Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

Books Journals

Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic

1st Edition
Volume 2
February 12, 2008
Dov M. Gabbay + 1 more
English
eBook
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Starting at the very beginning with Aristotle's founding contributions, logic has been graced by several periods in which the subject has flourished, attaining standards of rigour and conceptual sophistication underpinning a large and deserved reputation as a leading expression of human intellectual effort. It is widely recognized that the period from the mid-19th century until the three-quarter mark of the century just past marked one of these golden ages, a period of explosive creativity and transforming insights. It has been said that ignorance of our history is a kind of amnesia, concerning which it is wise to note that amnesia is an illness. It would be a matter for regret, if we lost contact with another of logic's golden ages, one that greatly exceeds in reach that enjoyed by mathematical symbolic logic. This is the period between the 11th and 16th centuries, loosely conceived of as the Middle Ages. The logic of this period does not have the expressive virtues afforded by the symbolic resources of uninterpreted calculi, but mediaeval logic rivals in range, originality and intellectual robustness a good deal of the modern record. The range of logic in this period is striking, extending from investigation of quantifiers and logic consequence to inquiries into logical truth; from theories of reference to accounts of identity; from work on the modalities to the stirrings of the logic of relations, from theories of meaning to analyses of the paradoxes, and more. While the scope of mediaeval logic is impressive, of greater importance is that nearly all of it can be read by the modern logician with at least some prospect of profit. The last thing that mediaeval logic is, is a museum piece. Mediaeval and Renaissance Logic is an indispensable research tool for anyone interested in the development of logic, including researchers, graduate and senior undergraduate students in logic, history of logic, mathematics, history of mathematics, computer science and AI, linguistics, cognitive science, argumentation theory, philosophy, and the history of ideas.

The Analysis of Burned Human Remains

1st Edition
January 29, 2008
Christopher W. Schmidt + 1 more
English
eBook
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This unique reference provides a primary source for osteologists and the medical/legal community for the understanding of burned bone remains in forensic or archaeological contexts. It describes in detail the changes in human bone and soft tissues as a body burns at both the chemical and gross levels and provides an overview of the current procedures in burned bone study. Case studies in forensic and archaeological settings aid those interested in the analysis of burned human bodies, from death scene investigators, to biological anthropologists looking at the recent or ancient dead.

Physics in the Arts

1st Edition
January 22, 2008
Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert + 1 more
English
eBook
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Physics in the Arts is a concise, 288-page four-color entry in the Complementary Science Series, designed for science enthusiasts and liberal arts students requiring or desiring a well-developed discussion of physical phenomena, particularly with regard to sound and light. Topics discussed include the nature of sound and sound perception, and the fundamentals of harmony, musical photography, color perception, and color mixing. The materials are covered at a level appropriate for self-study or as a complementary textbook. A companion website for Instructors is available in Spring 2008.

Interpersonal Relations Across the Life Course

1st Edition
Volume 12
September 5, 2007
Timothy J Owens + 1 more
English
eBook
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This volume (number 12) is subtitled Interpersonal Relations across the Life Course. It is inspired by the increased awareness in recent years of the way in which structural and psychosocial dimensions of the life course shape interpersonal relations. Interest in this issue has included both the maintenance of long-term relationships that may span many phases of the life course and the development of relationships that are specific to particular phases. The volume is a combination of invited and author initiated papers--all anonymously peer reviewed--that seeks to present a cohesive source of information on the multiform nature and influences of interpersonal relations from a variety of perspectives, theoretical frames, and substantive areas. Contributions reflect:Macro-micro linkages and interpersonal relations, (i.e., age structures, social institutions, and race/ethnicity) Parenting across the life course Parent-adult child relations and transitionsTransitio... in non-kin relationshipsSocial relationships and well-being

General Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues

1st Edition
July 18, 2007
Theo A.F. Kuipers + 3 more
English
eBook
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Scientists use concepts and principles that are partly specific for their subject matter, but they also share part of them with colleagues working in different fields. Compare the biological notion of a 'natural kind' with the general notion of 'confirmation' of a hypothesis by certain evidence. Or compare the physical principle of the 'conservation of energy' and the general principle of 'the unity of science'. Scientists agree that all such notions and principles aren't as crystal clear as one might wish. An important task of the philosophy of the special sciences, such as philosophy of physics, of biology and of economics, to mention only a few of the many flourishing examples, is the clarification of such subject specific concepts and principles. Similarly, an important task of 'general' philosophy of science is the clarification of concepts like 'confirmation' and principles like 'the unity of science'. It is evident that clarfication of concepts and principles only makes sense if one tries to do justice, as much as possible, to the actual use of these notions by scientists, without however following this use slavishly. That is, occasionally a philosopher may have good reasons for suggesting to scientists that they should deviate from a standard use. Frequently, this amounts to a plea for differentiation in order to stop debates at cross-purposes due to the conflation of different meanings. While the special volumes of the series of Handbooks of the Philosophy of Science address topics relative to a specific discipline, this general volume deals with focal issues of a general nature. After an editorial introduction about the dominant method of clarifying concepts and principles in philosophy of science, called explication, the first five chapters deal with the following subjects. Laws, theories, and research programs as units of empirical knowledge (Theo Kuipers), various past and contemporary perspectives on explanation (Stathis Psillos), the evaluation of theories in terms of their virtues (Ilkka Niiniluto), and the role of experiments in the natural sciences, notably physics and biology (Allan Franklin), and their role in the social sciences, notably economics (Wenceslao Gonzalez). In the subsequent three chapters there is even more attention to various positions and methods that philosophers of science and scientists may favor: ontological, epistemological, and methodological positions (James Ladyman), reduction, integration, and the unity of science as aims in the sciences and the humanities (William Bechtel and Andrew Hamilton), and logical, historical and computational approaches to the philosophy of science (Atocha Aliseda and Donald Gillies).The volume concludes with the much debated question of demarcating science from nonscience (Martin Mahner) and the rich European-American history of the philosophy of science in the 20th century (Friedrich Stadler).

Philosophy of Biology

1st Edition
February 5, 2007
Mohan Matthen + 4 more
English
eBook
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Philosophy of Biology is a rapidly expanding field. It is concerned with explanatory concepts in evolution, genetics, and ecology. This collection of 25 essays by leading researchers provides an overview of the state of the field. These essays are wholly new; none of them could have been written even ten years ago. They demonstrate how philosophical analysis has been able to contribute to sometimes contested areas of scientific theory making.

A Woman's Pleasure Trip in Somaliland

1st Edition
January 1, 2007
Frances Swayne
English
eBook
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A Woman's Pleasure Trip in Somaliland provides a detailed and descriptive account of how a woman could pleasantly spend three winter months in a country where many of the fancied necessaries of a civilized life are absent. Organized into eight chapters, this book begins with an overview of the geographical description of Somaliland. This text then describes her arrival at Aden. Other chapters consider the Somalis' natural way of ascertaining the time. This book discusses as well Somalis' belief in the theory that mosquitos give fever, which was commented on in printed reports on Somaliland some years before medical science took the matter up. The final chapter deals with the author's concluding remarks about the exceptional attention, consideration, and willing service that she had experienced during her three month's stay in Somaliland. This book is a valuable resource for readers who are interested to learn about Somaliland and its people.

Constructing Adulthood

1st Edition
Volume 11
November 21, 2006
Ross Macmillan
English
eBook
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Advances in Life Course Research publishes original theoretical analyses, integrative reviews, policy analyses and position papers, and theory-based empirical papers on issues involving all aspects of the human life course. Adopting a broad conception of the life course, it invites and welcomes contributions from all disciplines and fields of study interested in understanding, describing, and predicting the antecedents of and consequences for the course that human lives take from birth to death, within and across time and cultures, regardless of methodology, theoretical orientation, or disciplinary affiliation. Each volume is organized around a unifying theme.

Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology

1st Edition
October 27, 2006
Stephen P. Turner + 4 more
English
Hardback
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eBook
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This volume concerns philosophical issues that arise from the practice of anthropology and sociology. The essays cover a wide range of issues, including traditional questions in the philosophy of social science as well as those specific to these disciplines. Authors attend to the historical development of the current debates and set the stage for future work.

Philosophy of Logic

1st Edition
October 19, 2006
Dov M. Gabbay + 3 more
English
eBook
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The papers presented in this volume examine topics of central interest in contemporary philosophy of logic. They include reflections on the nature of logic and its relevance for philosophy today, and explore in depth developments in informal logic and the relation of informal to symbolic logic, mathematical metatheory and the limiting metatheorems, modal logic, many-valued logic, relevance and paraconsistent logic, free logics, extensional v. intensional logics, the logic of fiction, epistemic logic, formal logical and semantic paradoxes, the concept of truth, the formal theory of entailment, objectual and substitutional interpretation of the quantifiers, infinity and domain constraints, the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem and Skolem paradox, vagueness, modal realism v. actualism, counterfactuals and the logic of causation, applications of logic and mathematics to the physical sciences, logically possible worlds and counterpart semantics, and the legacy of Hilbert’s program and logicism. The handbook is meant to be both a compendium of new work in symbolic logic and an authoritative resource for students and researchers, a book to be consulted for specific information about recent developments in logic and to be read with pleasure for its technical acumen and philosophical insights.

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