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The fight to eliminate world poverty is being severely hampered by corrupt leaders in developing countries. According to the African Union, some $150 billion is lost every year to corruption in Africa. In China, it is estimated corruption diminishes the annual value of gross domestic product by 15%. The pattern repeats itself elsewhere. This bleak situation compounds the poverty problem even more because donor countries are justifiably reluctant to support jurisdictions whose leaders are known to be corrupt, ignoring their citizens’ needs while stealing and laundering public funds for private use. What development does occur in chronically corrupt nations is often poorly planned and environmentally unsustainable, since the private gain of corrupt politicians and officials takes precedence over the implementation of sound development strategies. Likewise, bureaucratic corruption also results in the compromising of worker and consumer safety after all, a bribe costs less than obeying the law. And it is the poor who really pay the true cost of corruption. The Poverty of Corrupt Nations is a straightforward, easy-to-read exposition of the nature and scope of global corruption and money laundering, explaining the impact of recent troubling corruption trends on the public-at-large and public policy makers. Specifically, Cullen examines the links between world poverty, corruption, terrorism, global migration patterns, and money laundering. Constructively, Cullen then outlines a practical 20-point program to increase transparency and accountability in governments and parliaments around the world and break this cycle of corruption and poverty.

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Questions and answers from two great philosophers Why is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi to the philosopher and historian Abu 'Ali Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century. The correspondence between al-Tawhidi and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates and preoccupations of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, wondering and brooding, trivial and profound, al-Tawhidi’s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content. This new edition of The Philosopher Responds is accompanied by the first full-length English translation of this important text, bringing this interaction to life for the English reader.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

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Questions and answers from two great philosophers Why is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi to the philosopher and historian Abu 'Ali Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century. The correspondence between al-Tawhidi and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates and preoccupations of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, wondering and brooding, trivial and profound, al-Tawhidi’s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content. This new edition of The Philosopher Responds is accompanied by the first full-length English translation of this important text, bringing this interaction to life for the English reader.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

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In A Politics of the Ordinary , Thomas Dumm dramatizes how everyday life in the United States intersects with and is influenced by the power of events, on the one hand, and forces of conformity and normalcy on the other. Combining poststructuralist analysis with a sympathetic reading of a strain of American thought that begins with Emerson and culminates in the work of Stanley Cavell, A Politics of the Ordinary investigates incidents from everyday life, political spectacles, and popular culture. Whether juxtaposing reflections about boredom in rural New Mexico with Emerson's theory of constitutional amendment, Richard Nixon's letter of resignation with Thoreau's writings to overcome quiet desperation, or demonstrating how Disney's Toy Story allegorizes the downsizing of the American white-collar work force, Dumm's constant concern is to show how the ordinary is the primary source of the democratic political imagination.

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El libro analiza los orígenes kantianos de la filosofía de Ortega desde su etapa inicial hasta las más tardías. Ortega descubre la filosofía de Kant cuando era un estudiante universitario, en Bilbao y Madrid, a través de los pocos trabajos sobre Kant y las traducciones de sus obras que entonces existían en España. Tras una primera lectura, y tras descubrir la filosofía germana, decide ampliar sus conocimientos en Alemania. Este viaje está influido también por las circunstancias de la España de la época: la degeneración intelectual y espiritual del país, la aversión por la ciencia y el desprecio por las ideas. En la filosofía alemana, especialmente en la de Kant, permanece la identidad de la filosofía y su carácter científico. Ortega estudió a Kant en Leipzig, Berlín y Marburgo, con grandes especialistas en su pensamiento como Wundt, Simmel, Riehl, Cohen y Natorp. Sin embargo, la ciudad más importante para él no fue ni Leipzig ni Berlín, sino la gótica Marburgo, situada en las orillas del río Lahn, a la que denomina en sus memorias «fuerte neokantiano» y «ciudadela neokantiana», recordando la filosofía que imperaba en su universidad. El hermetismo de la escuela kantiana marburguesa tenía para Ortega una doble vertiente: era, al mismo tiempo, tanto «su hogar y el aire con el que respiraba» como una «cárcel», era, en definitiva, «una adquisición eterna que había queconservar para poder ser otra cosa más allá».

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In his essay Das neue Denken (1925), Franz Rosenzweig warns against the «danger of understanding the new thinking in the sense, or rather the nonsense, of ‘irrational’ tendencies such as, for example, the ‘philosophy of life.’ Everyone clever enough to have steered clear of the jaws of the idealistic Charybdis seems nowadays to be drawn into the dark whirlpool of this Scylla». The Homeric metaphor of Scylla and Charybdis provides the general guidelines Rosenzweig seems to stick to in developing his ‘new thinking.’ Not only does it avoid the dangers of idealism and irrationalism charting a third way between them, but it also takes shape as a combination of philosophy and Jewish thought – a combination irreducible to each of its terms, and thus representing a tertium datur beyond them.

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The Real Meaning of Life wasn’t written by an expert. It isn’t the culmination of painstaking self-study or a sudden breakthrough. Instead, this fascinating book collects the insights of everyday people who responded to NYU freshman David Seaman’s simple query, “What is the meaning of life?” To his surprise, he received a flood of responses. Some suggested things like “bikinis and beer,” but Seaman found that most were much more thoughtful – so much so that he created a website and now this book to collect the best of them. From thousands of respondents – including Buddhists, born-again Christians, atheists, waitresses, students, and recovering heart attack patients – come incredibly diverse nuggets of wisdom that can be aphoristic (“Be grease, not glue”), philosophical (“There is no point to life, and that is exactly what makes it so special”), or whimsical (“Me, I'm going snowboarding”).

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Joseph, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Black Elk, Ohiyesa, and many others share their insights on Native American ways of living, learning, and dying.
There is something archetypal about the philosophy of the original Americans, especially to the sensibilities of modern European Americans. We recognize it as coming from the earth we walk on, from those who preceded us. As we read the wisdom of these peoples, it is possible to feel a reconnection with our land and ourselves.
Taken from orations, recorded observations of life and social affairs, and other first-person testimonies, this book selects the best of Native American wisdom and distills it to its essence in short, digestible quotes that are meaningful and timeless – perhaps even more timely now than when they were written.

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Everyone has had luminous moments – those instances when we experience the beauty and grace of life, whether we’re looking into the eyes of a newborn or watching the sun set over the ocean. But those moments are usually brief and difficult to consciously create.
Many of us have been successful in attaining personal and professional goals, but we’re too exhausted to enjoy what we’ve accomplished. Or we might walk around in a fog, feeling vaguely frustrated, resigned, or cynical and asking all the wrong questions about how to make our lives better. In either case, we miss the purpose of being alive: to wake up and fully become ourselves, to allow others to contribute to us and, in turn, to contribute our gifts to the world – fully savoring the journey along the way. This fascinating new book gives us specific methods for bringing luminosity into our lives on a consistent basis, allowing us to view the world with much younger, more vibrant eyes.
Mastering Life’s Energies shows us how to use all the energies of our lives – physical vitality, creativity, time, money, enjoyment, and relationship – to realize our goals and dreams and, even more important, live a luminous life, filled with possibility and promise.

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Ethical intelligence may not get as much attention as other forms of “smarts,” but as Bruce Weinstein shows, it is the most practical, valuable, and even courageous form, determining success on the job, ful?llment in relationships, and sense of self-worth. After reviewing the ?ve basic ethical principles agreed upon by cultures and religious traditions around the world and throughout time, Weinstein shows readers how to develop their ethics IQ by applying these principles in daily life. Real-world examples and interviews – with CEOs, athletes, celebrities, and political leaders – illustrate ethics in action, and their absence. Most strikingly, Weinstein shows that ethical principles aren’t just good; they are good for us, bene?ting our health, happiness, and prosperity. While ethical ignorance grabs headlines, it is ethical intelligence that creates the most ful?lling life.

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