Kategoria BISAC: Philosophy >> Social

The good schmooze is talk about life itself: the good, the bad, and the ugly--a heartfelt interaction with others--chatting, not "chatting up." "The Lost Art of the Good Schmooze: Building Rapport and Defusing Conflict in Everyday and Public Talk" is about what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. Full of insights that will prove useful at work, at home, with friends, and just about everywhere else, the book will help readers become tactful schmoozers who can defuse situational tensions and lubricate personal, social, workplace, and political interactions with others.

The book is...

While narrative has been one of the liveliest and most productive areas of research in literary theory, discussions of the nature of emotional responses to art and of the cognitive value of art tend to concentrate almost exclusively on the problem of fiction: How can we emote over or learn from fictions? Narrative, Emotion, and Insight explores what would happen if aestheticians framed the matter differently, having narratives--rather than fictional characters and events--as the object of emotional and cognitive attention. The book thus opens up new possibilities for approaching...

The contemporary importance of A. N. Whitehead (1861-1947) lies in his direct yet productive challenge to the culture of thought inherent in modernity, a challenge that suffuses science, social theory and philosophy alike. Unlike some of the more destructive aspects of postmodernism and poststructuralism, Whitehead's diagnosis of the conceptual fault lines of the modern era does not entail a passive relativism. Instead, he calls for a renewal of our concepts, offering a positive, philosophical approach based on becoming, relativity, and a reconception of subjectivity and the social. This...

Paul Gilroy seeks to awaken a new understanding of W. E. B. Du Bois' intellectual and political legacy. At a time of economic crisis, environmental degradation, ongoing warfare, and heated debate over human rights, how should we reassess the changing place of black culture?

Gilroy considers the ways that consumerism has diverted African Americans' political and social aspirations. Luxury goods and branded items, especially the automobile--rich in symbolic value and the promise of individual freedom--have restratified society, weakened citizenship, and diminished the collective...