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3. Domestication in Europe
J. L. Heilbron
in The History of Physics: A Very Short Introduction
Domestication of Greek and Arabic physica and mixed mathematics in the Latin West took c.400 years: from the 12th-century first translations to the 16th-century printing of Archimedes and ...
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1. The art and science of music psychology
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis
in The Psychology of Music: A Very Short Introduction
Music can seem to be the human behavior that is least susceptible to explanation, but a long history exists of applying various frameworks to try to understand it. The cognitive science of ...
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3. Knowledge and understanding
Catherine Wilson
in Epicureanism: A Very Short Introduction
The Epicureans regarded the alleviation of suffering, and especially the suffering produced by fear and anxiety, as the most important contribution of philosophy to life. If all phenomena, ...
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2. Nature
Ritchie Robertson
in Goethe: A Very Short Introduction
For Goethe, humanity formed part of a greater unity, that of Nature. Nature was also something to be experienced in the most direct, immediate way. ‘Nature’ looks closely at the poem Auf ...
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3. The secularization of superstition
Stuart Vyse
in Superstition: A Very Short Introduction
The five centuries beginning with the 14th and ending with the 18th took European history from the Middle Ages, through the Enlightenment, and into the first two centuries of the scientific ...
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Introduction
Stillman Drake
in Galileo: A Very Short Introduction
The earliest explanations of man and his religion stemmed from religion, before philosophy and then science came onto the scene. It is natural that the later fields were guided by those ...
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Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Cynthia Freeland
In today's art world many strange, even shocking, things qualify as art. Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction discusses beauty, blood, culture, money, museums, sex, and politics, ...
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Introduction
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exploration of art, what it means, and why we value it. It examines topics in the field loosely called art theory: ritual theory, ...
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5. How can we think more clearly?
Michael Beaney
in Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short introduction
Analytic philosophy places great emphasis on clarity. But what does ‘clarity’ mean and how can we think more clearly? How does clarity connect with other virtues of analytic philosophy? ...
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2. Modern media, modern messages
David Cottington
in Modern Art: A Very Short Introduction
A century ago, art could be defined by its media (oil, clay, bronze, marble). Today, anything goes (blood, naked people, chocolate, rubbish). ‘Modern media, modern messages’ looks at how ...
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5. The ‘postmodern condition’
Christopher Butler
in Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction
‘The postmodern condition’ concludes this study of postmodernism. The ‘postmodern condition’ is one in which the global condition of societies is seen, not as determined by traditional ...
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Biography: A Very Short Introduction
Hermione Lee
Biography: A Very Short Introduction looks at the origins and development of biographical writing. Why do certain people and historical events arouse so much interest? How can ...
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2. Exemplary Lives
Hermione Lee
in Biography: A Very Short Introduction
‘Exemplary Lives’ traces the history of western biography from its beginnings in antiquity to Aubrey's Brief Lives in the seventeenth-century England. The snippets of the lives of famous ...
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3. Warts and All
Hermione Lee
in Biography: A Very Short Introduction
‘Warts of All’ looks at the most famous biography in the English language, Boswell's Life of Johnson. Why did the life of such an eccentric, opinionated, neurotic 18th-century ...
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7. Public Roles
Hermione Lee
in Biography: A Very Short Introduction
What is the biography's relation to the performance aspect of identity, the individual's public role? ‘Public Roles’ explores the often difficult task of disentangling the public ...
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1. The Enlightenment
John Robertson
in The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction
‘The Enlightenment’ describes the varying definitions of Enlightenment, how it has been reconstructed as a historical phenomenon, and explains why it has been so contested. The ...
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The Englishman
Nicholas Cronk
in Voltaire: A Very Short Introduction
Voltaire arrived in London in May 1726, primarily to publish a definitive edition of his epic La Henriade as censorship made this impossible in France. ‘The Englishman’ describes how ...
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6. Cognition, creation, comprehension
Cynthia Freeland
in Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction
Does art bear a message in the way language does? What must we know to clarify an artwork's meaning? Can't we just look at an artwork for enjoyment? ‘Cognition, creation, comprehension’ ...
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2. Background
Roger Scruton
in Spinoza: A Very Short Introduction
Spinoza did not think in a historical vacuum or without reference to conceptions whose meaning has clouded with time and whose plausibility is no longer obvious. ‘Background’ looks at what ...
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