Author: Alan N. Shapiro
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The Best of All Possible Worlds: Modal Metaphysics and Possibilia, by James Shapiro
A brilliant intellectual whose work spanned many fields—mathematics, geometry, physics, etc., in addition to his philosophical contributions—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz remains best known for his rather unique version of “theodicy.” This term refers to an argument defending the benevolence of God and His methods, despite the worldly suffering and injustice that has and always will occur.
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Media theory: beyond the dualities of form and content, critical and enthusiastic, real and fake, by Alan N. Shapiro
On January 26, 2012, I gave a lecture in the Speakers’ Series of the Centre for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. My topic was: “Media theory: beyond the dualities of form and content, critical and enthusiastic, real and fake.”
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Introduction to Polona Tratnik, by Anja Wiesinger
In a biological sense, being part of the human skin, hair regulates the body temperature. It is home to millions of bacteria that interchange with the environment and help build the body’s resistance to harmful organisms. Hair is not able to grow or continue to live when departed from the human body and cut off…
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti: Artworks of Nicola Toffolini (translated by Alan N. Shapiro)
Nicola Toffolini works on the nature-technology marriage by elaborating singular ecosystems enclosed in glass and aluminium cases of marked formal elegance. Inside plants have been placed which, in order to live, depend on sophisticated electronic mechanisms, which visitors operate from the outside interactively.
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Impressionist Paintings by Florence Morrison, Installment 3
My mother was a realist and slightly impressionist painter of natural and nautical scenes who paradoxically studied with the abstract master Mark Rothko.
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Anticipating the Future through Knowledge of the Fiction in Social Reality, by Alan N. Shapiro
I was the keynote speaker at the conference on “Das Wissen der Zukunft” (“Knowledge of the Future”) that took place at the University of Vienna on November 4-5, 2011.