Michael Heller is een gevierd dichter, essayist en memoireschrijver wiens uitgebreide oeuvre diepe vragen over het bestaan en de menselijke conditie onderzoekt. Zijn geschriften worden gekenmerkt door een scherpe intellect en een uniek perspectief op de wereld, waarbij hij zich vaak verdiept in filosofische en metafysische thema's. Heller's stijl is zowel precies als suggestief, waarbij zijn poëzie en proza lezers een tot nadenken stemmende en verrijkende ervaring bieden. Zijn teksten verkennen de complexiteit van geheugen, taal en de waarneming van de werkelijkheid.
Exploring the intersections of family and personal history, Michael Heller's literary memoir delves into profound themes such as language, poetry, religion, and the nature of memory. Through his reflections, he offers a rich tapestry that connects his experiences with broader existential questions, inviting readers to contemplate the significance of these elements in shaping identity and understanding.
Exploring the evolution of George Oppen's poetry, these essays delve into his Objectivist beginnings, his shift to political activism in the 1930s, and his resurgence in poetry after the 1950s. The collection examines how his work has been interpreted throughout his career, highlighting the dynamic interplay between his artistic and political pursuits.
Exploring the concept of ekphrasis, Michael Heller offers a profound meditation on the works of painter Max Beckmann, intertwining poetry and prose. He examines Beckmann's art as a reflection of contemporary civilization's tumultuous nature, revealing the duality of horror and beauty within these images. With Yeats as a guiding influence, Heller's reflections highlight the unsettling yet restorative qualities of Beckmann's paintings, inviting readers to confront the catastrophic impulses of modern life.
"A Comprehensible Universe" explores the origins and limits of rationality, tracing its development from ancient philosophical inquiries to modern scientific methods. The authors, experts in physics and theology, engage thoughtfully with the relationship between science and belief, emphasizing the importance of questioning and empirical evidence.
Property enhances autonomy for most people, but not for all. Because it both empowers and disables, property requires constant vigilance. A Liberal Theory of Property addresses key questions: how can property be justified? What core values should property law advance, and how do those values interrelate? How is a liberal state obligated to act when shaping property law? In a liberal polity, the primary commitment to individual autonomy dominates the justification of property, founding it on three pillars: carefully delineated private authority, structural (but not value) pluralism, and relational justice. A genuinely liberal property law meets the legitimacy challenge confronting property by expanding people's opportunities for individual and collective self-determination while carefully restricting their options of interpersonal domination. The book shows how the three pillars of liberal property account for core features of existing property systems, provide a normative vocabulary for evaluating central doctrines, and offer directions for urgent reforms.
“Mine” is one of the first words babies learn, and by the time we grow up, the idea of ownership seems natural, whether we are buying a cup of coffee or a house. But who controls the space behind your airplane seat: you, reclining, or the squished laptop user behind you? Why is plagiarism wrong, but it’s okay to knock off a recipe or a dress design? And after a snowstorm, why does a chair in the street hold your parking space in Chicago, while in New York you lose both the space and the chair? In Mine!, Michael Heller and James Salzman, two of the world’s leading authorities on ownership, explain these puzzles and many more. Remarkably, they reveal, there are just six simple rules that everyone uses to claim everything. Owners choose the rule that steers us to do what they want. But we can pick differently. This is true not just for airplane seats, but also for battles over digital privacy, climate change, and wealth inequality. Mine! draws on mind-bending, often infuriating, and always fascinating accounts from business, history, courtrooms, and everyday life to reveal how the rules of ownership control our lives and shape our world.
A Freakonomics-style investigation into the mysteries of ownership, filled with counterintuitive insights and fascinating case studies. Who controls the space around an aeroplane seat: you or the person behind you trying to work on their laptop? Who owns your favourite football player? And why do Facebook and Google want your private data? In Mine! Michael Heller and James Salzman reveal the hidden economic and social rules that guide everyday life, demonstrating that much of what we assume about ownership is wrong. Whether a lost wallet, a playground swing or a London flat, Mine! explores what ownership means and why it governs everything we do
An original selection of work by one of America's greatest living poets. For more than fifty years, Michael Heller has been building one of the most impressive bodies of work in contemporary American poetry. His poems, shaped by Jewish and Buddhist thought and simultaneously lyrical and philosophical, engage the political and the natural world in an ongoing consideration of the responsibility and imaginative freedom of the poet. Profoundly reflective and deeply sensual, Heller is simply one of the best poets writing today. This new selection of his work, the first in many years, provides a perfect vantage from which to contemplate his achievement.
Examines the consequences of excessive property rights creating an underuse of resources, addressing such issues as excessive patent rights that inhibit the development of life-saving drugs, real estate practices that lead to a loss of family estates, and copyright laws.
