Open Books

Elmer Blunt's Open House is a simple story of a man who oversleeps and rushes off to work without closing his door properly. Novak's ('While the Shepherd Slept') prose is spare and deadpan, and his cartoon-style illustrations teem with expression and mischief.

"Some animals saw the open door," he writes, "and went into the house." Accompanying pictures show a gathering managerie, sniffing cautiously, creeping tentatively and growing bolder by the minute. On succeeding pages, "They explored the kitchen, the living room...." while the illustrations depict joyful abandon and fun-filled havoc.

Until they foil a burglar and get locked into the house. Children will sympathize while they laugh and "read" this book for themselves again and again.

My Two year old Daughter loves this book. She is an animal lover and there are many animals in this book. She has us read it to her 5 or 6 times a day. The story is funny and the illustrations are great.

The elequint script that spills from it's engrosing pages enthralled my very being. A definate must read for the common man interested in learning more about all things prayerful. Truly a universal book of prayer that will make a wonderful holiday gift.

The eloquent script that spills from it's engrossing pages enthralled my very being. A definite must read for the common man interested in learning more about all things prayerful. Truly a universal book of prayer that will make a wonderful holiday gift.

After deciding to work my way through every Dewey book I could still find in print, I finally got into this one. Dewey's other works are good, but this one is great.

This book is, minimally, essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the epistemology underlying Dewey's educational theory. Or, in fact, any of his other theories.

More than that, it is possibly the best single articulation of pragmatic philosophy; where William James applied pragmatic method to specific issues of morals and metaphysics, Dewey has here expounded on many of the broad implications of that method. The central ideas of this book are the inclusion of quality and ends in natural existence, which are shown to have broad implications for topics such as scientific inquiry, theories of value, and aesthetics. This is one of the best works of epistemology I have ever read. Best of all, it is rigorous and wide-ranging without becoming a System.

At most, it may be the most important work of philosophy ever written in the history of the universe. I'm not going to go that far, though.

In this excellent read, John Dewey further exploits his concept of "experience" as foundational to human knowledge. Dewey's concept of "experience" represents a breakthrough in empiricism, as "experience" for Dewey is not merely "sense impressions" as it was for earlier empiricists. Dewey's "experience" is an iterative process and thoroughlly embodied; the qualities of each individual experience become functioning parts of one's experience in a larger sense, serving to transform the qualities one will experience under certain conditions in the future. Fot the sake of illustration, consider a child's first experience of fire: it is beautiful, exciting, and enticing, until the child gets burned: then each subsequent experience of fire contains an element of fear and danger, as the previous experience transforms the experiences to come.

Dewey uses this concept of experience to provide a theory he calls "naturalistic empiricism"; a pragmatic theory of knowledge that provides a basis for his later inquiries into knowledge and human experience. His treatment of the ontogeny of knowledge provides a compelling, thoroughly materialistic, and Darwinian account of the development of thinking in the human animal without lapsing into an isolating solipsism or into a fanciful dualism. The prevalence of Hegelian philosophy in Dewey's earlier philosophic work and his training as a psychologist provide him with an eye for solid methodology, a powerful sense of the role of social structure in human thinking, and a talent for synthesis.

Experience and Nature is therefore a profoundly social text as well, where Dewey explores the role that social experience plays in the development of knowledge and communication as human attributes, or more to the point, as human activities. I have found this book to be a profound antidote to the despair and irony in writers such as Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Rorty; the meaning and scope of existence is redeemed on an extremely individual level through community and relationships. This book is highly recommended for those with an eye for postmodern philosophy and theories of embodiment (Dewey is frequently compared to Maurice Merleau-Ponty), as it shares much with the hermeneutic tradition, while remaining grounded in a very scientific perspective.

Beyond Habermas' description of the changes that have taken place in the Western public sphere, with a better emphasis on empirical and historical data, the book gives a detailed account on the rise and fall of our interacting abilities. From the marketplace to the theater, the 19th century (and then the 20th) saw the decline of «play», along with its replacement by vicarious figures, like the «genius», the performing arts «vedettes» and now the politician as someone who feels (and does) what we are not anymore able to feel. Instead of hysteria, the civilizational disease is now narcissism, the unableness to act regardless of one's inner feelings. To be read along with Sennett's other masterpiece, a romance entitled «Palais-Royal».

Sennett scrutinizes those problems caused by the inbalance between personal and public life.According to Sennett, the 'public life' which is a significant piece of life besides the family and friendships was once so lively and meant much to individuals.There used to be a 'publicity' that contributed to the individuals' skills of 'play'through emotinal ties with strangers and to the civilization of the individual.Being a 'public man' well expressed in the 18th century European cities has become a gradually weakened phenomenon being replaced with the 'private life'.And has become as significant as the private life allows it to...Sennett asks,"How has the stranger been transformed into a threatening factor? How is it that today, keeping silent and remaining as the audience is the only way of joining the public life? In turn, how do these factors foster personality deficiencies? Solitude that is a result of modernism renders the individual a person captured by the private life.Sennett explains this process through works of Balzac and Diderot, theater, music, architecture,Dreyfus case and Richard Nixon. Richard Sennett is by no means hopeless; he is exploring the possibilites of getting to know 'the other' instead of imagining a 'lost public paradise'.

I just found out that this book is grade 2.

It is a great text book for home-schoolers who want a good old-fashioned reading text with questions to help their young student learn to comprehend and analyze what they read. It's very straight-forward and full of great features such as Words to Watch, Questions, Word-Study Exercises, stories, poetry, and beautiful colored pictures.

I would guess that it is for grade 3. I love it!

This book, actually a doctoral dissertation, looks at the world of surgical residency for women of color.

Residency is supposed to be a tough, weeding out process. But female residents have several extra obstacles in their way. Most female doctors are in fields like gynecology or psychiatry. Those who want to become surgeons are encouraged to choose another specialty, because surgery is "too hard." Any patient complication will be looked at especially closely. Role models are rare; the number of female surgeons is tiny, while the number of black female surgeons is practically zero.

Since surgery is very much a male-dominated field, there is the usual obstacle of women having to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. Residency does not teach a person how to keep their humanity (which some surgeons have totally lost); what to say to a family whose loved one has just been declared dead (suppressing their femininity).

This book looks at the personal experiences of several black female surgeons. Their residency experiences, whether at predominantly white or black institutions, ranged from difficult to very difficult.

Even though this is a doctoral dissertation, it is clearly written, easy to read, and worth reading. The next time a loved one is in the hospital, and the doctor is a woman, just remember that she probably is experiencing, or has experienced, the things mentioned in this book.

This book is a great look into the experiences black women have as the vast minority in surgical residency. It is very well written and is full of rich writing and emotion. There is no parallel, especially as it is a topic that is not widely known about. This is a great book.

The legal issues behind free speech are far more complicated than most people suspect, upon reading the mere 45 words of the First Amendment. That's why in-depth exploratory books like this are necessary. This influential tome from Rodney Smolla is a bit outdated (dealing largely with events of the late 80s and early 90s) and he tends to dwell too much on trials with which he personally disagrees. However, this book is a classic examination of free speech jurisprudence with some winning insights. Of further interest is Smolla's coverage of jurisprudential areas that are rarely noticed by citizens, such as arts funding, public locations, and rights vs. privileges. Beneath the coverage of particular precedent-setting trials and intricate legal analysis, Smolla works from some very intriguing foundations, with an eye on the democratic and fraternal theories of free speech that inspired the Founding Fathers to create the First Amendment. Fundamentally, Smolla contends that any government by nature will tend to censor speech, with claims of security and morality. But history proves that such concerns are usually hyperbole for purposes of eroding civil liberties, and that censorship is far more dangerous and damaging to liberty and freedom than instances of speech with which the government or certain people might be uncomfortable. This book is so wide-ranging that it's probably impossible to agree with all of Smolla's contentions (I especially disagree with his views on the freedom of corporations to influence politics), but his basic jurisprudential focus is completely successful and enlightening. [~doomsdayer520~]

This is a great book on both theories of free speech and the related legal issues that surround this topic. It is a real eye-opener for students.

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I have not worked my way through this book yet but at least want to note how neat it is to have copies of some of the original notes. This should be interesting especially with regard to understanding Frege's development.

Imagine discovering Aristotle's lecture notes on a class he took from Plato. This book is very nearly as momentus, and no doubt scholars 2,000 years from now will be studying with as much interest as we're reading it today.

The introductory material is quite enlightening: not only does it explain Frege's bizzaro 2D notation for his system of logic, it also gives many anecdotes about what Frege was like as a person and what it would have been like to be a student in his class.

Frege is credited with the first real substansive advance in logic since Aristotle, and Carnap was really kicked into a higher orbit after taking this class, going on to become a towering figure in 20th Century philosophy. This book provides fascinating view into one of the most important logic classes which took place last century.

Is this book being published by the OPEC? Seriously, could sombody explain please this price- this is not the way to stimulate the economy.

One thousand, nine hundred and ninety-five dollars for a 100 page paper back book? I bet they are just flying out of the store.