The Biostatistics Cookbook: The Most User-Friendly Guide for the Bio/Medical Scientist

Book Description

Good statistical design of experimental and analytical methods is a fundamental component of successful research. The set of tools that has evolved to implement these processes of design and analysis is called Biostatistics. Using these tools blindly or by rote is a recipe for failure. The Biostatistics Cookbook is intended for research scientists who want to understand why they do a particular test or analysis as well as how to do it. It is meant as an interpreter as well as a guide, helping the researcher to illuminate and communicate his or her results as accurately, concisely, and universally as possible.

Customer Reviews:

There is another (inprint) edition by AIP Press, ISBN: 0883185237 .......2006-12-18

This is a book by E.T. Whittaker, of "A Course of Modern Analysis"-fame (please check it out on Amazon if you have never heard of that classic).
For scientists and engineers, it is fundamental to have a minimum understanding of how scientific ideas evolved over time. Recall the debate over the particle versus wave nature of light, and how the two schools of thought took turns as the mainstream theory until they were reconciled in the beginning of the twentieth century (well, not really: there are some rough edges lingering still). The same happens with the currently out-of-favor theory of ether; after abandoning the idea of ether upon the establishment of the theory of Special Relativity, Einstein himself revisited the concept of ether in a different fashion when developing his broader-scoped General Relativity (he actually developed 3 diverse ether models then; check out "Einstein and the Ether" by Ludwik Kostro for an account of this episode). The history of the ether hypothesis is in fact the history of a number of competing theories, each of which entailing a different set of properties for this elusive would-be medium (substance?). Whether replacing one another or co-existing side by side, these theories were very important for the development of physics as we know it today. In this book Whittaker offers an account of that will prove enjoyable, possibly insightful, to physicists and other scientists in general.

Essential for a serious student of physics.......2003-01-18

First I quite agree with the reviewer jnhrtmn... , so I won't repeat what he said. Physics in universities seems to be taught with little real reference to the history-- as if quantum mechanics and relativity sprung brilliantly out of someone's mind fresh out of the twentieth century. This book shows the importance of history in the development of physics-- and anyone seriously studying physics should read this book, to see how much the ideas of physics have evolved and been influenced by the past. Much of it requires a good math background--a knowledge of calculus is needed for much of it. It is sad that it is out of print--a publisher needs to make this available.

The most in your face account of physics progression........1999-08-30

I am an amateur physicist that thinks modern physics is more of a belief system than a science. This book is the most objective account of why science is where it is today. It is raw and readable. It leads you through the evidence as it happened. Hundreds of references. Meaty stuff, not just fluff for a book. You want insight into science you never had before, this book is a very good step.

Customer Reviews:

The Essence of Truth'.......2002-10-17

One of Heidegger's most important works, The Essence of Truth, bears witness to a shift in emphais, in which truth and by extension, being, no longer happens through the agency of Dasein, but in the 'open' in which Dasein is uncovered. By a slow and careful reading of Plato's allegory of the cave, Heidegger shows how truth ceased to be 'unhiddenness' and became mere 'correctness', beginning the degeneration of thought about being into metaphysics.

A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: With Complete Translations of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene, and "Allegory of the Cave")

Average customer rating:

A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: With Complete Translations of Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene, and "Allegory of the Cave")
Plato , and Christopher Biffle
Manufacturer: Mayfield Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Good & Evil | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Greek & Roman | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Ancient | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene), Allegory of the Cave

Average customer rating:

Ideal introduction to the study of philosophy
Best Plato Textbook is a Superb Teaching Tool

A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Death Scene), Allegory of the Cave
Christopher Biffle
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Good & Evil | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Greek & Roman | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Ancient | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0767410335

Book Description

This accessible supplement makes Plato’s texts come alive for students by showing them how to read, think critically, and write about these key classic works. Engaging interactive devices draw students into an intimate philosophical encounter that they can model in later work in philosophy.

Customer Reviews:

Ideal introduction to the study of philosophy.......2005-05-17

Christopher Biffle's A Guided Tour of Five Works by Plato is an ideal introduction to the study of philosophy as an academic activity. While there are several introductory philosophy books that allow the reader to wander and ponder through the dreamy early stages of philosophical wonder, this book gets down to business. Biffle structures his guided tour as an interactive reader of five of Plato's most important and most accessible dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology and Crito complete; the "Death Scene" from Phaedo, and the "Allegory of the Cave" from Republic.

Through this tour students will have an opportunity to actively engage in philosophy as they move through the text. Biffle prepares the reader for the journey by providing just enough background about Socrates,Plato and the history of Athens to satisfy a rudimentary curiosity. As the reader embarks, he will begin to encounter some of the features which make Biffle's book so valuable. This tour is an adventure in thinking, and the reader is challenged to summarize and extract important developments as the tour progresses. The reader is asked to respond to prompts such as "The main things I want to remember about Socrates and the history of Athens are..." Thus the reader himself becomes a participant in the dialogue.

From this introduction Biffle guides us into the dialogues themselves, beginning with Euthyphro. Each selection is introduced with a series of questions designed to open up the reader's mind to some of the ideas and issues to be explored in the dialogues themselves. During the reading of the dialogue, the reader is asked to underline and annotate the text as he goes; thus the reader becomes actively and critically engaged in the text rather than passively drifting through it. By clarifying and analyzing Plato, the student begins to clarify and analyze his own thinking. This approach to philosophy is also an ideal approach to developing reading, writing and critical thinking skills for students.

Although Biffle's tour can be taken solo (in the capable hands of both Biffle and Plato), it is best taken with a group of fellow travelers who can share the journey. It is a fantastic text for use in a class or as the basis for a philosophy discussion group. There are quizzes and exercises to check understanding, but the book really encourages the reader to develop his own thinking, and ultimately to become a curious and critical questioner of the world--what Socrates or Plato would have called a philosopher.

Best Plato Textbook is a Superb Teaching Tool.......2004-03-18

The book is an excellent teaching tool for undergraduate and graduate level Philosophy courses. This text would be the only one I would use at the high school level (and Plato should be taught in GATE and AP type English classes, as he was back in the "good old days" when the goal of academic 'arete' had real importance in lesson planning). The book includes the dialogues surrounding the trial and death of Socrates, Euthyphro, Crito, and Apology, the Death Scene of Socrates from the Phaedo, and the "Allegory of the Cave" from the Republic. While the translations are not always the best, they are very good, come from the greatest source (Jowett) and quite sufficient for communicating all the important points in the dialogues.
Best of all are the copious margins which surround the text on every page and serve the wonderful purpose of teaching students to annotate their text with marginalia. The creation of marginalia is an ancient scholarly art, quintessentially described by Edmond Bourdoux Szekeley, one of the last of the old world scholars of that grand continental tradition known as the Sorbonne Method, which he describes in his now out of print masterpiece, "The Art of Study". In that book, Szekeley details the method by which, through nearly a millinium, successive generations of Sorbonne scholars (dating back before Aquinas), parsed and analyzed arguments and extracted the hermaneutic esssence of their texts.
Biffle provides cues and prompts with relevant and incisive questions (he knows Bloom's Taxonomy as well as he knows his Philosophy), which not only makes students accountable to do the reading (you can collect your students' texts to see if their doing it), but provides the student with a time-proven, eminently productive study skill.
Biffle also provides excellent background material, supplementary writing exercises, and material for quizzes, all you really need.
A few points which Biffle addresses "to the teacher" in his introduction are in order: 1) "My philosophy students need a lot of practice in orderly thinking and writing. They need practice in following a logical pattern, giving reasons for assertions, clarifying points with examples, and quoting supporting material from a text. There is plenty of practice here." 2) "The truth is most students will read Plato's dialogues only once in their lives. We need to slow down that precious reading and make it as fruitful as possible. The reading and writing tasks I have incorporated in this book are designed to help students underline, write in margins, reread, paraphrase, outline, and eventually analyze philosophical classics in an orderly way."

Plato's Cave: Television and Its Discontents (The Hampton Press Communication Series. Critical Bodies)

Average customer rating:

Plato's Cave: Television and Its Discontents (The Hampton Press Communication Series. Critical Bodies)
John O'Neill
Manufacturer: Hampton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown3 | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 157273390X

Average customer rating:

Intellectual History at its Best
In The Cave of Plato
The Mote in the Middle Distance
A Life of Literate Enlightenment, Academic Politics
a sad chronicle of a disappointed man

In Plato's Cave
Alvin Kernan
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Educators | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Greek | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Biographies & Memoirs | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Death of Literature

ASIN: 0300082673

Book Description

In this candid and delightful memoir, Alvin Kernan recalls his life as a student, professor, provost, and dean during turbulent decades of change in the hallowed halls of Columbia, Williams, Oxford, Yale, and Princeton. His vividly remembered account is a unique personal story and more-it is also a history of what has been won, and lost, in the culture wars of the second half of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

Intellectual History at its Best.......2003-07-26

If anyone wants to know what life was like in the literary world in the second half of the twentieth century, this is the book to read. It makes the intellectual struggles of those years come vividly alive for readers. _In Plato's Cave strikes me and several of my friends, English Professors all, as the best book we have ever read about our profession.

In The Cave of Plato.......2001-10-24

This was an excellent book. This is one of the only books that someone should read to learn something. This book teaches about how the world can and sometimes will react. Through a livid writing process, Kernan describes his amazing career. This is probably the last great book of the 20th Century.

The Mote in the Middle Distance.......2000-03-30

Oh, come now, DC from California, don't be a curmudgeon. Anyone who dislikes students, critics, and the 1960s can't be all bad. Although I must admit that any writer so hackneyed as to title a moderately interesting memoir "In Plato's Cave" tends to put one off one's feed rather early on.

A Life of Literate Enlightenment, Academic Politics.......2000-03-19

Enjoyed this! Kernan depicts the literary and academic influences of his life in great detail, inspiring one to get a hold of the greats in the Classics and Criticism (again). The book would be of special interest to professors or English scholars, as the phases of Literary criticism over the last part of the 1900's is elaborated (I found this very interesting although I know I still don't understand what existentialism, deconstruction, etc REALLY mean...). One understands how his love for literature and humanity outweigh the Machievallian nature and silly politics inherent in academic institutions.Lastly, the author's way of writing is masterful, as one would expect of a life steeped in the literary tradition.

a sad chronicle of a disappointed man.......1999-12-21

Kernan recounts his career (Yale and Princeton)from undergraduate to emeritus. He is a passionate advocate of his school of LitCrit (New Criticism of the Brooks and Leavis varieties)and makes animadversions on all other views. His book contains some delightful anecdotes, and is worth reading for those alone, but his book lacks a central theme. If he wishes to show that somehow critical standards have decayed, he fails completely. A lifelong teacher, he has nothing but contempt for all students, whom he refers to as Smithers: stupid, ungrateful, altogether unworthy of Prof. Kernan's genius. He mentions his most famous pupils only to attack them (viz Greenblatt). Although other reviewers praise Kernan's "elegiac" view of a better time, I am hard pressed to see when that time was. The 1950's, I suppose. Kernan himself was the product of lowered standards: until the G.I. Bill, people like Kernan couldn't get into Williams or Yale, and many an old academic bemoaned the decline of standards. One might think that Kernan would have welcomed the greatest change to Yale and Princeton during his tenure, namely the opening of those schools to women, minorities, and the middle classes generally, with a corresponding increase in standards to match the increase in the applicant pool. Kernan regards such changes with distaste, without ever analyzing why he finds such things distasteful. There is room for a passionate defense of the Old School Tie, but one does not find it here. Before I read this book I thought of Kernan as an academic success story. Now I am not so sure.

Another reviewer mentions plagiarism and such things. From Kernan's account, there was more plagiarism in the 40's and 50's than in the last 30 years. Likewise more drunkeness and hooliganism. Trust me to miss the fun. Some good comments on this book have appeared at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Certainly a type of liberal education was easier when GPAs and SATs were of little importance, and books have been written , by Hutchins and McNeil and others describing what is possible and what is not. If modern education has become too narrowly focussed on vocationalism, that is not the fault of the students, but of the (upper) middle class world they are obliged to join, and the idealists of the '60's would seem to Kernan's allies, not his enemies. In the final analysis, it is the students who maintain the quality of a university, not the faculty.

Average customer rating:
Escaping Plato's Cave: How America's Blindness to the Rest of the World Threatens Our Survival
Mort Rosenblum
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Australia & Oceania | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0312364407
Release Date: 2007-10-02

Book Description

Cave Blindness

Like Plato’s cave-dwellers who only saw inaccurate reflections of reality on the wall, America has been blinded to dangerous realities inside and outside our borders, argues award-winning journalist Mort Rosenblum. Our ignorance is not just deplorable, it is literally killing us—and others.

Rosenblum—who has reported from more than one hundred countries, many of which he has outlived—explains how we all can and must learn more about what's really happening in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, in matters of war, peace, business, the environment, and education.

This cri de coeur by one of our planet’s most eloquent journalists is a must-read for anyone concerned about what they don't see in the newspaper or on TV. It offers both insight and practical ways for Americans to get out of the cave and see what’s really going on around us.

Virtue in the Cave: Moral Inquiry in Plato's Meno

Average customer rating:

Virtue in the Cave: Moral Inquiry in Plato's Meno
Roslyn Weiss
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Greek & Roman | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0195140761

Book Description

In this radical new interpretation of Plato's Meno, Roslyn Weiss exposes the farcical nature of the slave-boy-demonstration and challenges the widely held assumption that the Meno introduces "Platonic" metaphysical and epistemological innovations into an otherwise "Socratic" dialogue. She shows that the Meno is intended as a defense not of all inquiry but of moral inquiry alone, and that it locates the validity of Socratic method in its ability to arrive not at moral knowledge but at the far more modest moral true belief. Through a careful, and provocative, reading of Plato's Meno, Weiss identifies serious problems in its orthodox interpretations, offering an alternative that is responsive to the dialogue's drama. Virtue in the Cave will appeal not only to students of ancient philosophy and the classics, but also to anyone who is interested in how to live right in a world of moral uncertainty.

Average customer rating:

Plato's Political Philosophy: The Cave
Roger L. Huard
Manufacturer: Algora Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Greek & Roman | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Ancient | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0875865305

Product Description

Roger Huard invites readers to explore Plato s myth of the Cave, which is central to his magnum opus on political philosophy, The Republic. Using The Cave as a key, Huard debunks conventional interpretations of to Plato s political thought (conservative and progressive interpretations alike), and unfolds Plato's notions about the structure of the world, his ideas about justice and human well being, challenging many of our conceptions of the cosmos and political beliefs.
The primary goal of this exploration is to arrive at an understanding of Plato s political ideas -- an understanding that is not saddled with the misconceptions that plague contemporary interpretations of his thinking, conservative and progressive alike. The author argues further that this re-examination provides a way to look at the human condition that is significantly different from most available perspectives on the matter and that, by virtue of this difference, challenges both our conceptions of the cosmos and many of our deeply held political beliefs.
The author provides a reinterpretation of the cave myth that discusses specifically the structure of knowledge that is imbedded in the myth as well as the concept of philosophy and the philosopher that it details especially in terms of the relationship of the philosopher to the greater social order.
An examination follows of the structure of the world that Plato s myth rests upon. This is important because this structure is fundamentally different from current scientific and religious conceptions of the cosmos. It is also significant because Plato s notions about the structure of the world are linked to his ideas about justice and human well being, a link that is forged (albeit implicitly) in his Myth of the Cave.
The author then proceeds to a discussion of four topics that separate contemporary political thinking from Plato s:
freedom,
equality,
truth, and
art
A two-part examination of these topics demonstrates, first, that Plato s thoughts on these matters are not as we conventionally think them to be; and second, turns a critical gaze on how contemporary political thought may be mistaken about its own ideas concerning freedom, equality, truth and art. A key feature in this re-examination is the differing conceptions we have from Plato s on the private and public realms and how these realms are connected to our ideas about economics and politics.
The book concludes with a discussion on the importance of Plato s political philosophy and how it is linked at a fundamental level to some of our cherished political beliefs about justice, human well-being and community.

Average customer rating:

The Art of Living

The Journalist in Plato's Cave
Jay Newman
Manufacturer: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Journalism | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0838633498

Customer Reviews:

The Art of Living.......2000-01-18

Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote: "To go swimming one takes off one's clothes; to pursue the truth one must take one's time in a much more inward sense, divesting oneself of a much more inward attire of thoughts, ideas, selfishness and the like, before one is naked enough. In this book, Canadian philosopher Jay Newman elucidates a similar point. Newman contends that journalism, which he interprets exclusively as the business of writing and producing newspapers or periodicals, is not separable from philosophical content, but is, itself, a part of its content - an integral part, then, of the search for and the statement of truth. A most interesting and engaging read.

Passive Constitutions or 7 1/2 Times Bartleby

Average customer rating:

Passive Constitutions or 7 1/2 Times Bartleby
Branka Arsic
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0804753938
Release Date: 2007-08-15

Book Description

This book represents an analysis of one of the most enigmatic characters in American literature. At the same time, it addresses various questions in Melville's writings, such as passivity, identity, the impersonal and neutral, sexuality and the question of marriage, drug addiction, and ethics (especially the problem of testifying and friendship). Reference is made to the whole range of Melville's writings (excluding his poetry), and each chapter situates the question it treats within a larger cultural or theoretical context, such as the legacy of American Puritanism, the appearance of the first American asylums, Melville's treatment of the institutionalization of madness, and the appearance of certain semi-sciences (mesmerism, physiognomy, palmistry, and so on). The book thus covers Melville's thinking concerning American society, his relationship to the law, his treatment of the arts (specifically Turner's paintings), and his responses to the appearance of meteorology, reading such matters as a political and philosophical statement concerning the modern world.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books