This is the first book devoted to the cultural history in the pre-modern period of people we now describe as having learning disabilities. Using an interdisciplinary approach, including historical semantics, medicine, natural philosophy and law, it considers a neglected field of social and medical history and makes an original contribution to the problem of a shifting concept such as 'idiocy'. Medieval physicians, lawyers and the schoolmen of the emerging universities wrote the texts which shaped medieval definitions of intellectual ability and its counterpart, disability. In studying such texts, which form part of our contemporary scientific and cultural heritage, we gain a better understanding of which people were considered to be intellectually disabled and how their participation and inclusion in society differed from the situation today.

Variothoughts series. Book of fools. What is stupidity? How to find out stupidity? How to avoid stupidity? What is bad about stupidity? What good I know everything about stupidity, I am the most stupid and ignorant person on Earth. Socrates was hypocritical and cunning, but I sincerely say - I'm stupid. Stupidity is helpful. I love stupidity. Ivan the Fool is my hero. Stupidity kills fear.***The main feature of the books "Variothoughts" is their unprecedented honesty and versatility. No censorship of thoughts, absolute freedom of ideas and words. Variothoughts is a guide to the labyrinths of thought. Concentrate of information. Time is money. Secret knowledge, forbidden and lost wisdom. Thoughts that will forever change your understanding of life. Knowledge is power.***Variothoughts is a book for those who save their time. Ready-made Lego cubes used to put together any ideas and goals. The DNA and RNA of thought. Variothoughts books should be read slowly, chewing every thought carefully. Truth is that which has extension properties, and falsehood is pride, that is, an avid rush.***The reader is offered a thematic set of Syntalism thoughts, aphorisms and metaphors on the topic indicated in the title of the book. The meaning of Variothoughts is the search for 3D truth. The knowledge of truth comes through the denial of lies, which are infinite, so the act of faith associated with the knowledge of truth is an infinite source of joy and strength. Great thing the truth? Great thing a lie?

There is a fundamental disconnection between the way business people speak and real people communicate. From advertisers, big business and CEOs - the blather is coming at us in waves. The International Language of Business is no longer English - it's gobbledygook. The authors blindly discovered the enormity of the problem in June 2003 with the launch of Bullfighter, an anti-jargon software tool. But jargon is just one symptom in a larger problem afflicting corporate communications today: the wholesale inability to connect with an audience. In the form of admirably straight-talk, we discover how to avoid the 'obscurity trap', 'the anonymity trap', the 'hard-sell trap' and most importantly, 'the tedium trap'. In this witty and practical new book readers are given all the tools they need to fight the 'spin' and learn to speak like the rest of us.

The Foolish One (or the Facilitator of Failure) is a graphic volume of poetry. (Poems and Comic strips) It is the first volume of this genre and the first book of a ten part series. It is the poetic diary, or therapeutic journal, of a frustrated inner city school teacher that has taught in a failing school district for five years. The poems and the comic strips will introduce the reader to an environment the school teacher refers to as the inner asylum and a place he calls the laboratory of failure.

"... The book demolishes a number of historiographic myths and stereotypes surrounding intellectual disability in the Middle Ages and suggests new insights with regard to 'fools', jesters and 'idiots'.