Beyond The Passage Of Time

One of those rare, unforgettable novels that are as chilling as they are insightful, as thought-provoking as they are terrifying, award-winning author Connie Willis's Passage is an astonishing blend of relentless suspense and cutting-edge science unlike anything you've ever read before. It is the electrifying story of a psychologist who has devoted her life to tracking death. But when she volunteers for a research project that simulates the near-death experience, she will either solve life's greatest mystery -- or fall victim to its greatest terror. At Mercy General Hospital, Dr. Joanna Lander will soon be paged -- not to save a life, but to interview a patient just back from the dead. A psychologist specializing in near-death experiences, Joanna has spent two years recording the experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and lived to tell about it. It's research on the fringes of ordinary science, but Joanna is about to get a boost from an unexpected quarter. A new doctor has arrived at Mercy General, one with the power to give Joanna the chance to get as close to death as anyone can. A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Dr. Wright is convinced that the NDE is a survival mechanism and that if only doctors understood how it worked, they could someday delay the dying process, or maybe even reverse it. He can use the expertise of a psychologist of Joanna Lander's standing to lend credibility to his study. But he soon needs Joanna for more than just her reputation. When his key volunteer suddenly drops out of the study, Joanna finds herself offering to become Richard's next subject. After all, who better than she, a trained psychologist, to document the experience? Her first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined it would be -- so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why this place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid.... And just when you think you know where she is going, Willis throws in the biggest surprise of all -- a shattering scenario that will keep you feverishly reading until the final climactic page is turned.

In nine lively essays, bioethicist J. David Velleman challenges the prevailing consensus about assisted suicide and reproductive technology, articulating an original approach to the ethics of creating and ending human lives. He argues that assistance in dying is appropriate only at the point where talk of suicide is not, and he raises moral objections to anonymous donor conception. In their place, Velleman champions a morality of valuing personhood over happiness in making end-of-life decisions, and respecting the personhood of future children in making decisions about procreation. These controversial views are defended with philosophical rigor while remaining accessible to the general reader. Written over Velleman's 30 years of undergraduate teaching in bioethics, the essays have never before been collected and made available to a non-academic audience. They will open new lines of debate on issues of intense public interest.

At the founding in 1896 of the first psychological clinic dedicated to children and adolescents, the study of the psychological treatment of young people lagged behind that of adults, and the basic psychopathology underlying mental disorders in this population was largely ignored. Since those early days, the field has evolved steadily and, in recent years, exponentially. The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology is a state-of-the-science volume providing comprehensive coverage of the psychological problems and disorders of childhood. International in scope and penned by the discipline's most eminent scientists and practitioners, the handbook begins with a section on conceptual and empirical issues, followed by exceptional content on specific psychiatric disorders such as intellectual disability, externalizing and internalizing disorders, communication disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, personality disorders, and many more. The third section offers chapters on special problems in childhood and adolescence, including divorce, the incarceration of parents, suicide and non-suicidal self-injury, bullying, and medical illness. A fourth section covers delivery of clinical services in diverse settings, such as schools and prisons, and the handbook concludes with several chapters on emerging trends and future directions for the field. Conceptually rich and evidence-based, this handbook is an essential resource for students, practitioners, and researchers, providing a cutting-edge compendium of the latest theoretical and empirical developments by leaders of the discipline.

This book attempts to articulate the nature of a secular society, describe its benefits, and suggests the conditions under which such a society could emerge. To become secular, argues Fenn, is to open oneself and one's society to a wide range of possibilities, some interesting and exciting, some burdensome and dreadful. While some sociologists have argued that a "Civil Religion" is necessary to hold together our newly "religionless" society, Fenn urges that there is nothing to fear--and everything to gain--from living in a society that is not bound together by sacred memories and beliefs, or by sacred institutions and practices.

In this introduction, Peter Adamson sheds light on the philosophical ideas that emerged in the Islamic world. From the beginnings of the tradition to the twenty first century, he traces the history of philosophy among those living in Islamic lands, highlighting its key themes and ongoing relevance to contemporary concerns.

A collection of essays discussing the philosophy and foundations of quantum gravity. Written by leading philosophers and physicists in the field, chapters cover the important conceptual questions in the search for a quantum theory of gravity, and the current state of understanding among philosophers and physicists.

Much of the language of our cultural lives assumes the existence of realities which we cannot see or touch. Mathematical rules, such as the principles of addition or subtraction, are examples of such unseen realities. But so are very many further concepts - such as nature or beauty. You can see and touch instances of nature or beauty, but you can't touch nature or beauty themselves. These concepts endure beyond the particular examples. This short book discusses, in a non-academic way, various aspects of human experience - music, ritual, place, love for instance - to identify such timeless aspects. The very nature of our minds suggests a timeless dimension. Supernatural or psychic phenomena are not the focus, though their existence is not ruled out. Thus it offers fruitful and accessible ways of considering enduring aspects of our human experiences. Here you will find a refreshing and heartening way of thinking about life: the places and things we value, our relationships, our losses and bereavements, and our futures. If you have ever wondered if events or places or experiences or people can have an existence beyond what you can see or touch, this book will be of interest to you. Even if you are a very down-to-earth person who is only concerned with what can be measured or proved, you will find here ideas to challenge.

Maps organize us in space, but they also organize us in time. Looking around the world for the last five hundred years, Time in Maps shows that today’s digital maps are only the latest effort to insert a sense of time into the spatial medium of maps. Historians Kären Wigen and Caroline Winterer have assembled leading scholars to consider how maps from all over the world have depicted time in ingenious and provocative ways. Focusing on maps created in Spanish America, Europe, the United States, and Asia, these essays take us from the Aztecs documenting the founding of Tenochtitlan, to early modern Japanese reconstructing nostalgic landscapes before Western encroachments, to nineteenth-century Americans grappling with the new concept of deep time. The book also features a defense of traditional paper maps by digital mapmaker William Rankin. With more than one hundred color maps and illustrations, Time in Maps will draw the attention of anyone interested in cartographic history.