Publications Books


Books-Under-Review-->Recreation-->Outdoors-->Speleology-->Publications-->31
Related Subjects: Journals
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250
Publications Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Publications
Yellowstone Treasures: The Traveler's Companion to the National Park
Published in Paperback by Granite Peak Publications (2005-05-01)
Author: Janet Chapple
List price: $21.95
New price: $13.53
Used price: $12.25

Average review score:

Excellent tour companion
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-03
I brought this book for my family RV trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton last month. It helped us plan our routes, learn bits of history and science, and pick camp sites. The mile markers and corresponding information bits were very useful as we stayed mostly on the grand loop. I highly recommend this book, particularly to first-time visitors.

Glad I bought this!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-01
At first my man thought it was stupid of me to purchase this book. I say at first because after he started to read it he said, "Hey that book you bought is really good!" Anyway we used it quite a bit while we were at Yellowstone and also Grand Teton National park as well. A great purchase and an item we will be sure to use many times in the future.

Great Guide
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-19
We purchased this book for an upcoming trip to Yellowstone and it is exactly the kind of book for which we had hoped. It is signifcantly better organized than many of the other books that we looked at about Yellowstone.

Beautiful book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-18
Highly recommend this book. Well written explaination of what you are seeing. Much better than the park service materials.

Very useful
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-27
This is a good book to have with you in Yellowstone. I especially liked the road logs. It is a good resource that brings together information that would otherwise need to be gathered from multiple resources and is sometimes not even available elsewhere. Combined with T. Scott Bryan's "The Geysers of Yellowstone", it was very well used on our trip!

Publications
About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource 2nd Edition
Published in Paperback by Math Solutions Publications (2000-08)
Author: Marilyn Burns
List price: $35.95
New price: $4.73
Used price: $1.99

Average review score:

About Teaching Mathematics Resource
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-10
This is a timeless treasure of mathematical understandings generated by Marilyn Burns and her associates. These activities, coupled with hands-on training for teachers, can make a tremendous difference in the mathematical understanding of elementary and early middle school teachers. Most important in this edition are the addition of Burns' revised thinking on Teaching Arithmetic (part 3), and her compilation of discussions for 40 activities (part 4). These two additions have rounded this meaningful math resource into a powerful tool for on-going staff development.

LIGHTENING FAST shipping!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-08
Book was on my doorstep in a flash! Excellent condition. Very satisfied!! A++

Excellent
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-26
I received the text book in a reasonable amount of time. The information in this book is extrememly helpful for those who are in the teaching field, or even for those who have children and want to help with math homework.

Great resource
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-01
I haven't finished reading this entire valuable resource, but it has a great conceptual framework followed by creative ideas. I teach 7th Grade Mathematics overseas where my students have not had a great basis in analytical thinking and I look forward to using these ideas with my classes this year.

About Teaching Mathematics
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-08
I love this book! It is a great resource with ideas for getting kids interested in math and what questions teachers should ask themselves as they teach. It also points out common mistakes students make and their thought processes for getting there. It is divided into sections by mathematical topics and also has dozens of lesson plan ideas, both for full lessons and those quick time-fillers. This is the most reader-friendly textbook I've ever had to read for a class--it's so easy to read!

Publications
Animals Divine Tarot
Published in Paperback by Llewellyn Publications (2005-08-01)
Author: Lisa Hunt
List price: $24.95
New price: $10.96
Used price: $10.97

Average review score:

Devine Animal tarot
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-02
Is a great Tarot set. Very in depth, with beautiful artwork on the cards. I sent it to my sister who is a great animal lover as a gift.

Truly Divine
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-21
I bought this Deck because of how beautiful it is,it has now become my favorite.When I do my readings they have such a serene feel to them,which makes them so much easier to read.It's as this Deck wants to be read.

Beautiful cards
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-17
Animals symbols are symbols that we can encounter through dreams. If you adore them. Or are just a spiritual person or just want a nice deck of tarot cards to add to your collection I would highly recommend these.Also if you are looking for you first tarot deck I think these are nice for that purpose also. And It does come with a book.But if you need more information on spreads you should search the internet.

A beautiful deck; the perfect gift for any animal lover!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-23
I bought this deck for myself and I adore the illustrations. They are amazingly detailed and display a wide array of animals, gods, and goddesses. The major arcana feature representations from every continent and many cultures. The animals in the minor arcana are gorgeous and I appreciated the color. Great gift for a first deck, yourself, or any animal lover.

Beautiful Art
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-12
The art by Lisa Hunt is breathtaking. The book that comes with the cards lists different layouts for readings and examples of readings. The book also gives well written details of interpretation of each card. This deck is also good for self readings as well as for other people.

Publications
Animals: 1,419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc. (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Published in Paperback by Dover Publications (1979-10-01)
Author:
List price: $17.95
New price: $11.50
Used price: $3.20

Average review score:

Animals: 1,419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-20
This book has the most awesome animal drawings I have ever seen. The fact that they are wood engravings is more than remarkable!

awesome book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-18
A present for my daughter-in-law and the illustrations were incredible. She is an artist and will make good use of this book.

Enjoyed the broad range of life illustrated for this volume
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-12
Wow - the enormous numbers of animal life is astounding and the book clearly shows this. Unfortunately the images are quite dark and the book is very thick (you get your money's worth - image-wise), so scanning them for use in various artistic media is difficult. Therefore, I bought two of the books and plan to cut one of them up (that hurts to say for I treasure books of all types). This way I can control the scanning and modification using software to bring out details and highlight an image to my satisfaction. And finally, the classic images are impressive and I applaud the author for his selection of animals from all realms of life on earth.

Well worth it.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-16
Used several of these drawings in projects. Books like this are great for those of us designers who aren't the best freehand drawers.

Very Nice
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-12
This is just packed full of brilliant illustrations of birds frogs fish girafee spiders butterflies you name it , throughly recommended for any one who loves botanical illustrations or engravings , really good source material for artists or designers.very nice book but rember it is a paper back not that that matters to me.

Publications
Compendium of Seashells
Published in Hardcover by Odyssey Publications (2000-07)
Authors: R. Tucker Abbott and S. Peter Dance
List price: $60.00

Average review score:

An outstanding book !!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-21
I have been a shell collector for more than 25 years and along this years, this is the first time that I get such an interesting, well-documented, beautyfully illustrated and skillfully designed book on this subject. I am very happy with this purchase. The book has 411 pages with information and has about 12 photographs in each page giving a perfect appreciation of thousands of shells from everywhere. Each photo includes the common name (obviously valid in English speaking countries only), the scientific name, average length of adults (in centimeters and inches), brief information of geographical distribution and synonym names. Oh!, I almost forget to say that the authors,R. Tucker Abbott and S. Peter Dance are two famous conchologists leading this field of science for many, many years. So, this book informs, teaches and makes it very funny to learn and investigate in the universe of shells. "Bon apetit", collectors!!!

Compendium of Seashells
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
I had an earlier printing of this book (1983) and was disappointed to find that the 2000 edition I just purchased was virtually identical apart from a page of corrections at the end which would be much more useful if incorporated into the text. I feel that this excellent book needs updating to keep it as the No 1 general book on seashell identification.

informative
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-19
This book is very informative and descriptive if you're looking to collect exotic shells from different parts of the world.

The Best Sea Shell Identifier
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-09
I have been a shell collector for a very long time now. This is now my second copy of this book, as I have worn the first copy out. It is the most comprehensive identifier book around. The color photos are excellent, and the amount of species depicted is impressive! This book, along with Jerome M. Eisenberg's A Collectors Guide to the Sea Shells of the World, are probably the only two books on Sea Shells, a novice collector will ever need. The serious collector will also benefit from these books as well.

Compendium Of Seashells
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-10
This is a great book which hv given me alot of info, but still can upgrate by increase more pictures & decription for seashells of the world.

Publications
Cooking by Moonlight: A Witch's Guide to Culinary Magic
Published in Paperback by Llewellyn Publications (2003-02-01)
Author: Karri Ann Allrich
List price: $17.95
New price: $1,365.39
Used price: $96.19

Average review score:

Must have for the Kitchen Witch
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-10
This book is the best Witchy cookbook I have found. I've looked through many of them, only to be disappointed. Most of the Witch cookbooks out now, are redundant, full of the same old Wicca 101 dogma. . .not so with Cooking by Moonlight. I found this book to be really FUN! Allrich sets the mood with chapters on Love and Practical Magic, Using herbs and spices magically, and Lunar lessons. . .then goes on to present some DELICIOUS recipes! Every dish I have made from her recipes has been wonderful, and enjoyed by my entire family, kids included. I have many Wiccan, and "Witchy" cookbooks...this one tops my list by FAR!

A great cookbook with a neo-pagan spin
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-26
Advice on what to keep stocked in your kitchen, as well as attributes of various 'love foods', which foods are best to eat under which moon and season, and why. Excellent recipies, most of the ones with meat ingredients have vegetarian alternatives, which, being a vegetarian, I consider very thoughtful.

I do own a few cookbooks, but they're quite dusty, as I don't generally cook. I've got a few recipies and things I know how to assemble, but that number doesn't top a dozen. And half of them simply require adding milk to a package of dried flakey bits. If it can't be made in 10 minutes or less I dunno how. But a cookbook was sent with a neo-pagan spin, and how could I resist giving it a go?

I made the Cinnamon Zucchini Bread (pg. 117), the ingredients were simple enough, but I had no idea what it meant to 'fold in the zucchini', I called my sister who is a baker, and she told me, thinking I was an idiot for not immediately understanding. This easily could have been idiocy on my part, but an apendix of 'Baking Terms for Dummies' would have been helpful. At any rate, the bread turned out to be absolutely delicious.

Very Gooddess-centric (there is little mention of the God throughout this book) it contains many references to 'Wise Woman' (though none to Cunning Man), this is a cookbook clearly meant for women. Though I'm sure both sexes will appreciate the tastey recipies found within, however it would have been nice to see a bit more of a nod to the fellas. That, and a gloassary would be my only complaints, otherwise it's a delightful book, an excellent addition to the library of any kitchen witch.

Magical Recipes
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-19
I was very fortunate to receive this book as a gift by someone who shares my interests and tastes. I especially loved the chapter on Love Foods and Practical Magic. The author has a wonderful way with words and a true connection with the power of foods.
The recipes are both creative and delicious, with Coconut Whipped Winter Squash and Flourless Dark Night Cake being my favorites of the ones I have tried thus far.
There are so many heavenly recipes in this book I am undecided which to try next.

Fabulous
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-28
Karri Ann Allrich does it again in this new cookbook, Cooking By Moonlight.

In this book, she explains what foods, herbs and spices should be eaten with each lunar phase as well as which season, and provides details why these food items are so important to us physically and spiritually, as well as why each lunar phase is so important to us as well.

She includes a dictionary that gives explanation to the meaning behind each food item, plus ways in which to utilize them.
The book includes ideas on how to stock your pantry, which is extremely useful if you are new to cooking on a regular basis, or if you are trying to eat healthier as one will if you use this book.

She also offers menu ideas for each moon, and describes the meaning behind that lunar month.

She also clarifies how we should listen to out bodies as to what they need. The manner in which she described this made so much sense to me, it made me feel better about my body size and shape.

Her recipes are easy to read, effortless to prepare and delicious to eat. Examples of some of the delectable dishes you too can enjoy from this book are: Santa Fe Rice, Grapefruit and Spinach Salad, Balsamic Roasted Chicken With Peppers, Chilled Cucumber Soup, and Strawberry Snow.

This cookbook was so good, I also recommend Karri Allrichýs new cookbook entitled: "Cooking by the Seasons".

Seasonal Moonlit Culinary Magic
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2004-09-11
LOVE this book!! The blessings are very nice, and I like how she explains the concept of seasonal eating, and how different foods are complimentary to the seasons. This information goes well with her other book 'Cooking By the Seasons', which I also highly recommend.

My favorite recipes are: chilled roasted red pepper soup, chilled avacado soup with lime, savory muffins, balsamic roasted chicken with peppers (this one is DIVINE!), crabmeat enchiladas (not authentic Mexican food, but not meant to be; VERY good!), and lemon herb cookies, pumpkin cheesecake (yummy!). Like her other cook book, the recipes are exotic enough to be exciting, but not so exotic that it's hard to find the ingredients. Unlike her other cook book, this one is NOT vegetarian.

If you are a Pagan, then you will probably love this book. If you are not, then you should try to look past the things that you don't like and go straight to the recipes. They are worth any skimming you might have to do.

Publications
Dear Jean : What They Don't Teach You at the Water Cooler
Published in Hardcover by Atwood Publications (2000-07-01)
Author: Jean Kelley
List price: $24.95
New price: $1.89
Used price: $0.09

Average review score:

Don't go postal! Read this book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-22
All of the office politics, dishonesty and clawing that was going on around me was stressing me out. I was about to join in reluctantly for fear of being left in the dust. This book was a real eye opener and has helped me deal with what I have learned to be a universal corporate problem (which explains a lot about why corporate America is continuously critisized). If everyone is clawing their way to the top, who is actually working and getting the job done? Thanks to this book's funny approach to dealing with office politics, I am and I hope it will not go un-noticed.

An enjoyable and useful book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-02
This book covered some of the most interesting topics of real human life in the workplace, and not only in the United States. It also applies in places like Spain, where I'm from. Jean's experience in dealing with all these subjects makes the book and her advice very useful and realistic. Also I very much enjoyed reading this book -- it's certainly not boring! I strongly recomend this book to my friends, to people who work in companies or institutions, and also to the general public. I'm sure they will learn from it as well as enjoy it. Thanks, Jean, for this excellent book.

To enjoy work more - read this
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-08-14
I will admit I was skeptical when I picked up the book but I quickly found myself laughing and learning. In a light, funny and to the point "Dear Abby" style Jean answers tough questions about today's changing workplace. Covering everything from when to conduct business durng a business lunch to how to deal with the gum-smacking co-worker, Jean sheds light on many issues. Using real life examples, she gives the reader tools to get ahead in the workplace. No matter what your line of work there is bound to be something in the book for you.

Move over Dear Abby
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-19
Dear Jean is one of the most useful books for dealing with the everyday antics of the workplace. Jean stresses the importance of personal responsibility that is so often missing in today's employees. To get her career started in the right direction I gave my daughter a copy on the day she started her first real job.

Jean's writing style makes reading this book an absolute joy. Every office should keep a copy for reference.

Interact smartly and effectively with your co-workers
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-14
Dear Jean provides key insights and tips that can help improve our interpersonal relationships at work. The book provides a variety of real cases and issues that we may face at work. The book can become a very powerful "personal skill software" that will avoid us being caught up in messy personal issues at work that may hinder us from accomplishing our full business potential. Alejandro Sucre Director of Caracas Teleport / Otassca

Publications
Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs
Published in Hardcover by Serindia Publications, Inc (2004-03)
Author: Robert Beer
List price:
Used price: $133.83

Average review score:

Very in depth, a must for anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhist iconography
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-07
If you're interested in Tibetan Buddhist iconography for whatever reason you can't go wrong with this detailed book. The author's original illustrations provide a wealth of examples of images in Tibetan art, and the text provides rich historical and doctrinal background for understanding why the symbols are important. Highly recommended.

The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-09
Recieved the book promptly and in the condition promised. The book is an excellent source book. It does suffer from being without an index, for which the author apologizes. A source book without index is less than it should be. Still the images are excellent, and I assume the text is accurate. The author has spent a good portion of his working life in preparation: studying with Tibetan artists and craftspeople; and, becoming accomplished at rendering the brush drawings in an authentic manner. A good compaion book, especially as this does not have a index, is the "Handbook" by the same author

read Dagyab Rinpoche's Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-04
It's a more interesting and authoritative reference for this subject matter. This is due to Rinpoche being a qualified (I emphasise the word 'qualified') Lama and Tibetan scholar. Also at no point does Rinpoche compromise Tibetan Buddhism by giving away restricted information.

The 'Wonderful' Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs!!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-23
I love this book. Having found it a few years back at a tattoo shop in Santa Cruz, California, I was only able to look at it for a short time but I was able to gain so much knowledge as to the wealth of designs and deep meaning found in Tibetan art. This book stayed in my mind thereafter. Here it is a few years and a couple tattoos later and the book resurfaced on Amazon. Great price, great condition and prompt service. This book is great for one who has interest in Tibetan art and it's symbolic nature. The concepts are well articulated and with each 'type' placed into a different chapter it makes refrencing quite simple. If you are interested, get this book!

Great book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-23
Great book, with lots of details. If you are interested in tibetan handicrafts, here you can get any tibetan design you can imagine.

Publications
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Philosophical Classics)
Published in Paperback by Dover Publications (2004-04-22)
Author: David Hume
List price: $4.95
New price: $2.43
Used price: $1.59

Average review score:

Not An Ending, But A Beginning
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-14
This review mostly concerns the Enquiry. The Letter is primarily a defense of Hume's earlier Treatise of Human Nature, while his Abstract is an anonymous review of the Treatise. It strikes me as very funny, though not surprising, that Hume would review his own work. Funny because any author would give his right arm to get at least one favorable review when all the other critics are completely missing its point. Unsurprising because Hume was probably one of the only people alive at that time who could truly grasp all the facets of his radical philosophical claims.

The Enquiry was written after the Treatise. Hume, though he claimed the opposite, seems never to have really recovered from the blow he took from seeing his Treatise "fall dead born from the press." As a result, his Enquiry is far more cautious in the steps it takes. (For those of you who have read both, yes, I swear, Hume IS more cautious. Compare the claims.) A more robust philosophical stance is taken in his Treatise, while a more focused stance is taken in his Enquiry.

The Enquiry is mainly a work of epistemology and as such, scrutinizes our methods of acquiring knowledge. Making perhaps the most radical (and poignant) claim in all of modern philosophy, it posits, and supports, that there is NO causation, only conjunction. That, for example, when we see a glass drop and break, we cannot say we know gravity caused this (in the way we know two plus two equals four). All we see is constant conjunction. The connection is lacking, i.e., it is not inconceivable that the glass wouldn't bounce, turn to ash, or dissolve into sand (the way it is inconceivable that two plus two equals five). This, in effect, nullifies all the so called "laws" of nature that are formed by science. (Note that this does not state that there are no laws of nature, just that we really can never make the claim that we ever really know there are laws of nature.)

This could be thought of as the philosophical shot heard round the world. Agree or disagree, Hume must be answered. Hume has historically been charged with creating an intellectual and philosophical cul-de-sac with his skepticism. To paraphrase Bertrand Russell, Hume makes a claim which none can refute, but at the same time one which none can accept. In effect, Hume's philosophy seems to bind the human mind, stopping its journey of discovery and ultimately accomplishing what his predecessor, John Locke, set out to do, i.e., map the extent of human knowledge.

However, where one may see Hume's philosophy as shackles and fetters in the search for truth, one could also equally see his philosophy as liberation. Implicit in his philosophy is the idea that ANYTHING is possible. There are no shackles, no fetters, no limits; only those that we create for ourselves. Our limits are self-imposed, constructs of our observance (and inference) of connection. In this way Hume appears in the same light as the Eastern masters seeing that reality is not what we have (through experiential knowledge) believed it to be. It is something much more wondrous. In Zen, our causal thinking is the only barrier between the person and enlightenment. Hume could be seen as implying that when the idea of causality is removed, with only conjunction remaining in its place, the state of true knowledge and wisdom (true zen) is achieved.

This, of course, is only idle speculation. But it is stated so as to demonstrate the richness and immense possibility Hume's philosophy possesses when seen in the correct light. Instead of saying, "Nothing is certain," after reading Hume, one can say, with equal validity, "Anything is possible." The first statement approaches philosophy with despair. The second approaches it with a sense of childlike wonder and hope at the immense possibilities of reality. It approaches life as a beginning, not an ending. It approaches life as the philosopher approaches it.

Descartes' Ultimate Error
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-09
If one accepts the methodology of Descartes in applying scepticism to reason and the senses, in effect denying the existence of all things but a "thinking thing," two entailments are logically consequent: Either Berkeley's idealism or Hume's scepticism. I don't accept Descartes' starting point, so I find the entailments confused and incoherent. But if one does accept Descartes' starting point, then the two extremes must be heeded. If for no other reason than observing the absurdity of either man's conclusions, it is valuable to read both entailments. But in their confused process, both men bring certain salient features to light.

Hume accepts Descartes starting point, making it his own. But to Descartes method, he adds Pyrrhonist scepticism: That all reason leads to infinite regress, and that all sensations (or impressions) can not be trusted.

Hume begins with the conclusion that all sense perception is either an impression or idea. Even memory and imagination, two other faculties of the mind, are conflated into these two species of perceptions, as impressions. Their difference is one of degree (vivacity), not of kind. Hence, Hume is the author of what is known as the "Copy Principle." Instead of unmediated, direct perception through the ordinary senses, all perception is mediated by the imagination into impressions and ideas. From this follows certain resemblances, contiguity, and causal associations between impressions or ideas, and from this association we develop a sense of self. But even the notion of causality here is one of implied inference, not of actual inductive reason. Hume denies there is any real causality that can be known, although we operate "as if" we infer cause from effect. Even probability is reduced to a mere association of ideas and/or impressions; because neither reason (which always leads to infinite regress) or senses (which can always be deceived) can actually be true. The Enquiry also treats of miracles and the testimony of others derisively; but don't we rely on the testimony of others who claim the earth is round rather than flat, just as we rely on others who testify to miracles in a byegone era? After all, few of us have direct experience with a spherical earth (Popper makes this observation).

Hume's method incorporates five kinds of scepticism: (i) methodological, (ii) conceptual, (ii) nomological, (iv) explanatory, and (v) reductive empiricism. His commitment to scepticism is not without some capitulation. While he denies absolute causality and inductive inference and probability in an actual senses, he relies on them for practical purposes. One can't remain a pyrrhonist for long; some elements of reason and some degree of confidence in impressions is necessary for ordinary life. But if one starts with Descartes' starting point, extreme scepticism is a necessary entailment. Which, after seeing Hume deny so much intuition, is it really worth starting with Descartes' scepticism? Answering that question is what makes Hume interesting.

Hume at his best
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2005-10-09
David Hume was perhaps the leading light in the Empiricist movement in philosophy. Empiricism is seen in distinction from Rationalism, in that it doubts the viability of universal principles (rational or otherwise), and uses sense data as the basis of all knowledge - experience is the source of knowledge. Hume was a skeptic as well as empiricist, and had radical (for the time) atheist ideas that often got in the way of his professional advancement, but given his reliance on experience (and the kinds of experiences he had), his problem with much that was considered conventional was understandable.

Hume's major work, 'A Treatise of Human Nature', was not well received intially - according to Hume, 'it fell dead-born from the press'. Hume reworked the first part of this work in a more popular way for this text, which has become a standard, and perhaps the best introduction to Empiricism.

In a nutshell, the idea of empiricism is that experience teaches, and rules and understanding are derived from this. However, for Hume this wasn't sufficient. Just because billiard balls when striking always behave in a certain manner, or just because the sun always rose in the morning, there was no direct causal connection that could be automatically affirmed - we assume a necessary connection, but how can this be proved?

Hume's ideas impact not only metaphysics, but also epistemology and psychology. Hume develops empiricism to a point that empiricism is practically unsupportable (and it is in this regard that Kant sees this text as a very important piece, and works toward his synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism). For Hume, empirical thought requires skepticism, but leaves it unresolved as far as what one then needs to accept with regard to reason and understanding. According to scholar Eric Steinberg, 'A view that pervades nearly all of Hume's philosophical writings is that both ancient and modern philosophers have been guilty of optimistic and exaggerated claims for the power of human reason.'

Some have seen Hume as presenting a fundamental mistrust of daily belief while recognising that we cannot escape from some sort of framework; others have seen Hume as working toward a more naturalist paradigm of human understanding. In fact, Hume is open to a number of different interpretations, and these different interpretations have been taken up by subsequent philosophers to develop areas of synthetic philosophical ideas, as well as further developments more directly out of Empiricism (such as Phenomenology).

This is in fact a rather short book, a mere 100 pages or so in many editions. As a primer for understanding Hume, the British Empiricists (who include Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley), as well as the major philosphical concerns of the eighteenth century, this is a great text with which to start.


As Exciting and Thought-Provoking as Philosophy Gets
Helpful Votes: 44 out of 50 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-27
Hume, I and many others think, was the greatest philosopher to have written in English, and this is the book to pick up if you want to introduce yourself to Saint David's distinctive brand of classical empiricism. This is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in philosophy, and it's hard for me to see how anyone interested in the history of modern thought can avoid reading this book or the corresponding sections of Hume's Treatise.

As is well-known, the Enquiry concerning Human Understanding was intended as an encapsulation and popularization of the views Hume defended in Book I of his magnum opus, A Treatise of Human Nature. Hume assumed that book's commercial failure could be accounted for by its length, difficulty, and lack of accessibility, and so, being a man who desired literary fame, he hoped to acquire commercial success by presenting the same ideas in a more appealing and accessible manner. Unfortunately, it seems Hume misunderstood what the literati of his day were looking for in a philosophical treatise. For the Enquiry, like the Treatise before it, didn't bring him the fame he sought. Still, Hume did understand what goes into writing excellent philosophical prose, and consequently this book is a much easier read than Book I of the Treatise. Indeed, this book constitutes an excellent introduction to Hume's thought, and, except for maybe Berkeley's Three Dialogues, I can't think of another primary source that would serve as a better introduction to classical British empiricism.

Now, let's get to the ideas here. Hume, like the other classical empiricists, was primarily concerned with the psychological question of the origin of our concepts. About the answer to this question, the empiricists were all agreed--our concepts are furnished by experience, which includes both sensory experience and introspection (i.e., the experience of our own mental states). And the empiricists also agreed about the way we can justify our beliefs. Some beliefs are true (or false) in virtue of the ideas they contained, and we can know their truth (or falsity) simply by thinking about them; other beliefs are true (or false) in virtue of how the external world is, and we can know their truth (or falsity) only by drawing on our experiences of the world. According to Hume, all substantial conclusions about the world fall into this second category. That is, the truth (or falsity) of all substantial claims about the existence and nature of things in the external world can be discovered only by checking those claims against the evidence of our senses.

The traditional way of placing Hume within the story of empiricism goes something like this. Hume takes up the empiricism of Locke and Berkeley and pushes it to its logical conclusion. Whereas Locke and Berkeley hadn't been wholly consistent empiricists, Hume, the true believer, demonstrates that classical empiricism leads to a pretty thoroughgoing skepticism. Since he's wholly convinced of the truth of his empiricist premises, Hume is willing to accept the skepticism that goes along with them. However, those who aren't convinced of that his empiricism is obviously correct think that Hume has actually demonstrated the implausibility of his empiricism. If this is where empiricism leads, they think, then it's clear that we need to reject empiricism. Indeed, some, like Thomas Reid, view Hume's arguments as constituting a reductio ad absurdum of his sort of empiricism. On this interpretation, Hume's philosophy essentially presents a dilemma for all future thinkers: abandon empiricism, or accept empiricism along with Humean skepticism.

But a different view of Hume, one of Hume as proposing a wholly naturalistic account of the human mind, has recently emerged as a competitor to the general conception of Hume's place within philosophy sketched in the previous paragraph. This interpretation downplays Hume's skepticism and emphasizes his professed intentions to provide a positive account of the operation of the human mind that appealed to nothing beyond the evidence of our senses. According to proponents of this interpretation, Hume is most interested in a description of the operation of the human mind. He's describing what human nature allows us to know and what it doesn't allow us to know. Furthermore, he argues that our nature is such that, where it fails to provide us with the resources to acquire the knowledge we might want, it provides us with a natural habit of forming the right conclusions anyway. Even though our nature limits our knowledge of the world, it ensures that we possess the habits of mind needed to make our way in the world. Hume dubs all these habits of mind "custom."

If this view is correct, then Hume has abjured many of the normative aims of traditional epistemological inquiry. He isn't attempting to show how we can answer a skeptic or why we have good reason to believe what we think we know. Instead, he wants us to stand back from our everyday beliefs and think about the natural processes that result in them. How, exactly, do our minds operate? How do we come to think what we do about the world? Hume thinks that this sort of inquiry will lead us see that, at some point, the explanation of why we think what we think reaches certain brute facts about the operation of the human mind. When we reach these points, there is nothing more to be said. We simply can't help thinking in these ways, and we lack the resources to demonstrate that these ways of thinking constitute an accurate way to represent the operation of the external world. And, Hume claims, it turns out that many of the fundamental elements of our conception of the world--the belief that things stand in causal relations to one another, the belief that we can know that there is a world outside our minds, the belief the future will resemble the past--end up not being open to ratification by experience. With respect to beliefs of these sorts, we ultimately have to appeal to custom in order to explain their existence and popularity. Hume, then, can be seen as demolishing the pretensions of reason in order to make room for a wholly naturalistic account of human thinking.

A comment on one part of Hume 's classic
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2005-02-27
First I would like to commend the excellent review of this book by CT Dreyer in which he correctly shows how Hume extended the empiricism of Locke and Berkeley to the point where skepticism seemed our only honest way of thinking about our knowledge of the world. Hume's questioning of induction, of how we can be sure tomorrow will be like today , his questioning of how we can trust our senses to know the outside world, his questioning of how we can hold our world logically together when analysis reveals that there is no necessary connection between ' cause' and 'effect' in everyday life action means he wakened not only Kant from his dogmatic slumber but Philosophy itself from the sense that it will provide absolute understanding.
Hume is a very clear writer. I remember reading the famous billiard ball account of causality in which our common sense view of ' before' and ' after' is questioned and taken apart. I believe Hume says after this account, something to the effect and ' still when we leave the room we leave by the door and not by the window'. A friend of mine in this class when the class ended opened the window ( on the ground floor ) and went out that way.
This is difficult and great philosophy. I do not pretend to understand it or its implications fully. A test of the mind and a necessary read for anyone who would know Western Philosophy.

Publications
Grow rich!--with peace of mind (Fawcett crest book)
Published in Paperback by Fawcett Publications (1967)
Author: Napoleon Hill
List price:
Used price: $3.90

Average review score:

Classic and Valuable Read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-25
Napoleon Hill is the recognized expert on all things success. In this book, Hill reveals how you can grow rich, and keep your mental act together at the same time. Typical of Hill's writing style, the book is easy to read, and features numerous examples from his real life experience. Specifically, this book covers, among many other things:

Success while being yourself.
Developing a healthy ego.
Finding friendship and love.
Getting the job you want.
Turning challenges into success.

This book focuses on achieving success through positive relationships and a healthy mental attitude. For more information on achieving financial success, you may want to read "The 17 Principles of Creating Wealth," by Phillip Collinsworth.

Excellent
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-23
This is a wonderful work of heart in which the author combines true, upllifting philosophy with practical advice. I get inspiration from rereading it.

More amazing secrets from Napolean Hill
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-12
Although Think & Grow Rich is the most famous book that Hill wrote, Grow Rich With Peace Of Mind is surely the most under-rated of all of Hill's books.

Grow Rich with Peace of Mind offers information not in Hill's other books and includes discoveries made by Hill after he wrote Think and Grow Rich. Grow Rich with Peace of Mind offers foolproof techniques for achieving power to earn a high income and to enjoy genuine inner peace at the same time.

Grow Rich with Peace of Mind can help you reach your all of your goals and enjoy it.

Grow Rich with Peach of Mind
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-25
This is the best book I have ever read. I wish that I would have read it when I was 15 years old, instead of 50. I would have made many different choices in my life. It teaches one how to think and use the mind. I have bought 7 copies and given them to my closest friends and family. Buy it. ;-)

I conquered one of my fears while reading it.
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-27
This book is so amazing. I rarely read a book more than once. I will reread this book and plan to read it again about every two months or so after working on my next fear. I did conquer one of my major fears in life while reading this book. I was on vacation and was in the process of flying back home. To say that I hated landings was an understatement. I use to grip the arm rests white knuckled, legs jammed forward, body pressed back in the seat terrified of the plane landing. While reading this book on the plane I was able to so completely over come my fear of landing that not only did I sit calmly in my seat, but as the pilot of the plane allowed the passengers to listen to all the communication with the ground tower, the tower controller made several mistakes that the pilot had to correct him on and then land the plane. All of this happened and I was completely at peace with what was going on. What I experienced was incredible.

This book is truly life altering. I look forward to finding Mr. Hill on the other side after this life and thanking him for this wonderful book.


Books-Under-Review-->Recreation-->Outdoors-->Speleology-->Publications-->31
Related Subjects: Journals
More Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250