Amazon.com
Thomas Sowell is a man of immense learning but with a common touch. His books reveal a dazzling mind that ranges freely and easily from history and sociology to economics to public policy. He conveys complex ideas in a simple way for a mass audience, a skill he learned as an academic who writes a syndicated newspaper column. This strength is on full view in The Quest for Cosmic Justice, which is perhaps best described as a work of moral philosophy. That may sound off-putting, but it shouldn't. Again, Sowell writes for lay readers, and his clear thinking is on immediate display. His topic is justice, broadly understood. We constantly hear of "social justice," he says. But how is social justice different from other kinds of justice? The word social, in fact, is redundant here: "All justice is inherently social. Can someone on a desert island be either just or unjust?" The book goes on to show how one person's sense of justice and equality can lead to their exact opposites: injustice and inequality. He holds no quarter for those who pursue "cosmic justice," the dangerous notion that people can right all wrongs, and favors "traditional justice," which emphasizes rules and procedures. The Quest for Cosmic Justice ought to be required reading for all students in college-level political theory courses; Sowell's conservative politics and aversion to academic jargon probably guarantee it won't be. That's a shame, because he is the very definition of a public intellectual--and The Quest for Cosmic Justice is another awesome achievement. --John J. Miller
Book Description
This is not a comforting book -- it is a book about disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future. It rejects both "merit" and historical redress as principles for guiding public policy. It shows how "peace" movements have led to war and to needless casualties in those wars. It argues that "equality" is neither right nor wrong, but meaningless.
The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting inequality, and how the tyranny of social visions prevents many people from confronting the actual consequences of their own beliefs and policies. Those consequences include the steady and dangerous erosion of the fundamental principles of freedom -- and the quiet repeal of the American revolution.
Download Description
In a book that is essential reading for people who want to think beyond rhetoric, Sowell exposes the disturbing issues that are urgently important today and enduringly critical for the future.
Customer Reviews:
The Quest for Cosmic Justice.......2007-09-14
This book is great in helping me pinpoint feelings I have always had in my heart. I am aware of inequalities in society -even have been the recipient of some of them -but I have never been over anxious to have them legislated away, or really had a vocalization on why that didn't even seem fair or right to me. Thomas Sowell is a great teacher and has put words to something I already knew for myself. This is a great book that will help anyone's resolve that wants to help others yet remain true to eternal principles.
LIBERALS ARE STUPID........2006-12-06
I like Thomas Sowell. I like his thinking. I agree with much of what he asserts. What I dont like is how he writes. The man needs some serious help expressing his ideas.
The nucleus-kernal of this book is: Liberals are stupid. I agree. The assertion is self-evident. And Sowell discusses all the ways liberals are stupid.
Another reviewer notes that the people who will benefit from reading this book, wont.
Mercy cannot rob justice.......2006-11-04
In a sense, Thomas Sowell has written only one book. That is to say, he has a cluster or leitmotif of core ideas that form the basis of all of his books. His essential idea is justice-justice as a basis for human behavior.
In this books four chapters--each one being it's own symposium--Sowell reflects upon how justice is being corrupted, and what the disastrous consequences.
Symposium 1 is a boilerplate discussion on how the idea of justice has shifted. Ancients such as Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, and moderns such as C. S. Lewis and Ayn Rand, understood justice as meaning having the same ground-rules for all people. However, many moderns--Rawls is his opposition, but it would include Kant, etc--define justice as what we call equality. Specifically, a cosmic equality that overcomes birth defects, inherited afflictions, raw-deal childhoods, and ancestral "precious condition of servitude."
This sinister amphibole is the main-spring of the world's corruption. The essential evil is that it is within our power to have a consistent framework of law, order, and stability that allows people to prosper. However, it is beyond our capabilities to compensate for Down's Syndrome, an abusive childhood, or any racial sins.
The Anointed (another book of Sowell's) try to compensate for this cosmic injustices by destroying the framework of law, order, and stability, and stacking the deck in favor of the "disadvantages." Philosophically, the problem is that two wrongs do not make a right; practically, the problem is that those who are cosmically advantaged (through no fault of their own) are, in fact, being suppressed to society's disadvantage.
The last symposium is the most chilling. The genius of America is the Rule of Law, that we are all playing by the same rules, and we have a framework of stability to prosper. In order to achieve cosmic justice, this framework is being destroyed. Instead of a democracy, we are getting an autocracy, not of King George III, but of bureaucrats, feel-good pressure groups, and run-of-the-mill factions. America is lees "One Nation, under God," but more like De Medici Italy.
Supplemental readings would include Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed," Rand's "Philosophy: Who Needs it," Cicero's "Republic," "Laws," "On Duties," Aquinas's Treatise on Laws, and C. S. Lewis "Abolition of Man."
What goes wrong when you focus on ends rather than opportunities.......2005-07-12
This terrific book is a collection of four essays that demonstrate the emptiness of those who would define equality in terms of outcomes. There are those who claim that those who are born with superior natural endowments owe a portion of their gift to those less able. The problem begins. Who defines what is superior? Who defines what is owed to whom? How much is owed? What is equal?
The four essays are: The Quest for Cosmic Justice, The Mirage of Equality, The Tyranny of Visions, and The Quest for Repeal of the American Revolution.
None of these argues for the huge disparities between the rich and poor as goods. Rather, it argues against some arbitrary elite imposing its vision of equality on everyone else. It was Milton Friedman who advocated the negative income tax. The poor would be provided for without the creation of a huge state bureaucracy with the attendant political machinations. However, it is the growth of the state and its control of the population that its proponents actually desire. They crave the power to decide and impose.
The last essay focuses on the way our Constitution is being subverted by those who take to themselves the right to be the conscience of others. Sowell quotes a speech by Lincoln that warns us against those who are not content to carry on what was built by others. They wish to take the law to themselves. The author notes that in the French Revolution a mission was appointed to go about the country righting wrongs and then offers a quote by Chief Justice Earl Warren not asking if something follows the Constitution, but whether it is just or right.
It isn't that these folks intend to directly overthrow the Constitution, it is that their disregard for laws (rules known in advance) or the processes laid out to change those laws in order to gratify their own attitudes and views is incompatible with the American system of government. And we are now reaping the whirlwind. Property laws have been weakened for more than a century were recently all but erased by a fiasco of a ruling by the Supreme Court.
My admiration for Thomas Sowell runs deep and I commend this book to everyone.
Good Intentions, Unavoidably Terrible Results .......2005-07-12
We are constantly hearing of `social justice' as a justification for many pieces of legislation intended to remove inequities from our life at the expense of our liberty. At their heart, such legislation is inspired by Rousseau and the French Revolution, and are an attempt to achieve a utopia by making life `fair.' Well, life is not fair and we cannot make it so by legislation; especially legislation enforced by the coercive power of the state's police force. Thomas Sowell does a great job of exploring such instances where social justice is applied and the inevitable results.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Chief Executive (U.S.), published by Chief Executive Publishing on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 795 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: Beyond the Box.(Review) (book review)
Author: Robert W. Lear
Publication:
Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Page: 86
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
When health, safety, or environmental risks take center stage, communicating risk information can be a daunting challenge. The increased visibility of global terrorism and other catastrophic emergencies underscores the potential for human tragedy -- along with economic, social, and political consequences. Communication must be targeted, understandable, and effective without inadvertently provoking hostility and mistrust. For 10 years, Risk Communication, a handbook of strategies and guidance for conveying risk information effectively, has proved to be a valuable resource on areas such as current laws, stakeholder participation methods, and working with the news media. This significantly expanded third edition contains all new sections on communicating about acts of bioterrorism and other emergencies, developing messages, and using facilitated deliberation and alternative dispute resolution methods. Sections on using technology in communication, choosing visuals, understanding stigma and privacy issues, and evaluating communication results have been expanded to include the latest methods and research-driven examples.
A valuable resource for 10 years, Risk Communication is divided into the following self-contained parts: (1) Background information on basic theories and practices, (2) Planning a communication effort, (3) Putting risk communication into action, (4) Evaluating risk communication efforts, and (5) Communicating risk during and after an emergency.
Customer Reviews:
very detailed book on risk communication.......2007-01-18
This is a good book for learning about the details of risk communications. It is quite detailed and systematic.
No Risk in Buying THIS Book!.......2004-10-20
No Risk In Buying This Book!
I've been in the Environmental Risk Communication (RC) field for ten years, medicine for thirty. Often I've wished there was a text or overview of RC that was readable by professional and layperson alike. Little did I know: Regina Lundgren and Andrea McMakin have accomplished this, and the results are a resounding "Wow!" In the Third Edition of "Risk Communication, A Handbook for Communicating Environmental, Safety, and Health Risks" (Regina started with the first one; Andrea joined in for the latter two), they present an orderly, comprehensive, understandable, well-referenced, indexed, annotated and glossaried RC bible for anyone just launching into or well-ensconced in the field.
I've often said that RC can be used not only in the "classic" situations (nicely defined alliteratively in this book as "care, crisis and consensus"), but also in one-on-one domestic and professional settings. This book presents information and advice useful to and usable by just about any reader, as one would expect from a work by two communicators. There are numerous examples, case studies, tables, graphs, charts and margin key points (noted with a diamond) that go along with the very readable text (written at the appropriate level, of course). One moves from cover to cover with the ease of reading a novel, the steps to well-executed RC clearly and comprehensively (yet with remarkable simplicity) delineated. There is a start, a middle and an ending, and one feels as though the next natural step is to go out and try the recipe immediately. (I would not suggest, however, that this is a cookbook, only that it reads as easily and the results could be rewarding.)
I suspect many have and many more will hone their skills as this fine work becomes more familiar to those in the rapidly growing, essential and dynamic field of Risk Communication. There is "no risk in buying this book!" I highly recommend it and urge it on anyone who has dealt or will deal with environmental, safety and health "wicked problems" involving concerned stakeholders. That sigh of relief you hear is you, as you find solutions to---or at least direction toward---the challenges you face.
Essential handbook for those communicating risks.......2004-08-31
Straightforward and well-designed, this 400+ page book tells you how to explain risks to your workers, your stakeholders, and the public effectively. This book gives you the information you need to understand, plan, start, finish, and evaluate your plan to communicate environmental, safety, or health risks.
This guide, which is based on extensive research in the field, is filled with clear visuals and valuable checklists. The examples pulled from the authors' experiences reinforce the messages, often with a touch of humor and grace. For example, never give a presentation during moose hunting season.
A new chapter devoted to communicating in emergenices, such as bioterrorist attacks, provides valuable research and guidelines for building the infrastructure you need NOW, before the emergency, as well as what to do during and after the emergency.
If your job involves communicating risks, you'll want to read this book.
Book Description
A unified presentation of environmental model development, implementation, and testing
Integrated Environmental Modeling teaches model development, model implementation, and model testing skills in a unified manner, crosscutting the three "media" comprising environmental systems—air, water, and soil—by focusing on parallels and similarities between them, and introducing a new generation of multimedia models. No other single volume offers comprehensive coverage of chemical transport and fate in all three environmental media, including the resulting impacts on the biosphere and human health, with a focus on the fundamental processes underlying environmental modeling.
Integrated Environmental Modeling provides broad-based training in the development of pollutant transport and fate models in air, water, and soil, with a focus on five essential competencies:
- Understanding the fundamental process principles that govern contaminant transport and transformations in multimedia environments, emphasizing the parallels and links between different media
- Learning model development skills, starting from the simplest conceptual models and building more complex and realistic models that couple component process modules at the appropriate spatial and temporal scales of resolution
- Using statistical methods and data sources to estimate input parameters and characterize model sensitivity and uncertainty
- Gaining hands-on experience with computer-aided implementation and evaluation of fate and transport models using realistic case study examples
- Applying fate and transport models to evaluate pollutant interactions with the biosphere, particularly in human exposure modeling and health risk assessment
Complete with case studies, Integrated Environmental Modeling is a valuable, single-source tool for senior and graduate students in environmental science and engineering courses on pollutant transport, remediation, and risk assessment, and an essential reference text for professionals in industry, consulting, and government agencies responsible for environmental assessment and risk analysis.
Book Description
Multimedia modelling and assessment compartmentalizes the real-world environment into its respective components or processes and describes the linkages and interactions between these in order to facilitate more informed decision-making. The state-of-the-art in intermedia/multiple-media modelling has now significantly advanced to the point where full and deployable frameworks are available to help in the assessment process.
This book contains invited contributions first presented at the Second International Brownfields Conference. Each paper has been reviewed and revised to conform with suggested technical comments. Covering some of the most mature and widely used multimedia software technology products and approaches designed to support brownfields and hazardous waste site decision makers, the volume describes software tools and methods, and illustrates applications.
Brownfields: Multimedia Modelling and Assessment will raise awareness of the tools now available to deal with conflicting complexities associated with a multimedia environment, and foster closer communication and collaboration between developers and assessors from around the world.
Average customer rating:
|
Environmental Risk and the Press
Peter M. Sandman , and
David Sachsman
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Environmental
| Civil
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Air
| Pollution
| Environmental
| Civil
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Communication
| Words & Language
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Journalism
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Media Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Urban Planning & Development
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Planning
| Urban Planning & Development
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0887381723 |
Average customer rating:
|
Environmental Risks and the Media
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General Broadcasting
| Radio
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Media Studies
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Arts & Photography
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Entertainment
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Outdoors & Nature
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0415214475 |
Book Description
Environmental Risks and the Media explores the ways in which environmental risks, threats and hazards are represented, transformed and contested by the media. At a time when popular conceptions of the environment as a stable, "natural" world with which humanity interferes are becoming increasingly contested, the media's methods of encouraging audiences to think about environmental risks--from the "mad cow" crisis to global warming--are becoming more and more controversial. Examining large-scale disasters as well as "everyday" hazards, the contributors consider the tensions between entertainment and information in media coverage of the environment. The issues explored include: how the media frame "expert," "counter-expert" and "lay public" definitions of environmental risk; the role played by environmental pressure groups like Greenpeace in shaping media coverage; and the media's emphasis on spectacular events at the expense of issue-sensitive reporting.
Average customer rating:
|
What Risk?
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Mass Media
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Risks
| Technology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Safety & Health
| Technology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Safety & Health
| Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Health Risk Assessment
| Administration & Medicine Economics
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Health Risk Assessment
| Administration & Policy
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Public Health
| Administration & Policy
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Engineering
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0750642289 |
Book Description
Whether the public or the environment is at risk is a commonly discussed question in numerous areas of public life, most recently and publicly with regard to issues like BSE, passive smoking and the dangers from pesticides in food production. It is therefore of great importance for everyone concerned with these issues - both policy makers and the public who may be subject to their decisions - to understand the basis on which 'risk' policy is made. The principle objective of this book is to highlight the uncertainties inherent in 'scientific' estimates of risk to the public and the environment resulting from exposure to certain hazards.
Numerous examples of potential and real hazards are given. They all show that injury to personal health or the environment is a function not only of the toxicity (i.e. the lethality of a particular hazard) but of the level of exposure to the hazard concerned - in the words of the old maxim, the dose makes the poison.
Existing regulation is criticized for being based on a flawed application of a poor epidemiological methodology, where toxicity is the basis of regulation and dose tends to be ignored. Furthermore, some authors conclude that risk is a subjective phenomenon that cannot be eliminated through regulation.
Leading international expert authors and contributors
Mass-media launch on publication
Important new commercial and H&S area of interest
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Environmental Health, published by National Environmental Health Association on June 1, 2003. The length of the article is 5448 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.
From the author: Lead poses a serious environmental health risk to young children, causing such irreversible health effects as mental retardation, stunted growth, and hearing and visual impairment. Studies suggest that various sectors of the public, including children's caregivers, are not sufficiently concerned about this risk or knowledgeable about ways of minimizing it. Because newspapers are one of the primary ways members of the public learn about risks, the authors examined the characteristics and content of 152 newspaper articles on lead to determine when coverage occurred and what information was provided. Results revealed that newspapers most often covered lead as a local news story Few articles identified children under six years of age as the most vulnerable group or provided important information on health effects, sources of exposure, or abatement methods. The authors' recommendations focus on helping environmental health professionals work with newspaper journalists to improve the information available to the p ublic.
Citation Details
Title: Do newspapers lead with lead? A content analysis of how lead health risks to children are covered. (Features).
Author: Christine Brittle
Publication:
Journal of Environmental Health (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2003
Publisher: National Environmental Health Association
Volume: 65
Issue: 10
Page: 17(8)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on November 1, 1993. The length of the article is 851 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.
From the supplier: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co Pollution Programs Manager Thomas M. Zosel, speaking at an American Re-sponsored conference on corporate environmentalism, proposed the licensing of reporters that cover environmental issues. Zosel said companies are reluctant to deal with reporters on environmental issues since they lack the expertise and frequently issue erroneous reports. Zosel's proposal is a bad idea since risk management functions best when the public has access to the facts. However, better training for reporters on environmental issues would reduce sensationalistic and erroneous reporting.
Citation Details
Title: Does a reporter need a license to cover pollution? (Risk Management Beat)
Author: David M. Katz
Publication:
National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 1993
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Issue: n44
Page: p9(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Books:
- The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
- The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West
- The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Independent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books
- The Social Construction of What?
- The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution (Nypl/Oup Lectures)
- Towards a New Alchemy: The Millennium Science
- Understanding Space : An Introduction to Astronautics
- Weather wisdom: Being an illustrated practical volume wherein is contained unique compilation and analysis of the facts and folklore of natural weather prediction (A Doubleday Dolphin book)
- What Should be Computed to Understand and Model Brain Function? From Robotics, Soft Computing, Biology and Neuroscience to Cognitive Philosophy
- Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping ("Scientific American" Library)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Design for Six Sigma : A Roadmap for Product Development
- Understanding Orchids: An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World's Most Exotic Plants
- The Artful Life: 2005 Desk Calendar
- Random House Webster's Spanish-English English-Spanish Dictionary: Second Edition
- The Original Sudoku Book 2
- Winter's Tale
- Time For Kids: Bears!
- West Federal Taxation 2006: Individual Income Taxes
- Principles of Food, Beverage, and Labor Cost Controls: For Hotels and Restaurants, 6th Edition
- He's Just A Friend
The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy
A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
Knowledge and Decisions
Barbarians Inside the Gates: And Other Controversial Essays (Hoover Institution Press Publication, No. 450)
Race and Culture: A World View
