From Amazon to Tinder, from Google to Deliveroo, there is no facet of human life that the digital revolution has not streamlined and dematerialized. Its objective was to reduce costs by forgoing face-to-face interactions, and it was a direct result of the free-market shock of the 1980s, which sought to expand the marketplace seamlessly in every possible dimension. Today, we can be algorithmically entertained, educated, cared for, and courted in a way that was impossible in the old industri...

Why society’s expectation of economic growth is no longer realisticEconomic growth--and the hope of better things to come—is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights t...

The West has long defined the pursuit of happiness in economic terms but now, in the wake of the 2007-8 financial crisis, it is time to think again about what constitutes our happiness.In this wide-ranging new book, the leading economist Daniel Cohen traces our current malaise back to the rise of homo economicus: for the last 200 years, the modern world has defined happiness in terms of material gain. Homo economicus has cast aside its rivals, homo ethicus and homo empathicus, and ...

Economic growth is the religion of the modern world. It promises a solution to the most basic drama of our human existence: wanting what we don’t have. But we live in a time when the frenzied pursuit of economic growth is jeopardizing the planet’s viability and our very survival as a species. How did we get to this point in human history? How did we allow the pursuit of growth to become the apotheosis of human development?To answer these questions, the distinguished economist Danie...

Germany remains unmatched across Europe in its unconditional support for the Israeli state. Since October 7, 2023, the German state has particularly distinguished itself in its brutal repression of anyone who dares to speak out against Israel's crimes in Palestine. What is going on?In this urgent collection, leading authors including Hans Kundnani, Nahed Samour, Adam Tooze, and Dirk Moses, explore Germany's pathological commitment to the state of Israel. The book investigates the m...

The Holocaust is now widely recognized as a central event in twentieth-century Europe. But how did the genocide of the Jews affect European attitudes towards Jews, Judaism and Jewishness after 1945? While many histories of antisemitism exist, Good Jews offers an investigation of philosemitism – defined as a politics of post-Holocaust friendship. Gerard Daniel Cohen presents a critical exploration of the languages of philosemitism in mainstream European politics and culture from 1945 to the...

How populism is fueled by the demise of the industrial order and the emergence of a new digital society ruled by algorithmsIn the revolutionary excitement of the 1960s, young people around the world called for a radical shift away from the old industrial order, imagining a future of technological liberation and unfettered prosperity. Industrial society did collapse, and a digital economy has risen to take its place, yet many have been left feeling marginalized and ...

This book is an in-depth discussion of rising inequalities in the western world. It explores the extent to which rising inequalities are the mechanical consequence of changes in economic fundamentals (such as changes in technological or demographic parameters), and to what extent they are the contingent consequences of country-specific and time-specific changes in institutions. Both the 'fundamentalist' view and the 'institutionalist' view have some relevance. For instance, the decline of ...

A Sampler of Useful Computational Tools for Applied Geometry, Computer Graphics, and Image Processing shows how to use a collection of mathematical techniques to solve important problems in applied mathematics and computer science areas. The book discusses fundamental tools in analytical geometry and linear algebra. It covers a wide range of topics

A noted economist analyzes the upheavals caused by revolutions in technology, labor, culture, financial markets, and globalization.In this pithy and provocative book, noted economist Daniel Cohen offers his analysis of the global shift to a post-industrial era. If it was once natural to speak of industrial society, Cohen writes, it is more difficult to speak meaningfully of post-industrial “society.” The solidarity that once lay at the heart of industrial society n...

A provocative argument that the frustrations of globalization stem from the gap between the expectations created and the lagging economic reality in poor countries.The enemies of globalization—whether they denounce the exploitation of poor countries by rich ones or the imposition of Western values on traditional cultures—see the new world economy as forcing a system on people who do not want it. But the truth of the matter, writes Daniel Cohen in this provocative a...

Neuroscience, Selflessness, and Spiritual Transcendence conveys the manner by which selflessness serves as a neuropsychological and religious foundation for spiritually transcendent experiences. The book combines neurological case studies and neuroscience research with religious accounts of transcendence experiences from the perspective of both the neurosciences and the history of religions. Chapters cover the subjective experience of transcendence, an historical summary of different philo...