Pan Piper
Description
This is a fascinating collection of hundreds of English proverbial expressions. These include sayings which go back to the very roots of language, quotations from great writers which have become proverbial, and popular phrases which are widely used and known. The compilers not only pithily define and illustrate the proverbs but also trace them back to their origins wherever possible. There are copious cross-references which show how many expressions relate to a common core of folk wisdom. A very full and useful index is also included, and there is a section of biographical details of people mentioned in the book. English-speaking people throughout the world are familiar from infancy with such phrases as 'a stitch in time saves nine' and 'first come first served', but they will find new light shed on these and on less familiar proverbs by the compilers. Those to whom English is a second or foreign language will be greatly helped by the definitions, since proverbial expressions are notoriously bewildering.
How the series evolves
Books in this Series
English proverbs explained
This is a fascinating collection of hundreds of English proverbial expressions. These include sayings which go back to the very roots of language, quotations from great writers which have become proverbial, and popular phrases which are widely used and known. The compilers not only pithily define and illustrate the proverbs but also trace them back to their origins wherever possible. There are copious cross-references which show how many expressions relate to a common core of folk wisdom. A very full and useful index is also included, and there is a section of biographical details of people mentioned in the book. English-speaking people throughout the world are familiar from infancy with such phrases as 'a stitch in time saves nine' and 'first come first served', but they will find new light shed on these and on less familiar proverbs by the compilers. Those to whom English is a second or foreign language will be greatly helped by the definitions, since proverbial expressions are notoriously bewildering.
The ghost in the machine
The Ghost in the Machine is a work in philosophical psychology published in 1967. The title is a phrase coined by the Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle to describe the Cartesian dualist account of the mind–body relationship. Koestler shares with Ryle the view that the mind of a person is not an independent non-material entity, temporarily inhabiting and governing the body. One of the book's central concepts is that as the human brain evolved, it retained and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures. The work attempts to explain humanity's tendency towards self-destruction in terms of brain structure, philosophies, and its overarching, cyclical political–historical dynamics, reaching the height of its potential in the nuclear arms arena. Note: Although he appropriated Ryle's phrase for his title and shared some of his views, Koestler had a pretty low opinion of Ryle himself -- he dismissed him as a 'snickering' Oxford don with no knowledge of any of the sciences that would have given his ideas more weight. Ryle nevertheless had the philosopher's gift for analogy, and used a number of metaphors for the mind-body problem, all of which could have supplied titles: they included 'the sealed signal box', 'the two parallel theatres' and 'the horse in the locomotive'.