Concepts Of The World

How did the avant-garde imagine its interconnected world? And how does this legacy affect our understanding of the global today? The writers and artists of the French avant-garde aspired to reach a global audience that would be wholly transformed by their work. In this study, Effie Rentzou delves deep into their depictions of the interwar world as an international and modern landscape, one marked by a varied cosmopolitanism. The avant-garde’s conceptualization of the world paralleled, rejected, or expanded prevailing notions of the global sphere. The historical avant garde—which encompassed movements like futurism, Dada, and surrealism—was self-consciously international, operating across global networks and developed with the whole world as its horizon and its public. In the heady period between the end of the Belle Époque and the tumult of World War II, both individual artists (including Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Francis Picabia, Louis Aragon, Leonora Carrington, and Nicolas Calas) and collective endeavors (such as surrealist magazines and exhibitions) grappled with contemporary anxieties about economic growth, imperialism, and colonialism, as well as various universalist, cosmopolitan, and internationalist visions. By probing these works, Concepts of the World offers an alternative narrative of globalization, one that integrates the avant-garde’s enthusiasm for, as well as resistance to, the process. Rentzou identifies within the avant-garde a powerful political language that expressed the ambivalence of living and creating in an increasingly globalized world—a language that profoundly shaped the way the world has been conceptualized and is experienced today.

Recognizing the vital importance of concepts in shaping our understanding of international relations, this ground-breaking new book puts concepts front and centre, systematically unpacking them in a clear, critical and engaging way. With contributions from some of the foremost authorities in the field, Concepts in World Politics explores 17 core concepts, from democracy to globalization, sovereignty to revolution, and covers: The multiple meanings of a concept, where these meanings come from, and how they are employed theoretically and practically The consequences of using concepts to frame the world in one way or another The method of concept analysis A challenging and stimulating read, Concepts in World Politics is an indispensable guide for all students of international relations looking to develop a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of world politics.

Crossing continents and traveling through the centuries, Key Concepts in World Philosophies brings together 45 of the core ideas associated with the major Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, African, Ancient Greek, Indigenous and modern European philosophers. What connects these foundational ideas is the universal theme of transformation: how has each concept sought to change our way of understanding the world we live in or the life we are living? From Chinese xin and karma in Buddhist traditions to okwu in African philosophy and equity in Islamic thought, an international team of experts cover a diverse set of ideas and theories originating from thinkers such as Confucius, Buddha, Dogen, Nietzsche and Zhuangzi. Divided into three sections organised around the major themes of knowledge, metaphysics, and aesthetics, each short chapter provides an introductory overview with contextual background, supported by discussion questions and further reading suggestions. Beginning with an introduction about the need of valuing diversity for navigating the 21st century, this one-of-a-kind study guide allows you to read philosophical texts from all over the world, understand how to practice cross-cultural philosophy and find out how philosophical ideas can be applied to your own life.

Concepts embody our knowledge of the kinds of things there are in the world. Tying our past experiences to our present interactions with the environment, they enable us to recognize and understand new objects and events. Concepts are also relevant to understanding domains such as social situations, personality types, and even artistic styles. Yet like other phenomenologically simple cognitive processes such as walking or understanding speech, concept formation and use are maddeningly complex. Research since the 1970s and the decline of the "classical view" of concepts have greatly illuminated the psychology of concepts. But persistent theoretical disputes have sometimes obscured this progress. The Big Book of Concepts goes beyond those disputes to reveal the advances that have been made, focusing on the major empirical discoveries. By reviewing and evaluating research on diverse topics such as category learning, word meaning, conceptual development in infants and children, and the basic level of categorization, the book develops a much broader range of criteria than is usual for evaluating theories of concepts.

A navigational aid to the apocalypse. Steve Beard's Six Concepts for the End of the World mixes scientific research with experimental fiction to produce a manual for the apocalypse. The author examines six disciplines—technology, sociology, geography, psychology, theology and narratology—and for each one creates a fictional scenario that both reflects and energizes the research, all under the guiding light of the philosopher Paul Virilio's theories. This approach allows Beard to create one surprising idea after another: Hollywood viewed as a research and development lab for the end times, a first-person account of a UFO abduction, a blog on the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines flight 370, a voice-over for an imaginary film by a doomsday cult member. Highly original in both form and content, the book surprises and delights in its scope. The approach is multidisciplinary and multidirectional, and Beard's exploration ranges over many areas and themes, always bringing distinctive insights to bear. Six Concepts for the End of the World is an expertly guided tour through the author's imagination, and toward the end of the world.

This volume tells the story behind the inspirations that have driven mankind's mental, spiritual and physical development. It is arranged in five sections: science, politics, philosophy, spirituality, the arts and the human sciences. A fold-out timeline offers an at-a-glance reference down the centuries, giving the reader a sense of progress through time.

Ian Crofton, former editor-in-chief of The Guinness Encyclopedia, has written a wide range of other general reference books, including Philosophy (Teach Yourself Instant Reference) and Science Without the Boring Bits. With Big Ideas in Brief, Crofton provides an accessible tour of 200 key concepts that really matter. The ideas covered come from a wide range of subjects--Philosophy, Religion, Politics, Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, the Arts, and Science. A series of short, lively articles, accompanied by 100 illustrations, introduces a host of diverse topics, from Existentialism to Expressionism, from Consciousness to Constitutionalism, from Feminism to Free Trade, from Class to Cognitive Theory, from Reincarnation to Relativityâ??all explained simply and clearly. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Interrogating the language that gives meaning to IR theories and practice