Product Description
In his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world's philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn't kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (111)

Social Science you can use
You may not agree at the end -- for example, what does HE mean by happiness.But you will remember and find provocative what he says about happiness.And it just might change your mind about its pursuit.

Interesting but Wonder About the Accuracy.
This book was fairly interesting but I wonder about the accuracy as I believe the author made errors in his assumptions of Buddhism. This leads me to believe the possibility exists that he may have made similar errors in other assumptions of other ancient and not so ancient teachers that he talks of in this book, say, Lao-tzu and other philosophers, etc. Basically, teachers that I know not much about. Which then casts doubt on this book's credibility. This is too bad because this book is well written. I wonder if the proper research was done in order to be accurate. I believe though, that the writer's intent was to be as correct as possible. Regarding Buddhism, of which I've studied, it seems to me that he misunderstands at least some of Buddha's teachings. The author says Buddha is wrong or only partially correct because Buddhism teaches that happiness comes only from within and that one must stop clinging to material things. I believe the author missed the intent of Shakyamuni's teachings. That is, if you wish to transcend suffering or get beyond some sort of unease or discomfort in your life you must teach yourself not to cling to these uncomfortable positions. Does this take effort? You bet. Buddha taught that there are ways that this can be done. One is the three fires -let go of greed, hatred, and delusion. There are other ways Buddha teaches to do this as well. What Buddha intended was much like what modern brain science today teaches -that you can change your life by changing your thoughts. Likely the Buddha didn't realize that brain neuronal pathways can be altered but in effect that is what's happening when we consistently change our thoughts until we are no longer bothered by the 'monkey mind' (or maybe he did know this). Meditation is a great way to do this. The other error is stating the mythological or embellished story of the birth and life of Siddhartha Gautama and using that as a reference to make a point. That is that Gautama was a prince and his father a great king and that he had a life of comfort only, was shielded from the realities of life, etc. Siddhartha's father was the 'elected' head of the state or republic of Shakya. The clan Gautama were farmers that took up arms as required. Shakya was a part of the much larger kingdom of Kosala. Kosala was ruled by a king that was the overlord of Shakya and many other small republics. So, was Siddhartha from a wealthy family, probably, did he share luxuries, most likely, was he kept from the realities of life, not likely. It is more likely that Siddhartha Gautama was a very intelligent and observant youth and man that made some incredible realizations that led to his own awakening from the world of what is now India as it existed in his day. Anyway, back to my main point. If the author missed at least a bit with Buddha and Buddhism (which is common especially with new-age teachings) then he may have missed (at least a bit) with others. In my opinion it casts possible doubt on the entire book or at least major portions.

A Book Everyone Should Read, But ...
it is published in the Topaz format. This is a format Amazon developed for technical books and textbooks so publishers can have complete control over the page images. It is, in fact, a collection of page images in various sizes to support the type sizes available on Kindle 1 and 2. On a Kindle 3, three or four of the type sizes do nothing. You cannot select condensed type nor sans serif because those page images do not exist. Same goes for changing line spacing or the maximum number of words on a line.

The type chosen by the publisher does not display well on the Kindle. It is very thin and ragged, especially at larger type sizes. Line justification has been forced to the right margin, leaving huge gaps of whitespace when there are long words at the end of a line. Readability suffers. Having the Kindle read the book aloud is very annoying because words have breaks in them causing them to be read as multiple words. At times, it's as if a foreign language is being spoken. Much hyphenation has been included, but the hyphenation occurs with words in the middle of the line at different type sizes. This books is nearly 3MB, while the largest novel come in at just over 500K. It makes loading slow. There are no navigation points -- you can't jump to the next or previous chapter, for example. I could go on and on with other readability and usability issues because the publisher used the Topaz format for a book that does not require it -- it is all words except for a few graphs.

Amazon's quality control should have rejected this book. It's usable, but just barely. Not the quality Kindle reading experience you expect.

Other than that, back to the title of the review -- read this book. It will make a difference for you. Is looks like and is titled like a self-help book. It is not. It is social psychology written so anyone with most of a brain can understand it. Happiness is the theme, but it's much more than that. Want to know why you can't stay on that diet? Want to know why you can't stop smoking? Want to know why you do what you do, often what you don't want to do? The answer is in this book.

Outstanding research, insights, and writing
Haidt has done an exceptional job synthesizing research and wisdom from different fields into this delightful book. His research spans various fields - from philosophy, religion, biology, psychology and even economics. This multidisciplinary approach to studying humans and happiness has made "The Happiness Hypothesis" one of the richest books I have read in a while. His writing is conversational and easy to follow. There was much that was familiar to me from other books that I have read in the past but yet Haidt always managed to add a new element that I had not considered and hence giving me something new to ponder. I highly recommend it.

Insightful, but challenging
This book was recommended to me as a source for insight following a rather unpleasant life event. The book is interesting and well-written, but it is clinical in its tone although softened by using layman terminology. I have found it a very difficult book to read in parts. It requires some concentration and the time to read extensively so that the concepts which reinforce each other sink in. It is not anecdotal as much as reasoned in its approach to human interaction and the underlying scientific studies documenting the mechanics of relationships.

I like the book, but it's been tough to sit down and make a large dent in it. And I don't know that the clinical analysis of "why things happen between people" is as much what i was looking for as "how life can improve."

In fairness, I'm only 1/2 way through. I will finish and update the review. ... Read more

Product Description
This edition includes a new Foreword by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling GOD IS NOT GREAT.

In the paperback's afterword, Victor Stenger addresses criticisms of his New York Times bestselling first edition.

Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality.

Physicist Victor J. Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence.

He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation.

After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (179)

Full-Frontal Jiu-Jitsu
I dig Dawkins: he can be hilarious. I respect Harris: the hatchet-job he did on Islamophilia was even more cold-blooded than Ibn Warraq's, and a lot shorter. Hitchens? His plummy, orotund prose uncannily resembles his famously plummy voice and slightly rotund physique; you have to be British to write like that. (And if you haven't done so yet, tap the phrase "youtube hitchens falwell" into a search engine. His sincere and moving elegy on the death of the late Reverend may well be remembered, in future years, as Hitchens' most dazzling gift to humanity.) The problem with their books is that they mostly reassure the infidels that they made the right decision, while they can easily, if deviously, be answered by their opponents with the usual ad hominem counter-attack: "The only reason you're writing this is that you're one of these snotty atheists who wants to make a few fast bucks by ridiculing decent, simple people behind their backs (and you just may fry for it)."

Stenger's book is doesn't use the full-frontal assault strategy; he's not so much out to attack the concept of God as to DISMISS it, as the title implies. As Popper says in "The Open Society," the way to deal with an opponent is to allow him his good intentions, let him make the best case he can, and then show why his premises are completely wrong, and irrelevant anyway, pull the rug out from under his feet, and leave him gasping on the floor. EVERY religion has SOMETHING to say about the material world, or it would be non-Euclidian geometry, or something, and so leaves itself open to investigation by science. Stenger simply shows that science can be used to explain accurately everything religion used to explain inaccurately, and does so with greater intellectual parsimony. The God concept is unneccessary to explain anything, and since if God exists, as Aquinas says, he exists NECESSARILY, one can only conclude not merely that God doesn't exist, but that He CAN'T. As Stenger himself in a recent issue of "The Huff Post," absence of evidence, where evidence is required, really IS evidence of absence.

In the process of showing this he never stoops to using the ad hominem argument, though he pokes some gentle fun at his opponents' positions, not their persons, just to keep the tone light, as you'd expect from a book like this. He provides the reader with a spiffy overview of what contemporary astrophysics has been doing in a way that's far easier to get through than Hawking's clotted writing, so it's a great science book as well as everything else. This book is as accessible as one of those supermarket "For Dummies" books, and a lot more timely.

Of course, it has attracted its share of attacks, too. Check the one-star reviews. They're truly desperate.

The Bogus Hypothesis
Unfortunately this book follows the atheist trend of constructing a model of Christianity which is designed to be invalid, which no Christian actually advocates or would defend anyway.


Stenger addresses a lot of the most fundamental questions of humanity. But unfortunately he spends very little time on each of them. This results in very obscure and confusing answers. Whether he purposely uses obfuscation as a tactic to overwhelm the reader, or he simply lacks the ability for cogent writing, in the end the reader is often left totally baffled and in a state of dizzying confusion so that they just give up and forget about the atheist-refuting questions.
Nowhere is this more apparent as with the question of why the universe exists, or why there is `something' rather than `nothing'.
He simply states that `nothing' is very unstable and therefore is likely to naturally spontaneously transform itself into `something'. And that's it! No qualifications, no references, no explanations, and ultimately no reason to take his arguments seriously.

Another example is when Stenger is faced with the particularly troublesome question of how the universe decreased in entropy from the initial Big Bang to form planets and galaxies, despite the second law of thermodynamics. Yet again he resorts to some overtly obscure and highly abstract answer.
He seems to be claiming that the spatial voids in the universe created by the expansion represents an increase in entropy which compensates for the decreasing entropy in the formation of complex systems like galaxies and planets. So overall he argues, entropy is increasing, as per the second law.
This though, seems to be highly dubious. If I follow his reasoning correctly, then he is basically saying that matter and energy in an expanding universe will naturally organise itself into increasingly more complex arrangements -such as planets, stars, trees and humans- as a natural consequence of the voids being created by the expansion of the universe.
This seems absurd to me, and totally fails to explain how the vastly decreased entropy of life on earth, for instance, avoids the ineluctable second law of thermodynamics.




Stenger discusses a few major studies which look at the efficacy of prayer. Stenger interprets the results of these studies as proving that God just doesn't answer prayers. He notes that because the total results of the studies show no overall increase in convalescence for the patients who were prayed for, then God mustn't answer any prayers.
Stenger refuses to admit that maybe God doesn't work like the proverbial `genie in the bottle'. He wants a God that he can easily dismiss, and I think that it is for this reason that he claims that the Judeo-Christian God is obliged to answer all prayers, all the time, exactly how the person praying asks. This type of God, of Stenger's design, clearly doesn't exist.

Here we see Stenger's prodigious lack of the most basic theological knowledge. Had he been familiar with Christianity he would have known that, not only is God not obliged to answer all prayers, nor is he also obliged to answer them in the manner that the person praying is asking for. A theologically astute researcher would not expect each and every prayer recipient to spontaneously `rise from the grave' as Stenger demands.
But more importantly, even if a small number of `prayerees' were undoubtedly healed miraculously, we would not expect this to be observed in the overall results anyway. This is because a handful of recognized miracles would actually be statistically `washed out' of the final results when mixed-in with the other couple thousand patients with non-miraculous results.

This raises the deepest flaw in his hypothesis; theology. Considering Stenger is designing a hypothesis to test the attributes of God, one would expect that a theological exposition into the attributes that he wishes to test would be, not just appropriate, but necessary to form an accurate and relevant hypothesis.
But Stenger never bothers to substantiate the hypothesis with any sort of theological discussion. The total lack of theology is remarkable. One wonders why he would even bother writing a book which is so strongly theologically centred when he is unschooled, and has zero interest, in the major theme of his thesis; theology.

Stenger never really lays out any substantial reasoning for his positions. He simply states his position in the briefest possible way then moves on to the next topic. I don't think that he realises that he is never going to convince anybody of his arguments other than those who already subscribes to his view. He isn't going to win anybody over.
Nobody is going to renounce their deeply entrenched lifelong religion based on his tersely half-baked reasoning. I think he just tries to cover too much ground in too few pages. At only 250 pages he was never going to be able to provide any sort of comprehensive reasoning for his thesis.



Unfortunately it is yet another carefully scripted artifice that only goes to show that an honest and accurate critique of Christianity is inadequate to depreciate it's legitimacy. Thus atheists are left with the only method of distortion and manipulation of religion and it's Scriptures to try and discredit it.

One star

If you wish to read a far more comprehensive review of this book, then visit my website, a link to which will be found on my profile page.

A Mediocre Atheist Book
What does science have to say about God? Well, you can probably infer from the subtitle of this book that Vic Stenger attempts to show that science has dispoven God's existence... kind of.In truth, Stenger adds plenty of qualifiers, namely that this only applies to the western God which most people believe in.

Now, this is understandable, you can't disprove every conception of God, and it's an interesting question nonetheless: Can science disprove the typical western conception of God? Well, probably, but unfortunately Stenger doesn't include much science in this book. Sure, you get some pop-physics and a few studies on the ineffectiveness of intercessory prayer, but beyond that there are only the typical atheistic arguments dressed up as scientific experiments.

For instance, take the section on the Problem of Evil - a powerful argument in it's own right - which Stenger simply rephrases in scientific terms. But why should I care when this argument has already been written about much more eloquently (and discussed at greater length) by others?

It's difficult for me to recommend this book for anybody. Not that the book is bad, but it's just mediocre - there's really nothing special about it. Stenger simply doesn't have the writing ability of Hitchens or Harris, he doesn't have the philosophical insights of Dennett or the congenial tone of Barker. He doesn't even have the scientific content of Dawkins.

Again, it's not that the book is bad, just mediocre.

Blind lead the blind
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 2 Corinthians 4:4

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.Matthew 15:14

A plausible counter to the God hypothesis
I recently finished reading "God: The Failed Hypothesis" by Richard Stenger, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii, and was so impressed that I felt the need to write a review. However, my apprehensions about such an undertaking nearly overcame my enthusiasm, as there seems to be a heated debate raging over this book and I prefer not to dip my hand into the proverbial flame if I can avoid it. That being said, I do feel strongly that this is a well-argued and insightful book, and it seems to me that many who have reviewed or commented on it have largely missed the point, and so I am going to go ahead and cast my opinion out there for all to savagely criticize if they so desire.

First, full disclosure: I am a 19-year-old college sophomore studying political science and history. I have no background in physics, chemistry, biology, or (for that matter) theology. I came to this book as a lifelong atheist, and so it is possible that I was not as rigorously skeptical of the author's conclusions as I could have been (although I did originally doubt Stenger's basic premise -- more on that in a bit). That being said, I am writing what I believe to be a very sincere and honest account of the book as I understand it, so at the very least I hope nobody will accuse me of being disingenuous.

In "God: The Failed Hypothesis," Victor Stenger sets out to demonstrate the nonexistence of the monotheistic God of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism through the scientific method. Such a God, according to Stenger, has certain attributes (as stated by religious believers) and interacts with the world in ways that should be empirically observable. If no such divine intervention in the natural world is observed or is necessary to account for any natural phenomena, then we can be reasonably sure that this God likely does not exist. Note that Stenger is not counting out the possibility of any gods existing, but if such gods did exist, they would more than likely not resemble the God of Christianity-Islam-Judaism or have any active role in the universe or in human affairs. At first I was suspicious of Stenger's central premise that science can "test" for God, but as Stenger points out, absence of evidence is likely evidence of absence, and so all science really has to do is demonstrate that plausible, natural alternatives exist to the 'God hypothesis,' which therefore effectively renders consideration of this hypothesis irrelevant and unnecessary. Just as many people doubt the veracity of concepts such as extra-sensory perception (ESP) and extraterrestrial visits to Earth due to a complete lack of evidence, so too should God receive the same degree of skepticism if no good reason can be found to believe.

And as Stenger demonstrates all throughout "God: The Failed Hypothesis," there are indeed plausible natural explanations for all observed phenomena for which theists claim a supernatural explanation is necessary. Stenger casts a critical eye on a number of topics, such as Darwinian evolution and the problem of "irreducible complexity," the efficacy of prayer, the origins of a "fine-tuned" universe, scriptural revelations and prophecies, and the existence of a soul. In every case, the author dismantles the arguments of the opposition, either by showing how phenomena are accounted for by natural laws, or at the very least positing natural explanations which, although they may or may not be accepted by the majority of science (at one point in the book Stenger mentions that other physicists have contested some of his theories, although he asserts that he has unquestionably reached his conclusions through scientific means), at least demonstrate that there are plausible natural alternatives to the God hypothesis. And after all, why insert a supernatural entity when perfectly natural explanations may suffice?

Stenger also runs through a list of observations that, if demonstrated, would prove beyond a reasonable doubt that God exists (such as prayer being shown to drastically improve the health of recovering patients or risky and highly specific biblical prophecies coming true), but as he concludes, such observations have not been made and the universe looks exactly as it should look if it had not been consciously designed. Stenger fulfills his central thesis by demonstrating through empirical observation and the construction of scientific models that a designer God that takes an active role in his creation, answers prayers, inspires divine revelations, and creates intelligent life is simply not supported by the evidence and is not necessary as an explanation. The God hypothesis is, therefore, a hypothesis falsified by rigorous scientific scrutiny.

That being said, "God: The Failed Hypothesis" is by no means a perfect book. The writing can be a bit dull at times, and some sections are simply far too underdeveloped (Stenger is economical almost to a fault, especially when discussing highly complex subjects such as self-organization). Furthermore, as a layperson with no training in physics, I found some of this book (particularly Chapter 4: Cosmic Evidence, and Chapter 5: The Uncongenial Universe) to be confusing, difficult to understand, and even at times so counterintuitive that I simply could not wrap my head around the message that Stenger was trying to get across (this is more of a personal failing than a failing of the author's, but I really wished that he would have spent more time explaining difficult physics concepts, such as Planck time and the mathematical notion of infinity). Still, this is a fascinating, insightful, and highly rewarding book that is surely worth a read for anybody questioning whether or not science has anything to say in the God debate. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis Review
It is a book that the most part of him is written in a naive form(not in formal logic).
You need a basic knowledge of Set Theory(like Halmos Book).
Very interesting and the book started from the root of the problem.
Very Good

Definitive and Brilliant
This is still the definitive work on set theory and the continuum hypothesis. Although extremely terse, it is wonderfully clear and unburdened by the technical and pedantic details that doom many books in the subject. If you cannot track this down right now be patient, the American Mathematical Society is going to be reprinting it.

Professor Cohen passed away in March of 2007, but thankfully this book remains as a testament to his genius. Originally trained as an analyst, he began working on the continuum hypothesis knowing almost nothing about logic or set theory. Within two years he mastered the subject and solved the greatest outstanding problem in the field (and arguably in all of mathematics). Read this book if you want to understand one of the deepest ideas in all of human thought.

All-time classic -- a "desert island book"
Paul Cohen's "Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis" is not only the best technical treatment of his solution to the most notorious unsolved problem in mathematics, it is the best introduction to mathematical logic (though Manin's "A Course in Mathematical Logic" is also remarkably excellent and is the first book to read after this one).

Although it is only 154 pages, it is remarkably wide-ranging, and has held up very well in the 37 years since it was first published.Cohen is a very good mathematical writer and his arrangement of the material is irreproachable.All the arguments are well-motivated, the number of details left to the reader is not too large, and everything is set in a clear philosophical context. The book is completely self-contained and is rich with hints and ideas that will lead the reader to further work in mathematical logic.

It is one of my two favorite math books (the other being Conway's "On Numbers and Games").My copy is falling apart from extreme overuse.

A priceless gem
An "older" original work of a great mathematican.Not the best book to read about the subject, but certainly a collectors item.
I happen to have one because my master thesis used it as a major reference.It's the one book that everyone interested in the foundations of mathematics should own - if you can still get one.

Brilliant example of human greatness
This is one of the greatest math works ever. Prof. Cohen solves one of the most important problems in mathematics of this century, and this book explains his thinking and methods. A must for anyone who is reallyinterested in mathematics. ... Read more

Product Description
A new program for the Left after the death of neoliberalism.‘We know that communism is the right hypothesis. All those who abandon this hypothesis immediately resign themselves to the market economy, to parliamentary democracy—the form of state suited to capitalism—and to the inevitable and “natural” character of the most monstrous inequalities.’—Alain Badiou

Alain Badiou’s ‘communist hypothesis’, first stated in 2008, cut through the cant and compromises of the past twenty years to reconceptualize the Left. The hypothesis is a fresh demand for universal emancipation and a galvanizing call to arms. Anyone concerned with the future of the planet needs to reckon with the ideas outlined within this book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The return of the Idea of Communism
Badiou provides a beautiful re-examination of the Idea of Communism, illustrating the need for revolution to continue revolutionizing itself. The Idea of communism is far from a postscript in History, all that awaits is the moment of return!

Is it really all or nothing?
"The Communist Hypothesis" by Alain Badiou is a collection of papers, presentations and letters written on the lessons gained from past failed revolutions. Touching on themes drawn from theatre, history, politics and philosophy, this book is certain to challenge the most demanding reader. Importantly, Mr. Badiou hypothesizes that human emancipation remains a possibility even if the historical contradictions of state communism have dashed the hopes of prior generations.

As a new reader to Badiou, I welcomed the prospect of a book that would introduce me to a sampling of the author's range of thought but was disappointed by the unevenness of the text. As a playwright, Mr. Badiou succeeds in capturing our hearts and imaginations to make the point that humanity possesses an innate longing to be free; including snippets of thoughtful, dramatic passages from his plays. Many will likely appreciate Mr. Badiou's recollections of his experiences and his excellent analysis of the May 1968 student uprising in Paris, of which he was one of the primary participants, for its authenticity and perceptiveness. Supplementing this latter passage is a reprint of a co-authored article from 1968 that succeeds in capturing the intellectual heat of the Paris revolutionary moment for posterity's sake, even if it is weighed down by its use of excessive Marxist rhetoric.

Elsewhere, Mr. Badiou considers other failed revolutions across space and time. On the one hand, Mr. Badiou provides tedious detail and analysis on the various phases of China's Cultural Revolution, drawing lessons that might appeal to dedicated students of that particular period in history but few others. On the other hand, Mr. Badiou dedicates a far more engaging and interesting chapter to recall the heroics of his fellow countrymen and women who struggled for freedom during the Paris Commune of the 19th century. Mr. Badiou explains how the imaginings of classless utopias tend to yield to the realities of brutal military power and state control. Mr. Badiou subsequently delves into a kind of neo-Platonic philosophy to suggest that in oder to overcome the limitations of the state we must dream of ideal, state-less possibilities.

All of this, of course brings us to the main limitation of this book. No doubt, Mr. Badiou will forever be linked to the events of 1968; but history continues to be made around the world: from the self-organizing food production and distribution network of Terra Madre; to the Greek people's impassioned protest against government-imposed austerity; to the Bolivarian movement in South America (see Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope); and so on. Are we to believe, as Mr. Badiou's own bitter experiences suggest, that the people of Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela etc. have been misguided in their struggles to secure more humane, representative governments? Or put another way: is it really all or nothing?

On that point, it would have been helpful for the publisher to allow Mr. Badiou more space to comment on contemporary developments. There must be more to the brilliant Mr. Badiou than his demonstrated ability to rehash arcane aspects of the Cultural Revolution! Therefore, while I do recommend this book to demanding readers who are interested in the possibility of socio-political change, I did find it a bit disappointing in its tendency to look backwards, not forward.

Old Material Repackaged
For the most part, this book consists of some old essays that have been published elsewhere a while ago and are now repackaged and accompanied by Badiou's explanation of why it makes sense to re-publish these essays as one book. So if you are thinking about buying the book, you need to be forewarned: you can find most of what it contains elsewhere and for free. What's genuinely new in the book is about 20 pages at the beginning and 20 pages at the end.

This isn't a book of philosophy, as much as an autobiographically tinged discussion of three historic events that Badiou finds important: May of 1968, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the Paris Commune of 1871. The most valuable thing about the part that discusses May '68 was for me Badiou's discussion of his personal response to those events. His detailed explanation of what May 1968 entailed and how events unfolded seemed a bit superfluous because this is a story most people who would be interested in Badiou enough to buy his books know well already.

The part dedicated to the Chinese Cultural Revolution and Badiou's defense of his Maoism was the one I found to be the most uninspiring intellectually. Badiou attempts to defend Mao's personality cult by saying that it is no different from the admiration we render to artists. This argument sounds extremely feeble since nobody has seen huge demonstrations of people holding Modigliani's portrait and nobody has claimed that Dostoyevsky's wisdom is helpful even in the art of planting tomatoes (as, according to Badiou, has been said about Mao's wisdom.) The rest of the chapter dedicated to Maoism (which is actually a conference Badiou delivered in 2002) lists in minute and often excruciatingly boring detail the events of the Cultural Revolution. Badiou returns to his defense of Maoism in the letter to Slavoj Zizek that comes in the closing part of the book. In the letter, Badiou gently berates Zizek for daring to offer some very mild criticisms of the Cultural Revolution. This letter is a great demonstration that even philosophers have their catty moments: "You do not always get away from the image...", "you stray too far...", "your definitions are not sufficiently rigorous", "you do not always understand...", "you use a facile argument."

The last revolutionary event that Badiou discusses is the Paris Commune. Badiou explains that the Maoist attempt to appropriate the legacy of the Commune failed because of Mao's incapacity to escape, in this case,from the constraints of the party-state framework. In view of this failure to appropriate the political legacy of the Commune for the contemporary revolutionary purposes, Badiou offers an important analysis of the events of 1871. The Commune was the only revolutionary event that did not allow the corrupt and power-seeking Left to pretend that it represents the interests of the revolutionaries, thereby robbing them of the fruits of their struggle and perverting their original goals.

Chapter IV, "The Idea of Communism" is the most interesting part of the book. Here, Badiou insists that life devoid of an Idea is hardly worth living. He sees his duty as a philosopher in recovering communism as the Idea par excellence. I only wish that instead of padding his reasoning with old essays in order to come up with a book-length creation that will make his editors happy, Badiou concentrated on developing the thoughts that are only briefly outlined in this chapter.

In short, the small portion of the book that is original has not been allowed to mature as much as it deserves. The Communist Hypothesis seems, for the most part, to exist solely for the purpose of letting the publishing house enrich itself by selling something as new when it patently isn't. It saddens me that a passionate anti-capitalist like Badiou would participate in such a profit-based ploy.

We can learn from failures.
I have limited knowledge of the works of Alain Badiou.I also am less familiar with eastern Marxism than I am with the European tradition. These are at conflict with the stance I will claim as a reasonable guide which to show you whether or not you should purchase this book.I have no qualifications, but I am just now wedging open my own hermeneutic circle on these topics.As such, the following review may or may not be helpful, but I hope to be helpful on some level.I missed most of ontology and eastern philosophy.I need a new primer for the both:

Honestly though, I am not sure if you should buy this book, especially if you've read in Badiou before.It is a conglomeration of parts.Badiou marshals talks and essays from the past trying to show that there are certain points of conflict that can be shown as areas of potential.The argument is not wholly consistent, no matter what I learned.The new points, as I understand them and which bracket the old material, is that we need to hold to some platonic Idea of communism.Platonic? Yes.I'm not sure if it is a juxtaposition or a paradox, but as a materialist the need to hold close to a platonic Ideal confuses me.It must be doable, I'm sure.Perhaps we can learn most from the examined 'failures'.But then all this ontological and Lacanian terminology muddles me.This fact made me write a note to myself: "I question the project of building philosophical edifices when its only for a conversation amongst elites."

Perhaps a better approach is possible to both explain and define the Communist Hypothesis.I would like to see it.

pushes the envelope to insurrectionary thinking
Badiou goes out on the limb,and he seems to be the one to do this;
You may know his procedures for discovering the Truth-Event. It has a sobering,leveling perspective. This within the post-metaphysical paradigm. The great distractions we have had since the early Seventies with structuralism, certainly Derrida has been a postponement of truth to some time in the future, like Heideggar, a thought mortgaged to something beyond itself, its own place. Both could not be one with the earth, for that was also postponed as well.Foucault was a step closer to emancipatory politics,allowing the examination of bio-politics to take the stage , but for Whom? and Where and When?. This became balanced however by Deleuze who stepped backwards from the precipice of the insurrection.

One's sense of emancipatory politics should not be diluted,there are always Truth-Events to be appraised and discovered; even though now Badiou simply says we should "subtract" ourselves from the formed tyrannical State. The current economic meltdown is simply one more "crisis" of many."une jour comme une autre".
The working poor however have no luxury of time, dispossession,privatizations of common assets,crushing credit debt burdens are daily Events.

Revolution should be called something else, beyond itself. We need to be able to "dream" again.As those in Latin America now believe that greater cooperation across borders is necessary. Capitalism has brought nothing but poverty to the populations there. Just as Zizek would say that Lacan had said, the "imaginary" is perhaps the most important component of change at any material level.
We should examine the entire places of insurrection,as Badiou does herein; where change may have takened place.

Begin with the late Sixties for perspective of a continuing struggle to comprehend where change can or cannot happen.If the October Revolution did not happen, Lenin's "April Thesis" if may never have in history. This history is all undergone incredible analysis usually how all had gone monstros, yet those same scholars ignore the monsters lurking within the developments of capitalism itself.
The idea of change exists in subjectivity but also what has been, and what can be done. Badiou reintroduces the paradigm for change one that Zizek as well has been promulgating, that socialism or communism in some form of it needs change and recontextualization. Deng also had a vision for how Communism may be changed in ways never seen. Now the Chinese shape of capitalism will be a serious threat to the West, long ending the Atlanticist post-war liberal democratic forms now.This should be contemplated; and If not now, then When?

The revolutions, capitalist changes insurrections have been won; by the Murdocks,the Media, Financial cadres, Bill Gates and Mickey Mouse, the Lady Gagas out their working humping to get as much capital away from the masses as possible.(M-M) has been the financial powers ascendancy. all to bankrupt the globe on the bottom, the Southern Zones; primitive forms of capital accumulation, really like the pirates of days of yore;So where are we now?
So within this context it is either pumped up economy, a la Keynes, or Austerity, roll-backed, cut-backs, lay-offs, poverty, as you see in Greece today, PIIGS, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, all waiting for austerity measures to take effect,waiting for the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse; more dispossessions,selling off common assets, privatize,and more malnourishment physical,mental,intellectual, more unemployed, demoralized and illiterate children;

Badiou runs down where power has been seized in the name of socialism or communism, as the Paris Commune, and lessons to be learned from confrontations, and the seizure of power, the fate of insurrections.
The Elite will conscript each other, in lock-step when the masses seize power, capital is capital, it ceases to have national demarcations and aesthetical shapes when it becomes threatened, as the October Revolution, and any other insurrection.

Also high on analysis is the China Cultural Revolution, Mao sought to keep the revolution pure,with some opportunist residues, so he would regain power he had diluted.Much like bankers and brokers and developers today, who do not want their high level, billion-dollar deals to get compromised incessantly by government taxes.And swaps with the working masses. Capital flows upwards to remind one.

So how do you keep the accumulation of wealth, its process in reality pure, without interventions you see this is going back and forth, the G20 don't know what to do perhaps pump-in more capital,(borrowed money really) or the other agenda is austerity,in large painful doses for the bottom of humanity. Will austerity be worse 10 years from now, if we take it now, if our children go hungry now, will the future be better.

Answer that question, and you see where change is necessary at some level.
Badiou speaks his own language, a sobering man with a wonderful analytic mind,even though he is an artist. The seizure of power is not romantic, only those who don't know what power is can talk about it in any terms, including Badiou. He knows and Zizek as well that there are limitations to these departures to what their process or promuligating theories will produce within the minds of the masses. There is an endpoint, and End-game to this, where if action does not take hold, it is all simply talk, of talk, of talk;

The Cultural Revolution was the last one, the State and Party, how does one maintain the Revolution once you have one, that seems to be where things go wrong; turn monstrously to phantoms, with million deaths to boot, well capitalism had million deaths to ring up with its history, for colonial confiscations of natural resources in Asia, Africa,still going on now; death, eradications seems to be how sovereigns get built and developed;

There is a nice letter to Slavoj Zizek, on these topics as well, heartening to see comradely support and thoughts on the courage needed to present these things to the masses. ... Read more

Product Description
Traditionally, the human soul is regarded as a nonphysical concept that can only be examined by psychiatrists and theologists. In his new book, The Astonishing Hypothesis, Nobel Laureate Francis Crick boldly straddles the line between science and spirituality by examining the soul from the standpoint of a modern scientist, basing the soul's existence and function on an in-depth examination of how the human brain "sees." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Co-discoverer of DNA maps out conventional wisdom on consciousness
In 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discovered DNA and in so doing uncovered a key part of the mechanism by which Darwinian natural selection operates.

Four decades later, in this book, Crick gives fight to the received tradition that our soul somehow exists independently of our biology.Though this news is clearly neither considered to be either astonishing or a hypothesis to members of the scientific community, it is certainly is such to the average layman.

Considering the average level of scientific awareness, I think Crick has well positioned his book in the strike zone of ignorance.

And so, when he says that our mind is created and altered by the physical features of our brain, that is news to most people.

And there was a time not too long ago when it was news to the scientific community as well.Perhaps no more dramatically was the point made than when, in the middle of the nineteenth century, a railway worker named Phineas Gage was placing explosive charges.To Gage's misfortune, one of his charges exploded prematurely sending a metal spike through the front part of his skull.

"After that," in an exteme understatement by a Gage co-worker, "Phineas wasn't the same Phineas anymore."

Where once there had been a thoughtful and sober employee, the new Gage (brain could actually be viewed through the hole in the top of his skull) became sullen and irratible...more prone to drinking than working.

What was significant was the wound helped fuel the first truly modern theory about the workings of consciousness...viz. that they emerged from the brain and therefore could be changed by the brain.

In fact, the one Nobel prize so far awarded in psychiatry (Munoz' 1949 achievement) came when doctors would remove the connecting tissue between the brain's hemispheres to reduce siezure activity (a remedy that now thankfully is achieved with drugs instead of such invasive surgery).

And what doctors accomplish through treatment, Mother Nature accomplishes through natural selection.Just like evolution impacts the development of limbs and internal organs and other anatomy, it also impacts brain development.

While certainly all these developments can't help but throw cold water on traditional notions of a soul/body dichotomy, it nonetheless remains astonishing news to most members of the general public.However, far from from making us feel more common and purposeless, it should makes us feel more lucky, that from a process that usually produces bacteria, bugs or at best meandering animals, that we've been given the opportunity to really understand (at least as best we can) nature and in so doing truly appreciate its beauty.

What a pity it would be to walk through an art museum with our eyes closed or attend a symphony with our fingers in our ears.

May be dated, but always thoughtful
I'm not surprised to see mixed reviews for this book because it's as close to 'real science' as such books get. It's definitely not the compendium of gee whiz human cognition observations and not the philosophical musings that the audience for consciousness books seems to lust after.Re the philosophical side of things, I sometimes imagine that a certain proportion of the audience hopes we never figure out what consciousness is, because that would bring an end to that opium-like haze around the topic to which many are addicted.

But as a science teacher of the subject, I loved it.Challenging to read if you're not already versed in the anatomy of the visual cortex, absolutely.But worth plowing through, absolutely.

Crick was definitely correct that the visual cortex is key to what consciousness is about.He provides an in-depth review of what was known at the time about visuocortical organization and how it relates to human behavior.That body of knowledge was extremely spotty (is spotty still), which means a whole lot of loose ends.That's unsatisfying in a way, but hardly Crick's fault.

Strongly recommended.

He sees only what his worldview allows him to see
The evidence that his arguments are littered with fallacious arguments is overwhelming, just in the first few pages - which is admittedly all I read. If you are an atheist, Darwinian, naturalist, guess what!? We don't have any souls! Imagine that! The only thing astonishing is that this was published, but I forget, he won a Nobel prize, so he could write "poop" on a piece of toilet paper and get it published. At least that would be less harmful to the public's opinion of the interaction of science and God.

A Great Mind at Work
What do you do with your life if you are absolutely brilliant?As Crick says in his earlier book "What Mad Pursuit," he goes off and finds interesting problems to work on.He decided long ago that the two most interesting areas of science are the interface between non-living and living matter -- thus leading to his work on DNA-- and the interface between the brain and the mind.This work summarizes his efforts on the latter problem.

He approaches the problem as a brilliant amateur, one with the talent and reputation to be allowed into the field without having spent his entire youth preparing for it.He thenspends a few years working with some of the best in the world, and then tells us what he learned.In this way, he is sort of a stand-in for those of us who would love to do the same thing, if we were only smarter, independently wealthy, and had a Nobel Prize.That is, it is sort of like George Plimpton's "The Paper Lion,"the classic book by a sportswriter who goes "undercover" as a draft pick for an NFL team in the 1960's to tell us what it is like.

While the concept is great, the results are disappointing.What I got out of his experience is that the mind/brain problem is really, really hard.Even the great Francis Crick was not able to achieve a double-helix-like breakthrough.The reading itself is tough going, and in the end I find I am glad that Crick spent the time to do this so that I don't have to (or rather, I can stop fantasizing about doing it). I learned a lot about what we know about the brain and how we study it, but as far as I can tell the "astonishing hypothesis" remains unproven.

Boring
This was a boring and tedious book and I was glad to be done with it. It was very disappointing, as it was basically a rehash of psychology experiments involving vision, with some basic neurobiology thrown in as background. While it is well written, it goes nowhere. There is very little mention of a "soul" until chapter 18, and there is, of course, no mention of a scientific search for it, or research on it. There cannot be. It pains me to think that Crick spent years on this endeavor. The answer he seeks will come only after a long and arduous study of all aspects of the brain, its anatomy and function, as well as that of the neurons that constitute it. While I agree with Crick in what he is trying to show---that the "I" that is each of us, is the activity of neurons. How to demonstrate this is the problem. Instead of working backwards from behavior to structure, it would be more fruitful to begin with DNA---the genes that determine brain structure, from the neurons to the brain's gross anatomy, and try to reach an explanation of behavior based on the molecular biology of the brain. However, the human brain may be too complex and the problem thus too intractable. Start with something simple, a flatworm perhaps, and work up from there. ... Read more

Product Description

The third edition of Testing Statistical Hypotheses updates and expands upon the classic graduate text, emphasizing optimality theory for hypothesis testing and confidence sets. The principal additions include a rigorous treatment of large sample optimality, together with the requisite tools. In addition, an introduction to the theory of resampling methods such as the bootstrap is developed. The sections on multiple testing and goodness of fit testing are expanded. The text is suitable for Ph.D. students in statistics and includes over 300 new problems out of a total of more than 760.

Customer Reviews (6)

indispensable
Every professional statistician should have a copy of this book. I lent my copy of the first edition to somebody I can't remember and of course never got it back--no surprise since it is absolutely indispensable. So I purchased this third edition. It's worth it. The book is a classic and Erich Lehmann is a genius.

A few details are not quite right
Lehmann and Romano, Third Edition, fourth printing, 2008, is a wonderful, beautiful, necessary book for the shelf of every serious statistician, but in a few ways it is not quite right.Some important topics are omitted.At least one important topic is much more important than the book says.At least one statement, while correct, may be read incorrectly by beginners.At least one proof is unreadable.

An omission is heteroskedasticity.The usual tests for 2-samples and k-samples are wrong in its presence.The same is true for the usual test for blocks and treatments, but there exists an exact Monte Carlo test for blocks and treatments which works correctly in the presence of heteroskedasticity.Another omission is Doob's inequality for nonnegative martingales, which connects up some Bayes tests with some frequentist tests.

Simpson's paradox (page 132 bottom) is treated at length in the book, but the treatment does not suffice, and there might not be any treatment which could suffice.The paradox strikes at nearly all of what statisticians do.The book ought to use big bold-face type for the statement of the paradox.Also, the book ought to include an example, not just give a reference.

The account of Monte Carlo tests (page 442) may seem to suggest that Monte Carlo gives only an approximation and that its accuracy depends on how many random numbers are used.The reader is not told that Monte Carlo tests are commonly exact tests for small samples.(And where in the book is the word "exact"?)

On page 353 I am unable to follow the (very short) proof of Theorem 9.1.3.The complexity of the notation is perhaps responsible.

hard to read
I found this book hard to read & maneuver around in.Maybe I should've gotten an earlier edition.

classic text with new publisher
This text was commonly used as a graduate text in mathematical statistics in the 1970s when I was a graduate student at Stanford University. It was the best and most detailed text on the theory of hypothesis testing. Over the years it remained so and twenty years after publication, when it was outdated by research advances it was revised by Professor Lehmann. The second edition originally published by Wiley went out of print but has now been reprinted by Springer-Verlag. This is a great book for any statistician to have on his bookshelf, a must have reference!

3rd edition has lots of new material
The 3rd edition has an entirely new set of chapters covering asymptotics. I found this to be a very readable survey, including a good discussion of local asymptotic normality, which is not treated in more elementary texts. There's some overlap between this book and Lehman's Theory of Point Estimation. It's not obvious which should be read first, but both books are very well written with many interesting problems. ... Read more

Product Description
"World hypotheses" correspond to metaphysical systems, and they may be systematically judged by the canons of evidence and corroboration.
In setting forth his root-metaphor theory and examining six such hypotheses--animism, mysticism, formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism--Pepper surveys the whole field of metaphysics. Because this book is an analytical study, it stresses issues rather than men. It seeks to exhibit the sources of these issues and to show that some are unnecessary; that the rest gather into clusters and are interconnected in systems corresponding closely to the traditional schools of philosophy. The virtue of the root-metaphor method is that it puts metaphysics on a purely factual basis and pushes philosophical issues back to the interpretation of evidence.
This book was written primarily as a contribution to the field, but its plan excellently suits it for use as a text in courses in metaphysics, types of philosophical theory, or present tendencies in philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

THE BIG PICTURE
I first read Pepper's most excellent "World Hypotheses" as a philosophy student many years ago.I lost it, checked it out from libraries, and am now purchasing it for my brother and father.And myself.I confess that part of this is quite selfish - my neice is quite philosophically bent, and while two years away from university, she might nevertheless get her hands on this book and get "a leg up" on her colleagues.

So much one can say about a book that segments the different "world pictures" into discriminable types.What a gift Pepper has given us.Finished D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover last month and was amazed how much more intelligible reading Pepper's book made Lawrence's.And not just the literati will have augmented understanding, but scientists as well.What physicist can fail to glean Pepper's wisdom in attempting to unify discrete with consolidated mechanism? Or mechanism with organicism? Don't know if it will improve their home lives, but what a jewel this work is!

A sophisticated but very readable primer in epistemology.
At the core of most any deep inquiry, one finds epistemology, questions about how one knows and what one can know.Pepper deeply penetrates the mysteries of epistemology.Having taken an undergraduate degree in philosophy, I can certify that he has successfully distilled the essence of such a degree in 348 very readable pages.If you don't have time to read Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hegel, and William James (all of whom I highly recommend), read World Hypotheses.Pepper lucidly communicates the basic world view of these and many other important philosophers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Take it from one who has tried the alternatives
I became an English as a foreign language teacher by accident. After doing it joyfully for several years, I decided to explore the "scientific" literature on the topic. Krashen's books (both the highly technical ones and those for the general reader) are consistently logical, well-reasoned and based on serious research, carefully analyzed.

If you are involved in language acqusition (as a student, teacher or parent), I strongly recommend everything he wrote. You may also find his website [sdkrashen.com] a solid source.

An SLA Classic
In this book, Krashen puts for his Input Hypothesis.The Input Hypothesis attempts to account for the processes in which languages are learned.According to Krashen, the only way in which learners can acquire language is through comprehensible input which is slightly above the learners level.One surprising point he makes is that formal learning never leads to acqusition.The primary method of getting comprehensible input is through listening or reading.In other words, it is not so important for learners to practice speaking to acquire language.

While some of Krashen's claims are interesting, in the end his hypothesis doesn't hold water.Several of his terms aren't well defined and his theories prove impossible to experiment with.The studies which he claims support his hypothesis either don't really support it or only support it indirectly.A final complaint is that some of the assumptions he makes rests on faulty concepts.For example, he misapplies the concept of Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device (LAD).

In the end, the input hypothesis proves to be less than promised.However, students of applied linguistics may find this book interesting as it illuminates some of the assumptions that we take for granted.In bringing these assumptions into question, this book provides something of benefit to the student of applied linguistics. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides the foundations of a genuine unified field theory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great read
This short book outlines Ervin Laszlo's vision of an Integral universe. He draws together quantum mechanics, complexity and realtivity describing the underlying quantum coherence that links them all together through a psi field so we see sub atomic physics, living systems, human consciousness and the fartherest galaxy are all linked together to make a cohesive whole. I would recommend first reading "Science and the Re-enchantment of the Cosmos" unless you already have a good grounding in current scientific thought as it introduces the topic in less technical terms. Having said that it is still quite readable.

Stunning!
Not only is the book stunning; so is the fact that only 2 other souls have been moved to submit reactions. Laszlo's effort to integrate what is known about the spectrum of existence ... from the subquantum to quantum to living systems to conscious levels ... is beyond expectation or even imagining!Unlike too many other authors these days, Laszlo doesn't blithely claim that "science" has "proved" his ideas or something on which his thesis depends, he admits it is, as yet, an untested hypothesis. But what an hypothesis! How thoroughly explicated! How thoroughly examined his building blocks!If I hadn't read this 2003 publication, I might have dusted off his 2005 publication, Science and the Akashic Field, as inadequately founded in fact. Happily, I had read it and I'm convinced that Laszlo has come closer than anyone else who has recently tried it to at least approach a "theory of everything." Right after finishing this one, I read John Lamb Lash's Not in HIS Image, which explains the folly of politically-motivated salvationist religion and how it has eventuated in the ecodisaster we see before us. Here's what I think we need to do. Lock these two geniuses in a room and tell them to figure out what's happening and tell us what to do to survive the mess we've made before we let them out. If some object to this idea as being somehow unethical, we could at least plead that they write a book together, pooling their incredible wisdom and intuition, because between the two of them, they just might be able to help us make the needed corrections in cultural behavior.

The connectivity hypothesis.
Interesting for those who already have done some reading about the Akashic Field or Zero Point Field.

Astounding synthesis
This book is mind-boggling in its scope and erudition.I can't speak to the eventual consensus validity of its proposals, but I can say it's a very pleasing tour of huge swathes of cutting edge science and beats me to the page on many big ideas connecting biology, physics, and consciousness research.If you're interested in the "new physics," evolutionary theory and or consciousness studies, or all three as I am, you'll love this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Thousands of crop circles have been discovered and recorded in this generation, but no interpretative key has been available until now. The Heck Hypothesis interprets over 1,500 circles as signs of a series of disasters extending over the next 250 years which will cause repetitive crop failures. Crop circles depict in a rock art fashion a number of comet or asteroid collisions with earth during this time period. The extraterrestrial circle makers will be artificially guiding these cosmic bodies to their impact areas, but before they begin they are revealing a large number of significant details, astronomical and otherwise, about the whole process. Using the crop circles, plus biblical and personal prophecies, the author has derived approximate dates and locations for the global impacts.

According to The Heck Hypothesis, guided comets have played an essential role in the evolution of life on this planet for millions, even billions of years. In fact, the general shape of most plants and animals originates from the comet shape, and the sexual reproductive cycle emulates the primordial act of a comet striking the earth.New and improved plant species to eliminate world hunger will be appearing after these comet strikes predicted by the crop circles.

Although fairly technical,The Heck Hypothesis is a must read for everyone seriously interested in crop circles,potential asteroid or comet impacts, prophecy, and the intrinsic nature of life on this planet. ... Read more

Product Description
Serves as a valuable introduction to Cassuto's illuminating commentaries on the Pentateuch, in which he emerges as one of the most original modern biblical exegetes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Research on biblical authorship has come a long way since 1941
Readers and potential buyers should keep in mind that the content of this book is based on lectures from 1941. Archaeological and linguistic studies related to the Pentateuch have progressed much since that time, many of which have supported the hypothesis that the first five books of the Bible were written by multiple authors. As one previous reviewer stated, this book is more properly seen as historical. Readers who are interested in learning about modern evidence for or against the documentary hypothesis and other similar hypotheses should purchase a book based on more recent sources...not one like this which is based on material that is nearly 70 years old!

Foundational Work
Reading Cassuto while researching Wellhausen for undergrad ANE Lit class at Ohio State in 95 proved to be a foundational experience for me.Too often, the evangelical church creates a ghetto mentality with its scholarship and apologists.Here, however, I found a respected scholar taking up the breadth of a subject (formation of the Torah) and systematically engaging with academic precision against the conventional wisdom of his day (and still quite pervasive!).What's more?This scholar brought together the academy and the synagogue in his work, which was a breath of fresh air for me and proved a path for enjoyment of faith and reason held not in diametric opposition but in vibrant refining tension.

Brilliant critique of The Documentary Hypothesis
Occam's razor is one of the foundational principles of clear thinking, and Cassuto utilizes this principle with such deftness that no one can read this small book and not come away with serious doubts about the convoluted and tangled mess known as the Documentary Hypothesis.The simplest and most straightforward explanation is likely the best, and Cassuto offers a very straightforward and utterly convincing explanation for the use of the different names for God in the OT that cuts away the bramble bush DH.Whether you agree with the DH or not (or just plain don't know), you should wrestle with this classic.

I loved this little book
I loved this little book. Not because it debunks the supposed debunkers of the Bible, beginning with the 19th century German Protestant academicians who first gave rise to the sounds-better-than-it-is Biblical Historical School. That's amazing - read even one of these eight clear, easy-to-read, wonderfully learned lectures and you will never think of the tyranny of academic orthodoxy the same way again - but what's best about this terrific work, to my mind, is the way it keeps pointing out wonderful little things about the Bible that I'd never even considered before. The Bible is a far better book, just in terms of literature, than I knew before I read Cassuto. But I don't want to take all day with this review. I do want to say that I found the two (!) sets of comments about The Doc. Hypothesis by Michael Rogers (sp?), above, to be not just off-base - simple error is forgivable - but plainly dishonest and intentionally misleading. This guy has an axe to grind; he's a proud anti-Zionist and he thinks that any statement that tends to support the Jews of Israel against their enemies is a crime against humanity. So the problem with this book for him is that it shows that the Bible is not a total fraud. Anyway, regardless of the political and academic arguments that one might make, this book takes you into the Bible and shows you different facets of its magic, just as literature. Did you know that the Torah includes two different lists of the wives of Esau (the twin brother of the patriarch Jacob), which together [to my mind, anyway] express the truth that Esau's domestic arrangements were a living hell, full of incest, adultery and violence? Did you know that the Sabbath, according to the Written Torah, isn't just a Jewish but a cosmic, universal event? Did you know that the blessing given to Noah and his sons, after the Flood, was no more or less than the fulfillment of the blessing earlier bestowed upon Adam and his sons? I didn't, until I read this book - while getting a much clearer sense of just how wonderful the Bible is, whether as a religious book, The Book, or just as a work of literature.

Michael Dallen (See my website, www.1stcovenant.org, where we've listed this book, under "articles," one of five "must read" books.)

Mitnagedim exegesis of Torah
This book is a modernized (1940s) version of the traditional destructive criticism aimed by the Mitnagedim at the Wellhausen form of the modern (19th-century) development of the traditional Qabbalah exegesis of the Torah, in which 2 contrasting forms of the Godhead are assumed (one form merciful/forgiving, and one merciless/punishing), with resultant text-criticism splitting the text of the Torah in a somewhat artificial manner and with somewhat strained and rather fanciful interpretations of the text. Shortly after the author died there occurred the archaeological discovery, however, of texts (dating from the Achaemenian era, at Syene/Elephantine) which confirmed the antiquity of the distinction between 2 forms of the Godhead, which might render some form of the "Documentary Hypothesis" reasonably plausible. And this was followed by the archaeological discovery of Canaanite inscriptions to the same effect. This book is therefore severely outdated and is of interest as little more than a historic curiosity. ... Read more

Product Description

"Biophilia" is the term coined by Edward O. Wilson to describe what he believes is our innate affinity for the natural world. In his landmark book Biophilia, he examined how our tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes might be a biologically based need, integral to our development as individuals and as a species. That idea has caught the imagination of diverse thinkers.

The Biophilia Hypothesis brings together the views of some of the most creative scientists of our time, each attempting to amplify and refine the concept of biophilia. The variety of perspectives - psychological, biological, cultural, symbolic, and aesthetic - frame the theoretical issues by presenting empirical evidence that supports or refutes the hypothesis. Numerous examples illustrate the idea that biophilia and its converse, biophobia, have a genetic component:

• fear, and even full-blown phobias of snakes and spiders are quick to develop with very little negative reinforcement, while more threatening modern artifacts - knives, guns, automobiles - rarely elicit such a response
• people find trees that are climbable and have a broad, umbrella-like canopy more attractive than trees without these characteristics
• people would rather look at water, green vegetation, or flowers than built structures of glass and concrete

Customer Reviews (5)

an able collection that needs updating
This book contains writings and research from several fields, their experts trying to confirm the hypothesis that human beings are naturally drawn to various manifestations of the natural world ("biophilia"). This hypothesis is important not because it can start a new religion or redeem the world, but because it balances more pessimistic views of human nature with the idea that we have a natural psychological connection to our fellow creatures. This in turn implies that we harm our own psyches to the extent we push other beings out of existence.

Don't expect any end-stage science from this book. The editors make it clear up front that these are tentative, exploratory, and sometimes speculative investigations. The amount of biophilia research funding remains quite small compared to environmental research on how to market things or brainwash customers. The studies herein go up to the 1990s, so it's time for another collection.

A chapter that puzzled me was written by Dorion Sagan and Lynn Margulis to argue that appeals to save the planet are grandiose. Granted; Joanna Macy has been making the point for decades that we are PART of the planet, not sitting high above it. At best we can participate in its self-healing from what humans have done to it. But the authors go beyond this to normalize what we have done to it, even suggesting that we could be making way for the next evolutionary experiment of Gaia. I hate to use the hard word "misanthropic," but dismissing global warming and mass extinctions with the suggestion that "the decline in species diversity may be balanced by an increase in technological diversity" is astounding. It is quite a contrast to the growing numbers of people who feel the pain of those disappearances and declines with agonizing urgency and sorrow. I'm concerned that it also supports the very passivity and hopelessness that deprive the public sphere of so much pro-environmental energy directed toward appreciating and encouraging Earth's self-healing complexity: a very different idealism from the heroic posture of the world-shaper.

Wonderful reading
This was recommended by a scientist-science teacher-friend and I was simply blown away by the implications. If this theory is correct, then it explains the human descent into madness brought on by increased development without thought.

Difficult but important
Human beings are deeply psychologically attached to nature and the sooner we realize that, the better off we'll be. Why are houseplants so popular? Why do so many children's books feature animals as main characters? Why domore Americans visit zoos than sporting events? Why are so many of usworried about rainforests we'll never see firsthand? Unlike the previoustwo reviewers, I hold that our ties with nature are deep and ancient. Wecan bury them under concrete but WE CAN'T CUT THEM. As a last word: most ofthe really happy people I know have a deep relationship with nature orsomething from nature, such as a pet.

This book is more postmodernism jibberish
In Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectual's Abuse of Science, postmodernists are taken to task for distorting physics and math through poetic license that says nothing and means nothing.Edward O. Wilsonlikewise has criticized postmodernists for their attacks on science andWestern knowledge, and now we have the evolutionists stooping to the samedistortions of logic and clear thinking in pursuit of personal agendas toresurrect a new religion of nature.In the book The Biophilia Hypothesis(henceforth BioHyp) we can clearly delineate between the evolutionaryobservations of our past and what it should mean to us today.This bookmerges evolutionary knowledge of our environment for survival, with anethic of deep ecology that is as befuddling and lacking in coherence asanything I have previously seen written by those who claim to be on theside of neo-Darwinist empiricism.But we should all recognize that it iseasy, even for true empiricists, to slip into quasi-religious cults evenwhile appearing to embrace the principles of science.Since this book doesnot have any coherence, aside from making some rather bland connectionbetween how humans interact with nature which I accept but fail to see asprofound, I will take a few of the most egregiously inept statements in thebook to pull the rug out from under their proposed paradigm.

This booktries to equate affiliation with nature with the essence of a good lifethat has meaning.Granted, many aspects of human nature go into themake-up of our beings, including: the need to create, observe nature, havesex, accumulate and show off our amassed wealth, dominance over others,athleticism, gathering and enjoying food, AND competition with other humangroups including warfare and genocide.Yes, along with a love of naturehumans also have a blood lust that these authors all know exists but failto address in this book.Another quasi-religious group of scientists couldeasily conjure up a new natural paradigm based on warfare (perhaps like theSpartans) and be equally content with a new culture based on love ofanimals but hatred of other humans (perhapsthe genophilia hypothesis?).

"The biophilia hypothesis necessarily involves a number ofchallenging, indeed daunting, assertions. Among these is the suggestionthat the human inclination to affiliate with life and lifelike process is:1) Inherent (that is, biologically based); 2) Part of our species'evolutionary heritage; 3) Associated with human competitive advantage andgenetic fitness; 4) Likely to increase the possibility for achievingindividual meaning and personal fulfillment; and 5) The self-interestedbasis for a human ethic of care and conservation of nature, most especiallythe diversity of life." [20]

Assertions 1,2 and 3 I have no problemwith, they are simple evolutionary statements.However I take strong issuewith 4 and 5.Lets rephrase 4: "[T]he inclination to affiliate withlife . . . is [l]ikely to increase the possibility for achieving individualmeaning and personal fulfillment."Let us merely rephrase it to read,"The inclination for humans to commit genocide is likely to increasethe possibility for achieving individual meaning and personalfulfillment."I contend that genocide and group cohesiveness are infact far more powerful emotions than our need of love for nature.And yetwe have been able to subdue this emotion quite nicely by introducingincentives in cultures to forego blood-letting for other more valuable pasttimes.Likewise, BioHyp may improve our urban environment by paying moreattention to planting trees and providing for some bird sanctuaries, but Iwould contend that the average urban dweller is far more impacted by dailyroad rage than they are sensitive to the number of animals and fauna theyobserve on their journey to work.That is, hostility to other humans whomay have offended me carry a much greater burden on my temperament thanseeing a squirrel climb up the tree as I walk to my garage.

Assertion 5above, in order to be true, must show that an extreme caring andconservation for nature, one that must reduce the average material wealthof humans while also reducing the number of humans, is of real benefit tohumans: that is, it is a good in itself, to all humans!Does this hold forthose who will not be born?For those who will die on the way to theemergency room because we have reverted back to bicycles or horse andbuggies?Don't get me wrong. I am not an egalitarian that thinks"banning guns to save just one child is reason enough to give up ourconstitutional rights."Its just that no group or philosophy can makethe above statement to simplistically and universally alter our national orhumans agenda.They are calling for a ecological Jihad that is notwarranted.Our culture cannot be cut from whole cloth based on suchsimplistic assertions.They are made up of a myriad of compromises andconstraints that do not fall easily into any one fundamental of humannature as espoused in BioHyp.

Sorry, but the authors got it all backwards
The great biologist Edward O. Wilson noted that human beings seem to have some constants in what they like in the natural world. Everybody likes the landscape they grew up in, but there appears to be a surprising consensus, at least among men, in favor of landscape with these features: grassy parklands with intermittent trees, water, high points providing vistas across a complex landscape, and the ability to see but not be seen.Researchers believe that this represents an inborn affinity toward the superb hunting grounds in which humans evolved in East Africa. From this work, Wilson announced the existence of biophilia, the innate human love of nature, and asserted that this means we should Save the Rainforests (home to most of the species of Wilson's beloved ants).

As much as I admire Wilson, I have to point out that his political argument is absolutely not supported by this research, which demonstrates not that humans like all forms of nature but that they have strong opinions about which landscapes they prefer. Reread the description of the consensus pleasurable landscape: does it remind you of anything that modern humans all around the world spend billions upon? Yup, what we males really have an innate affinity for are golf courses. In fact, we probably have an innate aversion toward rainforests, with their snakes, bugs, and lack of sunlight. Humans have largely avoided rainforests throughout our history, and today rainforests are much more popular on the Upper West Side of Manhattan than in the Amazon.

None of this implies that we shouldn't Save The Rainforests ... Read more

Product Description
The Phylogenetic Handbook is a broad, hands on guide to theory and practice of nucleotide and protein phylogenetic analysis. This second edition includes six new chapters, covering topics such as Bayesian inference, tree topology testing and the impact of recombination on phylogenies, as well as a detailed section on molecular adaptation. The book has a stronger focus on hypothesis testing than the previous edition, with more extensive discussions on recombination analysis, detecting molecular adaptation and genealogy-based population genetics. Many chapters include elaborate practical sections, which have been updated to introduce the reader to the most recent versions of sequence analysis and phylogeny software, including BLAST, FastA, Clustal, T-coffee, Muscle, DAMBE, Tree-puzzle, Phylip, MEGA, PAUP*, IQPNNI, CONSEL, ModelTest, Prottest, PAML, HYPHY, MrBayes, BEAST, LAMARC, SplitsTree, and RDP. Many analysis tools are described by their original authors, resulting in clear explanations that constitute an ideal teaching guide for advanced-level undergraduate and graduate students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Phylogenetic Handbook: A Practical Approach to Phylogenetic Analysis and Hypothesis Testing
The book was required for the course.It was slightly helpful, but WAY to complicated if I didn't do extensive reading through outside sources.

Ok
The book got here within the predicted time. Only a few damages no the cover, but nothing very serious. I'm glad withmy purchase overall.

One of the best books on phylogenetics I've seen
This is a clearly written well organized book.Great for reference or even a basic book on phylogenetics, a field with few really good overview books good for a student or more experienced researcher (IMHO).

Strikes a good balance
In my opinion, this book strikes a good balance between being a reference book and a text book.

Both theory and practice
This book is an excellent introduction to the basis principles of phylogenetics.The text is especially good for the practicing biologist as it also has a practical component that applies these theoretical concepts. There are downloadable exercises and walk through examples using many of the commonly used phylogentic software. A solid book for the beginner to intermediate practitioner. ... Read more

Product Description
P.J. Moreland and a panel of scholars examine arguments and evidence from astronomy, physics, bio-chemistry, paleontology, and linguistics as they evaluate the creation hypothesis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Smooth transaction for this book.
I bought this book for a gift.So I did not read it.I received the book in good condition.The book was listed as new and had no markings, but had a couple creases on the corner of some pages.The shipping took a little longer than I expected, but I received it.

An Early Introduction to Intelligent Design As a Scientific Hypothesis
This early volume exploring some of the current intelligent design arguments contains essays by numerous Discovery Fellows.Philosopher J.P. Moreland explains that a philosophical view called "scientism" has become prevalent in academia. Scientism, in its various forms, holds that only scientifically verifiable truth has any real value.

Following Moreland's introduction, Stephen C. Meyer argues that the theories of intelligent design and common descent are "methodologically equivalent" theories which should both be considered as legitimate fields of historical science.William Dembski explains how observations which cannot be accounted for using known probabilistic resources imply that some intelligence might be at work.Hugh Ross lists a large number of physical laws and finely-tuned parameters which imply that some intelligence designed the universe to be hospitable for advanced, intelligent life.Charles Thaxton and Walter Bradley explain that the fundamental challenge facing origin of life researchers lies in the origin of information. These assembly instructions for life are not specified by natural laws.

The volume also tackles the fossil record. Kurt Wise explains that transitional forms are rare or completely absent from the fossil record. But Wise also explains that an intelligent agent could account for the nested hierarchy of the organization of life's major groups. Finally, John Oller and John Omdahl explain that there is a distinct break between the cognitive capabilities of apes and humans.Apes cannot bridge "Einstein's gulf," the ability to use abstract representations, nor do they display the ability nor desire to ask deep questions.

This volume provides an early look at many of the leading arguments for intelligent design.

Excellent and Concise
This was a good book, it covers many different areas as to why evolution is not possible (the kind evolutionists say lead to humans). I did think there was an error in the intro however where someone, not sure who, says that biologists have no business being philosophers, or he said it the other way around, either way he was saying that people who were educated in certain fields (by universities i suppose) have no business teaching what they weren't educated in, which of course, is wrong. You don't need to be educated in a university in a class and get straight A's or average grades to teach certain things in a field you weren't trained in, anymore than a Christian needs to be to say why evolution is wrong even though he doesn't know much about the intricacies of biology.

I also thought the book would have been good to explain why there is dash in front of the numbers that show the odds against a man evolving by chance, because I was told that there is no such thing as a negative probablity, if not, what is that dash there for, please let me know.

Other than the intro, like I said, this is a good book.

The Creation Explanation: Why Design is just as good.
I would honestly have titled this book "The Creation Explanation: Why Creation is just as good an explanation as Evolution is". This is precisely what this book attempts to do. I found the scientific evidence to be lacking. This book is not completely bad. In fact..I have found some good material in the book along with some bad material in the book. Let's take a look.

The first section of the book was on the philosophical question of design. I didn't care for Moreland's essay critiquing methodological naturalism. Honestly I found it hard to stay awake reading his material because his points are convoluted and hard to follow at times. Meyer's essay was great except that he needlessly makes both design and descent to be mutually exclusive. They need not be. Design and descent can be integrated into a theory of theistic evolution. What Meyer has in mind are creation and evolution. Creation is not the same thing as design, for creation is more of a typological theory of design: it places fixed limits on variation and supposes that there is a archetype for each group of animals. Design by itself does not require this. Demski's essay was as good as Meyers, although Demski is quick to rule out superluminal physics as a cause for his hypothetical talking pulsar for no well-argued reason. ( No offense Bill, but have you heard of Bell's Theorem, the Innsbrunk experiment? Not that I buy into non-locality in physics but Demski needs to elaborate more on why we shouldn't buy into non-locality).

This is all I can say is good about the book. The science section was pretty bad. The first is an essay by Hugh Ross on how astronomy supports the creation hypothesis via the big bang. As typical Ross constructs a big bang argument for a Creator despite the fact we don't have a quantum theory of gravity. He doesn't attempt to answer the arguments of Halton Arp in this essay nor does he attempt to answer my argument about the possiblility of energy being supernaturally replinished in a singularity in the cycling universe theory. I have explained in a separate review why Ross's arguments are flawed. The next essay on the origin of life. I skipped over this one because I felt that I was not informed enough to critique it. After that is an essay by Kurt Wise on the origin of major groups. This essay was flimsy! I was expecting Wise to produce some scientific evidence for his Creator. Wise does nothing of the sort! Wise goes through the traditional case for evolution. It was poorly critiqued. For instance, Wise doesn't provide a good explanation of vestigial organs other than that they lost function some time ago. A book has been written debunking the vestigial organs argument ( "Vestigial Organs are Fully Functional" by George Howe and Jerry Bergman). Wise should have either adopted some of their arguments or at least made a reference to them or this book of theirs! The arguments debunking the case for evolution appear too simplistic and superficial! What's worse is that he doesn't produce any evidence for creation or design. He just argues that complexity and organization in nature are "unexplained" anamolies and that creation is just as good as an explanation! Hold it! Wise gives NO justification for this because he doesn't discuss any criteria for detecting intelligent design or how this organization, complexity or integration bears marks of design according to any accepted criteria for design. THAT is what scientific evidence I would have been looking for: Wise just argues that creation is just as good an explanation if not better than naturalistic evolution. Come on!

I was so disappointed I didn't even bother to read the last essay. The authors pretty much shot their project in the foot! As if that wasn't enough..two more Christian authors put a bunch of quotes in the appendix as an appeal to authority as to how serious in trouble evolution really is. Well, no offense guys, but if I didn't find the case in the essays all that convincing what makes you guys think an appeal to authority using quotes is going to be any more convincing. (It's just icing on the cake..to remove any last lingering doubts for readers not 100% convinced that creation is a better explanation than naturalistic evolution is.)

I found it hard to rate this book. I had to balance the good with the outright bad. It has some value to it. I would very cautiously recommend this book just as a starting point on the subject for further investigation. This book should only get people to ask themselves "Is Design a legitimate explanation after all?" and nothing more. The book's title was misleading, a unnecessary essay or two was added in (yes, Moreland and Ross, I mean you). People should be open-minded yet very cautious and extremely critical when reading this book!

A Scientific Analysis for the Existence of God
A well written and thought provoking book that is detailed and scientifically valid.Those who state otherwise either have not read the book, or do not know how to conduct philosophic and scientific inquiry.

J. P. Moreland and a panel of experts consider philosophical arguments about whether it is possible for us to know if an intelligent Designer had a role in creation. Then they evaluate the creation hypothesis against scientific evidence in four different areas: the origin and formation of the universe, the origin of life, the origin of major groups of organisms, and the origin of human language.

The team of experts assembled for this work includes a philosopher, a mathemetician, a physicist, a linguist, a theologian, a biophysicist, an astronomer, a chemist, and a paleontologist.

The contributors include Stephen C. Meyer, William A. Dembski, Hugh Ross, Walter L. Bradley, Charles B. Thaxton, Kurt P. Wise, John W. Oller, John L. Omdahl, John Ankerberg, and John Weldon.

Their data and their conclusions challenge the assumptions of many and offer the foundation for a new paradigm of scientific thinking. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description

While continuing to focus on methods of testing for two-sided equivalence, Testing Statistical Hypotheses of Equivalence and Noninferiority, Second Edition gives much more attention to noninferiority testing. It covers a spectrum of equivalence testing problems of both types, ranging from a one-sample problem with normally distributed observations of fixed known variance to problems involving several dependent or independent samples and multivariate data. Along with expanding the material on noninferiority problems, this edition includes new chapters on equivalence tests for multivariate data and tests for relevant differences between treatments. A majority of the computer programs offered online are now available not only in SAS or Fortran but also as R scripts or as shared objects that can be called within the R system.

This book provides readers with a rich repertoire of efficient solutions to specific equivalence and noninferiority testing problems frequently encountered in the analysis of real data sets. It first presents general approaches to problems of testing for noninferiority and two-sided equivalence. Each subsequent chapter then focuses on a specific procedure and its practical implementation. The last chapter describes basic theoretical results about tests for relevant differences as well as solutions for some specific settings often arising in practice. Drawing from real-life medical research, the author uses numerous examples throughout to illustrate the methods.

Product Description

This book presents the Riemann Hypothesis, connected problems, and a taste of the body of theory developed towards its solution. It is targeted at the educated non-expert. Almost all the material is accessible to any senior mathematics student, and much is accessible to anyone with some university mathematics. The appendices include a selection of original papers that encompass the most important milestones in the evolution of theory connected to the Riemann Hypothesis. The appendices also include some authoritative expository papers. These are the “expert witnesses” whose insight into this field is both invaluable and irreplaceable.

Customer Reviews (1)

Not all papers are in English
I enjoyed reading the book which gave me more appreciation of how some of the important results relating the to Riemann Hypothesis are derived.However, I was disappointed that not all of the included reference papers were in English. I think these could have all been translated. ... Read more

Product Description
Respected scholar Gabriele Boccaccini here offers readers a new and challenging view of the ideology of the Qumran sect, the community closely related with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Boccaccini moves beyond the Essene hypothesis and posits a unique relationship between what he terms "Enochic Judaism" and the group traditionally known as the Essenes. Building his case on what the ancient records tell us about the Essenes and on a systematic analysis of the documents found at Qumran, Boccaccini argues that the literature betrays the core of an ancient and distinct variety of Second Temple Judaism. Tracing the development of this tradition, Boccaccini shows that the Essene community at Qumran was really the offspring of the Enochic party, which in turn contributed to the birth of parties led by John the Baptist and Jesus. Convincingly argued, this work will surely spark fresh debate in the discussion on the Qumran community and their famous writings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

the myth buster
This book does an outstanding job of putting alot of myths regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran to rest.We've been hoodwinked by so many charlatans trying to sell the Dead Sea Scroll - Christian connection.It takes a real scholar like Gabriele Boccaccini to smash those myths once and for all.

The Qumran community which produced the sectarian writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls and who were described by Pliny as the monastic community living on the shores of the Dead Sea were not the same Essenes which Josephus and Philo wrote about.They were both rooted in Enochian Judaism but parted ways after the Maccabean revolt which ended the rival Zadokite priesthood.

Boccaccini takes us step by step through the history of Enochian Judaism which started as a rival to the Zadokite priesthood, to the Maccabean crisis which deposed the Zadokite priesthood and relegated the Enochians to a second class status.The book explains how the Enochians accepted the Zadokite Hebrew Bible with its stress on the Mosaic covenant
but kept the earliest books of Enoch which make no reference to the Mosaic covenant.It then explains how the Qumranites separated from the mainstream Enochian/Essene movement as described in the Damascus Document.

The Qumran community is described as an isolated, xenophobic community which did not have the tremendous impact on history which so many people give them credit for.With two minor exceptions, which are adequately explained, the Qumran sectarian literature was unknown to the earliest Christians and are neither quoted nor mentioned in the earliest Rabbinic writings or Josephus.Conversely, none of the later Enochian literature starting in the first century B.C.E., ie The Similitudes and The Testaments of The Twelve Patriarchs, were found at Qumran.

Boccaccini explains how the mainstream Enochians/Essenes who Josephus and Philo were familiar with radically differed from the Qumranites.The mainstream group were pacifists who refused to take oaths,and believed that individuals could be saved by repentance.In contrast, the Qumranites were more militant and believed in absolute predestination in which only members of their community were predestined for salvation.The Qumranites disdained not only gentiles but anyone who was outside their community.In addition, the Essenes stressed the issues of seduction and greed which the isolated Qumranits didn't have to deal with.
This conforms not only to the descriptions given by Josephus and Philo but the later Enochian literature as well.

Finally, we learn that John the Baptist and Jesus were more than likely products of mainstream Essenism.Their public preaching of repentance, Jesus' acceptance of "unclean" people, ie the lame and the blind, his healing on the Sabbath, and his pacifistic teachings of love for one's enemies and not returning evil for evil conform more to mainstream Essenism and is completely at odds with Qumran.This puts to rest once and for all the sensational but ridiculous idea that John the Baptist, Jesus, or James were members of the Qumran community.The fact that the earliest Christians read The Book of Enoch as indicated in the Book of Jude and preserved in the older Ethiopian Orthodox Church proves that Christianity was rooted in Enochian/Essene Judaism and not Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism.

If you really want to know the history of the Essenes, Qumran, and Christianity, you must read this book.

Qure for your Qumran Questions
If you're really "in" to the Dead Sea Scrolls, then you won't want to miss this volume. The subtitle ("The Parting of the Ways Between Qumran and Enochic Judaism") really only tells part of the story; Boccaccini devotes a lesser portion of this book to a quite reasonable hypothesis of the origins of the Essene movement in what he calls "Enochic" Judaism. The majority of the book is devoted to descriptions of the life and literature of the Essenes, and includes a collection of secular data on them (from Josephus, Pliny, Philo, etc.). As such it is an excellent reference.

paradigmatic work on enochian judaism
This work is a must for everyone wishing to understand the birth of both Judaism an Christianity. Boccaccini offers a most helpful key to interpret the historical and theological facts of the period between The Old and The New Testament, throwing new light upon both the Qumran-society (who made the Dead Sea Scrolls) and early Christianity. He convincingly shows the continuity between certain "enochian" themes and ideas usually thought to be spesificially christian, and how these ideas grows out of a split in Second Temple Judaism, between zadokites (mosaic) and levites (enochian). A most impressive book!

Plausible yet simple, believable
This book does a fine job of collecting various sources of thought and religious tenets from the period prior to first century Israel to put forward the theory that the various sects of Judaism and Christianity have a very common origination.The differences are explained but the emphasis is on the commonalities with time being properly considered.Some distinguishing light is shed on the major problem of identifying the Essenes to a small community in Qumran considering various sources that identify certain contradictions.Although most will acknowledge a common root to the various sects of the time, Pharisees, Sauducees, Essenes, and Christians, this author ties the various texts available and places them in a convincing time-frame that allows for all the differences.The notion of various sects within the Essene movement is plausible yet simple and that is what makes this so appealing in my opinion.Overall, a nice piece of detective work.

At last something new and meaningful about the Essene
This is the *best* book I ever read about the Essene and Qumran to date. Dry, no-nonsensical, factual, sound... A bit "boring" here and there, but the matter is dry in itself, and the author is always essential and up-to-the-point, so the "boring" parts are always *very* short (never more than two pages).

The author begins by reviewing all we know about the Essene from ancient sources.

Then he thoroughly examines the literature that most resembles these features, the "Enochic" Jewish literature. He highlights a set of shared ideas in all of these texts, as well an important evolution in them along two centuries.

Next, he examines the ideology displayed by the Qumran literature, and compares it with the "Enochic" one. Boccaccini makes his point with great elegance and very convincingly: Qumran people were not "the Essene" at large, but just a schismatic (somehow fanatical) group that had parted from the Enochic tradition from which it derived, developing unique features and ideas. It is therefore an error using the Qumran texts to understand who "the Essene" were and what did they think.

Boccaccini proposes to rather identify "The Essene" with the "Enochich" tradition at large: if the Enochic party was not the "Essene" party, then it was its twin, he prudently suggests.

Most important is Boccaccini's memento about the fact that Enochic/Essene literature continued after "the parting of the ways" with the Qumran community. From this more recent tradition also Christianity stems, he hints.

And here is the most deceiving point in this book. The huge interest in Qumran was first caused, among other things, from the suspect it was sort of a "parent" community for Christianity. Christianity, Qumran texts seemed to suggest, might have had Qumranic, i.e. allegedly "Essene", roots.
What Boccaccini does, undercover, is showing that these roots were *not* planted in the Qumran tradition... but rather in the larger "Enochic" (Essene) tradition!

The lack of a chapter about Christian roots in Essenism is the weakest point in this book, at least to me (this was the first reason why I bought it). But by reading the title one realizes Boccaccini never promised to deliver such a chapter in the first place, hence my 5 stars.

However, prudence in an exceedingly "hot" issue, not lack of relevance of the issue, is the real reason why Boccaccini did not write such a chapter: all of the documents, and the reasoning, necessary to allow the reader to draw by himself this conclusion, are in this book. Simply, the author refrains from drawing this conclusion by himself, although he explicitly hints at it two or three times along the book.

I strongly recommend this work, but I warn about the need to complement it with other works if the Essene/Christian question is what you are interested in. ... Read more