Existential premises - 11 series de libros (35 resultados)

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis Concepts We Live By offers a philosophical analysis of how civilizations are structured and sustained not primarily through force or formal institutions, but through the voluntary embodiment of shared concepts. It investigates why millions of strangers obey laws they did not personally create and argues that the answer lies in the invisible conceptual agreements that underpin collective life.The book begins by examining the architecture of society through constitutions, laws, policies, and norms, showing that these are not merely external constraints but expressions of deeper existential premises. Constitutions function as foundational civilizational agreements, laws operationalize abstract moral and social concepts into behavior, and policies translate collective intentions into directional governance. Beneath all of these lies an invisible conceptual infrastructure that makes coordinated human life possible.Building on this foundation, the work develops a central distinction between voluntary law-abidance and coercive enforcement. It argues that when citizens internalize shared concepts such as responsibility, fairness, and legitimacy, laws become self-sustaining. In such conditions, governance requires less surveillance and enforcement, allowing both citizens and institutions to expand their social agency toward creation, innovation, and long-term development. Conversely, when conceptual alignment weakens, the state must increasingly rely on monitoring, policing, and coercion to maintain order.The book introduces two interlocking feedback structures: the virtuous cycle of freedom and the vicious cycle of coercion. In the virtuous cycle, trust generates stability, stability produces prosperity, prosperity enables innovation, and innovation reinforces trust, creating an upward spiral of civilizational expansion. In the vicious cycle, distrust leads to monitoring, monitoring leads to enforcement, enforcement generates resistance, and resistance further deepens distrust, creating a downward spiral of increasing control and declining creative capacity.From these dynamics emerges a broader civilizational theory centered on energy allocation. Societies are understood as systems that direct collective energy either outward-toward discovery, invention, and progress-or inward-toward surveillance, enforcement, and control. The direction of this energy determines whether a civilization expands its possibilities or becomes increasingly absorbed in managing internal instability.The analysis culminates in the identification of two archetypal civilizational forms. The Expanding Society is characterized by high trust, voluntary compliance, low surveillance, and broad social and governance agency directed toward creation and innovation. The Contracting Society is characterized by low trust, intensive monitoring, coercive enforcement, and a growing internal focus on control rather than development. These archetypes are not static categories but dynamic tendencies shaped by the degree of voluntary conceptual embodiment within a population.Ultimately, the book argues that civilizations are not primarily governed by laws in themselves, but by the extent to which citizens freely live the concepts that give those laws meaning. When this embodiment is strong, freedom expands and coercion recedes. When it weakens, coercion expands and freedom contracts. Civilization, therefore, is understood as a continuous movement between these two poles.In conclusion, the true foundation of free societies is not force, but shared concepts that are voluntarily lived. Laws, institutions, and governments are expressions of this deeper reality, not its origin. In this view, the history of civilization is the ongoing negotiation between internalized order and externally imposed co Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Condición: New.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis Is Freedom Served? Part I The political mechanics of Leviathan examines the mechanisms of erecting a Leviathan through the control of meaning, dictation of laws, and forced alignment. This book, in Part I examines and analyzes how once power is concentrated, it exerts influence not only over action but over meaning itself. Words, definitions, and laws become instruments through which authority shapes reality, aligning perception and compliance with its own priorities. The Leviathan, therefore, is both political and epistemological: it governs not only behavior but understanding, determining which interpretations of justice, rights, and freedom are recognized and enforced. Throughout history, human societies have repeatedly constructed systems designed to organize power, maintain order, and ensure stability. Yet beneath these efforts lies a recurring tension: the relationship between authority and freedom. Is Freedom Served? in part II Formats of Unfreedom explores this tension by examining the major political structures through which civilizations have constrained human autonomy while claiming to preserve social order. Part II of this book traces a series of historical and conceptual "formats" of unfreedom-recurring institutional patterns that shape how power operates within societies. Beginning with the theocratic order, where political authority derives legitimacy from sacred law, the analysis shows how freedom becomes subordinate to divine interpretation. It then moves through the feudal structure, where autonomy is fragmented across rigid hierarchies and distributed unequally according to social rank. The emergence of the absolutist state marks another transformation: power becomes centralized in a sovereign authority capable of defining law and shaping society. In the modern era, new forms of domination appear. Ideological regimes subordinate society to comprehensive doctrines that claim ultimate truth about history and human destiny. Technocratic governance justifies authority through expertise, efficiency, and the management of complex systems. Finally, the permanent emergency state demonstrates how the constant invocation of crisis can normalize extraordinary powers and gradually weaken democratic freedoms. Although these systems differ in structure and justification, they share a common dynamic: freedom becomes conditional upon obedience to an organizing principle-whether sacred authority, hierarchy, sovereignty, doctrine, expertise, or security. Over time, these mechanisms concentrate power and narrow the space for independent human agency. The book ultimately argues that freedom is not simply one political value among many, but the central pillar of civilization itself. Without it, societies risk reverting to a primordial dynamic in which power dominates without restraint-the ancient relationship between the wolf and the lamb. Laws, institutions, and political systems were originally created to transcend this condition, ensuring that the strong cannot simply impose their will upon the weak. Drawing on historical patterns and philosophical reflection, Is Freedom Served? offers a clear and compelling framework for understanding how freedom can erode even within advanced societies. At the same time, it emphasizes that the preservation of liberty is not guaranteed by institutions alone. It requires continuous vigilance, cultural commitment, and the recognition that human dignity depends upon the protection of individual autonomy. In an age of rapid technological change, global crises, and expanding systems of governance, this book invites readers to reconsider a fundamental question: What structures of power truly serve civilization-and which quietly undermine the fr Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

Condición: As New. Unread book in perfect condition.

Condición: New.

Condición: As New. Unread book in perfect condition.

Condición: New.

Condición: As New. Unread book in perfect condition.

Condición: New.

Condición: As New. Unread book in perfect condition.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis Concepts We Live By offers a philosophical analysis of how civilizations are structured and sustained not primarily through force or formal institutions, but through the voluntary embodiment of shared concepts. It investigates why millions of strangers obey laws they did not personally create and argues that the answer lies in the invisible conceptual agreements that underpin collective life.The book begins by examining the architecture of society through constitutions, laws, policies, and norms, showing that these are not merely external constraints but expressions of deeper existential premises. Constitutions function as foundational civilizational agreements, laws operationalize abstract moral and social concepts into behavior, and policies translate collective intentions into directional governance. Beneath all of these lies an invisible conceptual infrastructure that makes coordinated human life possible.Building on this foundation, the work develops a central distinction between voluntary law-abidance and coercive enforcement. It argues that when citizens internalize shared concepts such as responsibility, fairness, and legitimacy, laws become self-sustaining. In such conditions, governance requires less surveillance and enforcement, allowing both citizens and institutions to expand their social agency toward creation, innovation, and long-term development. Conversely, when conceptual alignment weakens, the state must increasingly rely on monitoring, policing, and coercion to maintain order.The book introduces two interlocking feedback structures: the virtuous cycle of freedom and the vicious cycle of coercion. In the virtuous cycle, trust generates stability, stability produces prosperity, prosperity enables innovation, and innovation reinforces trust, creating an upward spiral of civilizational expansion. In the vicious cycle, distrust leads to monitoring, monitoring leads to enforcement, enforcement generates resistance, and resistance further deepens distrust, creating a downward spiral of increasing control and declining creative capacity.From these dynamics emerges a broader civilizational theory centered on energy allocation. Societies are understood as systems that direct collective energy either outward-toward discovery, invention, and progress-or inward-toward surveillance, enforcement, and control. The direction of this energy determines whether a civilization expands its possibilities or becomes increasingly absorbed in managing internal instability.The analysis culminates in the identification of two archetypal civilizational forms. The Expanding Society is characterized by high trust, voluntary compliance, low surveillance, and broad social and governance agency directed toward creation and innovation. The Contracting Society is characterized by low trust, intensive monitoring, coercive enforcement, and a growing internal focus on control rather than development. These archetypes are not static categories but dynamic tendencies shaped by the degree of voluntary conceptual embodiment within a population.Ultimately, the book argues that civilizations are not primarily governed by laws in themselves, but by the extent to which citizens freely live the concepts that give those laws meaning. When this embodiment is strong, freedom expands and coercion recedes. When it weakens, coercion expands and freedom contracts. Civilization, therefore, is understood as a continuous movement between these two poles.In conclusion, the true foundation of free societies is not force, but shared concepts that are voluntarily lived. Laws, institutions, and governments are expressions of this deeper reality, not its origin. In this view, the history of civilization is the ongoing negotiation between internalized order and external Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis Is Freedom Served? Part I The political mechanics of Leviathan examines the mechanisms of erecting a Leviathan through the control of meaning, dictation of laws, and forced alignment. This book, in Part I examines and analyzes how once power is concentrated, it exerts influence not only over action but over meaning itself. Words, definitions, and laws become instruments through which authority shapes reality, aligning perception and compliance with its own priorities. The Leviathan, therefore, is both political and epistemological: it governs not only behavior but understanding, determining which interpretations of justice, rights, and freedom are recognized and enforced. Throughout history, human societies have repeatedly constructed systems designed to organize power, maintain order, and ensure stability. Yet beneath these efforts lies a recurring tension: the relationship between authority and freedom. Is Freedom Served? in part II Formats of Unfreedom explores this tension by examining the major political structures through which civilizations have constrained human autonomy while claiming to preserve social order. Part II of this book traces a series of historical and conceptual "formats" of unfreedom-recurring institutional patterns that shape how power operates within societies. Beginning with the theocratic order, where political authority derives legitimacy from sacred law, the analysis shows how freedom becomes subordinate to divine interpretation. It then moves through the feudal structure, where autonomy is fragmented across rigid hierarchies and distributed unequally according to social rank. The emergence of the absolutist state marks another transformation: power becomes centralized in a sovereign authority capable of defining law and shaping society. In the modern era, new forms of domination appear. Ideological regimes subordinate society to comprehensive doctrines that claim ultimate truth about history and human destiny. Technocratic governance justifies authority through expertise, efficiency, and the management of complex systems. Finally, the permanent emergency state demonstrates how the constant invocation of crisis can normalize extraordinary powers and gradually weaken democratic freedoms. Although these systems differ in structure and justification, they share a common dynamic: freedom becomes conditional upon obedience to an organizing principle-whether sacred authority, hierarchy, sovereignty, doctrine, expertise, or security. Over time, these mechanisms concentrate power and narrow the space for independent human agency. The book ultimately argues that freedom is not simply one political value among many, but the central pillar of civilization itself. Without it, societies risk reverting to a primordial dynamic in which power dominates without restraint-the ancient relationship between the wolf and the lamb. Laws, institutions, and political systems were originally created to transcend this condition, ensuring that the strong cannot simply impose their will upon the weak. Drawing on historical patterns and philosophical reflection, Is Freedom Served? offers a clear and compelling framework for understanding how freedom can erode even within advanced societies. At the same time, it emphasizes that the preservation of liberty is not guaranteed by institutions alone. It requires continuous vigilance, cultural commitment, and the recognition that human dignity depends upon the protection of individual autonomy. In an age of rapid technological change, global crises, and expanding systems of governance, this book invites readers to reconsider a fundamental question: What structures of power truly serve civilization-and which quietly und Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware.

Taschenbuch. Condición: Neu. Neuware.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis - The Genetic WarThe Genetic War is a philosophical thought experiment that explores a possible future trajectory of human civilization in which universal principles-law, philosophy, science, and shared moral reasoning-gradually lose authority and are replaced by biological identity as the primary source of legitimacy.Rather than presenting a literal prediction, the essay constructs a rigorous dystopian framework to examine what might occur if humanity increasingly organizes itself around genetic classification, enhancement technologies, and engineered evolutionary competition. It begins with the collapse of common ground, where shared civic principles give way to identity-based belonging. From there, culture fragments into tribe, tribe into biology, and biology into a hierarchy of optimized human forms.As universal standards of justice weaken, law becomes conditional on identity. Philosophy loses its claim to universal reason as truth becomes interpreted through biological standpoint. Science, once grounded in methodological neutrality, becomes embedded within systems of genetic optimization and strategic enhancement. Across these transformations, civilization does not collapse suddenly but reorganizes itself around a new logic: survival, value, and authority are increasingly defined by genetic advantage.The work introduces the concept of a "New Darwinism," where evolution is no longer a natural process but a political and institutional project. In this framework, societies begin to engineer their populations, prioritize enhancement, and restructure education, economics, and governance around biological performance. Competition shifts from ideas and institutions to the design of human beings themselves.As this logic intensifies, the essay describes the emergence of a genetic aristocracy, the dissolution of universal law, the fragmentation of philosophy, and the transformation of science into a tool of biological stratification. Eventually, the global order becomes a permanent state of evolutionary rivalry, described as the "Genetic War," where entire civilizations compete over developmental trajectories rather than territory or ideology.The second half of the book explores the internal consequences of this system. Victory does not end conflict; it redirects it inward. A "cannibal civilization" emerges, where optimization becomes perpetual, and each generation is measured against increasingly unattainable biological standards. In this system, humanity begins consuming its own diversity, creativity, and moral foundations in the pursuit of endless improvement.The final chapters examine the deeper philosophical consequence of this trajectory: the gradual extinction of humanity as a unified moral category. While biological survival continues, the shared concept of "the human" disintegrates. Moral obligation contracts, universal ethics fragment, and civilizations begin to define themselves through competing versions of what humanity ought to become.The conclusion argues that the crisis is not technological or scientific, but philosophical. The central tension lies in the replacement of universal principles with stratified biological logic. In doing so, the essay ultimately defends the necessity of universal principles as the foundation for any stable civilization. It argues that without shared standards of justice, truth, and moral worth, civilization risks dissolving into competing systems of biological optimization without a common horizon of meaning.The work ends not with a prediction of inevitability, but with a warning: that civilizations are defined not by their technological power, but by the principles they choose to place above it. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Condición: New. Print on Demand.

Condición: New. Print on Demand.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Delivered from our UK warehouse in 4 to 14 business days. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Condición: New. Print on Demand.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Delivered from our UK warehouse in 4 to 14 business days. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Delivered from our UK warehouse in 4 to 14 business days. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Architecture of Freedom: Symbolic Scaffolding and the Fate of Human Agency Freedom is not a natural default. It is a structural achievement. This book argues that human liberty does not arise merely from political arrangements, economic conditions, or biological endowment. It emerges from something deeper and more fragile: the integrity of symbolic scaffolding. Language, law, narrative, ritual, art, philosophy, and institutional memory form the architecture within which thought becomes possible. Human beings do not think in isolation. We inherit symbolic systems that extend the mind beyond the brain. Conceptual distinctions, moral vocabularies, historical narratives, and shared grammars allow us to reason about complexity, weigh tradeoffs, and project ourselves into possible futures. Freedom, in this sense, is not the absence of constraint but the presence of enabling structure. It depends on access to a rich and plural symbolic environment. Yet symbolic systems can narrow. Through ideological consolidation, institutional capture, cultural fatigue, technological filtration, or social conformity, the range of permissible categories and narratives may shrink. When symbolic pluralism erodes, nuance collapses into binary moral coding. Emotional signaling replaces deliberation. Historical continuity fragments. Public discourse becomes performative rather than exploratory. This contraction produces what the book calls constrained cognition: a condition in which individuals retain intelligence but lose access to the full symbolic range required for complex moral reasoning. The effects unfold gradually. Intellectual risk declines. Alternative possibilities become harder to imagine. Moral language simplifies into rehearsed scripts. At the dystopian endpoint of symbolic narrowing, societies do not necessarily descend into overt terror. Instead, they stagnate. Cognitive homogenization spreads. Moral automation replaces deliberation. Cultural creativity wanes as symbolic diversity disappears. Without shared yet contestable frameworks, collective self-governance becomes unstable. Freedom does not vanish dramatically-it becomes architecturally impossible. The central claim for this book: human freedom, moral agency, and cultural vitality are inseparable from the integrity of symbolic scaffolding. A free society requires symbolic pluralism, institutional integrity, narrative continuity, moral deliberation, and cognitive humility. These elements function as structural pillars. The architecture of freedom is not a partisan construct, nor is it bound to a single era. The dynamics of symbolic expansion and contraction have appeared across civilizations. Whenever language hardens into dogma, whenever institutions cease to tolerate inquiry, whenever moral vocabulary narrows to slogans, the same structural vulnerabilities emerge. Conversely, when symbolic ecosystems are revitalized-through intellectual renewal, artistic flourishing, institutional reform, or philosophical rediscovery-agency expands. This work is both diagnostic and aspirational. It invites readers to consider not only the condition of their societies but the condition of their own symbolic worlds. Where has language narrowed? Where has moral complexity given way to simplification? Where has inherited narrative been abandoned without replacement? Freedom must be built, protected, and continually reconstructed. It survives not through rhetoric but through the maintenance of cognitive infrastructure. The future of liberty depends less on the defeat of external adversaries than on the preservation of the symbolic architecture that makes independent thought possible. To defend freedom, we must first understand what makes it thinkable. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Paperback. Condición: new. Paperback. Synopsis - The Human CodeWe are no longer living merely alongside machines. We are living inside them.The Human Code is a philosophical investigation into the deepest transformation of the modern world: the emergence of a fully systematized, AI-driven, and algorithmically governed environment in which human life is increasingly shaped by invisible structures of computation, data, automation, and optimization. In this new condition, power no longer appears only as political authority or economic force, but as embedded logic within systems that organize attention, behaviour, identity, and choice itself.This book argues that humanity is entering an existential threshold. The question is no longer whether technology will advance, but whether human beings will remain human within the environments they have created. As machines expand in intelligence and reach, they increasingly lack wisdom, moral orientation, and care-yet they begin to structure reality faster than human reflection can adapt. Intelligence without wisdom becomes a governing force without ethical direction, and simulation begins to replace lived experience as the primary interface with the world.In response to this transformation, The Human Code proposes a philosophical and civilizational framework grounded not in technological resistance, but in existential necessity. It calls for the articulation of a new "code" understood not as software, but as a foundational set of human agreements, principles, and limits that govern how life should be organized under conditions of machine proliferation.The book is structured in four movements. The first diagnoses the new condition: a world of systems, artificial intelligence, and the gradual displacement of reality by simulation. The second examines the existential threats emerging from this condition, including the erosion of meaning under automation, the rise of invisible control, and the reduction of personhood into data. The third develops the principles of the Human Code itself, asserting priorities such as reality before simulation, wisdom before intelligence, creation before imitation, responsibility before power, community before isolation, and life before profit. The final section presents a manifesto of necessity, identifying what must be defended, what must be refused, and what must be built if human dignity is to endure.At its core, the book is an argument for a civilizational recalibration. It does not reject technology, but insists that technology must remain subordinate to human flourishing. It warns that without conscious ethical structures, systems will evolve according to efficiency rather than meaning, control rather than freedom, and data rather than dignity.The Human Code ultimately calls for an evolutionary leap-not of machines, but of humanity itself. If the world is now governed by codes, then human survival depends on the creation of a higher order of code: one rooted in wisdom, responsibility, and existential awareness. It is a call to reassert human agency in an age where agency is increasingly mediated, fragmented, and automated.The stakes, the book argues, are nothing less than the continuity of human life as meaningful, embodied, and self-determined existence. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.…

PAP. Condición: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. THIS BOOK IS PRINTED ON DEMAND. Established seller since 2000.

Condición: New. Print on Demand.

Condición: New. Print on Demand.