Suggested Books of the Week 29, 2019 | Books - Helge Scherlund's eLearning News

Check out these books below by Dover Publications, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

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The Geometry of René Descartes: with a Facsimile of the First Edition

The Geometry of René Descartes:
with a Facsimile of the First Edition

This is an unabridged republication of the definitive English translation of one of the very greatest classics of science. Originally published in 1637, it has been characterized as "the greatest single step ever made in the progress of the exact sciences" (John Stuart Mill); as a book which "remade geometry and made modern geometry possible" (Eric Temple Bell). It "revolutionized the entire conception of the object of mathematical science" (J. Hadamard).

With this volume Descartes founded modern analytical geometry. Reducing geometry to algebra and analysis and, conversely, showing that analysis may be translated into geometry, it opened the way for modern mathematics.
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Mathematics in Ancient Greece 

Mathematics in Ancient Greece

More than a history of mathematics, this lively book traces mathematical ideas and processes to their sources, stressing the methods used by the masters of the ancient world. Author Tobias Dantzig portrays the human story behind mathematics, showing how flashes of insight in the minds of certain gifted individuals helped mathematics take enormous forward strides. Dantzig demonstrates how the Greeks organized their precursors' melange of geometric maxims into an elegantly abstract deductive system. He also explains the ways in which some of the famous mathematical brainteasers of antiquity led to the development of whole new branches of mathematics.
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A Short Account of the History of Mathematics (eBook)

A Short Account of
History of Mathematics (eBook)

This is a new printing, the first inexpensive one, of one of the most honored histories of mathematics of all time. When the last revised edition appeared in 1908, it was hailed by mathematicians and laymen alike, and it remains one of the clearest, most authoritative, and most accurate works in the field. Mathematicians welcomed it as a lucid overview of the development of mathematics down through the centuries. Laymen welcomed it as a work which gave them an opportunity to understand the development of one of the most recondite and difficult of all intellectual endeavors, and the individual contributions of its great men.
In this standard work, Dr. Ball treats hundreds of figures and schools that have been instrumental in the development of mathematics from the Egyptians and Phoenicians to such giants of the 19th century as Grassman, Hermite, Galois, Lie, Riemann, and many others who established modern mathematics as we know it today.
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Foucault: A Very Short Introduction 

Foucault:  
A Very Short Introduction

Foucault is one of those rare philosophers who has become a cult figure. From aesthetics to the penal system; from madness and civilisation to avant-garde literature, he rejected old models of thinking and replaced them with versions that are still debated today. This book introduces and explores aspects of his life, work, and thought.

• Provides a wide-ranging but non-systematic treatment of some highlights of Foucault's life and thought
• New edition includes feminist criticisms of Foucault's apparently sexist treatment of the Jouy case
• Includes a new chapter offering a unified overview of the Collège de France lectures, now a major focus of interest in Foucault
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

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Socrates: A Very Short Introduction 

Socrates: A Very Short Introduction

Christopher Taylor introduces the life and philosophy of Socrates, whose work has played a central role in shaping Western philosophical thinking for centuries. Examining what we can deduce about Socrates from the writings of his contemporaries (as he himself left none), Taylor traces the reception and influence of his thought to the modern day.

• Introduces the life and philosophy of Socrates, whose work has played a central role in shaping Western philosophical thinking for centuries
• Includes a new chapter analysing the reception and influence of Socrates in 19th and 20th century philosophical thought
• New edition includes an extensively updated bibliography
• Examines what we can deduce about Socrates from the writings of his contemporaries (as he himself left none)
• Traces the reception and influence of his thought to the modern day
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

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Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction

Michael Beaney introduces analytic philosophy by exploring some of the key ideas of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Susan Stebbing. He also considers how analytic philosophy has developed and spread to become the dominant philosophical tradition across the world.

• Offers a clear, accessible introduction to analytic philosophy, introducing some of the key ideas of five of its main founders
• Illustrates the fruitfulness and conceptual creativity of analytic philosophy
• Explores the spread of analytic philosophy to become the dominant philosophical tradition across the world
• Discusses the criticisms of analytic philosophy
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over eight million copies sold worldwide

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Engaging Boys in Active Literacy - Evidence and Practice

Engaging Boys in Active LiteracyEvidence and Practice

Too many boys do not like to read, are choosing not to read, and are suffering academically as a result. All concerned adults need to redouble their efforts to ensure that boys who bring the greatest challenges to our classrooms and schools receive responsive literacy texts and practices to increase their chances for academic, personal, and occupational success...

The descriptions of how teachers have used engaging texts and practices to help boys overcome low literacy engagement and skill in order to stay on course as readers and writers are highly informative and practical as models of best practice.

• Strikes an appropriate balance between research and practice
• Geared towards readers from both scholarly and practical backgrounds
• Includes a strong evidence-base for several key factors associated with boys' literacy development
• Presents synopses of boys from a range of backgrounds and abilities

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What Is Intelligence? - Beyond the Flynn Effect 

What Is Intelligence?
Beyond the Flynn Effect

The 'Flynn effect' refers to the massive increase in IQ test scores over the course of the twentieth century. Does it mean that each generation is more intelligent than the last? Does it suggest how each of us can enhance our own intelligence?...

A fascinating book that bridges the gulf separating our minds from those of our ancestors a century ago, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of human intelligence.

• Expanded paperback edition of James R. Flynn's acclaimed What Is Intelligence, which has sold over 6,500 copies world-wide
• The style is simple and direct, yet even experts will find their understanding of intelligence enhanced
• Boxes and figures make IQ trends easy to comprehend

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Foundations of Affective Social Learning - Conceptualizing the Social Transmission of Value

Foundations of Affective Social Learning
 Conceptualizing the Social Transmission of Value

Written by experts in comparative, developmental, social, cognitive and cultural psychology, this book introduces the novel concept of affective social learning to help explain why what matters to us, matters to us...

As such, affective social learning conceptualises the transmission of value from a given culture to a given person and reveals why the things that are so important to us can be of no consequence at all to others.

• Introduces the new concept of affective social learning to offer a clear framework for the social transmission of values
• Provides different views and arguments about the topic and about learning from emotions more generally, both ontogenetically and phylogenetically
• Informs discussions about how much of our world can be learned individually and how much must be learned socially and culturally through emotions

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Source: Dover Publications, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.