FRANCE AUTHOR · PHILOSOPHY · HISTORY
Michel Serres
Michel Serres (; French: [miʃɛl sɛʁ]; 1 September 1930 – 1 June 2019) was a French philosopher, and historian of science. Member of the Académie française and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, he published more than 70 authoritative works during his lifetime in the fields of anthropology of science and technology, the philosophy of communication and digital technologies, the philosophy of education, and the philosophy of ecology. Michel Serres's work is characterized by a transversal and interdisciplinary approach, connecting hard sciences and the humanities. He developed an original and innovative line of thought that has profoundly influenced contemporary philosophy.
A major problem in modern thought is the existence and survival of religion.
— from Religion
Most acclaimed
Religion
Religion: A Humanist Interpretation represents a lifetime's work on the anthropology of religion from a rather distinctive personal viewpoint. Raymond Firth treats religion as a human art, capable of great intellectual and artistic achievements, also of complex manipulation to serve human interests of those who believe in it and operate it. His study is comparative, drawing material from a range of religions around the world. This anthropological approach to the study of religion covers themes ranging from religious belief and personal adjustment; gods and God; offering and sacrifice; religion and politics; Malay magic and spirit mediumship; truth and paradox in religion. The volume is illustrated with examples from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other religions from Africa and Oceania.
Geometry
From the reviews: "A prominent research mathematician and a high school teacher have combined their efforts in order to produce a high school geometry course. The result is a challenging, vividly written volume which offers a broader treatment than the traditional Euclidean one, but which preserves its pedagogical virtues. The material included has been judiciously selected: some traditional items have been omitted, while emphasis has been laid on topics which relate the geometry course to the mathematics that precedes and follows. The exposition is clear and precise, while avoiding pedantry. There are many exercises, quite a number of them not routine. The exposition falls into twelve chapters: 1. Distance and Angles.- 2. Coordinates.- 3. Area and the Pythagoras Theorem.- 4. The Distance Formula.- 5. Some Applications of Right Triangles.- 6. Polygons.- 7. Congruent Triangles.- 8. Dilatations and Similarities.- 9. Volumes.- 10. Vectors and Dot Product.- 11. Transformations.- 12. Isometries.This excellent text, presenting elementary geometry in a manner fully corresponding to the requirements of modern mathematics, will certainly obtain well-merited popularity. Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen#1