Do you want to do intellectual work? Begin by creating within you a zone of silence, a habit of recollection,a will to renunciation and detachment which puts you entirely at the disposal of the work;acquire that state of soul unburdened by desire and self-will which is the state of grace of the intellectual worker.Without that you will do nothing,at least nothing worth while.

Listen to Steve Fuller talk about his latest book in this series of podcasts recorded during Warwick University's Festival of Social Science. "The Sociology of Intellectual Life" outlines a social theory of knowledge for the 21st century. With characteristic subtlety and verve, Steve Fuller deals directly with a world in which it is no longer taken for granted that universities...(展开全部)

The Spirit Ambulance is a journey into decision-making at the end of life in Thailand, where families attempt to craft good deaths for their elders in the face of clashing ethical frameworks, from a rapidly developing universal medical system, to national and global human-rights politics, to contemporary movements in Buddhist metaphysics. Scott Stonington’s gripping ethnography...(展开全部)

An invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendors of a life of learning In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz wri...(展开全部)

In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a ...(展开全部)

An invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendors of a life of learning In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz wri...(展开全部)

In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a ...(展开全部)

For a one semester survey course in Introduction to Humanities. This single-volume text is a historical survey of the western humanities. Written to be accessible to students with little background in the arts and humanities, Adventure in the Human Spirit provides a balanced introduction to the major arts, philosophy, and religion. This text approaches the humanities by focusi...(展开全部)

This text traces the rise and decline of the British autodidact from the pre-industrial era to the 20th century. Using research techniques and a vast range of unexpected sources such as workers' memoirs, social surveys and library registers, Jonathan Rose seeks to answer such questions as which books people read, how and why they educated themselves, and what they knew. In the ...(展开全部)