of animal pain and suffering. This absence is especially conspicuous in our Darwinian era when theists are forced to confront the fact that animal pain and suffering has gone on for at least tens of millions of years, through billions of animal generations. Evil of this sort might not be especially problematic if the standard of explanations for evil employed by theists could be applied in this instance as well. But there is the central problem: all or most of the...