A Deleuzian reading of Whitehead and a Whiteheadian reading of Deleuze open the possibility of a critical aesthetics of contemporary culture. In Without Criteria, Steven Shaviro proposes and explores a philosophical fantasy: imagine a world in which Alfred North Whitehead takes the place of Martin Heidegger. What if Whitehead, instead of Heidegger, had set the agenda for postmodern thought? Heidegger asks, “Why is there something, rather than nothing?” Whitehead asks, “How is it that there is always something new?” In a world where everything from popular music to DNA is being sampled and recombined, argues Shaviro, Whitehead's question is the truly urgent one. Without Criteria is Shaviro's experiment in rethinking postmodern theory, especially the theory of aesthetics, from a point of view that hearkens back to Whitehead rather than Heidegger. In working through the ideas of Whitehead and Deleuze, Shaviro also appeals to Kant, arguing that certain aspects of Kant's thought pave the way for the philosophical “constructivism” embraced by both Whitehead and Deleuze. Kant, Whitehead, and Deleuze are not commonly grouped together, but the juxtaposition of them in Without Criteria helps to shed light on a variety of issues that are of concern to contemporary art and media practices.

Formal decision and evaluation models are so widespread that almost no one can pretend not to have used or suffered the consequences of one of them. This book is a guide aimed at helping the analyst to choose a model and use it consistently. A sound analysis of techniques is proposed and the presentation can be extended to most decision and evaluation models as a "decision aiding methodology".

This report is the first in a series of publications on performance criteria for built-up roof membranes. The development of a performance approach to bituminous built-up roof membranes is described and preliminary performance criteria are recommended. A number of test methods have been developed in order to obtain data to evaluate roofing membranes against the recommended criteria. Twenty attributes that effect the performance of roof membranes under service conditions are identified and laboratory tests are described for measuring the engineering properties of the membrane that pertain to many of these attributes. A level of performance is recommended for nine of the identified performance attributes.

A compendium of the latest published diagnostic criteria for a diverse group of neurological conditions. The criteria cover a wide spectrum of neurological conditions whose diagnosis does not depend solely on histopathology (e.g., brain tumors), including cerebrovascular diseases, dementias and behavioral disorders, demyelinating disorders, and disorders of consciousness and brain death. Standardized criteria are also provided for epilepsy, genetic syndromes, headache, immune-based disorders, infectious diseases, movement disorders, neuromuscular disorders, and sleep disorders. A dazzling array of tables summarizes useful information on both common and uncommon neurological conditions, including many genetic and pediatric neurological disorders. Innovative and authoritative, Diagnostic Criteria in Neurology begins to do for neurology what the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) did for psychiatry.

The author presents a two-tiered analysis that views postmodern legal thought as both a collective intellectual movement, and as the work of particular theorists, notably Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Francois Lyotard, and Richard Rorty. He concludes that even though postmodern thought does not give rise to a normative theory of right that can be used as a framework for deciding cases, it can focus attention on genealogy and discourse, and can empower those who have been denied a voice in the legal system. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR