This course introduces key concepts of Indian Buddhist thought. Over 5 lectures Bee explains the fundamental themes and problems of Buddhist Philosophy from the early Buddhist teachings on 'suffering', 'karma' and 'No-Self', to the later schools of thought around 'emptiness' and 'mind-only'.Each chapter introduces another layer of Buddhist philosophical development and depth. The course forms a very clear and intriguing introduction to the wealth of Buddhist thought.S...

While early Buddhists hailed their religion’s founder for opening a path to enlightenment, they also exalted him as the paragon of masculinity. According to Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha’s body boasts thirty-two physical features, including lionlike jaws, thighs like a royal stag, broad shoulders, and a deep, resonant voice, that distinguish him from ordinary men. As Buddhism spread throughout Asia and around the world, the Buddha remained an exemplary man, but Buddhists in other times a...

While early Buddhists hailed their religion’s founder for opening a path to enlightenment, they also exalted him as the paragon of masculinity. According to Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha’s body boasts thirty-two physical features, including lionlike jaws, thighs like a royal stag, broad shoulders, and a deep, resonant voice, that distinguish him from ordinary men. As Buddhism spread throughout Asia and around the world, the Buddha remained an exemplary man, but Buddhists in other times a...

This edited volume brings together perspectives on embodied queerness within the complicated parameters of hegemonic normativities, biopolitics and social-religious governmentalities. Queering Paradigms VI offers queer interventions, explores value-production in socio-corporeal normative frameworks, and exemplifies and highlights the complexity of queering in the global-local continuum. Queer maintains its revolutionary subversive functionality as an impulse and catalyst for cultu...

This course introduces key concepts of Indian Buddhist thought. Over 5 lectures Bee explains the fundamental themes and problems of Buddhist Philosophy; from the early Buddhist teachings on ‘suffering’, ‘karma’ and ‘No-Self’, to the later scholasticism and the famous schools of thought around ‘emptiness’ and ‘mind-only’. Each chapter introduces another layer of Buddhist philosophical development and depth. The course forms a very clear and intriguing introduction to the wealth of Buddhist ...

Social justice: an ideal, forever beyond our grasp; or one of many practical possibilities? More than a matter of intellectual discourse, the idea of justice plays a real role in how - and how well - people live. And in this book the distinguished scholar Amartya Sen offers a powerful critique of the theory of social justice that, in its grip on social and political thinking, has long left practical realities far behind.

Utilitarianism may well be the most influential secular ethical theory in the world today. It is also one of the most controversial. It clashes, or is widely thought to clash, with many conventional moral views, and with human rights when they are seen as inviolable. Would it, for example, be right to torture a suspected terrorist in order to prevent an attack that could kill and injure a large number of innocent people? In this Very Short Introduction Peter Singer and Katarzyna d...

Communicating in the Third Space aims to clarify Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of the third space of enunciation by reconstructing its philosophical, sociological, geographical, and political meaning with attention to the special advantages and ambiguities that arise as it is applied in practical--as well as theoretical--contexts. The idea of "third space" conceives the encounter of two distinct and unequal social groups as taking place in a special third space of enunciation where cult...

As emotion is often linked with irrationality, it's no surprise researchers tend to underreport the emotions they experience in the field. However, denying emotion altogether doesn't necessarily lead to better research. Methods cannot function independently from the personalities wielding them, and it's time we questioned the tendency to underplay the scientific, personal, and political consequences of the emotional dimensions of fieldwork. This book explores the idea that emotion is not a...

The constructed “naturalness” of a world made up of two sexes, two genders, and heterosexual desire as the only legitimate desire has been continuously questioned and challenged by those marginalised by these norms. This forces us to ask some important questions: How is gender really understood and constructed in the world that we inhabit? How does it operate through the various socio-political-cultural structures around us? And, most crucially, how is it lived?No Outlaws in the ...

"Gender systems pervade and regulate human lives—in law courts and operating rooms, ballparks and poker clubs, hair-dressing salons and kitchens, classrooms and playgroups. . . . Exactly how gender works varies from culture to culture, and from historical period to historical period, but gender is very rarely not at work. Nor does gender operate in isolation. It is linked to other social structures and sources of identity."So write women's studies pioneer Catharine R. Stim...

This new and revised edition of Culture, Society and Sexuality brings together and makes accessible a broad and international selection of readings to provide insights into the social, cultural, political and economic dimensions of sexuality and relationships, and emerging discourses around sexual and reproductive rights.Clearly structured and presented, the book makes an extremely useful reference for students and researchers. Section one focuses on the social and cultura...