| |
Is winning in gambling so possible and desirable that, as Flip Wilson once said, “[y]ou can’t expect to hit the jackpot if you don’t put a few nickels in the machine” — or, as an old-fashioned lottery ad put it, “someone will win the lottery. Just not you [if you do not even buy a ticket]”? (WQ 2011)
This appealing view of gambling can be contrasted with an opposite (critical) view, in that “[s]ome Islamic nations prohibit gambling”; with severe punishment for any violation. (WK 2011)
Contrary to these different views about gambling (and other claims as will be discussed in the book), gambling (in relation to risk and caution) is neither possible nor desirable to the extent that the respective ideologues (on different sides) would like us to believe.
This questioning of the different conventional views about gambling does not mean, however, that there is nothing good in gambling, or that those fields of study (related to gambling) like psychology, sociology, economics, anthropology, probability theory, and so on are worthless. Of course, neither of these extreme views is reasonable either.
Instead, this book provides an alternative (better) way to understand the future of gambling, especially in the dialectic context of risk and caution — while learning from different approaches in the literature but without favoring any one of them (nor integrating them, since they are not necessarily compatible with each other). In other words, this book offers a new theory (that is, the detached theory of gambling) to go beyond the existing approaches in the literature on gambling in an original way.
This seminal project is to fundamentally alter the way that we think about risk and caution in gambling, from the combined perspectives of the mind, nature, society, and culture, with enormous implications for the human future and what I originally called its “post-human” fate.
In this book:
Introduction — The Fascination with Gambling
Risk and Its Audacity
Caution and Its Timidity
Conclusion — The Future of Gambling
Contents:
List of Tables • Foreword • Acknowledgments • List of Abbreviations
Part One: Introduction • Chapter One. Introduction—The Fascination with Gambling • The Commercial Appeal of Gambling • Gambling in Relation to Risk and Caution • The Varieties of Gambling • The Theoretical Debate • The Detached Theory of Gambling • Theory and Meta-Theory • The Logic of Existential Dialectics • Sophisticated Methodological Holism • Chapter Outline • Some Clarifications
Part Two: Risk • Chapter Two. Risk and Its Audacity • The Payoffs of Risk • Risk and the Mind • Risk and Nature • Risk and Society • Risk and Culture • The Costs of Risk
Part Three: Caution • Chapter Three. Caution and Its Timidity • The Safety of Caution • Caution and the Mind • Caution and Nature • Caution and Society • Caution and Culture • The Price of Caution
Part Four: Conclusion • Chapter Four. Conclusion—The Future of Gambling • Beyond Risk and Caution • 1st Thesis: The Absoluteness-Relativeness Principle • 2nd Thesis: The Predictability-Unpredictability Principle • 3rd Thesis: The Explicability-Inexplicability Principle • 4th Thesis: The Preciseness-Vagueness Principle • 5th Thesis: The Simpleness-Complicatedness Principle • 6th Thesis: The Openness-Hiddenness Principle • 7th Thesis: The Denseness-Emptiness Principle • 8th Thesis: The Slowness-Quickness Principle • 9th Thesis: The Expansion-Contraction Principle • 10th Thesis: The Theory-Praxis Principle • 11th Thesis: The Convention-Novelty Principle • 12th Thesis: The Evolution-Transformation Principle • 13th Thesis: The Symmetry-Asymmetry Principle • 14th Thesis: The Sofness-Hardness Principle • 15th Thesis: The Seriousness-Playfulness Principle • 16th Thesis: The Regression-Progression Principle • 17th Thesis: The Sameness-Difference Principle • 18th Thesis: The Post-Human Daringness • Towards the Post-Human DaringnessISBN - 9788130921709
|
| |
|