In a penetrating account of the evolution of British intelligence gathering in India, C. A. Bayly shows how networks of Indian spies were recruited by the British to secure military, political and social information about their subjects. He also examines the social and intellectual origins of these 'native informants', and considers how the colonial authorities interpreted and often misinterpreted the information they supplied. It was such misunderstandings which ultimately contributed to the failure of the British to anticipate the rebellions of 1857. The author argues, however, that even before this, complex systems of debate and communication were challenging the political and intellectual dominance of the European rulers.

Claude Markovits' book charts the development of two merchant communities in the province of Sind from the precolonial period, through colonial conquest and up to indepedence. Based on previously neglected archival sources, it describes how the communities came to control trading networks throughout the world, throwing light on the nature of these diasporas from South Asia in their interaction with the global economy. This is a sophisticated and accessible book that will appeal to students of South Asia, as well as to colonial historians and economic historians.

Three Crises in Early English History gives a clear, concise, and up-to-date account of the three crises in early English history beginning with the Norman Conquest which began with the battle of Hastings and ended in William the Conqueror's Suppression of the Yorkshire rebels in 1071. There is a detailed account of the positive and negative effects of the Conquest on English government. A special effort is made to explain King John's judicial and financial expedients, which collectively drove a determined minority of the country's baronage into the open rebellion that led to the sixty-three clauses of the Magna Carta. The book concludes with four connected essays of the Wars of the Roses, which resulted from England's defeat in the Hundred Years' War and the ineffectual rule of Henry VI and lasting a whole generation. Here these complicated episodes and the colorful figures involved, like Richard of York, Warwick the Kingmaker, and Edward the IV are laid out clearly for the reader.

Das Internet als Eckpfeiler der modernen Informationsgesellschaft hat sowohl neue, digitale M rkte geschaffen als auch bestehende M rkte grundlegend ver ndert. Der Autor stellt die besonderen Merkmale der Internet- konomie systematisch dar. Dazu wendet er klassische konomische Modelle auf das Internet an, stellt aber auch neue Modelle vor. Die Gesetzm igkeiten der Internet- konomie werden anhand vieler Beispiele aufgedeckt, daraus der Erfolg etablierter Anbieter erkl rt und Handlungsempfehlungen f r Akteure der Internet- konomie abgeleitet.

Das Buch analysiert die zentrale Rolle von Medien, Telekommunikation und Informationstechnologie als Antriebsfaktoren auf dem Weg in eine digitale Wirtschaft: der Internet-A-konomie. Schon im Jahr 2005 wird die HAlfte der deutschen BevAlkerung online sein. Die in wesentlichen Teilen A1/4berarbeitete dritte Auflage des Buches bezieht die aktuellen Entwicklungen des dynamischen Marktes ein. In der Neuauflage werden insbesondere die Themen A-konomie der Aufmerksamkeit und Elektronic Commerce erweitert und fortgefA1/4hrt. Auch der umfangreiche Datenanhang, der die wichtigsten europAischen Kennziffern liefert, wurde auf den neuesten Stand gebracht. Mit diesem Konzept und der internationalen Einbindung steht das Buch konkurrenzlos da. Die zukunftsbezogene Analyse macht es zu einem unverzichtbaren Standardwerk fA1/4r Industrie und Wissenschaft.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) possessed one of history's great minds. The German philosopher, mathematician, and logician invented (independently of Sir Isaac Newton) calculus. His metaphysics bequeathed a set of problems and approaches that drove the course of Western philosophy, from Kant's eighteenth century until the present day. For over fifty years, the study of Leibniz has been a consistent passion for distinguished philosopher Nicholas Rescher. "On Leibniz" offers eleven of his essays, written with signature clarity, exploring the aspects of Leibniz's work and life that still resonate in the discipline of philosophy. Rescher's essays are snapshots of Leibniz, lucidly drawn case studies that explain the fundamentals of his ontology: the theory of possible worlds, the world's contingency, space-time frameworks, and intermonadic relationships. Several illuminating pieces reveal Leibniz as a substantial contributor to theories of knowledge. Discussions of his epistemology and methodology, its relationship to John Maynard Keynes and Talmudic scholarship, broaden the traditional view of Leibniz as a uniquely metaphysical thinker. Rescher also explores, in four absorbing biographical essays, Leibniz's scholarly development and professional career in historical context. As a andquot; philosopher courtierandquot; to the Hanoverian court, Leibniz was associated with the leading intellectuals and politicians of his era, including Spinoza, Huygens, Newton, Queen Sophie Charlotte, and Czar Peter the Great. A concluding essay holds up Leibniz's mode of philosophy as a role model for today's scholars. Rescher argues that many current problems can be effectivelyaddressed with principles of process philosophy along lines inspired by Leibniz's monadology. "On Leibniz" is essential reading for students of Leibniz and Rescher alike.

In "Error," Nicholas Rescher presents a fresh analysis of the occurrence, causality, and consequences of error in human thought, action, and evaluation. Rescher maintains that error-avoidance and truth-achievement are distinct but equally important factors for rational inquiry, and that error is inherent in the human cognitive process (to err is human). He defines three main categories of error: cognitive (failure to realize truths); practical (failure related to the objective of an action); and axiological (failure in evaluation), and articulates the factors that contribute to each. His discussion also provides a historical perspective on the treatment of error in Greek philosophy, and by later thinkers such as Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, James, Royce, Moore, and Russell. "Error "is an important reexamination of the significance of error to the fields of philosophical anthropology, epistemology, ontology, and theology. As Rescher's study argues, truth and error are inexorably intertwined--one cannot exist without the other. Error is an unavoidable occurrence in the cognitive process--without missteps on the path to truth, truth itself cannot be attained. The risk of error is inherent in the quest for truth.

In the readition of the bestselling Chaos and A Brief History of Time, here is a science book with mainstream appeal. Proponents of artificial intelligence maintain that eventually a computer will be able to do everything a human mind can do, but Oxford University Professor of Mathematics Roger Penrose explains his view that there are facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Drawings throughout.
Some love it, some hate it, but The Emperor's New Mind, physicist Roger Penrose's 1989 treatise attacking the foundations of strong artificial intelligence, is crucial for anyone interested in the history of thinking about AI and consciousness. Part survey of modern physics, part exploration of the philosophy of mind, the book is not for casual readers--though it's not overly technical, it rarely pauses to let the reader catch a breath. The overview of relativity and quantum theory, written by a master, is priceless and uncontroversial. The exploration of consciousness and AI, though, is generally considered as resting on shakier ground.
Penrose claims that there is an intimate, perhaps unknowable relation between quantum effects and our thinking, and ultimately derives his anti-AI stance from his proposition that some, if not all, of our thinking is non-algorithmic. Of course, these days we believe that there are other avenues to AI than traditional algorithmic programming; while he has been accused of setting up straw robots to knock down, this accusation is unfair. Little was then known about the power of neural networks and behavior-based robotics to simulate (and, some would say, produce) intelligent problem-solving behavior. Whether these tools will lead to strong AI is ultimately a question of belief, not proof, and The Emperor's New Mind offers powerful arguments useful to believer and nonbeliever alike. --Rob Lightner

Reading Nietzsche's works as the "political biography of his soul," Leslie Thiele presents an original and accessible essay on the great thinker's attempt to lead a heroic life as a philosopher, artist, saint, educator, and solitary. He takes as his point of departure Nietzsche's conception of the soul as a multiplicity of conflicting drives and personae, and focuses on the task Nietzsche allotted himself "to make a cosmos out of his chaotic inheritance." This struggle to "become what you are" by way of a spiritual politics is demonstrated to be Nietzsche's foremost concern, which fused his philosophy with his life.The book offers a conversation with Nietzsche rather than a consideration of the secondary literature, yet it takes to task many prevalent approaches to his work, and contests especially the way we often restrict our encounter with him to conceptual analysis. All deconstructionist attempts to portray him as solely concerned with the destruction of the subject and the dispersion of the self, rather than its unification, are called into question. Often portrayed as the champion of nihilism, Nietzsche here emerges as a thinker who saw his primary task as the overcoming of nihilism through the heroic struggle of individuation.

Oxford Philosophical Texts Series Editor: John Cottingham The Oxford Philosophical Texts series consists of authoritative teaching editions of canonical texts in the history of philosophy from the ancient world down to modern times. Each volume provides a clear, well laid out text together with a comprehensive introduction by a leading specialist, giving the student detailed critical guidance on the intellectual context of the work and the structure and philosophical importance of the main arguments. Endnotes are supplied which provide further commentary on the arguments and explain unfamiliar references and terminology, and a full bibliography and index are also included. The series aims to build up a definitive corpus of key texts in the Western philosophical tradition, which will form a reliable and enduring resource for students and teachers alike. David Hume's aim in writing An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) was to introduce his philosophy to a European culture in which many educated people read original works of philosophy. He gives an elegant and accessible presentation of strikingly original and challenging views about the limited powers of human understanding, the attractions of scepticism, the compatibility of free will and determinism, and weaknesses in the foundations of religion. Hume's philosophy was highly controversial in the eighteenth century and remains so today. The text printed in this edition is that of the Clarendon critical edition of Hume's works. A substantial introduction by the editor explains the intellectual background to the work and surveys its main themes. The volume also includes detailed explanatory notes on the text, a glossary of terms, a full list of references, and a section of supplementary readings.