Background
Masters, Roger Davis was born on June 8, 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Maurice and S. Grace (Davis) Masters.
( This important and original book examines the nature of...)
This important and original book examines the nature of politics from a perspective cutting across conventional academic disciplines. Returning to the traditional emphasis on human nature as the foundation of politics, Roger D. Masters links major issues in Western political philosophy with contemporary research in the life sciences. By relating evolutionary biology, social psychology, linguistics, and game theory to politics, Masters proposes a framework for the emerging field of biopolitics. Masters shows how selfishness and altruism, participation in social groups, languages and cultures, and politics can all be illuminated by empirical evidence from the life sciences. To explore the nature of the human individual, for example, he presents experimental evidence indicating that the psychology of Plato is more exact than the traditions of Hobbes, Locke, and modern behaviorism. Cultural evolution is viewed as a process based on the emergence of human language as a system of information coding and transmission similar to the genetic system but not reducible to genetic determinism. Analyzing the origin of the centralized state, Masters relates contemporary theories of natural selection to the study of social cooperation in political philosophy, game theory, and history. This ambitious work, the fruit of more than twenty years of theoretical and experimental research, seeks to overcome the gap between the natural and social sciences. In addition, it offers a reasonable basis for judging, political institutions and ethical standards. Challenging the nihilism and relativism that have predominated in the West over the last century, Masters indicates why an evolutionary approach to human nature provides reasons for preferring a constitutional regime to autocratic or tyrannical governments. By viewing politics in terms of the kinds of social participation typical within our species for millions of years, this new naturalism” can help us to formulate decent and humane standards of social life while providing a scientific foundation for the study of political behavior.
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(Library Journal Masters (government, Dartmouth Coll.) fir...)
Library Journal Masters (government, Dartmouth Coll.) first sets up the ''straw man'' of a value-free science and then laments that it has led to relativism and subjectivism in regard to values generally. He aims to show that the traditional values ''found in all major religions and ethical doctrines'' can be shown by science--when properly understood--to be implicit in human nature and that therefore no gap separates fact and value, ''is'' and ''ought,'' science and ethics. The book has the appearance and apparatus of a scholarly tour through intellectual history from the ancients to the present, but it is a confused conflation of ideas and concepts that does not come anywhere near its goal; in the end, it tells us nothing substantive about how science can help us cope with the complexity and difficult ethical choices of ''post-modern'' life.-- Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Mgt. Lib., Washington, D.C.
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(In the tradition of the New York Times bestselling Longit...)
In the tradition of the New York Times bestselling Longitude comes a popular history that reveals the little known story of what happened when two of the world's most brilliant minds met. Italy, the year 1502. Leonardo da Vinci, engineer and possible spy in the court of Cesare Borgia, crosses paths with Niccol Machiavelli, at that time Florentine ambassador. The two men formed a friendship, and joined together in an attempt to carry out one of Leonardo's most fantastic dreams: to build a system of canals that would make the Arno river navigable from Florence to the sea. While the primary reason for the project was military, da Vinci and Machiavelli also had commerce in mind. They envisioned a day when explorers would be able to sail from the city center to the sea and back, bringing riches from the New World for the greater glory of Florence. In Fortune Is a River Roger Masters provides concise and insightful biographies of two of history's greatest geniuses, an interpretation of their roles in history, and a window into their culture. It is a first-rate popular history and a fascinating introduction to the wonders of the Italian Renaissance. "Historically electrifying...Fascinating... A very interesting book" --The New York Times "A discovery...Mr. Masters skillfully navigates the intricacies of Renaissance politics, capturing the turbulence and intrigue of the age...and indulges our imaginations in the bargain." --The Wall Street Journal "A remarkable window on the birth of the modern age...meticulous...surprising." --Publishers Weekly
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(In recent years, Niccolo Machiavelli's works have been vi...)
In recent years, Niccolo Machiavelli's works have been viewed primarily with historical interest as analysis of the tactics used by immoral political officials. Roger D. Masters, a specialist in the relationship between modern natural sciences and politics, argues in this book that Machiavelli should be reconsidered as a major philosopher whose thought makes the wisdom of antiquity accessible to the modern (and post-modern) condition, and whose undertsanding of human nature is superior to that of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx or Mill. Central to Masters's claim is his discovery, based on previously untranslated documents, that Machiavelli knew and worked with Leonardo da Vinci between 1502 and 1507. An interdisciplinary text, this book should interest readers with its evocative story of the relationship between Machiavelli and da Vinci, their crucial roles in the emergence of modernity, and the vast implications this holds for contemporary life and society.
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( This book is intended as an equivalent to or substitute...)
This book is intended as an equivalent to or substitute for that "more reflective reading" which Rousseau considered essential to an understanding of his ideas. It is designed to complement perusal of the texts themselves, and the arrangement is such that chapters on each of Rousseau's major writings can be consulted separately or the commentary may be read through in sequence. The author's purpose is not to present a "key" to Rousseau's political philosophy, but rather to explore the works themselves in an effort to reveal Rousseau's "system," from which the reader may then draw his own conclusions. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691019894/?tag=2022091-20
educator political scientist Toxicologist
Masters, Roger Davis was born on June 8, 1933 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Maurice and S. Grace (Davis) Masters.
Bachelor, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1955. Master of Arts, University Chicago, 1958. Doctor of Philosophy, University Chicago, 1961.
Master of Arts (honorary), Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1974.
Instructor department political science Yale University, 1961-1962, assistant professor, 1962-1967. Associate professor department government Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1967-1973, professor, 1973-1998, John Sloan Dickey Third Century professor, 1980-1985, chairman department, 1986-1989, Nelson A. Rockefeller professor, 1991-1998, professor emeritus, since 1998, research professor, since 1999. Cultural attache American Embassy, Paris, 1969—1971.
Chairman France-American Commission Educational and Cultural Exchange, 1969—1971. Visiting lecturer Yale University Law School, 1988—1989, Vermont Law School, 1993—1994. Section editor Social Science, Information, since 1971.
Chairman executive committee Gruter Institute Law and Behavioral Research, 1995—1998. President Foundation for Neurosci. and Society, since 1998. Member Get the Lead Out of Vermont Task Force, 2006.
(In the tradition of the New York Times bestselling Longit...)
(In recent years, Niccolo Machiavelli's works have been vi...)
( This book is intended as an equivalent to or substitute...)
( This book is intended as an equivalent to or substitute...)
(In recent years, Niccolo Machiavelli's works have been vi...)
( This important and original book examines the nature of...)
(Library Journal Masters (government, Dartmouth Coll.) fir...)
Served with Army of the United States, 1955-1957. Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Political Science Association, Association Political and Life Science (county), American Society for Legal and Political Philosophy, Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research (advisory board), International Society Human Ethology, Human Behavior Evolution Society.
Married Judith Ann Rubin, June 6, 1956 (divorced 1984). Children– Seth J., William A., Katherine R. Married Susanne R. Putnam, August 25, 1984 (deceased 2006).