The most human human : what talking with computers teaches us about what it means to be alive

 by Brian Christian. Each year humans and computers square off for the Turing test, which Christian describes as a kind of speed dating via instant messaging, with five minutes to prove which is human. In 2009, Christian traveled to Brighton, England, to compete in a contest matching four humans and four computers. Christian chronicles his preparation and time spent devising strategies to trump the chatbot computers that can imitate humans. Along the way, he draws on philosophy, neurology, linguistics, and computer science, recalling chess master Garry Kasparov losing a match to IBM's Deep Blue computer and more recent developments in artificial intelligence. He explores how computers have challenged our bias toward the left hemisphere of the brain (logic) versus the right hemisphere (emotions) and how he and others have come to a deeper appreciation of emotional intelligence. He laments how so many jobs have trained employees with limited scripts that render them human chatbots. Christian intersperses interviews and musings on poetry and literature, observations on computer science, and excerpts from post-Turing test conversations for a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human. This book will surely change the way readers think about their conversations. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The wisdom books : Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes : a translation with commentary

 by Robert Alter. The prolific Alter (Hebrew & comparative literature, Univ. of California, Berkeley; The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary) has provided a magnificent work of translation and commentary on the Old Testament books known as wisdom literature. In the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, we find evocative poetic statements on the value of life, the role of suffering, and God's place in a moral order that often seems neither just nor ordered. This translation is superb. Alter's literary training gives this rendition a poetic edge over more prosaic translations. In some cases, he keeps previously loved images even when those are perhaps not quite right (the whirlwind in Job 38, for example, more properly translated as "storm"). In other places, he supplies gems, such as translating the names of Job's daughters (Dove, Cinnamon, and Horn of Eyeshade). Of equal importance is the commentary, which is rich in linguistic, historical, and literary insights that immeasurably enrich the reading of these texts. VERDICT Highly recommended for religion and seminary collections. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Hegel's practical philosophy : rational agency as ethical life

 by Robert B. Pippin In their groundbreaking studies of Hegel's ethical thought, Charles Taylor and Allen Wood largely extracted that thought from Hegel's larger (and supposedly less plausible) speculative metaphysics. In this, the first book-length discussion of Hegel's practical philosophy to appear in the wake of renewed interest in Hegelian metaphysics generated by the work of Robert Brandom and John McDowell, Pippin (Univ. of Chicago) instead takes Hegel's theory of rational agency as an entry point for understanding the larger project. Pippin details the rationale behind Hegel's unconventional approaches to nature and mind, rational agency, and freedom of the will. In conceiving the mind as the awakening of slumbering nature rather than as material or immaterial substance, or rationality as a retrospective "game of giving and asking for reasons" rather than an individual capacity for deliberation, Hegel sought to overcome dualisms that have continued to influence ethics and political philosophy. Pippin is adept in his use of sources (his turn to the Jena Phenomenology in exploring rationality is particularly noteworthy), and remarkably clear in his explanations of difficult texts. This book is crucial for serious students of Hegel's ethical theory. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Christianity and world religions : disputed questions in the theology of religions

 by Gavin D'Costa. D'Costa (Bristol Univ., UK) offers a Roman Catholic analysis of how Christianity relates to other religions. He describes his existential engagement with the subject: namely, as an African-born theologian of Indian Catholic descent, the brother of a Buddhist, and a teacher in a modern secular setting. He offers what he believes to be a nuanced and therefore useful typology of theological positions, critically evaluating leading proponents of each in turn. He also gives attention to what one means by "religion," and seeks to include secular modernity rather than to allow it to maintain a privileged objectivity. D'Costa proposes alliances and deeper conversation among Christians and Muslims in Europe, to meet the challenge of the comparatively young religion of secularism that idolizes the sovereign state and seeks to exclude other religious options from the public forum. Finally, he takes a position within what he calls Christian universal-access exclusivism, which assumes that one must explicitly hear and trust the gospel for salvation, but that this may happen after death. He finds convincing substantiation for his position in biblical, patristic, and medieval Christian doctrine. Summing Up: Recommended. --Choice (Check Catalog)

A history of philosophy in America, 1720-2000

 by Bruce Kuklick. Offering a thoughtful, inclusive overview of American philosophical activity from colonial divines to present-day academics, Kuklick, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania, defines philosophy expansively as "more or less systematic writing about the point of our existence, and our ability to understand the world of which we are a part." This broad definition allows him to include the philosophical aspects of writers often neglected in philosophy surveys, including Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Dense but clear, the book grounds its panoply of thinkers in their social context, particularly that of an evolving academic establishment for which Kuklick has some choice words ("constipated arrogance," in one case). The history is broken into three overlapping periods: a religiously inspired era (1720-1868), in which ministers, theologians and other amateurs shared equal status with professional philosophers; the "Age of Pragmatism" (1859-1934), dominated by Peirce, James and Dewey; and the contemporary "professional" period (1912-2000), in which American philosophy became more refined and internationally prestigious, but also more fragmented and remote from the public. Admittedly selective, the book becomes too much so at the end: the last 40 years are largely reduced to Kuhn and Rorty, skimming over almost everything else. Yet the book generally succeeds in identifying broad trends while spotlighting curious and significant points. Readers looking for a grounded narrative of American thought's development and contexts will find this book an accurate and compelling guide. --Publishers Weekly (Check catalog)

Love wins : a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived

 by Rob Bell. Outspoken pastor and best-selling author Bell dares to question conventional Christian wisdom, such as the popular belief that states a select number of Christians will spend eternity in heaven while the rest of humanitynon-Christians and those who have not been savedwill suffer pain and punishment in hell. How does a person end up being one of the few? Chance? Luck? Random selection? he wonders. By asking these and other similarly pointed questions, Bell raises issues some may find disturbing or, at the very least, unsettling, not only about religion but about what it means to be a believer. He contends that some images of Jesus and God should be rejected outrightimages contrary to what he considers authentic Christian behavior. Through the use of anecdotes and Bible stories, Bell suggests alternative ways of understanding heaven and hell as well as such deeply Christian concepts as salvation and repentance. Further, he maintains that the cruel rather than loving God so many Christians believe in is a distortion of the Christian spirit. Thought-provoking. --Booklist (Check catalog)

The path : creating your mission statement for work and for life

 by Laurie Beth Jones. Laurie Beth Jones's first business bestseller, Jesus, CEO, made her the writer of choice for the large group of readers interested in bringing a spiritual dimension into their lives and business practices. In The Path, she again -- to great success -- combines powerful spiritual inspirations with sound, practical advice for helping individuals and the enterprises they lead to achieve their highest purposes and potentials. The Path is a complete guide to finding and fulfilling one's mission in life and business through the formulation of a succinct and focused plan. --Publisher (Check Catalog)

The experience of samādhi : an in-depth exploration of Buddhist meditation

 by Richard Shankman. Shankman (Sati Center for Buddhist Studies), one of the leading meditation teachers in the English-speaking world, provides an in-depth analysis of Buddhist meditation, especially drawing from the traditions rooted in the P~li Canon and the Visuddhimagga, an important treatise in Therav~da. This work does not address the meditation traditions found in the Mah~y~na or Vajray~na traditions. The primary intended audience is those who have a meditation practice or are interested in developing one. This is not an academic analysis of the topic, but rather an important primary source. Two related concepts thread through this work, namely sam~dhi (right concentration) and the stages of jh~na (profound meditative states of stillness that are the attainments of concentration and that lead to Enlightenment). Shankman provides excellent summaries of the related content in the major texts of the P~li Suttas and the Visuddhimagga, and also summarizes the controversies concerning sam~dhi and jh~na. The clarity of these discussions alone is enough to make the book a useful purchase. The other significant contribution that this work makes to the field is a collection of interviews with influential, English-speaking Buddhist meditation instructors; the content of the interviews focuses on samdhi. --Choice (Check Catalog)

Redeeming the Enlightenment : Christianity and the liberal virtues

 by Bruce K. Ward. This rich, nuanced book by Ward (Laurentian Univ., Ontario, Canada) draws on his previous work on Russian novelist Dostoyevsky, combining that literary analysis with probing explorations of philosophers such as Kant, Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Taylor. Ward argues that liberal modernity's ethics and philosophy are distorted reflections of richer Christian notions of the self and ethical existence. In contrast to the growing proliferation of specialized studies, this book offers an expansive tour looking for connections and differences among a host of thinkers--not to argue for a wholesale rejection of the Enlightenment but to show that Christian humanism is a richer philosophy upon which to base human fulfillment. In that project, humanity finds fulfillment in the giving of the self in love, not an endless quest for self-authored authenticity. This volume finds a way into a beyond-current debate about religion's role in a liberal society to show how religion and theology can point the way to a deeper meaning of the liberal project. Philosophically and theologically sophisticated, the book delineates the rich ways in which philosophy and theology can powerfully engage literature. --Choice  (Check Catalog)

The hemlock cup : Socrates, Athens, and the search for the good life

  by Bettany Hughes. There are certain historical figures whose lives merit perpetual reexamination because their impact continues to reverberate century after century. According to historian Hughes, author of Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore (2005), Socrates is one of these seminal social and cultural architects. Beginning at the end of Socrates' long life, she reaches back in time, analyzing the historical context responsible, in part, for spawning such an exceedingly influential thinker. If, as she purports, we think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did, it is important for us to understand why and how he posited the relentless questions about what it means to be human that drew attention to his famous philosophical method of inquiry and debate. This, then, is not only a lively and eminently readable biography of Socrates the man but also a vivid evocation of Athens, the city-state on the cusp of originating many of the greatest precepts of modern Western civilization. --Booklist (Check catalog)