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- Quick and Interesting Fable on Cloning
- Still Great After All These Years
- The parable of the collective
- Almost 30 years later, this book is more relevant now then ever...
- Wow!!!
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Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel
Kate Wilhelm
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ASIN: 0312866151 |
Book Description
Before becoming one of today's most intriguing and innovative mystery writers, Kate Wilhelm was a leading writer of science fiction, acclaimed for classics like The Infinity Box and The Clewiston Test. The story of an isolated post-holocaust community of clones who are determined to preserve civilization, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is widely regarded as her finest work, and won SF's Hugo Award and Locus Award on its first publication.
Customer Reviews:
Quick and Interesting Fable on Cloning.......2006-12-14
Willhelm has written an interesting take on the implications of cloning and the loss of human individuality. Set in a world where environmental factors have forced a large extended family to create a kind of end-of-the-world compound where they can work on curing the eventual sterility of the entire human race by cloning, the author explores what it means to be human, and the importance of natural sexual reproduction. The 3 main storylines deal with subsequent generations of this family clone farm.
Most chilling is her hypothesis on what status "breeders" will hold in a world where everyone can be genetically manipulated for a particular job (yes, there is a little Brave New World flavor here). Those who bear children are looked at more as cattle to keep the gene pool diverse than as the revered few able to reproduce. In the end even the clones become like cattle to those who can control human reproduction with a few twists of a dial and then use conditioning to turn them into whatever kind of human (or non-human) bests suits the needs of the "community".
Overall Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is an enjoyably quick and thought-provoking read, with a bit of a fable-like quality throughout.
Still Great After All These Years.......2006-06-25
I read this book back when it was first published in the late 1970's and it has gripped my imagination since that time. I am an avid reader of all type of materials and few stay in my mind like this book. I have reread it several times over the years and currently am reading it again. It deals with what could happen after war/disease or some other disaster lays waste to most of the world and its population. The science is well done enough to be believable- but I think the best part of the book is the human interactions between the "Elders" and the Clones. I find it a very well written book and would highly recommend it to anyone. If you are hard core science then try to overlook the scientific portion about cloning and just enjoy the ride.
The parable of the collective.......2006-03-28
American literature of the 60's and 70's has a distinctive flavour of individualism, partly as a product of the worship of the individual heroes (Washington, Davey Crockett, etc.) that explored and/or created the country, and partly as a reaction to the perceived "homogeneity" of communism. By definition, the theory went, a person could not possibly be happy unless he was first free. This award-winning book by Kate Wilhelm is a parable of the triumph of individualism over the collective.
This is not a new theme for science fiction - the Original Star Trek series had a number of such episodes, and the Grand Master Robert Heinlein visited this topic numerous times. "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" has similarities to the Classic Trek episode "The Apple" and Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold." But mainly I was reminded of Robert Silverberg's "A Time of Changes" - in both tales a society is developed and then from within that society arises an individual who must destroy the complacency of the society to save its people. In Wilhelm's book, an ecological catastrophe (and a development of human infertility) destroys the human race except a group of scientists that propogate themselves in the only way possible - by cloning. Thus a society of clones: family groups are a batch of 6-10 identical clones raised as a unit. Wilhelm introduces the notion of genetic ESP - basically accepting the supposed (but unproven) link that twins feel for each other (e.g. when one is hurt, the other senses something is wrong). Unfortunately, by cloning the exact same genetic material over and over, subsequent generations of clones become more and more specialised (one group is doctors, one group builds barns, etc.) until no one in the society has any initiative or imagination.
Into this society is introduced an anomaly - actually two. A woman has a traumatic experience that allows her latent individuality to surface. She is impregnated and gives birth to a son - the only "singleton" child in the entire human race. The book mostly follows the lives of these two characters as they rebel against their society and the fear they bring. They know, but no one else can see, that the society is a dead end and they must destroy the cloning system in order to free the potential of the surviving members of the human race.
Wilhelm's book is not perfect - as others have pointed out, the science is pretty simplistic (if not wrong!). You also get the uncomfortable feeling that she hates her creation (the clone society), which leads to an overly "black and white" interpretation: individuality = good, collectivism = bad. But I think this book is meant to be a parable, and as such need not be realistic or subtle. Wilhelm's writing is concise, suspenseful, and very enjoyable. While I think "A Time of Changes" covers much of the same material and does it better, there is no doubt that "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" is an easier and more enjoyable read.
Almost 30 years later, this book is more relevant now then ever..........2005-09-27
Those familiar with Wilhelm's large catalogue of mystery novels probably don't even know that she won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1976/77 with this entry. Although this falls into the science fiction genre, it really is able to transcend all the normal SF stereotypes and ends up being a fantastic read.
The book is about a post-holocaust community that aims to perpetuate the human species through cloning. The book is divided into three sections with the first being the best and this could stand alone as a novella by itself although I wouldn't say the book is entirely uneven.
Despite what other reviewers have posted, I think there is some basic cloning science in this but its comprehension in needed to fully appreciate the book. Wilhelm is smart not to delve too hard into the science as capturing the humanistic side of her characters is clearly her strength.
The book expounds on the individual vs. the collective theme and this is one of the reasons why it doesn't feel dated. With cloning on the technological horizon, this book provides an interesting fictional take on the pitfalls of scientific procreation vs. natural childbirth.
Bottom Line: A short book about cloning mixed with a strong dose of humanity. A great book for non-sf readers looking to expand their horizons. A must read for anyone who likes to read the Hugo winners.
Wow!!!.......2004-02-24
What a great story. I vould not put it down. Maybe a bit dated (written in 76 or 77) but a marvellous post-holocaust story. The woman can WRITE!!
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Extrapolation, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 9815 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: "To love that well which thou must leave ere long": creativity and the journey of maturity in Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.(Critical essay)
Author: Paul Kucera
Publication:
Extrapolation (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 48
Issue: 2
Page: 364(20)
Article Type: Critical essay
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Classic introduction to objectives and methods of schools of empiricism and linguistic analysis, especially of the logical positivism derived from the Vienna Circle. Topics: elimination of metaphysics, function of philosophy, nature of philosophical analysis, the a priori, truth and probability, critique of ethics and theology, self and the common world, more.
Customer Reviews:
A very important book.......2006-11-04
Ayer is gifted as a clear, precise writer.
Agree or disagree with Ayer, this is a book every contemporary analytic philosopher should read.
A Crazy Classic.......2006-05-03
Ayer's "Language, Truth and Logic" is written clearly and passionately. It electrified and shocked its audience, and became one of the most influential pieces of analytic philosophy in the twentieth century. And it was almost entirely mistaken.
Ayer articulates an extreme empiricist theory according to which all literally meaningful statements are either analytic or empirically verifiable. The theory is supposed to resolve or dissolve various philosophical disputes by showing that they are about statements that are literally meaningless (like gibberish that is neither true nor false).
Ethical statements are argued to be literally meaningless, while functioning primarily to express the subject's feelings. Statements about God and metaphysics are also rejected as literally meaningless. Other topics covered include the nature of truth, probability, personal identity, the material world and philosophical analysis.
Along with logical empiricism or positivism generally, Ayer's theory is not very popular anymore, and it's hard to understand why it ever was, given the extensive (and to my mind often quite obvious) criticism it deserves and has received.
Nevertheless, "Language, Truth and Logic" does a better job of articulating and explaining a version of logical empiricism than does any other work that I am aware of, and given its influence, it is of historical interest.
My edition of this book is the Penguin edition (2001), though this review may be posted for other editions of "Language, Truth and Logic" as are other reviews. My edition is nicely set forth, and includes as an appendix what I think has sometimes been published as the preface to the second edition of the book. It also includes a very brief introduction to Ayer, the book and its influence.
A Classic Discussion of Positivist Thought.......2006-03-16
Language, Truth and Logic by Alfred J. Ayer was originally published in 1936. The current text published by Dover is a re-release of the 1946 edition - unchanged from the original except for an additional introduction by the author. Ayer is a well known and respected mid-twentieth century philosopher.
Language, Truth and Logic is the first detailed English work articulating the logical positivist thought of the Vienna Circle. Logical positivism major focus was on the issue of what constituted a meaningful statement and subsequently what was the proper role of philosophy. In the positivist view meaningful statement were either tautologies (statements that are true by definition e.g. mathematical truths) or propositions that could be proved/disproved by empirical investigation. They argued that propositions that did not adhere to these criterion were meaningless or non-sense (questions of religion and ethics would fall into this category). As a result of this restrictive interpretation of truth/knowledge they saw philosophical discourse relegated to a largely logical-linguistic role - as opposed to any type of metaphysical speculation.
The genesis of Positivist thought can be found in the early twentieth century works of Russell and Wittgenstein. Although this school of thought continues to have some advocates its popularity has declined markedly during the latter part of the twentieth century. Logical positivism demise stemmed from a range of reasons, not the least of which was its limited intuitive appeal and its apparent lack of internal consistency. With regard to the first point, to some, positivism seemed to artificially remove many of life's most important issues from discussion; e.g. ethics, God and beauty. While from a philosophical perspective positivism appeared to be self referentially inconsistent, i.e. its assertions appeared not to meet its own criterion (i.e. the assertion of what was a meaningful statement was itself not meaningful). Positivism's advocates have attempted to escape this latter charge - but these efforts have been largely unsuccessful.
Despite the fact that Logical Positivism has fallen out of favor (some would say relegated to the dust bin of history), Ayer's remains a classic exposition of this important movement in twentieth century philosophy. I recommend it to all serious students of philosophy.
A superb book about logical positivism.......2005-10-18
Ayer is simply fed up with metaphysical and religious claims that appear to be nonsensical. So he makes us ask the following question about any claim we feel is hard to interpret:
"Would any observations be relevant to the determination of its truth or falsehood?"
That gets us away from having to worry about what otherwise might appear to be cognitive remarks, such as "god exists."
If it is then claimed that there is indeed evidence that would be relevant, we start to interpret claims in that light. If we are told that the existence of thunder and lightning shows that god exists, we can interpret the statement "god exists" as being equivalent to "sometimes, there is thunder and lightning." That, and no more.
The idea is to connect claims to verification, and to connect meaningfulness (or cognitivity) to verifiability.
Plenty of people say that the logical positivists are Wrong, or that Ayer is Wrong. But that is silly. What they have given us is a method for arguing about potentially ambiguous statements. How we use this method is up to us. Saying that this method is Wrong is preposterous. We merely need to figure out when it is appropriate to use it and how to do so.
In this book, we learn a little about logic, and we get some good training in the law of excluded middle. That law says that a proposition has to be either true or false. It is not possible that neither it nor its contradictory are true. We may not be able to tell if it is true or false. But if we see two statements which both appear to be true, they can't truly be contradictory. Ayer gives some good examples of this and of several other elements of logic.
This is indeed a classic work. One can read it in a matter of hours, and it is well worth it for anyone who wants to use logic to seek answers to questions.
Language, Truth and Logic by A.J. Ayer.......2005-07-05
I know this logical positivist approach to life and thinking is supposed to be out of date, generally considered false, but still, it has its attractive side, it has a common-sense feeling to it, it has a kind of clear sharp-edge quality, it is sort of seductive. It's like something I could use in daily life.
Book Description
Is truth objective or relative? What exists independently of our minds? This book is about these two questions. The essays in its pages variously defend and critique answers to each, grapple over the proper methodology for addressing them, and wonder whether either question is worth pursuing. In so doing, they carry on a long and esteemed tradition - for our two questions are among the oldest of philosophical issues, and have vexed almost every major philosopher, from Plato, to Kant to Wittgenstein. Fifteen eminent contributors bring fresh perspectives, renewed energy and original answers to debates which have been the focus of a tremendous amount of interest in the last three decades both within philosophy and the culture at large.
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- Essential readings in the Philosophy of Language
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Truth and Meaning: Essays in Semantics
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Vagueness: A Reader
ASIN: 019825007X |
Book Description
Truth and Meaning is a classic collection of original essays on fundamental questions in the philosophy of language. It was first published in 1976, and has remained essential reading in this area ever since; this is its first appearance in paperback. The contributors include leading figures in late twentieth-century philosophy, such as Donald Davidson, Saul Kripke, P. F. Strawson, and Michael Dummett. Most of the papers are not available elsewhere.
Customer Reviews:
Essential readings in the Philosophy of Language.......2001-01-04
This collection of papers was first published in 1976. It represents some of the best work on both Donald Davidson's suggestion that philosophical questions about meaning can be resolved by hammering out what form should be taken by a theory specifying the meanings of all the sentences in a language, and his claim that the form of such a theory will be closely related to that of Tarski style truth definitions. Since its publication many of the papers have become classics, the content of which must be mastered by anyone interested in the philosophy of language. Examples are the contributions by Davidson, Dummett, McDowell, and Evans. Note that the content of this book is quite difficult and probably penetrable only after acquaintence w/ the basics of the philosophy of language. For that a collection like Martinich's or Ludlow's along w/ Blackburn's 'Spreading the Word' should suffice.
Book Description
The concepts of identity, existence, predication, necessity, and truth are at the centre of philosophy and have rightly received sustained attention. Yet Colin McGinn believes that orthodox views of these topics are misguided in important ways. Philosophers and logicians have often distorted the nature of these concepts in an attempt to define them according to preconceived ideas. Logical Properties aims to respect the ordinary ways we talk and think when we employ these concepts, while at the same time showing that they are far more interesting and peculiar than some have supposed. There are real properties corresponding to these concepts - logical properties - that challenge naturalistic metaphysical views. These are not pseudo-properties or mere pieces of syntax. Logical Properties is written with the minimum of formal apparatus and deals with logico-linguistic issues as well as ontological ones. The focus is on trying to get to the essence of what the concept concerned stands for, and not merely finding some established notation for providing formal paraphrases.
Customer Reviews:
Well written but of limited utility.......2004-01-10
In this book Prof. McGinn gives an extremely concise tractation of the five basic concepts of identity, existence, predication, necessity and truth. Each concept corresponds to a chapter, in which McGinn, after briefly delineating an "orthodox view", proceeds to describe his personal theories. The book is well written and easy to follow. Some of the points raised by McGinn are of outstanding interest, others are not impressive at all. By putting so much emphasis on his personal views, the author reduces to the minimum his dialogue with famous philosophers and this results in some cases in a not very complete dissertation. Although the book is interesting, I think it offers itself to a narrow audience, not because it is too specialistic, but because it does not contain extensive introductions to each topic.
A clear text on logical notions..........2002-06-13
This book is an excellent primer on the topic of what McGinn calls logical properties. He has organized chapters on identity, existence, predication, necessity, and truth. I highly recommend this text as well as others: Kripke: Naming and Necessity; Quine: Philosophy of Logic, Methods of Logic; Forbes: Metaphysics of Modality; Salmon: Reference and Essence, Frege's Puzzle.
This text is a decent overview of these topics, eps. on Frege, Russell, and Kripke. The most interesting chs. are on necessity and existence (Soames is the authority on truth).
McGinn argues in favor of existence in terms of a first-order predicate (as opposed to quantificational paraphrase) and rejects identity in strictly quantifiable terms (via Leibniz's law). He sees identity as a primitive relation expressed by a 2-place predicate, which is his take off stance on necessity (possible worlds). At bottom, McGinn rejects a philosopher's 'infatuation' with expressions of modality as strictly quantificational. One may find interest in his arguments for such a rejection.
Makes your head spin.......2001-02-09
In this exquisite little book, philosopher McGinn explores fundamental notions of logic and clears away the mist surrounding these notions. Identity is primitive and undefinable; existence is a predicate (!), predicates are more like singular terms than names (!), and "truth" really means something and is not redundant (!). This small text is of particular interest to those interested in analytic philosophy. It's radical and written with extraordinary clarity. Not that it doesn't have parts that can be attacked (what doesn't?), but it is a refreshing re-examination of important logical properties.
Another superb book by a fine, contemporary philosopher.......2001-01-12
Colin McGinn excels as both a writing stylist and lucid thinker. Logical Properties is a brief text in which McGinn re-visits topics that dominated his thinking in the 70s and 80s. The new perspective he brings to these topics (namely, Identity, Existence, Predication, Necessity, and Truth - of course)after venturing off into other areas of philosophy makes this book particularly enlightening.
Caution: it is not for an audience unfamiliar with college level philosophy, but neither is it exceedingly complex.
I place McGinn up there with Hume as a stylist and philosopher.
Book Description
This lucid and engaging volume provides an introduction to the essential issues and concepts of contemporary analytic philosophy. It introduces students to the pivotal arguments that motivate work in the field, while arguing a definite point of view in a style that encourages discussion and debate. It develops a broadly Fregean methodology in which semantics is concerned with the concept of content required in rationalizing explanations of behaviour. Key problems and positions covered include: truth, meaning, and inference; arguments against the possibility of meaning; the realism/anti-realism debate, and the theory of inference.This text gives voice to the idea that the study of the philosophy of thought and language is more than a specialism, but rather lies at the very heart of the discipline.
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The work of Donald Davidson (1917-2003) transformed the study of meaning. Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig, two of the world's leading authorities on Davidson's work, present the definitive study of his widely admired and influential program of truth-theoretic semantics for natural languages,
giving an exposition and critical examination of its foundations and applications.
Book Description
Truth and Paradox offers a comprehensive account of truth values and the norms governing claims about truth, based on a new approach to logic and semantics. Since the seminal work of Tarski in the mid-twentieth century, the Liar paradox and other related paradoxes have stood in the way of a precise philosophical account of truth. Tim Maudlin draws on analogies from mathematical physics to explicate the origin of classical truth-value gaps, and to provide an account of truth that avoids any hierarchy of languages or of truth predicates. He also closely investigates our reasoning about truth, including apparently unobjectionable reasoning about the paradoxical sentences. The fallacies in that reasoning are located not in any inferences concerning truth, but in the foundations of standard logic. Blocking the paradoxical arguments requires emendation of classical logic, and the requisite emendations call into question the existence of any a priori logical truths. Maudlin also includes a discussion of facts and factuality, most particularly the question of whether there are any facts about truth. All philosophers interested in logic and language will find this a stimulating read.
Book Description
Hartry Field presents a selection of thirteen essays on a set of related topics at the foundations of philosophy; one essay is previously unpublished, and eight are accompanied by substantial new postscripts. Five of the essays are primarily about truth, meaning, and propositional attitudes, five are primarily about semantic indeterminacy and other kinds of 'factual defectiveness' in our discourse, and three are primarily about issues concerning objectivity, especially in mathematics and in epistemology. The essays on truth, meaning, and the attitudes show a development from a form of correspondence theory of truth and meaning to a more deflationist perspective. The next set of papers argue that a place must be made in semantics for the idea that there are questions about which there is no fact of the matter, and address the difficulties involved in making sense of this, both within a correspondence theory of truth and meaning, and within a deflationary theory. Two papers argue that there are questions in mathematics about which there is no fact of the mattter, and draw out implications of this for the nature of mathematics. And the final paper argues for a view of epistemology in which it is not a purely fact-stating enterprise. This influential work by a key figure in contemporary philosophy will reward the attention of any philosopher interested in language, epistemology, or mathematics.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading on truth theory.......2002-11-15
This is a collection of Hartry Field's papers, and it contains every substantial thing he has written from the classical papers on Tarski's theory of truth and on mental representations to the late papers on the deflationary theory of truth - some of the papers appear here in revised versions. In addition, Field has written new comments on some of the papers, and - apart from giving helpful and updated clarifications - these comments shows clearly in which direction his thinking is heading at present.
For anyone who is interested in contemporary philosophy and the latest development in truth theory, this is a must read. But don't worry; it is enjoyable stuff, especially if you appreciate Field's slightly arrogant and relaxed style.
Book Description
This book examines the complex and varied ways in which fictions relate to the real world, and offers a precise account of how imaginative works of literature can use fictional content to explore matters of universal human interest. While rejecting the traditional view that literature is important for the truths that it imparts, the authors also reject attempts to cut off literature altogether from real human concerns. Their detailed account of fictionality, mimesis, and cognitive value helps restore to literature its distinctive status among cultural practices. The authors also explore the limits of fictionality, particularly in relation to metaphysical and sceptical views, prevalent in modern thought, according to which the world itself is a kind of fiction, and truth no more than a cultural construct. They identify different conceptions of fiction in science, logic, epistemology, and make-believe, and thereby challenge the idea that discourse per se is fictional and that different modes of discourse are at root indistinguishable. They offer rigorous analyses of the roles of narrative, imagination, metaphor, and 'making' in human thought processes. Both in their methods and in their conclusions, Lamarque and Olsen aim to bring much-needed rigour and clarity to debates about the values of literature, and to provide new, philosophically sound foundations for a genuine change of direction in literary theorizing.
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