[PDF] Chaos From The Ancient World To Early Modernity eBook

Author : Andreas Höfele
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 40,45 MB
Release : 2020-11-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 3110655004

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Chaos is a perennial source of fear and fascination. The original "formless void" (tohu-wa-bohu) mentioned in the book of Genesis, chaos precedes the created world: a state of anarchy before the establishment of cosmic order. But chaos has frequently also been conceived of as a force that persists in the cosmos and in society and threatens to undo them both. From the cultures of the ancient Near East and the Old Testament to early modernity, notions of the divine have included the power to check and contain as well as to unleash chaos as a sanction for the violation of social and ethical norms. Yet chaos has also been construed as a necessary supplement to order, a region of pure potentiality at the base of reality that provides the raw material of creation or even constitutes a kind of alternative order itself. As such, it generates its own peculiar 'formations of the formless'. Focusing on the connection between the cosmic and the political, this volume traces the continuities and re-conceptualizations of chaos from the ancient Near East to early modern Europe across a variety of cultures, discourses and texts. One of the questions it poses is how these pre-modern 'chaos theories' have survived into and reverberate in our own time.

Author : Brian Fagan
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 35,87 MB
Release : 2021-09-21
Category : Science
ISBN : 1541750888

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A thirty-thousand-year history of the relationship between climate and civilization that teaches powerful lessons about how humankind can survive. Human-made climate change may have begun in the last two hundred years, but our species has witnessed many eras of climate instability. The results have not always been pretty. From Ancient Egypt to Rome to the Maya, some of history’s mightiest civilizations have been felled by pestilence and glacial melt and drought. The challenges are no less great today. We face hurricanes and megafires and food shortages and more. But we have one powerful advantage as we face our current crisis: the past. Our knowledge of ancient climates has advanced tremendously in the last decade, to the point where we can now reconstruct seasonal weather going back thousands of years and see just how people and nature interacted. The lesson is clear: the societies that survive are those that plan ahead. Climate Chaos is a book about saving ourselves. Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani show in remarkable detail what it was like to battle our climate over centuries and offer us a path to a safer and healthier future.

Author : Olaf Almqvist
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 25,76 MB
Release : 2022-01-13
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1350221864

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Cosmological narratives like the creation story in the book of Genesis or the modern Big Bang are popularly understood to be descriptions of how the universe was created. However, cosmologies also say a great deal more. Indeed, the majority of cosmologies, ancient and modern, explore not simply how the world was made but how humans relate to their surrounding environment and the often thin line which separates humans from gods and animals. Combining approaches from classical studies, anthropology, and philosophy, this book studies three competing cosmologies of the early Greek world: Hesiod's Theogony; the Orphic Derveni theogony; and Protagoras' creation myth in Plato's eponymous dialogue. Although all three cosmologies are part of a single mythic tradition and feature a number of similar events and characters, Olaf Almqvist argues they offer very different answers to an ongoing debate on what it is to be human. Engaging closely with the ontological turn in anthropology and in particular with the work of Philippe Descola, this book outlines three key sets of ontological assumptions – analogism, pantheism, and naturalism – found in early Greek literature and explores how these competing ontological assumptions result in contrasting attitudes to rituals such as prayer and sacrifice.

Author : Ralph Abraham
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 37,81 MB
Release : 2001-01-04
Category : Science
ISBN : 9814492469

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This book is an authoritative and unique reference for the history of chaos theory, told by the pioneers themselves. It also provides an excellent historical introduction to the concepts. There are eleven contributions, and six of them are published here for the first time — two by Steve Smale, three by Yoshisuke Ueda, and one each by Ralph Abraham, Edward Lorenz, Christian Mira, Floris Takens, T Y Li and James A Yorke, and Otto E Rossler.

Author : Dr. Brian Fagan
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 10,5 MB
Release : 2015-08-13
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1317350332

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Drawing on many avenues of inquiry: archaeological excavations, surveys, laboratory work, highly specialized scientific investigations, and on both historical and ethnohistorical records; Ancient Civilizations, 3/e provides a comprehensive and straightforward account of the world’s first civilizations and a brief summary of the way in which they were discovered.

Author : Jerry Dobson
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 12,93 MB
Release : 2012-09-17
Category : Climatic changes
ISBN : 9781480165212

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"Brothers Jared and Rick Caisson suspect that something vital is missing from the archaeological record. Together they launch a gloal quest to the far corners of the earth and back in time to the Ice Ages ... in their high-tech search for an ancient civilization lost beneath the sea"--Page 4 of cover.

Author : Joanne Wieland-Burston
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 18,92 MB
Release : 2015-06-18
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 1317404173

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‘I don’t know what’s the matter with me – everything’s upside down; the whole world seems chaotic’ Chaos may erupt in our lives in many different ways – through death, divorce, conflict with family, friends or colleagues. It is a frightening and negative experience, destabilizing the individual and provoking feelings of insecurity. Originally published in English in 1992, the author, through her work as a Jungian analyst, frequently acted as a companion, support and guide to those whose lives were in chaotic turmoil. She describes how therapy helps people to meet chaos, to accept and see it in a different way – as a starting point for a new kind of order in their lives. This ‘organic’ order is better suited to their own personal needs and personality and provides the strong and flexible basis necessary to meet the chaos that belongs to life. Drawing upon the myths, tales and rites of ancient cultures, upon modern chaos theory, and upon her experience as an analyst the author shows the way through the chaos to a fuller, happier and more satisfying life.

Author : Colin Gray
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 32,63 MB
Release : 2004-08-02
Category : History
ISBN : 1135754756

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In this volume, Professor Colin Gray develops and applies the theory and scholarship on the allegedly historical practice of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA), in order to improve our comprehension of how and why strategy 'works'. The author explores the RMA hypothesis both theoretically and historically. The book argues that the conduct of an RMA has to be examined as a form of strategic behaviour, which means that, of necessity, it must "work" as strategy works. The great RMA debate of the 1990s is reviewed empathetically, though sceptically, by the author, with every major school of thought allowed its day in court. The author presents three historical RMAs as case studies for his argument: those arguably revealed in the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon; in World War I; and in the nuclear age. The focus of his analysis is how these grand RMAs functioned strategically. The conclusions that he draws from these empirical exercises are then applied to help us understand what, indeed, is - and what is not - happening with the much vaunted information-technology-led RMA of today.

Author : Geoffrey Dobson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 776 pages
File Size : 12,69 MB
Release : 2016-06-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1315478714

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Humans throughout history have sought ways of understanding their place within the world. Religion, science and myth have been at the forefront of this quest for meaning. A Chaos of Delight examines how various cultures – from the early Sumerians, Egyptians and Greeks to contemporary Western society – have looked at the same phenomena and devised totally different world views. The rise of modern science is examined, alongside questions of evolution and the origins of life. This comprehensive volume is an essential read for students and scholars interested in the history of ideas and the role of religion, science and myth in the development of Western thought.