'Journal of a Voyage With Bering 1741-1742' is very impressive because it is an as-close-to and an as-smooth-as possible translation of Steller's original journal of his 'epic' journey with Captain-Commander Vitus Bering from the Kamchtaka peninsula to the Aleutians, Alaska, and their intense voyage back through a very hazardous winter (ultimately the vessel was shipwrecked on Bering Island, where the Captain met his untimely fate...). In reading this book you can sense just how ominous that region was for first-time explorers (and still is!), and the fear engendered by such an awesome unknown region is evident in many of the crewmen's comments (and ends...). Steller himself is quite the opposite- very steadfast in the journey, and very focused on his work- what the expedition worked hard for ten years to prepare for- to study the area and peoples and flora and fauna etc. beyond the 60th parallel NE of Russia.
I gave this account 4 stars instead of 5 because the introduction- while very scholarly and interesting- might be too pedantic at times. One buys this book to first and foremost read Steller's account of the voyage - not to read about all the minutae details of the man's various capacities prior to the expedition. Stating he was a masterful botanist, biologist, marine biologist, medic, etc. might have been enough...
The other problem I have with this book is Steller himself, who more often than not holds gripes against his crew and the Captain- and does not restrain himself from making this known in his writing. The problem is, is that often I feel the Captain's wariness is justified, while Steller would rather just go off and study plants and the indigenes, irrespective (oblivious?) of the dangers of the region and the timeframe before the onset of winter. The point is, for anyone who has navigated by ship the Aleutian waters even in our modern era - those waters are some of the most, if not THEE most dangerous waters in the world- and Steller, while at times making good and prudent navigational decisions (which, by the way, were often ignored by Captain Bering), at other times just wanted to go around and collect plants and artifacts when the rest of the crew and the Captain rightly wanted to lift anchor- and often waited just for Steller to return to the ship for this very purpose. Steller just put the entire crew in undue danger on more than one occasion.
Overall, though, this is a fascinating account of the very earliest Aleutians Islands voyage by 'Europeans.' Read and judge for yourself who was making the best calls. Sometimes it was Steller- but at other times, the Captain's prudence was very justified.

'Journal of a Voyage With Bering 1741-1742' is very impressive because it is an as-close-to and an as-smooth-as possible translation of Steller's original journal of his 'epic' journey with Captian-Commander Bering from the Kamchta peninsula to the Aleutians, Alaska, and their intense voyage back through a hazardous winter (ultimately the vessel was shipwrecked on Bering Island, where the Captain met his untimely fate...). In reading this book you can sense just how ominous that region was for first-time explorers (and still is!), and the fear engendered by such an awesome unknown region is evident in many of the crewmen's comments. Steller himself is quite the opposite- and very focused on his work- what they worked hard for ten years to do- to study the area and peoples and flora and fauna etc. beyond the 60th parallel NE of Russia.

I gave this account 4 stars instead of 5 because the introduction- while very scholarly and interesting- might be too much at times. One buys this book to read Steller's account of the voyage first and foremost- not to read about all the details of the man's various capacities. Stating he was a masterful botanist, biologist, marine biologist, medic, etc. might have been enough...

The other problem I have with this book is Steller himself, who more often than not holds gripes against his crew and the Captain- and does not restrain himself from making this known. The problem is, is that often I feel the Captain's wariness is justified, while Steller would rather just go off and study plants and the indigenes, irrespective (oblivious?) of the dangers of the region and the timeframe before the onset of winter. The point is, for anyone who has navigated by ship the Aleutian waters even in our modern era- is that those waters are some of the most, if noit THEE most dangerous waters in the world- and Steller, while at times making good and prudent navigational decisions (which, by the way, were often ignored by Captain Bering), at other times he just wanted to go around and collect plants and artifacts when the rest of the crew and the Captain rightly wanted to lift anchor- and often waited just for Steller to return to the ship for this very purpose.

Overall, it's a fascinating account of the very earliest Aleutians voyage by 'Europeans.' Read and judge for yourself who was making the best calls. Sometimes it was Steller- but at other times, the Cpatain's prudence was very justified.

i thought this book's scope is philosophy of psychology but it was not

This book is worth getting for the last entry alone. Wittgenstein's observation of the current state of language and our temptation to supplant it with technological counterparts is terrifying in it's accuracy. The final entry speaks to our times like nothing I have ever read. I expect the entry to be forever lost. A pity more technologists don't read Wittgenstein.

This book provides a good and somewhat detailed introduction to the subject of supersymmetry in quantum mechanics and statistical physics. Unlike the limitations of published papers and/or lectures (which this book is based on), the author has and uses the luxury of space to include very useful detail, normally glossed over. This book is not however, an introduction to supersymmetry in general, but focuses on supersymmetry in quantum and statistical systems. It therefore provides a useful, but far from complete description of the subject. It is therefore well suited for people first entering the field, or as a limited review of the subject.

This is a very nice introduction to an elegant but rather neglected aspect of quantum mechanics. I like this book very much, and I refer to it quite often. It is very well written. I sincerely hope that the author will consider a new, enlarged edition with more details and an account of more recent aspects of the subject. ...

Well, this play sure was unique, I'll give it that. I had to read it for the Theatre Arts International Baccalaureate Exam (2001). It was one of three choices (the other two were by Dario Fo and Lorraine Hansberry which explains their listing on the "people who bought this also bought" list) and it seemed the most interesting. Basically, Woyzeck is a soldier in 1830s Germany. He has a girlfriend whom he discovers is cheating on him with a higher-ranking official. All the while, he is humiliated by his superiors and the townspeople. One day, he buys a knife and murders his girlfriend. The author, Georg Buechner, died while writing the play, so it ends, rather ambiguously, with Woyzeck wading into a pond into which he will throw the murder weapon. This was an interesting play to analyze for IB inasmuch as it provided a good deal of material for me to work with and I had good ideas about how the play ought to be produced. Still, the plot was very strange.

(I always wanted to say that.)

Woyzeck is a designer's nightmare but an actor's dream: a tragedy of immediate imagery, almost written for the MTV generation. Scenes that last at most two pages flicker around archetypes like the overbearing Major and the menacing Doctor, while the play's more human characters find themselves caught in between. There are searingly tragic moments (as befits the genre). There are also darkly funny ones: Woyzeck's conspiracy theories, Andres's childish songs, the Scholar's politically incorrect comments.

Buchner left the world young, and if this play is any indication, that's a tragedy too. As a reader, an actor or a (shudder) designer, you'll enjoy being swept along by his work.

Nearly every aspect of Western culture in 20th century was dominated by "isms": humanism, atheism, communism, socialism, anarchism, egoism, nihilism, materialism, serialism, surrealism, existentialism, abstractionism, cubism, revisionism, deconstructionism, minimalism, globalism...just to name a few. Just about any 20th century "isms" you can think of relating to philosophy, culture, theology, religion, literature, visual art, even music and architecture, is most likely related somehow to the Young Hegelians of the mid to late 19th century. The Young Hegelians were not just a school of thought or a group of devoted followers: they were an intellectual tour de force and collective cultural catalyst.

The Young Hegelians sought to bring Hegel's philosophy to the world through their own critiques, revisions and interpretations. Individually, they were a diverse group whose interests spanned philosophy, politics, philology, religion, history and aesthetics, and they were as prone to disagree with their intellectual godfather Hegel as among themselves. Their influence was expansive, despite the fact that in a short time they managed to dismantled themselves as an intellectual collective.

Because of their dialogue with the then nascent field of psychology and their interest in society and culture, Young Hegelians' thought helped pave the development of sociology and anthropology as scientific disciplines. Their convictions also changed the face of Western politics in an astonishing short time, including the more notorious examples of the Leninist revolution and the Third Reich. Contemporary methodologies in the studies of theology, comparative religion, semantics and textual analysis are too their direct descendents. Additionally, nearly every notable innovation in art in the early 20th century, from Klee and Picasso to Schoenberg and Stravinsky, have their roots in the contribution of the Young Hegelians. In literature, their ideas underscored the emergence of the "philosophical novel," by the likes of Camus, Orwell, and Rand, and fueled the literary innovations of writers like Stein, Hemingway, and Joyce (Joyce's Ulysses, a.k.a. "the greatest novel of the 20th century," may have never been written if not for the seminal influence of the Young Hegelians' interpretation of art and its role within culture and history).

This remarkable impact is why an anthology like Stepelevich's is so important. Most educated people know vaguely what the Jesus Seminar is, but have never heard of David Friedrich Strauss, or are familiar with the concepts of socialism and materialism, but aren't knowledgable of the thought of Marx and Engels. They would probably be as equally oblivious to the names of Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer. Much less would they know how these thinkers' contributions relate back to Hegel. This anthology provides us with a selection of writing of many of the Young Hegelians, with each selection demonstrating both that individual philosopher's primary interests and his connection to Hegel's thought. Most literature currently available on this men are either secondary texts or not in English, so while it is not an extensive collection, it is a very beneficial anthology of primary texts in readable English translation (relatively speaking, but bear in mind, philosophical German is the eighth ring of Hell, so there's only so much a translator can do) that can help the student or scholar put these men and their contributions into proper historical context. These texts are not easy reads, usually requiring a good understanding of the main tenets of Hegel's thought, and certain selections are better understood with further knowledge of metaphysics or the cultural-political-religious climates of the writers' time. Therefore I can't recommend this for novice, casual or "armchair" readers, but it is an important text for any serious study of contemporary philosophy, history and culture.

I've only read the Strauss, Feuerbach, and Marx portions of this book, so this review is not fully representative. However, I have to say that the ideas presented by these authors are absolutely fascinating. They really make you rethink your religious beliefs. However, Nietzsche was right, these guys could not write! Someone needed to tell them that the complexity of the language does not have to reflect the complexity of the subject matter. Still, it is worth slogging through to get at the ideas.

Where Ellis and Palahniuk anatomize Greed in America, Oswald (and his continental contemporaries Houelbecq and Brusselmans) register the character and effect of the New Global Order in the Old World. All that counts for the narrator-protagonist Thomas Schwarz is money, but the consequences of his shallow worldview (and personality) ironically lead him to an increasingly desperate reassesment of what really matters. Though written with the fast pace and deft eye of the best of popular fiction, Oswald's novel offers no happy endings or easy solutions (just like life in the new economy in Europe or North America). Though the characters (like real folks) are often unlikeable, the pathos of their situation and their motivations and their consequences result in scenes that are authentically moving, laying bare the humanity that has been ignored by our new social order in general and glossed over by the very people that literally and figuratively buy into it. For the reader curious about the world outside of North America, especially for anyone interested in an intelligent, darkly and subtley funny, and humane--but no less critical--take on contemporary life in Europe, All That Counts is a book well worth the investment. Oswald's sly but penetrating insight into the contemporary state of Western society makes him an author that counts.

This is the first complete English translation of an important work by the Dutch botanist, zoologist, and ethnographer Rumphius; it was first published in 1705. On his arrival on the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies, Rumphius began studying, as a hobby, the region's flora and fauna; soon, he was toying with the idea of writing a book on the subject.

However, he went blind at 42, and thus was forced to write his books during three decades of "sad darkness." Notwithstanding this misfortune, his charming descriptions are marvellously detailed; as though in compensation for his blindness, he had a prodigious visual memory and a gift for striking descriptions. (In fact, a 1990 scientific survey of Ambon praised Rumphius for his "great accuracy and reliability.") The black-and-white plates are beautiful, and would be worth having even if one had no intention of reading a word of the text.

Apart from its scientific virtues, "The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet" contains many evocative and mildly alarming passages, as thus: "The Dog Crab...extends its hollow passages under Houses, and crawls out of them at night, making a lot of noise. It also knows how to creep up on Chickens, grab one by the feet, and haul it to its hole, which causes the nocturnal noise that one hears sometimes coming from the Chicken coops. If you pour hot water in their holes, they have to come out."

This is a valuable work of ethnography as well, since Rumphius respectfully catalogs the natives' folklore and social behavior. And he is not above throwing in the odd bit of gossip, political commentary, or personal anecdote. (For hardier souls than myself, it might even serve as a cookbook, since Rumphius describes his attempts to eat virtually every creature he comes across.)

Rumphius epitomizes the best qualities of the woefully devalued seventeenth-century approach to science: as the editor and translator of this volume says, his writing "is ready to impart information yet is more interested in understanding, while as religion, it aspires to a state of rapture but does not want to impose orthodoxy or ideology." More by far than one could say of Richard Dawkins!

Anyone who enjoys this book may also wish to track down a used copy of "The Poison Tree," which comprises excerpts from the same author's massive "Ambonese Herbal."

This is the doctoral thesis of H.G. Richter, one of the foremost wood anatomists of our time and a specialist in Lauraceae. Illustrated by black&white photomicrographs (mostly taken by light microscope but also some by electron microscope) and a few color photographs.

Contains a wealth of information on the wood and bark anatomy of Lauraceae. However, note that Lauraceae is a family in which a considerable amount of work has been done since 1981.

For a brief survey of the anatomy of Lauraceae in English by the same author see "Anatomy of the Dicotyledons, 2nd ed., Vol 3" (1987).

Because Blake and Hegel employ systems far from any plausible means of similitude, it is a difficult endeavor upon which Punter embarks. he does an adequate job of observing these similarities, yet the feel of the work is a Blakean mimesis of Hegel. His work implies that he is more acquainted with Blake than with Hegel, yet his premise is interesting enough. furthermore, this is the only book out there to try and syncretize two such obscure and little read (and less understood) figures. although only good--not great--it is an essential for any student of Blake and Hegel.

Professor Dostal has assembled a useful collection of essays for this volume. The best contributions are by Jean Grondin (shrewd and astute, as always) and Fred Lawrence and someone named Gunter Figal.

Unfortunately, Richard J. Bernstein's piece on Gadamer/Habermas/Derrida is a bit thin, while J.M. Baker Jr.'s essay on lyric poetry seems endless.

Professor Dostal's essay on Gadamer and Heidegger (always a thorny subject) is especially good.

Recommended.