Albino Santos Mosquera Books

From the author of the bestselling The Dawkins Delusion - an accessible account of the biggest questions around science and faith, grounded in the very best scholarship.

From one of the world’s most celebrated moral philosophers comes a thorough examination of the current political crisis and recommendations for how to mend our divided country. For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarized American since the 2016 election. Although today’s atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right. Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.

Che cos’è il male oggi? In che modo si può dire che le sue manifestazioni, le sue spinte, le sue modalità di aggredire il tessuto del mondo e delle persone che lo abitano si siano modificate? Zygmunt Bauman, uno dei più grandi pensatori viventi, già nel 1989, con Modernità e olocausto, aveva riletto le atrocità del Terzo Reich sovvertendo l’opinione comune che si fosse trattato un «incidente» della Storia e dimostrando che invece la «società dei giardinieri» della modernità aveva raggiunto con l’olocausto il suo risultato più esemplare. In questo libro Bauman compie un ulteriore decisivo passo avanti nell’identificazione del «male» ai giorni nostri. E lo fa con una ricognizione delle tesi fallaci che si erano affermate nel Novecento (dalla «personalità autoritaria» di Adorno alla «banalità del male» di Hannah Arendt) per mostrare poi, in un corpo a corpo con le opere di Jonathan Littell e di Günther Anders, che la presa di distanza dagli esiti dei nostri atti distruttivi (resa non solo possibile, ma obbligata, dalle mirabilia tecnologiche e dalla costrizione «diversamente morale» a non sprecare armi la cui produzione ha richiesto quantità esorbitanti di denaro) contribuisce a erodere la nostra sensibilità già gravemente indebolita e oggi prossima alla cancellazione.

Why do you lose arguments with people who know MUCH LESS than you? Why can you recognise that woman, from that thing . . . but can't remember her name? And why, after your last break-up, did you find yourself in the foetal position on the sofa for days, moving only to wipe the snot and tears haphazardly from your face? Here's why: the idiot brain. For something supposedly so brilliant and evolutionarily advanced, the human brain is pretty messy, fallible and disorganised. For example, your memory is egotistical. No, really. Conspiracy theories and superstitions are the inevitable effects of a healthy brain. And alcohol can actually improve your memory.** In The Idiot Brain, neuroscientist Dean Burnett tours our mysterious and mischievous grey (and white) matter. Along the way he explains the human brain's imperfections in all their glory and how these influence everything we say, do and experience. Expertly researched and entertainingly written, this book is for anyone who has wondered why their brain appears to be sabotaging their life, and what on earth it is really up to. **Editor's note: please read the book before testing this conclusion.

Neuroscientist Dean Burnett, author of the acclaimed The Idiot Brain, investigates the Science of Happiness. Or whether such a thing even exists.