Microcosmia

EBook Description: Microcosmia pursues offbeat protagonist Cristian Vane, an emotionally troubled young liberal who�s just come into the staggering Vane fortune. With his newfound wealth and responsibility, Vane sets out to put his cosseted life back together, but a series of gut-wrenching misadventures in the real world produce a complete nervous breakdown. The young heir surfaces with a fresh perspective: wealth is wasted on the wealthy; his bequest is a golden opportunity to do something magnificent in a heartless world. Sickened by a documentary featuring scammed Ethiopian famine victims, he sets off for Africa to build his utopia. Though Vane�s misplaced magnanimity results in East-West friction and internal rivalries, he still manages to create his magnum opus, even as cutthroat pirates, a vile Eritrean colonel, and a doomed affair with a gorgeous, control-freak journalist push him over the edge. The tale concludes with an overwhelming assault by the Eritrean Army during the mother of all desert locust plagues.

Ebooks Free Download | The Nature of Space and Time | Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields and Einstein's general theory of relativity, the two most accurate and successful theories in all of physics, be united in a single quantum theory of gravity. Can quantum and cosmos ever be combined? On this issue, two of the world's most famous physicists Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time) and Roger Penrose (The Emperor's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind) disagree. Here they explain their positions in a work based on six lectures with a final debate, all originally presented at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. How could quantum gravity, a theory that could explain the earlier moments of the big bang and the physics of the enigmatic objects known as black holes, be constructed. Why does our patch of the universe look just as Einstein predicted, with no hint of quantum effects in sight. What strange quantum processes can cause black holes to evaporate, and what happens to all the information that they swallow? Why does time go forward, not backward

In this book, the two opponents touch on all these questions. Penrose, like Einstein, refuses to believe that quantum mechanics is a final theory. Hawking thinks otherwise, and argues that general relativity simply cannot account for how the universe began. Only a quantum theory of gravity, coupled with the no-boundary hypothesis, can ever hope to explain adequately what little we can observe about our universe. Penrose, playing the realist to Hawking's positivist, thinks that the universe is unbounded and will expand forever. The universe can be understood, he argues, in terms of the geometry of light cones, the compression and distortion of spacetime, and by the use of twistor theory. With the final debate, the reader will come to realize how much Hawking and Penrose diverge in their opinions of the ultimate quest to combine quantum mechanics and relativity, and how differently they have tried to comprehend the incomprehensible.


Source: Ebooks Free Download: The Nature of Space and Time
ebooks-freedownload.com

Ten Theories of Human Nature Book

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA | 1998 | ISBN 0195120418 | PDF | 256 pages | 4.1 MB
With over a quarter of a million copies sold since 1974, Seven Theories of Human Nature was a remarkably popular introduction to key points of Western thought. Now completely revised, Ten Theories of Human Nature extends and deepens the discussion of the original seven theories, taking into account the most recent scholarship and addressing issues of feminism, relativism, and the limits of the scientific understanding of human nature. In addition, it broadens the cultural and historical range by adding chapters on Hinduism and Confucianism, as well as a new chapter on Kant.
As its previous edition, this admirably lucid volume compresses into a small space the essence of such thinkers as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean Paul Sartre, B.F. Skinner, and Konrad Lorenz. Moreover, the authors juxtapose the ideas of these and other thinkers in a way that helps us to understand how humanity has struggled to comprehend its nature. We see, for instance, how Skinner's theories, which assert the primacy of learned behavior, are undercut by Lorenz's studies of animals, which suggest that complex behavior can occur prior to learning. To bring these comparisons into sharp relief, the book examines each theorist on four points--on the nature of the universe, on the nature of humanity, on the ills of the world, and on the proposed cure for these ills. And at the same time, we are treated to fascinating analyses of some of the most influential books ever written, from Sartre's Being and Nothingness and Konrad Lorenz's On Aggression, to Plato's Republic and The Bible.
Ideal for courses in introduction to philosophy, introduction to philosophical thought, human nature, and Western intellectual history, Ten Theories of Human Nature will engage and motivate students to consider who humans are, what motivates us, and how we can understand and improve the world.

Zen Culture

by Thomas Hoover

Hoover provides an excellent introduction to the aesthetics of Japanese culture. Hoover covers the ground in an easy and informative way, describing the origins of Zen itself and the Zen roots of swordsmanship, architecture, food, poetry, drama, ceramics, and many other areas of Japanese life. The book is packed with facts, the bibliography is excellent, the illustrations few but most appropriate, and the style clear and smooth. A most useful book for all collections. Hoover suggests we need only look around. Modern furniture is clean, simple lines in unstained, unadorned woods. And that old fad became a habit, houseplants. These are all expressions of ideas born with Zen: understatement, asymmetry, intuitive perception, nature worship, disciplined reserve.

Where are the zombies?

s there afterlife? What is the purpose of our existence? Can computers and robots be conscious, and wake up one day to ask this very same question? This book is an intriguing exploration on the nature of the conscious mind. If there is afterlife, it is not the kind of afterlife people usually think of. These are all related to the question of why we are not p-zombies. Strange? Read on�

The Sunflower that Roared

Sarah has a very sunny nature. That is why her mother calls her her little sunflower. But even sunflowers get grumpy when no one listens to them. A picture book to read with your 3-5 year old, especially if you like sunflowers-like Van Gogh and William Blake did! It will also make a delightful addition to the learning experience about growing a plant from seed, as done in kindergarten, and can be read on line or on your phone/ipad with Stanza too.

Mastering ID

A chance meeting with an enticing woman forces Jacob into a battle with Id, the primal instincts surging within him. As his new nature is revealed, Jacob struggles to understand what he has now become and what he has lost, forever.

The Ether Dispute: Revisiting Einstein�s argument that space is a physical substance

There�s an unresolved dispute over the physical nature of space. It occurs because of what Bacon called our �dull and deceptive human senses�. On one hand, space appears empty. This led biblical and modern cosmologists to conclude space is an �empty vacuum.� But, when astrophysicists from Newton to Einstein studied space, they found it exhibits physical behaviors � i.e. it carries light and heat. This led them to conclude space is an invisible substance called �the ether.� The author explores the ether dispute, and the pressing need to resolve it scientifically.

Mosquito�s Trumpet: Poems for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

This short collection of poetry is a an observation of the ongoing crisis in Burma. It also includes commentary on Thoreauvian Optimism, the nature of Charity, and the American experience. Mosquito�s Trumpet is an applied mediation on the singularly American flexibility of expression with meaning.

Soils: Nature, Fertility Conservation And Management

An introductory text on Soil Science (for undergraduates and everyone interested in the science of the soil � as the medium for plant growth) with special consideration of �Tropical Soil Fertility Conservation and Management Under Continuous Cropping�.

That Is That: Essays About True Nature

That Is That is an intriguing and enlightening look at life�s biggest question: Who am I? This book is a collection of the free essays and articles found on Advaita spiritual teacher, Nirmala�s website and blog at www.endless-satsang.com. It is intended to be an easy way to sample all of his teachings. There is no particular order and you are invited to wander through the essays as you please. Nirmala offers a unique vision and a gentle, compassionate approach, which adds to the rich tradition of spiritual inquiry into our true nature. He is the author of several books, including Nothing Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self.

• Free IAS eBooks
• Free GRE eBooks
• Free MBA eBooks
• Free GATE eBooks