World-Power and Evolution-Ellsworth Huntington

Freaks An Idyll of Suburbia by Arthur Wing Pinero.Featured on Human Centered Design.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind-Jean by Jacques Rousseau.Featured on Human Centered Design.This episode includes AI-generated content.

Dunwich Horror (Version 2) by H. P. Lovecraft.Horror stalks the earth. There are many dimensions that coexist with our universe and, unfortunately, overlap it in very special places. The horrific beings that live in these other dimensions are ancient, terrifying and very malign. This story is about one of these overlapping spots in a decaying community in the USA where these beings can interact with our world and where humans succeed in calling them forth in all of their stench, fetor and power with the intent of destroying all life on our planet. Mere humans cannot resist their power. Is there any hope?Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages by Maurice de Wulf.The purpose of the study as here presented is to approach the Middle Ages from a new point of view, by showing how the thought of the period, metaphysics included, is intimately connected with the whole round of Western civilization to which it belongs. My work represents simply an attempt to open the way; it makes no pretense to exhaustive treatment of any of the innumerable problems involved in so vast a subject.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Two Paths by John Ruskin."The Two Paths" is a collection of five lectures delivered in 1858 and 1859 by John Ruskin on art and architecture. This is how the author himself presents the book: "The following addresses, though spoken at different times, are intentionally connected in subject; their aim being to set one or two main principles of art in simple light before the general student, and to indicate their practical bearing on modern design. The law which it has been my effort chiefly to illustrate is the dependence of all noble design, in any kind, on the sculpture or painting of Organic Form."Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Revolutions of Civilization by William Matthew Flinders Petrie.British archaeologist & Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, discusses the history of civilization in Egypt, Greece, Rome & medieval Europe & correlates contemporary events in different countries. A measure of the quality of civilisation is proposed by a comparison of artisan skill and effort judged in art, sculpture, and architecture between the timelines of radically different cultures. A special focus on Egypt presents evidence in a series of phases of art skill, rather than the leadership of a dynasty.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book III by John Locke.This is the third book of John Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. Book I was Neither Principles Nor Ideas Are Innate. Book II was Of Ideas and Book III is Of Words. Locke is writing about the ideas we have in our minds and the things they are to represent. What does it mean to define a thing? What is an abstract idea? What is motion? What is essential to me as an individual? What would an Englishman born in Jamaica think about ice when he went to England for the first time? What is a concrete term? Locke tackles many such questions in this third book. Book IV is Of Knowledge and Probability.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Human Nature and Conduct by Part 2, The Place of Impulse In Conduct-John Dewey.Part 2 describes Dewey's concept of IMPULSES. They encompass the interaction of one's self with the environment. When the environment encounters problems with one's HABITS, Impulses are the motivating, innate forces which prompt one to modify habits and/or modify the environment. "Nature vs Nurture" explanations of someone's personality are deceptive and fallacious. This stems from the human inclination to CLASSIFY things - practically everything! Innate behaviors are a collection of habits which one's culture has solidified as Customs. Most education is not learning but rather training of one's habits to harmonize with local customs. Human nature is plastic, malleable. Customs are, almost by definition, rigid. And, because one's environment is always changing, customs and its supporting habits are continually being tested. Nations disintegrate when their customs grow inflexible.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

World-Power and Evolution by Ellsworth Huntington.Every important aspect of human knowledge must be considered in its relation to both space and time. In "Civilization and Climate" the problem of the effect of physical environment upon human progress was discussed in its relation to space. It was shown that the distribution of civilization upon the earth's surface is closely in harmony with the distribution of climatic energy, which appears to be the most important factor in physical environment. In the present volume the same problem is considered in its relation to time. Beginning with the present day we find that from year to year business activities vary in extraordinary harmony with health. Further study shows that variations in health from year to year depend upon the weather far more than upon any other single factor.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky.Published in 1911, Kandinsky's book compares the spiritual life of humanity to a pyramid -- the artist has a mission to lead others to the pinnacle with his work. The point of the pyramid is those few, great artists. It is a spiritual pyramid, advancing and ascending slowly even if it sometimes appears immobile. During decadent periods, the soul sinks to the bottom of the pyramid; humanity searches only for external success, ignoring spiritual forces.Featured on Human Centered Design.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.