Since Socrates, and through Descartes to the present day, the problems of self-knowledge have been central to philosophy's understanding of itself.... Today the idea of ''first-person authority''--the claim of a distinctive relation each person has toward his or her own mental life--has been challenged from a number of directions, to the point where many doubt the person bears any distinctive relation to his or her own mental life, let alone a privileged one. In Authority and Estrangement, Richard Moran argues for a reconception of the first-person and its claims. Indeed, he writes, a more thorough repudiation of the idea of privileged inner observation leads to a deeper appreciation of the systematic differences between self-knowledge and the knowledge of others, differences that are both irreducible and constitutive of the very concept and life of the person.Masterfully blending philosophy of mind and moral psychology, Moran develops a view of self-knowledge that concentrates on the self as agent rather than spectator. He argues that while each person does speak for his own thought and feeling with a distinctive authority, that very authority is tied just as much to the disprivileging of the first-person, to its specific possibilities of alienation. Drawing on certain themes from Wittgenstein, Sartre, and others, the book explores the extent to which what we say about ourselves is a matter of discovery or of creation, the difficulties and limitations in being ''objective'' toward ourselves, and the conflicting demands of realism about oneself and responsibility for oneself. What emerges is a strikingly original and psychologically nuanced exploration of the contrasting ideals of relations to oneself and relations to others.

The Christianization of the Roman world lies at the root of modern Europe. Peter Brown's fascinating study examines the factors that proved decisive and... the compromises that made the emergence of the Christian conception of existence possible: how the old gods of the Roman Empire could be reinterpreted as symbols to further the message of the Church. Peter Brown also shows how Christian holy men were less representative of a triumphant faith than negotiators of a working compromise between the new faith and traditional ways of dealing with the supernatural worlds.

After the Qur'an itself, the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad form the most important foundation of Islamic thought. The hadith were accounts—usually... brief—of the words and actions of the Prophet. As such, they were subjected to intense scrutiny by generations of Muslim scholars. Better known as the Muqaddima, Ibn al-Salah (1181-1245) composed this work while serving as the head of the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiya in Damascus, one of the most prestigious institutions for the study of hadith in the Islamic world. The book provides a complete overview of the science devoted to the study of the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad, and is also a guide to the terminology and techniques of the scholars of hadith as it summarizes most of the previous work on the subject and forms the basis of almost all later activity in the field.

What is authority? How is it constituted? How ought one understand the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) relations between authority and coercion?... Between authorized and subversive speech? In this fascinating and intricate analysis, Bruce Lincoln argues that authority is not an entity but an effect. More precisely, it is an effect that depends for its power on the combination of the right speaker, the right speech, the right staging and props, the right time and place, and an audience historically and culturally conditioned to judge what is right in all these instances and to respond with trust, respect, and even reverence.Employing a vast array of examples drawn from classical antiquity, Scandinavian law, Cold War scholarship, and American presidential politics, Lincoln offers a telling analysis of the performance of authority, and subversions of it, from ancient times to the present. Using a small set of case studies that highlight critical moments in the construction of authority, he goes on to offer a general examination of "corrosive" discourses such as gossip, rumor, and curses; the problematic situation of women, who often are barred from the authorizing sphere; the role of religion in the construction of authority; the question of whether authority in the modern and postmodern world differs from its premodern counterpart; and a critique of Hannah Arendt's claims that authority has disappeared from political life in the modern world. He does not find a diminution of authority or a fundamental change in the conditions that produce it. Rather, Lincoln finds modern authority splintered, expanded, and, in fact multiplied as the mechanisms for its construction become more complex—and more expensive.

Authority is one of the key issues in political studies, for the question of by what right one person or several persons govern others is at the very... root of political activity. In selecting key readings for this volume Joseph Raz concerns himself primarily with the moral aspect of political authority, choosing pieces that examine its justification, determine who is subject to it and who is entitled to hold it, and whether there are any general moral limits to it. The readings—by such modern political thinkeres as Robert Paul Wolff, H. L. A. Hart, G. E. M. Anscombe, and Ronald Dworkin—examine the basic moral issues and provide an essential introduction to the debate about the nature of authority for all students of political theory.

This book offers a comprehensive interpretive study of the role of law in contemporary Japan. Haley argues that the weakness of legal controls... throughout Japanese history has assured the development and strength of informal community controls based on custom and consensus to maintain order--an order characterized by remarkable stability, with an equally significant degree of autonomy for individuals, communities, and businesses. Haley concludes by showing how Japan's weak legal system has reinforced preexisting patterns of extralegal social control, thus explaining many of the fundamental paradoxes of political and social life in contemporary Japan.

In this book, Sandra Barney examines the transformation of medical care in Central Appalachia during the Progressive Era and analyzes the influence of... women volunteers in promoting the acceptance of professional medicine in the region. By highlighting the critical role played by nurses, clubwomen, ladies' auxiliaries, and other female constituencies in bringing modern medicine to the mountains, she fills a significant gap in gender and regional history.Barney explores both the differences that divided women in the reform effort and the common ground that connected them to one another and to the male physicians who profited from their voluntary activity. Held together at first by a shared goal of improving the public welfare, the coalition between women volunteers and medical professionals began to fracture when the reform agendas of women's groups challenged physicians' sovereignty over the form of health care delivery. By examining the professionalization of male medical practitioners, the gendered nature of the campaign to promote their authority, and their displacement of community healers, especially female midwives, Barney uncovers some of the tensions that evolved within Appalachian society as the region was fundamentally reshaped during the era of industrial development.

This reader provides a solid theoretical base for all those encountering the 'author' debate for the first time. It presents key readings from the main... writers on authorship, including pieces from Plato, Descartes, Shelley, Freud, T. S. Eliot, Sartre, Derrida, Foucault and Borges, and puts the authorship debates into historical context.

Widely recognized by contemporaries as the most powerful theologian of his generation, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) dominated the stage of western Europe... during a time of plague, fratricidal war, and religious schism. Yet modern scholarship has struggled to define Gerson's place in history, even as it searches for a compelling narrative to tell the story of his era.Daniel Hobbins argues for a new understanding of Gerson as a man of letters actively managing the publication of his works in a period of rapid expansion in written culture. More broadly, Hobbins casts Gerson as a mirror of the complex cultural and intellectual shifts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In contrast to earlier theologians, Gerson took a more humanist approach to reading and to authorship. He distributed his works, both Latin and French, to a more diverse medieval public. And he succeeded in reaching a truly international audience of readers within his lifetime. Through such efforts, Gerson effectively embodies the aspirations of a generation of writers and intellectuals. Removed from the narrow confines of late scholastic theology and placed into a broad interdisciplinary context, his writings open a window onto the fascinating landscape of fifteenth-century Europe.The picture of late medieval culture that emerges from this study is neither a specter of decaying scholasticism nor a triumphalist narrative of budding humanism and reform. Instead, Hobbins describes a period of creative and dynamic growth, when new attitudes toward writing and debate demanded and eventually produced new technologies of the written word.

Part of The Heinle Series in Composition Studies, this volume is the only introductory text to survey the theory of authorship as it pertains to... familiar issues addressed in the composition classroom.

From Language Arts "It is inappropriate to expect teachers to develop in their students skills with which they are not confident themselves," claim Ada... and Campoy (p.2). Authors in the Classroom shares years of these authors' experiences working to transform teachers into authors, "from followers of other people's agenda to shapers of our own ideas." (p. 4). One of the most odious aspects of standardized curricula is the instruction of all students in the same way. In order to reach maximum educational potential, students; identities need nourishment. In the first chapter, Ada and Campoy educate readers in anti-bias ethics with informational text and exploration that readers can conduct on their own attitudes through journaling. This counterplay between information and reflection is the cornerstone of the book. To live the process advocated by Ada and Campoy, teachers (readers) are encouraged to make their own writing public by "publishing" books; by doing so, they provide models that an instruct and motivate students and their families to write about and publish their own life stories and ideas. Honest, accepting dialogues, where individuals ask real questions, express different points of views, and help teach, model, practice and problem solve, provide classroom strategies that undergird the writing program. The second half of the book contains ten units on topics such as Affirming Self, Understanding the Past, Creating the Future and Learning to Know. There are multiple examples of student-, teacher-, and family-authored writing, stimulated by rich children's literature in many different genres. Annotated bibliographies of books for children and young adults accompany each chapter. Using this authoring process, individuals create many small books that can be read by others inside and outside their classroom. By the time you finish reading this captivating book, you have no doubt that the students who have engaged in this process will be readers and writers for life. No matter what happens during the rest of the day, this literacy format needs to fit between the cracks, for from there it will move to center stage. Linda Leonard Lamme, School of Teaching and Learning, College of Education, University of Florida. Language Arts, Vol. 82, No. 3, January 2005, page 222

Most scholars dismiss research into the paranormal as pseudoscience, a frivolous pursuit for the paranoid or gullible. Even historians of religion,... whose work naturally attends to events beyond the realm of empirical science, have shown scant interest in the subject. But the history of psychical phenomena, Jeffrey J. Kripal contends, is an untapped source of insight into the sacred and by tracing that history through the last two centuries of Western thought we can see its potential centrality to the critical study of religion.Kripal grounds his study in the work of four major figures in the history of paranormal research: psychical researcher Frederic Myers; writer and humorist Charles Fort; astronomer, computer scientist, and ufologist Jacques Vallee; and philosopher and sociologist Bertrand Méheust. Through incisive analyses of these thinkers, Kripal ushers the reader into a beguiling world somewhere between fact, fiction, and fraud. The cultural history of telepathy, teleportation, and UFOs; a ghostly love story; the occult dimensions of science fiction; cold war psychic espionage; galactic colonialism; and the intimate relationship between consciousness and culture all come together in Authors of the Impossible, a dazzling and profound look at how the paranormal bridges the sacred and the scientific.

Various reports in the national media have focused on a potentially significant rise in the incidence of autism during the past decade. As such,... providing occupational therapy practitioners with a comprehensive guide for practice with people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to be a primary goal of this best-seller. Recognizing that young children grow into adolescents and adolescents grow into adults, this updated edition includes additional content applicable to adults as well as incorporates the findings from the explosion of recent research in this area. Using the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework as a guide, the 24 revised and new chapters provide the information occupational therapy practitioners need to work with individuals with an ASD in client-centered and occupation-based practice. Section Highlights and Topics Section I: An Introduction to the Autism Spectrum Disorders historical background, neurology, etiology Section II: Common Strengths and Challenges for Individuals With an ASD diagnosis, communication, socialization, emotional regulation, sensory processing, motor control Section III: Occupations in Individuals With an ASD individual and family occupations Section IV: Occupational Therapy Evaluation and Intervention for Individuals With an ASD appropriate techniques, play, self-care, sensory integration, technology Section IV: Occupational Therapy Practice: Contexts and Use of Evidence early intervention, transitions, evidence-based practice. Also new to this edition are Did You Know? boxes highlighting statistics or resources that readers can use to further expand their awareness and knowledge of concepts relevant to providing services to individuals with an ASD. This book remains a must-have for occupational therapy students and practitioners at all levels.

Autism and the Law is the first-ever comprehensive compilation of the key statutes, cases, and related legal materials on autism spectrum disorder, the... fastest growing developmental disability in the United States. The legal materials and commentary in Autism and the Law stem from a variety of legal areas, with autism as the common thread. Autism is a complex medical disorder characterized by deficits in communication, social skills, and behavior. Autism appears in childhood but is a lifelong disability. The prevalence of autism is around 1 in 110 Americans, a staggering increase from just a decade ago. As a result of the exponential growth and increased awareness of the disorder, much legal reform has taken place over the past several years. Indeed, the response to the autism crisis by courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies has resulted in an explosion of published law pertaining to autism. Twenty-two states, for example, have enacted autism insurance mandates in the past three years. This book attempts to move the process of understanding and reform forward by collecting significant autism laws in the fields of health insurance, Medicaid, special education, and more into one resource. Autism and the Law is designed as a law school textbook but is also an excellent resource for state and federal policymakers as well as families struggling with autism across the country.

Autism has been defined by experts as a developmental disorder affecting social and communication skills as well as verbal and nonverbal communication.... It is said to occur in as many as 2 to 6 in 1,000 individuals. This book challenges the prevailing, tragic narrative of impairment that so often characterizes discussions about autism.Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone seriously engages the perspectives of people with autism, including those who have been considered as the most severely disabled within the autism spectrum. The heart of the book consists of chapters by people with autism themselves, either in an interview format with the author or written by themselves. Each author communicates either by typing or by a combination of speech and typing. These chapters are framed by a substantive introduction and conclusion that contextualize the book, the methodology, and the analysis, and situate it within a critical disability studies framework. The volume allows a look into the rich and insightful perspectives of people who have heretofore been thought of as uninterested in the world.