Other books that might interest you

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  10 Big Questions of Philosophy

  Robert Lawrence Kuhn

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  Join National Humanities Medal recipient Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and a host of other brilliant minds as they seek to answer ten perennially mystifying questions of philosophy. What is truth? As humans, how can we know what is real? How can the philosophies of science, cosmology, and biology help us understand the mysteries of our existence? In this compelling audio series, Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator and host of the hit PBS series Closer to Truth, probes the nature of truth and other heady philosophical questions in intimate conversations with 13 of the world’s greatest thinkers.Kuhn’s respondents include novelist and philosophy professor Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, recipient of the National Humanities Medal and author of Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away; John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame Peter van Inwagen, celebrated for his many contributions to contemporary metaphysics; and professor of philosophy at Australian Catholic University and the University of Southern California John Hawthorne, author of the acclaimed collection Metaphysical Essays. Kuhn’s intellect and down-to-earth approach to understanding the complexity of the human condition make him an exceptionally gifted interviewer. As you gaze into the cosmos with Kuhn and his interlocutors, you’ll find your own philosophical curiosity awakened.This course is part of the Learn25 collection.

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  SuperSense - Why We Believe in...

  Bruce M. Hood

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  A neuroscientist examines the science behind humanity’s beliefs in the supernatural. 
   
  The majority of the world’s population is religious or believes in supernatural phenomena. In the United States, nine out of every ten adults believe in God, and a recent Gallup poll found that about three out of four Americans believe in some form of telepathy, déjà vu, ghosts, or past lives. Where does such supernatural thinking come from? Are we indoctrinated by our parents, churches, and media, or do such beliefs originate somewhere else? In SuperSense, award-winning cognitive scientist Bruce M. Hood reveals the science behind our beliefs in the supernatural. 
   
  Superstitions are common. Many of us cross our fingers, knock on wood, step around black cats, and avoid walking under ladders. John McEnroe refused to step on the white lines of a tennis court between points. Wade Boggs insisted on eating a chicken dinner before every Boston Red Sox game. President Barack Obama played a game of basketball the morning of his victory in the Iowa primary and continued the tradition on every subsequent election day. 
   
  Supernatural thinking includes loftier beliefs as well, such as the sentimental value we place on photos of loved ones, wedding rings, and teddy bears. It also includes spiritual beliefs and the hope for an afterlife. But in this modern, scientific age, why do we hold on to these behaviors and beliefs? 
   
  It turns out that belief in things beyond what is rational or natural is common to humans and appears very early in childhood. In fact, according to Hood, this “super sense” is something we're born with to develop and is essential to the way we learn to understand the world. We couldn’t live without it! 
   
  Our minds are designed from the very start to think there are unseen patterns, forces, and essences inhabiting the world, and it is unlikely that any effort to get rid of supernatural beliefs, or the superstitious behaviors that accompany them, will be successful. These common beliefs and sacred values are essential in binding us together as a society because they help us to see ourselves connected to each other at a deeper level.

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  Conquistadors of the Useless -...

  Lionel Terray

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  'I have given my whole life to the mountains. Born at the foot of the Alps, I have been a ski champion, a professional guide, an amateur of the greatest climbs in the Alps and a member of eight expeditions to the Andes and the Himalayas. If the word has any meaning at all, I am a mountaineer.' So Terray begins Conquistadors of the Useless- not with arrogance, but with typical commitment. One of the most colourful characters of the mountaineering world, his writing is true to his uncompromising and jubilant love for the mountains. Terray was one of the greatest alpinists of his time, and his autobiography is one of the finest and most important mountaineering books ever written. Climbing with legends Gaston Rébuffat, Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, Terray made first ascents in the Alps, Alaska, the Andes, and the Himalaya. He was at the centre of global mountaineering at a time when Europe was emerging from the shadow of World War II, and he came out a hero. Conquistadors tells of his war-time escapades, of life as an Alpine mountain guide, and of his climbs - including the second ascent of the Eiger North Face and his involvement in the first ever ascent of an 8,000-metre peak, Annapurna. His tales capture the energy of French post-war optimism, a time when France needed to re-assert herself and when climbing triumphs were more valued than at any other time in history. Terray's death, in the Vercors, robbed mountaineering of one of its most passionate and far-sighted figures. His energy, so obvious in Conquistadors of the Useless, will inspire for generations to come. A mountaineering classic.

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  Clean - Overcoming Addiction and...

  David Sheff

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  These facts are the foundation of Clean, a myth-shattering look at drug abuse by the author of Beautiful Boy. Based on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, and medicine, Clean is a leap beyond the traditional approaches to prevention and treatment of addiction and the mental illnesses that usually accompany it. The existing treatment system, including Twelve Step programs and rehabs, has helped some, but it has failed to help many more, and David Sheff explains why. He spent time with scores of scientists, doctors, counselors, and addicts and their families to learn how addiction works and what can effectively treat it. Clean offers clear, cogent counsel for parents and others who want to prevent drug problems and for addicts and their loved ones no matter what stage of the illness they're in. But it is also a book for all of us - a powerful rethinking of the greatest public health challenge of our time.

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  Stories from the cockpit

  Audio4You, Michael Weber

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  Exciting and funny stories from the cockpit collected by a pilot during his 30 year flying career. Michael Weber, an experienced pilot, tells stories from the cockpit from the perspective of a pilot. Numerous incidents remain hidden from passengers because the door to the cockpit is closed. Pilots are only human and mistakes happen in the cockpit like everywhere else. In this book, experience the perspective from the cockpit on an entertaining and funny way.

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  Loose of Earth - A Memoir

  Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn

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  Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn was the oldest of five children, a twelve-year-old from Lubbock, Texas, whose evangelical family eschewed public education for homeschooling, and wove improbable scientific theories into literal interpretations of the Bible. Then her father, a former air force pilot, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of thirty-eight, and, "it was like throwing gasoline on the Holy Spirit." Stirred by her mother, the family committed to an extreme diet and sought deliverance from equally extreme sources: a traveling tent preacher, a Malaysian holy man, a local faith-healer who led services called "Miracles on 34th Street."What they didn't know was that their lives were entangled with a larger, less visible environmental catastrophe. Firefighting foams containing carcinogenic compounds had contaminated the drinking water of every military site where her father worked. Commonly referred to as "forever chemicals," the presence of PFAS in West Texas besieged a landscape already burdened with vanishing water, taking up residence in wells and in the bloodstreams of people who lived there. An arresting portrait of the pernicious creep of decline, and a powerful cry for environmental justice, Loose of Earth captures the desperate futility and unbending religious faith that devastated a family, leaving them waiting for a miracle that would never come.

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