Bøger af G. V. Loewen

Only love is real. A noble sentiment. But what, exactly, are its implications? Does it mean that all else is unreal, as in fake? As in fraudulent, as in a lie? Or unreal as in truly intolerable, unlivable, tragic, horrifying? Or is it only surreal, the world a simulacrum of feeling, sentimental and cloying? Or could it be hyper-real, like parents loving their children too much, children unable to love as a result? What is the reality of human love?Finding herself set down amid the manifold sentiments of the human heart, fifteen-year-old Guinevere Daniels is about to find out."One would think that the Arthurian cast could contain no more creative fuel, but in portraying them as realistic residents of a pre-Christian worldview, with all of its savage honor and vicarious vengeance, Loewen's innovative hybrid YA novel, the first of a trilogy, does in fact strike one as uniquely original, and is at once as horrifying and as enlightening as readers now expect of the philosophical author. His heroine is also both of these embodied, alternating between grotesque violence made all the more disconcerting in its justification, and a super-human compassion for victims of all kinds, especially the young, which also finds itself partially sabotaged by her own desires. Or is it we who are so limited as to imagine that love is always good, always beautiful, and indeed, always only human?" - Avinash Pillay, COO of Insightful Ethical Communications, Ltd.

The great coastal spirit, Raven, and his friends, famous for their transformational powers, realize that the world itself has now been transformed from the outside in.Raven then finds himself confronting the greatest mystery of all: Why did the newcomers appear and what do they want? Through a series of novel encounters and adventures, Raven uses all his legendary acumen, cleverness, and insight to solve the challenges set before him, his friends, and allies. These include the dark mystery of a leper colony, the dangerous shadow of an abandoned village site, the desperation of his children lost in the cityscape, and the puzzle of the houses of artifacts.With great imagination, compassion, and a poignant sense of recent history, Raven pushes through from the far end of what was the past, to a place where the future of his peoples can begin anew.Author Bio - This book is a modest gift from a European thinker to the Indigenous peoples of the world. Social philosopher G.V. Loewen, born and raised on Vancouver Island, spent much of his childhood in the local nature, becoming conscious of the deeper meaningfulness of place and history, promoting as well a new self-consciousness. He became aware of how he was at the same time part of the culture of historical conquest, prompting a reflective set of narratives told in the language of the folktale, but taking place in the contemporary world situation in which Indigenous cultures remain marginalized. This effort is a beginning, not only of a dialogue, but of an attempt at understanding a wider truth beyond the limitations of previous cross-cultural engagements. The author of 56 books, retired professor G.V. Loewen is now CEO of Vigilance Digital Media, Inc.

Paul Andrews is a man who isn't careful what he wishes for. The results are a spouse whose loyalty has been worn to a thread, an adoptive daughter who adores him too much, a therapist who looks the other way while he cheats with his wife, and friends who will do anything for him, including all the wrong things. Experiencing disturbing hallucinations and dreams, Paul is about to lead all of them and others straight into an existential abyss. The radically new knowledge of the human condition that is the result of this, may have been better off never having been known in the first place. "Loewen's first mainstream novel presents a shocking series of revelations, not only concerning our ability to know the others, but all the more so, our ability to ignore the oft inconvenient fact that aside from ourselves, others in fact do exist, have needs and rights, and most importantly, share a future with us both here on Earth and perhaps also elsewhere." - Avinash Pillay, COO and co-founder of Vigilance Digital Media, Inc.Author Bio - Social philosopher G.V. Loewen is the author of fifty-five books concerning ethics, education, aesthetics, religion, social theory, and more recently, metaphysical adventure fiction. He was a professor of the interdisciplinary human sciences for over two decades in both Canada and the United States.

Philosophy/Ethics The 'sacrifice of the intellect' is today mostly either a convenience or a contrivance. The marketeer assuages the consumer by her own feigned idiocy, the parish pirate invites the listless into his own fraudulent faith. It is exceedingly rare, in my estimation, to discover an authentically latter-day saint. But the ignominious fate of faith in our own time is mimicked by the corresponding downfall of reason, which in its turn is mostly used to calculate social control, warfare, or at best, economic trends. Could it be, for the first time in the history of human consciousness, that both reason and faith, in the face of their respective sacrifices, need one another more than ever, the separated siblings and estranged lovers that they are? That we live inside the question of our own existence should not be seen as a too-cunning conundrum, generating only misery and angst, pathos and melancholy. Rather it is the very thrownness of being which we are; resolute in our being-ahead, caring in our anxiety, concernful in our running along. Who better to respond to such a question that, though it bears the historicity of existence alone, marks us in our essence with a history of ontology that is shared and which constitutes our specific nature? (From the book) "Though it is not directly a part of my job as a critical philosopher, offending as many people as possible as succinctly as possible is a commonplace effect of my work." So Loewen opens 'The Return of the Martyr,' a wickedly funny and equally perceptive critique of the moral panics surrounding the issue of gender identity and other fashionable faux pas. And this is merely one of the over twenty singularly insightful essays collected here for the first time. Nothing is beyond a reasoned and rational reproach, and each piece serves as a role model for the rest of us to take up the torch of a truly transformative ethics." (From the publisher)

Education, Philosophy This is a book very much of the moment. It presents a third way of teaching ethics for a modern world rife with the forces of suppression. Critiquing both neo-conservative and "neo-liberal" fashions, it puts forward in their place a pedagogy inspired by art and based on interpretation theory, dialogue, and dialectic. A Pedagogy for the Suppressed encompasses the broadest and deepest issues of our times, linking them to an authenticity that includes a basic understanding of the historical mutability of human "nature." "Written as if the author were addressing the reader in an intimate series of five dialogues, the book reads as a discussion. References are kept to a minimum and philosophical distinctions are explained in plain language. No person with a high school education would be puzzled by the literacy level. Examples are taken from the author's extensive and varied fieldwork amongst historical reenactors, the dying or death-defying, UFO believers and cult members, and his three-year work with families and teens as an ethics consultant. In short, philosophy engages reality in the context of a more authentic experience of both teaching and learning." - Lynn Eddy, VP of Acquisitions, Strategic Book Publishing

"And when we do perceive the wholeness of the present in its very presence - this is not at all to suggest that we regularly do so; all we have to do is consider when the last time was that we felt we had truly understood everything that could be known about this or that aspect of our existence or the world at large - we ourselves are enlarged, for a corresponding moment, in our consciousness. We know what it means to know something. We understand understanding, we apprehend apprehension. And this in turn does not rest within a subjective epistemology of motive or design. This is not a question of 'how we know what we know' because the 'what' in every such case remains unquestioned in itself. No, this is the 'thing in itself' that is understood and made conscious, insofar as it can be. In this case, what we apprehend and thence in turn what takes us in, is the very character of the present as both an experience and a time of one's life, an historical period. The present is that which at once begins and transgresses." (from the book)In volume two of a three-part study of the "phenomenology of temporalities," G.V. Loewen analyzes the very conception of what is the now, of the moment, fashionable, de jour, and within the Zeitgeist all at once, utilizing ideas such as "retinution," the "phantasmatic," and "presentification" amongst others. In doing so, it is an ethics of the present that is revealed, one in which we find that freedom and salvation are opposed to one another; for in freedom, we are oriented in the present toward a future that does not yet exist, rather than toward a timeless realm that has always existed. Not only is this the truer source of the present's conflict of values, but it also reveals the clue our species needs to reorient itself to at once attaining the promise of our collective history and the premise of its historical humanity.Social philosopher G.V. Loewen is the author of fifty books on ethics, education, aesthetics, health, and social theory, and more recently, fiction. He was a professor of the interdisciplinary human sciences for over two decades.

"We have established what our general expectations of 'the past' are to be, given that it is our creation and thus it 'owes' something or other to us. It is at first motivated by resentment, tends toward reification, and divulges reconciliation. It has the character of a 'space,' it is something more 'moral' than we, and is also possessed of the variety of other traits, including it being a space of acts rather than action and also of the mystery of hiddenness. The past is, in its essence, something occlusive and worthy of inspection along this line alone. The query that begins all of it at this moment is simply, 'why did this occur?' To comprehend the presence of the past in this more radical manner - the object, especially if it is art, objects to us and thus as well to all of our nostalgic and romantic desires of it - we find we must engage in both memorial imagination as well as memorial recollection." (From the book.)In this first volume of a three-part study, a phenomenology of how we understand the presence of time in the world begins with the question: How do we understand the concept of the past? This question has a number of aspects to it: What is "the past?" How does the past retain its presence in the present? What is the temporal character of that which no longer fully exists? And so on. This analysis attempts to capture the curious amalgam of memory, biography, and history, and subject it to the objection of the present. Herein, the dead must answer to the living inasmuch as the inverse has also ever been the case.Author Bio - Social philosopher G.V. Loewen is the author of fifty books on ethics, education, aesthetics, health and social theory, and more recently, fiction. He was a professor of the interdisciplinary human sciences for over two decades.

"The serpentine narrative of Kristen-Seraphim continues unabated as the youthful heroes must not only confront themselves and their past in a novel manner, but rebuild their team, half of whom are at first in utter ignorance of any of their once shared accomplishments, let alone the Earth as it is now at hand. Prepare yourself for a blistering ride that will send your imagination into orbit. But around which world?" With both God and the Devil apparently merged and lost alike, the stunning relief felt by the now veteran half of the heroic community at the appearance of their comrades' successors is instantly turned to anxiety and shock as Mary discovers she is inexplicably pregnant! By whom, or by what? And then again, who, or what kind of being is now developing before their very eyes? The new Kristen struggles under the weight of the feats of her predecessor and doubts Mike's enduring love for her. Likewise, both Michelle and Kylie must come to terms with the tragic fates of their previous selves, but this too holds a bizarre twist. Yet their enemies have hardly given up. A continuous assault by anachronistic figures, the appearance of the Smythes' interdimensional siblings and impossible events that seem to stop time itself all figure to unravel the gains made by the legendary team. The most hoped for and yet dreaded moment prompts their new leader to make for herself an oddly existential sacrifice and thus set the stage for what may be the final showdown with the liminalist forces.

Kristen is now herself God, but it doesn't seem to be doing either her or her beloved comrades any good. With Michelle and Kylie still lost in time, Mary and Evelyn struggle to first find them and then restore their lineages. The future must be enlisted to save the past, yet mythic figures from that same past begin to show up and question the character of their souls. Kristen's apparent arch-nemesis leads her on a wild cross-temporal chase through past lives and alternate existences alike, tainted with both bad conscience and suppressed memories. Mike's spirit, now ensconced in the body of his distant ancestor who was also Kristen's lover, is charged with keeping it all together just long enough so that a full half of their indomitable team can meet their startling destinies. "e;The epic narrative of Kristen-Seraphim boils over as Loewen's heroes attain legendary status in this hammer and tongs tale of multiple deaths and resurrections. Just when you're sure you know who's doing what... But if you've ever had to confront your deepest, darkest secret, you will know the dangers to be faced within Book 3."e; (From the publisher) Praise for Book 2: "e;The New Self-Reliance is as much about the recovery process as it is another step in Kristen's evolutionary process. As such, it documents her changed life and ongoing struggles as she faces both outer demons and inner growth potential. On many levels, Book 2 of the Kristen-Seraphim saga is a demanding yet exciting read that expands the characters created in Forgetting the Dreamtime, adding moral, ethical and spiritual conundrums alike into a vivid story that rests on the actions of young adults who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Or, is it the right place?) Mature teens, particularly those who have a foundation to begin with from Kristen's first adventure, will find The New Self-Reliance complex, compelling, and hard to put down."e; - Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Mid-West Book Reviews

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This book attempts, through a series of interpretive discussions, to confront a number of well-known perplexities in their structural form of disjunctive moments, of interpretive contexts of 'this is' and 'this is not.'

The concept of certainty may be approached contextually through the use of dialogue. Drawing on sources from anthropology, archaeology, socio-linguistics and critical philosophy, and using both conversation and academic exposition, Three Apodeictic Dialogues offers a unique perspective on some of the disconcerting questions that animate belief, desire, and communication.

What does place mean for human beings? What does it mean to exist in space? How do we place ourselves not only in physical space, but within the interior landscape of consciousness? Place Meant explores these and related questions through the lenses of psychoanalysis, sociology, geography, folklore, and history.