Philosopher At Work

A survey on the nature of work, integrating conceptual analysis, historical reflection, autobiography and social commentary.

Now more than ever before institutions of higher education are being called upon to provide students with information in the classroom that can contribute to the success of students in the workplace. Unlike any other philosophy text, PHILOSOPHERS AT WORK contains Practice sections written by philosopher practitioners who demonstrate how their knowledge of the problems, methods, and theories of philosophy provide powerful tools for addressing the dilemmas that arise in diverse work settings. Through the Issues and Practice sections, students are able to gain an understanding of the practical value of philosophy. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

This is the first book on category theory for a broad philosophical readership. There is no other discussion of category theory comparable in its scope. It is designed to show the interest and significant of category theory for philosophers working in a range of areas, including mathematics, proof theory, computer science, ontology, physics, biology, cognition, mathematical modelling, the structure of scientific theories, and the structure of the world. Moreover, it does this in a way that is accessible to non specialists. Each chapter is written by either a category-theorist or a philosopher working in one of the represented fields, in a way that builds on the concepts already familiar to philosophers working in these areas. The book is split into two halves. The 'pure' chapters focus on the use of category theory for mathematical, foundational, and logical purposes, while the 'applied' chapters consider the use of category theory for representational purposes, investigating category theory as a framework for theories of physics and biology, for mathematical modelling more generally, and for the structure of scientific theories. Book jacket.

A collection of answers to the philosophical questions on people's minds—from the big to the personal to the ones you didn't know you needed answered. Based on real-life questions from his Ask a Philosopher series, Ian Olasov offers his answers to questions such as: - Are people innately good or bad? - Is it okay to have a pet fish? - Is it okay to have kids? - Is color subjective? - If humans colonize Mars, who will own the land? - Is ketchup a smoothie? - Is there life after death? - Should I give money to homeless people? Ask a Philosopher shows that there's a way of making philosophy work for each of us, and that philosophy can be both perfectly continuous with everyday life, and also utterly transporting. From questions that we all wrestle with in private to questions that you never thought to ask, Ask a Philosopher will get you thinking.

Ken Blanchard’s Leading at a Higher Level techniques are inspiring thousands of leaders to build high-performing organizations that make life better for everyone. Now, in Helping People Win at Work, Blanchard and WD-40 Company leader Garry Ridge reveal how WD-40 has used Blanchard’s techniques of Partnering for Performance with every employee--achieving levels of engagement and commitment that have fortified the bottom line. Ridge introduces WD-40 Company’s year-round performance review system, explaining its goals, features, and the cultural changes it requires. Next, he shares his leadership point of view: what he expects of people, what they can expect of him, and where his beliefs about leadership and motivation come from. Finally, Blanchard explains why WD-40 Company’s Partnering for Performance system works so well--and how to leverage its high-value techniques in your organization. In this book, you’ll learn how to: · Stop building failure into your mentoring of employees · Set goals using the SMART approach: specific, motivational, attainable, relevant and trackable · Help people move through all four stages of mastery · Create a culture that shares knowledge and encourages nonstop learning “I’m thrilled that the first book in our Leading at a Higher Level series is with Garry Ridge, president of WD-40 Company. For years I’ve been concerned about how people’s performance is evaluated. People are often forced into a normal distribution curve, or even worse, rank ordered. Not only does this not build trust, it also does not hold managers responsible for coaching people and helping them win. The manager’s responsibility is focused on sorting people out. When I was a college professor, I always gave my students the final exam at the beginning of the course and spent the rest of the semester helping them answer the questions so that they could get an A. Life is all about getting As, not some stupid normal distribution curve. Garry Ridge got this, and wow! What a difference it has made in WD-40 Company’s performance.” --Ken Blanchard “When I first heard Ken talk about giving his final exam at the beginning of the course and then teaching students the answers so they could get an A, it blew me away. Why don’t we do that in business? So that’s exactly what I did at WD-40 Company when we set up our ‘Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A’ performance management system. Has it made a difference? You’d better believe it. Ever since we began the system, our company’s annual sales have more than tripled, from $100 million to more than $339 million. And we’ve accomplished this feat while making the company a great place to work.” --Garry Ridge

Presents profiles of one hundred philosophers, from ancient times to the present day.

From Confucius and Plato to Karl Marx and Noam Chomsky, this ebook brings together more than 100 illustrated biographies of the world's great philosophers. Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured philosopher, each profile traces the ideas, friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired the world's greatest thinkers and influenced their work, offering revealing insights into what drove them to question the meaning of life, and come up with new ways of understanding the world and the history of ideas. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings of philosophers, their homes, friends, studies, and their personal belongings, together with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and correspondence, this ebook introduces the key ideas, themes, and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves, and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's "big ideas".