Social And Historical Sciences Philosophy And Religion

This new edition of Volume II (last published in 1994) has been extensively expanded and revised in all areas. Fully updated, the new edition includes major changes and covers a span of topics from archaeology through medieval history to statistics. It includes philosophy, psychology, religion, social sciences, geography, biology and history. All areas have been completely updated with additional material in economics, business and management.

A revised and updated guide to reference material. It contains selective and evaluative entries to guide the enquirer to the best source of reference in each subject area, be it journal article, CD-ROM, on-line database, bibliography, encyclopaedia, monograph or directory. It features full critical annotations and reviewers' comments and comprehensive author-title and subject indexes. The contents include: philosophy and psychology; religion; social sciences, sociology, statistics, politics, economics, labour and employment; land and property, business organizations, finance and banking, and economic surveys; economic policies and controls, trade and commerce, business and management, and law; public administration, social services and welfare, education, customs and traditions; geography; biography; and history.

This book examines the meaning of religion within the scientific, evidence-based history of our known past since the big bang. While our current major religions are only centuries or millennia old, our volume discusses the origins and development of human religious practice and belief over our species’ existence of 300,000 years. The volume also connects the scientific approach to natural and social history with ancient truths of our religious ancestors using new lines of inquiry, new technologies, new modes of expression, and new concepts. It brings together insights of natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, writers, and theologians to discuss narratives of the universe. The essays discuss that to apprehend religion scientifically, or to interpret and explain science theologically, the subject must be examined through a variety of disciplinary lenses simultaneously and raise several theoretical, philosophical, and moral problems. With a singular investigation into the meaning of religion in the context of the 13.8 billion-year history of our universe, this book will be indispensable for scholars and students of religious studies, big history, sociology and social anthropology, philosophy, and science and technology studies.

The intention of this book is to give a picture of the complex material that has been published in the field of social and econornic statistics in Western Europe. Although there are many guides, bibliographies and reference books on special topics of this broad theme, a general overview has been missing. With this book I hope to fill this gap. The frame of reference is a scientific one: enabling and facilitating comparative social research on Western Europe. In some respect this book enlarges and updates the bibliography written by Peter Flora, "Quantitative Historical Sociology", pub lished in "Current Sociology" in 1975. In principle, this guide is an annotated bibli ography of the most important printed material in the field of official statistics. The legitimacy of such an approach lies in the fact that even today printed statistics are the most important form of dissemination of statistical results, although microcom puters, CD-ROMs and the Internet have changed this situation. In any case, a spe cial section on statistical databases is included for every country, describing the main databases of the statistical offices. Furthermore, the Internet address of each international or national statistical institute is provided in the introductory para graph. This enables the reader to get fast access to online databases and supple mentary online information on statistics via the Internet.