Heart & Soul Career Tune-Up

Amazon.com

A practical guide filled with worksheets, quick tips, and questions designed to help you find your most fulfilling career options, Heart and Soul Career Tune-Up is the third title in the Heart and Soul series, and one that makes a terrific gift for graduates or other folks looking to get more happiness out of their workdays. Beyond the many useful job-finding techniques that cover artful résumés, proper methods of follow-up, and accurate pricing of yourself in the marketplace, the majority of the book focuses on such generalities as maintaining a positive attitude during your job hunt and dealing effectively with stress. Using the Meyers-Briggs personality test, positive thinking exercises, and meditation techniques, this is not your typical career guide, and it may feel a bit "touchy-feely" for those used to a drier style. But authors Chuck Cochran and Donna Peerce have written a guide that nearly everyone can use in some way. For example, the first chapter on "checking your alignment" is especially useful to employees wondering whether they're working for the right company. The chapter has you describe everything from an ideal boss to the company's marketing plan and future goals, as well as your personal goals in life. The results make it easier for you to examine your options more objectively--perhaps it really is time to move on. As Peerce and Cochran say, "When you are doing what you love, you are doing what you were meant to do in life." --Jill Lightner

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Career experts Chuck Cochran and Donna Peerce apply their popular Heart & soul philosophy to help anyone manage the inevitable ups and downs of their career. ideas for those

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A Voice That Must Be Heard

Financial Meltdown in the Mainline? (The Money, Faith and Lifestyle)
Loren B. Mead
Manufacturer: Alban Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1566991978

Book Description

Intentionally provocative, Alban founder and former president Loren Mead's dynamic work sets out dramatic and compelling challenges for today's churches. Mead chose the word "meltdown"-a strong term, indeed-very carefully and consciously. His clarion call urges congregations to direct attention to their dwindling financial resources and their unreliable fiscal practices, and to take major action now-or face disaster in the future. Mead addresses changing church giving patterns; the inconsistent ways congregations keep financial records; the lack of coordinated short- and long-range planning; the need for knowledge of sound financial techniques such as accounting for inflation; an over-reliance on "restructuring" to fix problems; and lack of defensive planning for operational costs.

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A Voice That Must Be Heard.......2002-07-13

"Financial Meltdown in the Mainline?" was written about 10 years ago. Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute, applies more than 20 years of working with churches across denominations to this book. He claims that the issue of church finance came up in the writing of each of his previous books, but that he did not directly address the issue in any of them. He directly address church finances in this book. More than that, he says what needs to be said without sugarcoating the truth.

He looks at the financial crisis present in every denomination - churches, denominations, seminaries are all suffering. The cause - Christians are not giving money as they should, nor are Christian leaders speaking accurately about the depth of the crisis. Mead backs these claims up with hard data.

I must admit, the first six chapters were pretty depressing. Mead confirmed many of the suspicions I developed during my first two years serving as a church administrator.

Underlying the financial crisis, Mead claims, is a spiritual crisis. In short, Christians are serving money rather than God. And Christian ministers are serving people rather than God (i.e., they do not speak the truth for fear of the reaction of their congregation).

Mead is a strong advocate of endowments in the face of this financial crisis. He offers practical guidelines for endowment management.

Every Christian minister and lay person should read this book. Perhaps the strength with which Mead paints the picture will bring the truth to light in a way that will draw out godly giving from all Christians.

Book Description

Considered the standard reference in the field of bankruptcy accounting, this two-volume set combines accounting, finance, tax and legal issues in an easy-to-understand resource. This updated and expanded edition contains major changes to the Bankruptcy Code and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, and discusses the release of AICPA's SOP 90-7 with examples regarding the complications of applying it. Features new sections on business valuations, debtor-in-possession and post-petition financing. Volume 2 provides a unique collection of forms and exhibits and has been extensively revised to be more user-friendly with checklists and discussions to accompany the scores of sample documents and authentic exhibits. Supplemented annually.

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Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment: Science, Policy, and Social Issues
Sheldon Krimsky
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ4SAS

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Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment: Science, Policy, and Social Issues (Environment Human Condition)
Sheldon; P, Roger Wrubel Krimsky
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPS7BK

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Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment: Science, Policy, and Social Issues (Environment Human Condition)
Sheldon Krimsky , and Roger Wrubel P
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0252065247

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Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment: Science, Policy, and Social Issues.(Review): An article from: American Journal of Agricultural Economics
M.C. Hallberg
Manufacturer: American Agricultural Economics Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00098NGFO
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Journal of Agricultural Economics, published by American Agricultural Economics Association on February 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1080 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Agricultural Biotechnology and the Environment: Science, Policy, and Social Issues.(Review)
Author: M.C. Hallberg
Publication: American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 1999
Publisher: American Agricultural Economics Association
Volume: 81 Issue: 1 Page: 254(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Chapters by a distinguished group of international authors on various aspects of Underground Injection Science and Technology are organized into seven sections addressing specific topics of interest. In the first section the chapters focus on the history of deep underground injection as well regulatory issues, future trends and risk analysis. The next section contains ten chapters dealing with well testing and hydrologic modeling. Section 3, consisting of five chapters, addresses various aspects of the chemical processes affecting the fate of the waste in the subsurface environment. Consideration is given here to reactions between the waste and the geologic medium, and reactions that take place within the waste stream itself.

The remaining four sections deal with experience relating to injection of, respectively, liquid wastes, liquid radioactive wastes in Russia, slurried solids, and compressed carbon dioxide. Chapters in Section 4, cover a diverse range of other issues concerning the injection of liquid wastes including two that deal with induced seismicity. In Section 5, Russian scientists have contributed several chapters revealing their knowledge and experience of the deep injection disposal of high-level radioactive liquid processing waste. Section 6 consists of five chapters that cover the technology surrounding the injection disposal of waste slurries. Among the materials considered are drilling wastes, bone meal, and biosolids. Finally, four chapters in Section 7 deal with questions relating to carbon dioxide sequestration in deep sedimentary aquifers. This subject is particularly topical as nations grapple with the problem of controlling the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

* Comprehensive coverage of the state of the art in underground injection science and technology
* Emerging subsurface waste disposal technologies
* International scope

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Developments in Water Science Series Volume 52: Underground Injection Science and Technology V52
CF Tsang
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N5ANLI

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Underground Injection Science and Technology, Volume 52 (Developments in Water Science)
C-F. Tsang
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MU9EGE

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This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on December 13, 2004. The length of the article is 1039 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Computer lab is not just playing games: industry turning to UCSD for a sense of direction.(University of California (San Diego))(Experimental Game Lab)
Author: Brad Graves
Publication: San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 13, 2004
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: 25 Issue: 50 Page: 1(2)

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Mousetrap cars lab guide
Al Balmer
Manufacturer: A. Balmer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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The Guardian of the Word: Kouma Lafolo Kouma (Aventura: the Vintage Library of Contemporary World Literature)
Laye Camara , and Camara Laye
Manufacturer: Vintage Books
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0394724410

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History of Mule Packing.......2001-06-26

Journal of Mule Train Packing in Eastern Washington in the 1860's by James W. Watt is a short, easy to read, book with tremendous connection with the past. Rarely does one have the opportunity to read actual accounts of the difficulties individuals went through in an effort to seek out their own personal business and survive during the 1800's. When we study the development of the western portion of the US we picture carts and wagons of pioneers struggling to a new life. Rarely do we realize that a tremendous amount of development occurred before there were wagon roads and much of this activity was accomplished with the use of mules packing supplies to the many places we visit by car. Mules and mule packing was one of the few ways to convey large amounts of necessary items during the western development. The book Journal of Mule Train Packing in Eastern Washington in the 1860's by James W. Watt is an outstanding collections of one man's recollection of how his life was spent packing with mules to the various camps and now cities in Eastern Washington. I highly recommend the book for any equine or mule enthusiasts, or historians who want to learn more about the development of the West.

History of Mule Packing.......2001-06-26

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Journal of Mule Train Packing in Eastern Washington in the 1860's.
JAMES W.- WATT
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQFC0U

Book Description

On the night of August 17, 1823, the distinctly African sounds of blaring shell-horns and beating drums signalled the start of one of the most massive slave rebellions in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the uprising in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana). That evening, nine to
twelve thousand slaves surrounded the main houses of about sixty plantations, armed with cutlasses, knives fastened on poles, and guns. They broke down doors, smashed windows, commandeered arms and ammunition, and put their masters and overseers in the stocks. Intent on avoiding a blood bath (over
three days of fighting, colonial forces took the lives of more than 255 slaves, while only two or three white men were killed), the rebels spoke of "rights," and planned to present their grievances to the governor. For a few days, the slaves succeeded in turning the world upside down, treating
masters the way masters had always treated slaves. Retaliation from colonial officials would be swift, bloody, and brutal.
In Crowns of Glory, Emilia Viotti da Costa tells the riveting story of a pivotal moment in the history of slavery. Studying the complaints brought by slaves to the office of the Protector of Slaves, she reconstructs the experience of slavery through the eyes of the Demerara slaves themselves. Da
Costa also draws on eyewitness accounts, official records, and private journals (most notably the diary of John Smith, one of four ministers sent by the London Missionary Society to convert Demerara's "heathen"), to paint a vivid portrait of a society in transition, shaken to its foundations by the
recent revolutions in America, France, and Haiti. Smith and his wife, Jane, the planters and colonial politicians, and the leaders of the rebellion emerge as flesh-and-blood individuals, players trapped in a complex political game none of them could fully understand.
Unravelling the complex web of events leading up to the climactic rebellion, Da Costa explains how Smith, a dedicated but inexperienced minister who arrived at the Le Resouvenir plantation confident that all faithful missionaries would win "a crown of glory that fadeth not away," could seven years
later find himself convicted by court martial of fostering rebellion amongst the slaves, and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead. She details the colonials' orgy of repression following the rebellion--scores of slaves were sentenced more or less at random to grisly public executions and
ritualistic floggings, and Smith died in his cell before news arrived that the Crown had granted him mercy--and shows how it fueled the anti-slavery movement in Britain, leading to the abolishment of slavery in the colonies ten years later.
Casting new light on the nuances of racial relations in the colonies, the inevitable clash between the missionaries' message of Christian brotherhood and a social order based on masters and slaves, and the larger historical forces that were profoundly eroding the institution of slavery itself,
Crowns of Glory is an original and unforgettable book.

CROWNS OF GLORY, TEARS OF BLOOD: THE DEMERARA SLAVE REBELLION OF 1823

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CROWNS OF GLORY, TEARS OF BLOOD: THE DEMERARA SLAVE REBELLION OF 1823
Emilia Viotti da Costa
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0XSVO

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Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823.
Emilia Viotti da Costa
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M3UPU0

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Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823
Emilia Viotti Da; Da Costa, Emilia Viotti Costa
Manufacturer: Oxford Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLWMVA

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Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823.

Manufacturer: 0
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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBZMAY

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Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823.
Emilia Viotti da Costa
Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IYPHLK

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A naturalist critique of humanism

Good but Closed Minded

The most important philosophy book I have ever read

Two visions

a simple but good idea

The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them
Owen Flanagan
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465024610
Release Date: 2003-07-01

Book Description

A reconciliation of two conflicting visions of what a person is--one embedded in our humanistic traditions, the other advanced by mind science--from one of the most influential philosophers of our time.

Science has always created problems for traditional ways of seeing things, but now the very attributes that make us human--free will, the permanence of personal identity, the existence of the soul--are threatened by the science of the mind. If the mind is the brain, and therefore a physical object subject to deterministic laws, how can we have free will?

If most of our thoughts and impulses are unconscious, how can we be morally responsible for what we do? If brains and bodies undergo relentless change, how can our identities be constant?

The Problem of the Soul shows the way out of these paradoxes. Framing the conflict in terms of two dominant visions of the mind--the "manifest image" of humanistic philosophy and theology, and the scientific image--Owen Flanagan demonstrates that there is common ground, and that we need not give up our ideas of moral responsibility and personal freedom in order to have an empirically sound view of the human mind. This is a profoundly relevant work of philosophy for the common reader.

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A naturalist critique of humanism.......2007-03-07

In The Problem of the Soul (2002), Owen Flanagan sets up a contrast between the perennial philosophy (or humanism) and scientific naturalism. He takes scientific naturalism to be the correct method for pursuing knowledge. He lays out this contrast in a manner that presupposes the reader has at least a basic grasp of Western philosophy. He combines sound scholarship with entertaining and sometimes personal writing styles.

Flanagan makes the traditional case against believing things without a rational warrant in his critique of religion and immorality of the soul. He argues that the persistent belief in the manifest (common) image of being in the world includes the residue of some theistic baggage, in particular, freedom of the will, conscious experience, and selfhood. The task is then how to accommodate these notions in a scientific naturalism. I will focus on just two of these for the purpose of a brief review.

The conceptual gap in consciousness studies is the problem of relating phenomenal experience (the way things feel from a first person perspective) to physical processes in the brain. For Flanagan, the challenge is to accommodate, not eliminate, subjectivity and phenomenality within scientific naturalism. Flanagan argues that a first person perspective does not entail another sort of being (e.g., spirit or mind) or any qualitative difference within being; the being of physical objects is sufficient to explain everything there is. Although Flanagan admits that mental events cannot be completely described from third person perspective, he argues that the qualitative feel of experiences is still identical to neural events:

"The nature of conscious mental events is such that despite being perfectly natural, objective states of affairs, they have as part of their essential nature their subjective feel" (89).

So the objective state of affairs (physical processes in the brain) appears to have ontological priority, since it is what produces or realizes the phenomenal experience. The subjective feel emerges somehow as part of the essential nature of certain objective states of affairs. This view is similar to John Searle's view that mental states are emergent (macro) properties of physical states of the brain (micro properties). Both views try to accommodate the subjective interiority of human reality by making it a property of the physical. But these reductionist views do not explain the qualitative differences between mental contents and physical objects located in space. How do we get from the neurons firing away to the feeling of sadness or the qualia of colors? There is still an epistemological gap between the first person description and the alleged objective process that is supposed to underwrite that description.

With regard to a critique of Cartesian freedom, Flanagan argues that what motivates a belief in free will is generally a theological commitment that sees God as holding humans accountable for what they do on earth.

"It is unimaginable to me, despite the power of the phenomenological feeling that we are agents who control what we do, that anything as strong as a conception of ourselves as finite unmoved movers would have been added to our manifest image unless we had first conceived of God and his will along these lines, and then added the view that he holds people fully accountable for what they do" (107).

So if we liberate ourselves from this theism, we should let go of this "incredible, incoherent" idea and conceive of human freedom in terms of voluntary behaviors that obey the laws of nature. Flanagan's neo-compatibilist (actions can be caused, yet voluntary) position is that voluntary action "involves the agent knowing what action she is performing and acting from reasons and desires that are her own" (113). Notice the use of the term "from." It seems to imply that reasons and desires determine me to act the way I do. Indeed, Flanagan refers to what he takes to be the standard assumption in philosophy of mind that "reasons can be causes." If I do not decide about which reasons to employ, this raises a question about just how "voluntary" voluntary actions are.

Why can't an agent choose the reasons and desires in accordance with which she will act? What is it that prevents her action from being free in the Cartesian sense of being self-caused? Flanagan stacks the deck in favor of determinism by equating deliberation and will with brain processes. Since brain processes ultimately obey chemical and physical laws, and willing, for Flanagan, is already presupposed as a brain process, willing must obey physical laws. He also employs an epistemic argument based on the limitations of our self knowledge. When I choose, I am not aware of "what causes me to deliberate and weight my options the as I do" (114). So my feeling of autonomy when I deliberate is illusory.

In the picture of the natural mind drawn by Flanagan, life experiences and genes "feed into a brain" in such a way as to form habits and virtues over time. When confronted with a morally charged situation, conscious deliberation is determined by these habits and virtues to arrive at a decision. These determining factors are not chosen by the individual. Such a claim, for Flanagan, would be "certainly false." These virtues come from a combination of biologically evolved dispositions, moral education, and cultural norms. In so far as we can be said to assent to a new norm, that assent is determined by some pre-existing disposition (reasons, desires, habits, virtues, genetic traits). On Flanagan's view, conscious deliberation is entirely parasitic on what has been established at the level of habit and virtue. In this picture, agency never transcends its past in relation to the given opportunity to decide.

There is something wrong with this model. While it is true that I cannot be aware of all of my mental processes, I can be aware of the relevant ones when faced with a moral decision. The question is whether the habits, virtues, reasons and desires I have had in the past must now determine my decision. I believe the answer is no. It simply is not necessary that I follow my instincts, habits, virtues, desires, and usual reasons. Within the constraints of my abilities and situation, I choose not only my behavior, but the values in accordance with which I will act. I can break with my former habits, even if they go against deeply ingrained feelings and beliefs.

Flanagan has loosened the grip of the perennial philosophy, only to fall into the grip of an all too dogmatic naturalism and computationalism. His complex naturalist model of deliberation has the key moves involved in deliberation happen automatically, like an information processor. Flanagan's example of voluntary action is instructive so I will quote the main scenario in full.

"Suppose a high school student has been accepted to Duke, the Harvard of the South, and Harvard, the Harvard of the North, and that she is having real trouble deciding which to choose. She can't seem to break the mental tie. Suppose we survey the state of her brain as she deliberates and we see two cell assemblies, one fighting for the Harvard of the South and one for the Harvard of the North, that are of exactly equal strength. We know she must eventually choose. If you believe in strict causal determinism you think something will eventually happen that will tip the balance, and whatever that is will itself have a set of sufficient causes that made it happen" (121).

This example is instructive. Since Flanagan has rejected the Cartesian notion of a free will, his voluntary agent cannot simply make herself the person who will go to one or the other universities. In Flanagan's world, since she has no reason to choose one university over the other, she needs a push from some cause external to her freedom. This, according to Flanagan, can come in the form of some accident, like the sun shining through the window to tip the balance in favor of Duke, which has warmer weather, or a newspaper article open on the table that suggests George W. Bush went to Harvard Business School. Either way, a new reason can then tip the balance.

The other alternative is that some indeterminate state of certain neurons in her brain tips the balance. With regard to indeterminacy at the level of neurons, I have not seen any good arguments as to how, at the level of human deliberation, this could make a difference. So let us focus on the new information scenario. Notice that the way we interpret her response to the new information should be no different from the way we interpret how the tie came to be in the first place. If the tie came about through strict determinism, so too does the tie breaker. However, if she chose to value certain features of each college and was not simply determined by predispositions, then both the tie and any new information would be subject to the same freedom.

Flanagan project of dismantling the perennial philosophy of the soul arguably goes a bit too far in the direction of naturalism. If Cartesian freedom is to be refuted, it must be done on its own merits and not as the residue of theism. Before dismissing free will out of hand, one should consider its most challenging development in Jean Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness. This developed concept of radical freedom is worthy of consideration before one falls into the grip of naturalism.

Flanagan's book is a good read and is both well researched and stimulating. His section on ecological ethics provides good arguments for an empirically based morality. But again, one leaves the text a bit uneasy about his account of phenomenal experience and free will.

For those interested in Flannagan's views on the conceptual gap in consciousness studies, Consciousness Reconsidered is a better read. There Flannagan critiques the mystereans (McGinn, Nagel) and offers a more detailed naturalistic interpretation of consciousness as an emergent property of physical events in the brain.

Good but Closed Minded.......2006-03-27

Flanagan attempts to tackle the Mind-Body problem in this book with scienitific details and deep philosophical thought. I myself enjoyed the book and found it worth reading. However, i did have one complaint. Flanagan is completely closed minded and even rude to Supernatural concepts. He openly and bluntly states that such concepts have no warrant in any field. For a man seeking a truly scientific explaination, he contradicts his own claim for the pursuit of truth with such statements. While one shouldn't expect others to agree there is no reason for such rudeness. Unfortunately, this attitude doeasn't end in the first part. Flanagan should have thought of a more professional way to state his views.

The most important philosophy book I have ever read.......2006-03-24

I won't waste too much time echoing what many other reviewers have said. This book is a rarity in philosophy in that there is nothing very abstract. Owen takes a deliberate, logical approach to his subject that makes the book easy to read and understand. One thing I think people should understand before reading is that Flanagan sets out with a purpose in mind. His scientific and logical approach can at times lead the reader to think of the book as a truly scientific inquiry, and much of it is, but Flanagan stretches his theories at times in order to pull everything together at the end.
One specific point: Flanagan calls himself a neo compatibalist, and he chastizes traditional compatibalist for essentially "changing the subject," meaning that their version of free will is different than what we normally think of as free will. I would challange Flanagan that his neo compatibalism is essentially doing the same thing to moral responsibility. Although I do think that a form of moral responsibility can fit within his naturalistic view, we cannot decieve ourselves into thinking that nothing is lost from our traditional conceptions of moral responsibility.

Two visions.......2005-10-03

This book accurately points to a fundamental philosophical
divide. People who believe in the existence of a human
soul have a very different vision of the world from people
who believe that the human mind and body are part of the
natural world. One strange feature of the book is that
the author refers to the two images as "humanistic" and
"scientific". Perhaps a better terminology would be
"dualistic" and -- "humanistic". In general, the book is
fun to read, but it is not the definitive story.

a simple but good idea.......2005-07-25

In this book, philosopher Owen Flanagan argues that philosophically, introspectively and scientifically there is no soul or (uncaused) free will. They don't exist, and they don't make sense. If you think they do, you're not what you think you are.

Second, and more importantly, that's ok. Naturalism's version of the self and agency are enough for a fulfilling worldview. He throws on an argument about ethics, but it's really an afterthought, kind of an appendix to his work on the self and agency.

If you are looking for an argument about religion, this isn't it. His purpose is not to satisfy the religiously devoted that they can give up their faith, but the folks who are hesitant to give up "the soul" or "free will."

Flanagan doesn't take any theistic position very seriously. He's not interested in refuting theism except when he "has to" to get on with his real interests. "There is no point beating around the bush. Supernatural concepts have no philosophical warrant."

If you want to argue that point, you want a book defending scientific naturalism against theistic critics (actually, usually the relationship is reversed these days), and you'll have to look elsewhere. This just isn't it and you'll be disappointed. Try, I don't know, perhaps Richard Dawkins, or Victor Stenger.

And he isn't even interested in "qualia," although in his bibliography he admits that it's the "sexiest" topic in philosophy of mind. But I personally think that there's nothing there to get excited about. So I didn't mind the omission.

But if you want a book on qualia look elsewhere. (Try Dennett.) This just isn't it and you'll be disappointed.

He is really only interested in whether a naturalist account of the self and agency will allow us to conceive of ourselves as having meaningful lives. I am in basic agreement with him, so I won't criticize his answer.

Among his critics here on Amazon, the popular science journalist John Horgan disagrees with Flanagan in his review without giving any reason; Horgan thinks science leaves no room for meaningful human choice. A strong, extreme position; no doubt it would be a long discussion. Folks who take Horgan's position have a lot to prove. Even Daniel Dennet, not one to shy away from "uncomfortable" aspects of scientific materialism, basically agrees with Flanagan.

Actually, I think Horgan just missed the point of the chapters on selfhood. Otherwise, he'd probably phrase his objection differently.

Anyway, ethics as ecology is not to be taken too literally, it's more of a suggestion than a philosophical system, and Flanagan doesn't take it very far. If you want a deep look at ethics from a naturalist perspective, look elsewhere. Flanagan recommends Allan Gibbard or Simon Blackburn; others might recommend Mackie.

One critic was misled by Flanagan's use of the word "humanist." He doesn't mean secular humanism, he means the classical tradition of thought from ancient times through Descartes and right up until scientific materialism. It must have been a very confusing book for that guy. Someone might be confused by Flanagan's use of "libertarian" as well, which has nothing to do with politics.

Motsinger's impatient review brought out a couple of relevant points, such as whether Flanagan did a "bait and switch."

Actually, maybe so, but not in the chapters Motsinger obsesses over--rather, in the chapters on "self." Flanagan redefines "self" so that our "selves" have (some) meaningful power of choice. He spends two chapters on that project because it is the real key to his argument: once self is re-defined along Flanagan's lines, everything else follows naturally.

Flanagan himself says, "My proposal is this: Change the subject. Stop talking about free will and determinism and talk instead about whether and how we can make sense [in a worldview of scientific naturalism] of the concepts of 'deliberation,' 'choice,' 'reasoning,' 'agency,' and 'accountability.'"

What he does is change the "self" under discussion to make sense of those topics. He succeeds.

Well, and that's the key point. You're not what you think you are, but it's ok. You can go on with your life. You still have all the ethical equipment you need and want. He'll show you why, if you want to know. I think he's right, I think most of his discussion is relevant and reasonable: 5 stars.

Some reading I'd recommend before hitting Flanagan is Steven Pinker, especially "How the Mind Works." Perhaps one of Damasio's books would be ok, but I prefer Pinker. In fact, if you're not a little familiar with social psychology and cognitive science, I doubt you'll appreciate this book.

(There's the touche for the pure philosophers out there: this is a book about the real world.)

Book Description

Mangrove ecosystems are typical formations found in coastal deposits of mud and silt throughout the tropics and some distance into the subtropical latitudes. The total wordwide mangrove area, which is estimated at about 170,000 km ² with some sixty species of trees and shrubs exclusive to the habitat, dominates approximately 75% of the world's coastline between latitudes 25°N and 25°S. Such unique intertidal ecosystems support genetically diverse communities of terrestrial and aquatic organisms that are of direct or indirect socioeconomic values. Mangrove forests play important roles as coastal stabilization and protection against winds and storms; producers of nutrients, forest resources and animal species of economic importance. Recently, the issues on the conservation, proper utilization and management of mangrove forests have been widely discussed. Unfortunately, overexploitation and destruction of mangroves seriously threatens the sustainability of such a unique ecosystem.
This volume includes papers on three main areas: recent advances in mangrove ecology; application and utilization of mangrove resources; and conservation and management of the ecosystems.

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