Ethics and moral philosophy Books

Book SynopsisConcentrating on arguments in moral psychology surrounding the foundations of human sociability and self-love, this book details how the engagement with Roman Stoicism shaped early modern political philosophy. It offers interpretations of Lipsius and Rousseau.Trade Review"It is one of the strengths of Christopher Brooke's fascinating new study, Philosophic Pride, that he is aware of the multifarious nature of his subject; he knows that he is dealing with a fluid cluster of ideas and themes, not a unitary philosophical movement. Not that he has set out, in any case, to write a history of (Neo-)Stoicism; his task is both narrower and harder than that. The subject of this book is the relationship between Stoicism and early modern political thought; since there was scarcely such a thing as a worked-out body of Stoic political theory (unless we count Seneca's fanciful portrayal of the monarchical ruler--Nero, of all people--extending the empire of reason), this means that an already elusive subject is considered here from a variety of oblique angles."--Noel Malcolm, Times Literary Supplement "I'm a little unsure whether Stoicism really is as powerful an interpretive lens as Brooke here seems to suggest but I, along with doubtless many others, will delight in taking up the provocative interpretive challenges Philosophic Pride lays down."--Ross Carroll, Journal of Intellectual History and Political Thought "Brooke has made a significant contribution towards filling in some important lacunae in our understanding of the relationships between ancient and modern thinking about morality and politics, and intervened deftly in a broad range of interdisciplinary debates on major figures in the history of practical ethics. These are achievements that will insure this book is welcomed by scholars and general readers with all sorts of investments in his subject matter. They will also enjoy its sincere humanism and remarkable erudition."--Cambridge Humanities Review "Philosophic Pride is an extremely rich study that offers new insights in and interpretations of the works of established authors such as Lipsius, Grotius, Hobbes, and Rousseau, while minutely tracing down the Stoic foundations of early modern politics in the works of a nearly countless number of well-known and lesser known authors. Without doubt, Christopher Brooke's book-length study will be of great interest to intellectual historians, scholars of the history of political thought, and historians of philosophy."--Erik de Bom, Renaissance QuarterlyTable of ContentsPreface ix Prologue Augustine of Hippo 1 Chapter One Justus Lipsius and the Post-Machiavellian Prince 12 Chapter Two Grotius, Stoicism, and Oikeiosis 37 Chapter Three From Lipsius to Hobbes 59 Chapter Four The French Augustinians 76 Chapter Five From Hobbes to Shaftesbury 101 Chapter Six How the Stoics Became Atheists 127 Chapter Seven From Fenelon to Hume 149 Chapter Eight Jean-Jacques Rousseau 181 Epilogue 203 Notes 209 Bibliography 253 Index 273

Read more less

Book SynopsisA runaway train is racing toward five men who are tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. You are standing on a footbridge looking down on the unfolding disaster. Would you kill the fat man? The question may seem bizarre.Trade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2015 PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014 "A lucid account of a famous thought experiment in moral philosophy."--Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review "[J]aunty, lucid and concise... In Would You Kill the Fat Man? David Edmonds ... a seasoned philosopher, tells the story ... with wit and panache."--Sarah Bakewell, New York Times Book Review "[E]legant, lucid, and frequently funny... Edmonds has written an entertaining, clear-headed, and fair-minded book."--Cass R. Sunstein, New York Review of Books "[E]legantly written ... Edmonds's book is especially valuable for the way in which it embeds his introduction to the trolley problem in a story of the social reality that produced it."--Hallvard Lillehammer, Times Literary Supplement "David Edmonds's vastly more ambitious Would You Kill the Fat Man? has the cartoons--and just about everything else you could want in a thoughtful popular treatment of [the trolley problem]. A marvel of economy and learning worn lightly, Mr. Edmonds's book ranges pleasurably back to Aquinas and forward into the future of robots, who will of course need an ethics just as much as people do. Perhaps best of all, Mr. Edmonds recognizes that the origins of 'trolleyology' are at least as interesting as the many philosophical writings, academic exercises and parlor games that have sprung from the original trolley paper, published in 1967 by an English philosopher named Philippa Foot."--Daniel Akst, Wall Street Journal "An accessible, humorous examination of how people approach complex ethical dilemmas... Written for general readers, the book captures the complexities underpinning difficult decisions."--Publishers Weekly "Informative, accessible, engaging and witty, his book is a marvelous introduction to debates about right and wrong in philosophy, psychology, and neuro-science... In the hands of a lucid explicator like David Edmonds, trolleyology is, at once, serious business (relevant, among others things, to preferences for drone strikes) and lots of fun."--Glenn Altschuler, Psychology Today "This is a rare treat--a serious, thought-provoking book on ethics that is also witty, funny, and entertaining. Not to be missed... David Edmonds has taken the well-known trolley car problem and breathed new life into it, examining it from different perspectives and using it to shed light on the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, John Rawls, Aristotle, and others. If you think philosophy has to be ponderous and difficult, you haven't read this book... What's intoxicating about this book is that every time you think you know what you think, Edmonds tosses out a new element... There's lots more to enjoy and learn from this book, a real gem and one of my new favorites."--Mark Willen, TalkingEthics.com "[H]umans seem hard-wired to draw a distinction between a foreseeable side effect that sadly results from doing good (switching the tracks) and purposefully harming another, no matter how noble the cause (pushing the fat man off the bridge). Edmonds's exploration of why this is so is at the heart of his thoroughly delightful book."--Brian Bethune, Macleans "[A] fascinating and important field. The light it throws on the moral institutions of human beings is its own reward, and this book will make its readers think."--Richard King, Australian "This provocatively titled tract opens with a burst of drama that proves philosophy can be exciting."--David Wilson, South China Morning Post "Edmonds enjoyably traces the ever-expanding sub-genre of trolleyology through debates about language, abortion, cannibals, war, and a complicated love quadrangle involving the novelist Iris Murdoch and the philosopher Philippa Foot, offering insights on ethics, politics, and sex along the way."--Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason "[A] fascinating book. Edmonds uses the problem of the fat man as a jumping-off point for a fairly wide-ranging exploration of morality and ethics, and he asks us to consider carefully how we would respond. It's a big subject packed into a relatively small book, and we leave the volume with perhaps more questions than answers, but isn't that the point here--to make us find our own answers?"--David Pitt, Booklist Online "[I]mpressive... [A] walking tour of moral philosophy organized around one of the most well-known thought experiments of the last half century... By weaving together abstract principles, biographical sketches, historical examples, and trendy research in this just-so way, Edmonds has figured out how to illustrate the dimensions and consequences of moral decision-making without sacrificing entertainment value... [A] carefully executed book."--Robert Herritt, Daily Beast "This is a witty and informative discussion of the trolley problem in philosophical ethics by Oxford University researcher Edmonds... Through a highly informed yet not technical discussion, readers get an excellent introduction to some main lines of 20th-century moral philosophy."--Choice "Edmonds does an outstanding job of introducing the reader to the historical emergence and subsequent development of trolleyology, explaining its significance for both moral philosophy and moral psychology, and responding to a number of substantive criticisms of the field. Edmonds's expertise is clearly on display throughout the text, and he largely succeeds in producing a work that is informative and sophisticated without being overly technical."--Eli Weber, Metapsychology "Rich in anecdote and example and wide-ranging in scope, Would You Kill the Fat Man?, is by turns fascinating and unsettling."--Gabriel Carlyle, Peace News "David Edmonds bravely attempts to make possible the impossible, offering us this well-reviewed book on the sanctity of life. His story is enlivened with biographical details, anecdotes, curiosities, pictures and jokes. Short of setting passages to music it is hard to see what more could have been done. There is something here for everyone."--Christopher Miles Coope, Philosophical Quarterly "Edmonds should be congratulated on his grand undertaking, and what I take to be his successful illumination of an important problem."--Joel Dittmer, Philosophy in ReviewTable of ContentsList of Figures xi Prologue xiii Acknowledgments xv Part 1 Philosophy and the Trolley Chapter 1 Churchill's Dilemma 3 Chapter 2 Spur of the Moment 8 Chapter 3 The Founding Mothers 13 Chapter 4 The Seventh Son of Count Landulf 26 Chapter 5 Fat Man, Loop, and Lazy Susan 35 Chapter 6 Ticking Clocks and the Sage of Konigsberg 44 Chapter 7 Paving the Road to Hell 57 Chapter 8 Morals by Numbers 69 Part 2 Experiments and the Trolley Chapter 9 Out of the Armchair 87 Chapter 10 It Just Feels Wrong 94 Chapter 11 Dudley's Choice and the Moral Instinct 108 Part 3 Mind and Brain and the Trolley Chapter 12 The Irrational Animal 127 Chapter 13 Wrestling with Neurons 135 Chapter 14 Bionic Trolley 153 Part 4 The Trolley and Its Critics Chapter 15 A Streetcar Named Backfire 169 Chapter 16 The Terminal 175 Appendix Ten Trolleys: A Rerun 183 Notes 193 Bibliography 205 Index 213

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen a government in a democracy acts in our name, are we, as citizens, responsible for those acts? What if the government commits a moral crime? This book explains how citizens may be morally exposed to the failures of their representatives and state institutions, and how complicity is the professional hazard of democratic citizenship.Trade Review"Beerbohm addresses crucially important questions with philosophical insight and some imagination: When are people in a democratic system complicit in and responsible for unjust government actions and structures? What is required of citizens under unjust circumstances?"--Choice "Beerbohm's research and range are impressive; he is precise in definition and argumentation: he tests his proposed principles against a staggering variety of hypothetical situations (and the occasional real one): and he is fearless in suggesting that our current political practices may defy justification... Although other books have sought to treat the theme of citizen complicity in public wrongdoing, none approaches this one in its care, seriousness, and sophistication."--Andrew Sabl, Perspectives on Politics "[T]he book provides us with a breathtakingly expansive, and ultimately compelling, account of citizens' duties within representative government. In Our Name is a distinctive and important contribution to democratic theory."--Melissa Schwartzberg, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Beerbohm's contribution can be considered obligatory reading for political philosophers who occupy themselves with questions related to the moral implication of citizens in policy writing and execution by their elected officials and with democratic agency in general."--Jos Leys, Ethical Perspectives "Combining wide learning with a tenacious and undogmatic focus on the problems of democratic citizenship, Beerbohm has written a book that identifies fresh solutions to some important problems and should become a key reference point for democratic theorists."--Matthew Festenstein, Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsPreface ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1- How to Value Democracy 25 Chapter 2- Paper Stones: The Ethics of Participation 51 Chapter 3- Philosophers-Citizens 82 Chapter 4- Superdeliberators 105 Chapter 5- What Is It Like to Be a Citizen? 125 Chapter 6- Democracy's Ethics of Belief 142 Chapter 7- The Division of Democratic Labor 166 Chapter 8- Representing Principles 193 Chapter 9- Democratic Complicity 226 Chapter 10- Not in My Name: Macrodemocratic Design 252 Conclusion 278 Notes 287 Bibliography 327 Index 324

Read more less

Book SynopsisWishful thinking is a deeply ingrained human trait that has had a long-term distorting effect on ethical thinking. This title ranges over such topics as the concepts of intelligibility, authority, democracy, and criticism; the place of theology in ethics; tragedy and comedy; and the struggle between realism and our search for meaning.Trade Review"Geuss is a unique voice in contemporary philosophy, and this book is ideal for anyone interested in intellectual history."--David Gordon, Library Journal "In A World Without Why, Raymond Geuss brings his caustic intelligence to many of themes and figures that have occupied his career."--Alex Sager, Marx & Philosophy "In these 13 essays, well-known critical philosopher Geuss ranges over a very wide field of topics--politics, ethics, cultural formations, history, ancient literary and philosophical works, and criticism itself... [S]tudents can read some of these essays with profit, such as the discussion of when obscurity of speech might be best."--Choice "This book leaves a lasting impression. Geuss is a great writer and a very thoughtful human being who has resisted quite valiantly the conventions of his discipline and his times. This is no 'grim' outlook at all, but rather hopeful, and one can only hope that Geuss himself agrees."--Laurie M. Johnson, European LegacyTable of ContentsPreface ix 1. Goals, Origins, Disciplines 1 2. Vix intellegitur 22 3. Marxism and the Ethos of the Twentieth Century 45 4. Must Criticism Be Constructive? 68 5. The Loss of Meaning on the Left 91 6. Authority: Some Fables 112 7. A Note on Lying 135 8. Politics and Architecture 144 9. The Future of Theological Ethics 163 10. Did Williams Do Ethics? 175 11. The Wisdom of Oedipus and the Idea of a Moral Cosmos 195 12. Who Was the First Philosopher? 223 13. A World without Why 231 Notes 237 Index 257

Read more less

Book SynopsisIsaiah Berlin (1909-1997) was the greatest intellectual historian of the twentieth century. But his work also made an original and important contribution to moral and political philosophy and to liberal theory. In 1921, at the age of eleven, Isaiah Berlin arrived in England from Riga, Latvia. By the time he was thirty he was at the heart of BritishTrade Review"Gray's book is as much a reconstruction as a presentation of Berlin's thought... Gray's reconstruction is ... impressive and revealing. It points persuasively to both the overall coherence and the internal tensions of Berlin's thought... Gray has written an acute and illuminating exposition of Berlin's world view... He probably gets closer to Berlin than anyone else has done."--Michael Walzer, New York Review of Books "Gray is a forceful writer, an engaged political theorist with a serious interest in philosophical fundamentals."--Steven Lukes, Times Literary Supplement "A careful study...Gray astutely guides readers through the complex ideas of an important philosopher."--Publishers Weekly "Isaiah Berlin's commitment to liberalism for all its difficulties remains solid, and Mr. Gray's argument is that this 'agonistic' liberalism is our best bet... It is an argument not to be missed."--Colin Walters, Washington Times "A masterly study of Berlin's political thought... Gray brilliantly expounds in highly condensed prose Berlin's theory of pluralism, developing its direction and course, even where Berlin is silent, and explaining its political relevance."--Adam Wolfson, National Interest "An excellent exposition of Isaiah Berlin's ideas. [Gray] is particularly interesting in his account of Berlin's idea of negative freedom."--William Phillips, Partisan Review "A thought-provoking analysis... Gray raises all of the right sort of questions about Berlin's position."--Choice "Succeed[s] in bringing the daring of [Berlin's] thinking so clearly into view... Berlin's commitment to liberalism for all its difficulties remains solid, and Mr. Gray's argument is that this 'agonistic' liberalism is our best bet... It is an argument not to be missed."--Colin Walters, Washington Times "Isaiah Berlin is without a doubt the greatest living authority on the history of ideas... He stands as one of the pre-eminent modern exemplars of political liberalism... It is the singular merit of John Gray to have distilled from Berlin's voluminous writings the philosophical essence of his liberalism within this slim volume... In his thoughtful study of Berlin's political philosophy, John Gray performs the admirable service of demonstrating how consummately civilized a man Isaiah Berlin is."--David Glasner, National Review "A clearly written and well-argued book that is essential reading for anyone concerned with contemporary moral and political thought."--Ethics "Like Berlin, Gray's historical sensibility, lack of parochialism, and courageous and imaginative contemplation of vistas outside the narrow confines of academic liberalism make him, as this book abundantly demonstrates, ideally situated to reflect deeply on the predicaments of the modern world."--Pratap Bhanu, American Political Science Review "Gray clearly identifies deeply with Berlin's system of thought, enters into it, and then worries persistently about its tensions and stresses and seeks a way out. This focus on a single theme, and the almost anguished perplexity are attractive features of Gray's book."--Ernest Gellner, Guardian "Gray's reconstruction is...impressive and revealing. It points to both the overall coherence and the internal tensions of Berlin's thought."--Michael Wlazer, New York Review of Books "Berlin's message is not comforting to conventional liberal establishment susceptibilities. As this book insists, it is deeply subversive. Gray finds in Berlin's 'value pluralism' the leitmotif of all his writings. Ultimate human values, Berlin insists, are conflictive; they cannot be reconciled by rational calculation since they are not measurable, least of all can they be reconciled by what Gray dismisses as 'the desiccated discourse of Anglo-American philosophy,' which Berlin abandoned as incapable of solving anything of importance to us as human beings, at worst a game of juggling with words, at best a species of mental arithmetic dispelling tragic confusions."--Raymond Carr, SpectatorTable of ContentsAcknowledgements vii Introduction to the New Edition 1 Introduction to the Original Edition 36 1. The Idea of Freedom 41 2. Pluralism 74 3. History 111 4. Nationalism 133 5. Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment 156 6. Agonistic Liberalism 175 Notes 203 Concise Bibliography of Berlin's Work 215 Index 223

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen is political compromise acceptable--and when is it fundamentally rotten, something we should never accept, come what may? What if a rotten compromise is politically necessary? Compromise is a great political virtue, especially for the sake of peace. But, as Avishai Margalit argues, there are moral limits to acceptable compromise even for peaceTrade ReviewAvishai Margalit, Winner of the 2012 Ernst-Bloch-Prize Winner of the 2012 Philosophical Book Award, The Hannover Institute of Philosophical Research "In a provocative book, Margalit--a professor emeritus of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the George F. Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton--claims that 'rotten compromises are not allowed, even for the sake of peace.' Focussing on the political rather than on the personal, he defines a rotten compromise as 'an agreement to establish or maintain an inhuman regime.' Such compromises can be rotten as a result of the terms themselves--such as the provisions in the United States Constitution that allowed for slavery--or as a result of the wickedness of those who determine the terms, as in the case of Hitler and the Munich agreement. 'We should, I believe, be judged by our compromises more than by our ideals and our norms,' Margalit writes. 'Ideals may tell us something important about what we would like to be. But compromises tell us who we are.'"--The New Yorker "Books in Brief" "The work of Avishai Margalit provides a refreshing and instructive contrast to much that has become conventionally accepted in recent political thinking, particularly about the moral conflicts that arise in pursuit of peace."--John Gray, New York Review of Books "Margalit's book is an inquiry into the limits of justifiable compromises, not in ordinary democratic bargaining but at times when agreements call on us to accept inhuman regimes for the sake of peace... Provide[s] grist for thinking through the difficulties of compromise in [foreign policy], from tragic choices at desperate moments of history to the routine nastiness in American public life today."--Paul Starr, The New Republic "Yet there's a strain in Margalit's observations that packs a realist punch. Recognizing that we are 'forced by circumstances to settle for much less than we aspire to' on issues of justice, we ought to be 'judged by our compromises more than by our ideals and norms. Ideals may tell us something important about what we would like to be. But compromises tell us who we are.' In taking that line, Margalit shines light on a truth about real-world justice that few theorists acknowledge: It's impossible to correct all the injustices done in this world since time immemorial, let alone all injustices that might be open to correction. We lack not just means of implementation--we lack data on the uncountable injustices that have ever taken place."--Carlin Romano, Chronicle Review "Through historical examples and analytic precision, Margalit succeeds in revealing a moral basis and its implications for the often overlooked but crucially important political and individual activity of compromise. Margalit's exploration into the conception of compromise features lucid distinctions and engaging language, creating a book that is capable of speaking to nonacademics and academics alike... [T]his book is valuable for anyone seeking an insightful account of the interrelationship between the political and moral and serves as a starting point for further philosophical study regarding compromise."--Choice "Margalit's work provides a useful tool for those who may walk into environments of potential compromise in the future, to assist them to make the best possible decisions with the information available to them at the time."--Amanda Stoker, Book Review Queensland Library "The best political theory (and this includes Hegel) brings together these two goals--the retrospective and the prospective. Avishai Margalit's On Compromise and Rotten Compromises is in this respect exemplary. Margalit wants to clarify issues in political morality that have tremendous urgency today, and he seeks to do so partly by reflecting on events in our past. His book is an uncommon example of philosophical argument informed by acute historical awareness."--David McCabe, Commonweal "Margalit concludes that we should be judged not according to the norms and values that we affirm, but based upon the compromises we accept. It is a proposition that informs the extremely eloquent and thought-provoking argument he presents in this very welcome analysis of an important topic."--Shaun P. Young, Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Why Compromise? 1 Chapter 1: Two Pictures of Political Compromise 19 Chapter 2: Varieties of Compromise 39 Chapter 3: Compromising for Peace 69 Chapter 4: Compromise and Political Necessity 89 Chapter 5: The Morality of Rotten Compromises 121 Chapter 6: Sectarianism and Compromise 147 Conclusion: Between Evil and Radical Evil 175 Notes 199 Index 211

Read more less

Book SynopsisAristotle's moral philosophy is a pillar of Western ethical thought. It bequeathed to the world an emphasis on virtues and vices, happiness as well-being or a life well lived, and rationally motivated action as a mean between extremes. Its influence was felt well beyond antiquity into the Middle Ages, particularly through the writings of St. ThomasTrade ReviewReviews from The Complete Works of Aristotle: "This new edition makes a landmark of scholarship available in a very usable form."--Library JournalTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION 1 EUDEMIAN ETHICS 23 NICOMACHEAN ETHICS 207 MAGNA MORALIA 373 VIRTUES AND VICES 475 GLOSSARIES 485 INDEX OF NAMES 495 GENERAL INDEX 499

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"This book is a spirited and convincing critique of utopianism and a compelling defense of pluralistic liberalism, and it offers a welcome contribution to the ongoing conversation about the nature and importance of political liberty."---Kenneth B. McIntyre, Anamnesis"Gaus lays out a vigorous and widely useful exposition of what a philosophy focused on justice needs to do in order to shift from the real of pure moral philosophy . . . to making recommendations about the political world."---Christopher Cochrane, Perspectives on PoliticsTable of ContentsPreface xv Chapter I The Allure of the Ideal: Orienting the Quest for Justice 1 Chapter II The Elusive Ideal: Searching under a Single Perspective 42 Chapter III The Fractured Ideal: Searching with Diverse Perspectives 105 Chapter IV The Nonideal: The Open Society 150 Chapter V Advancing from the Citadel 241 Appendixes 251 Works Cited 265 Index 279

Read more less

Book SynopsisA reinterpretation of ancient philosophy that recovers the long Greek and Roman tradition of philosophy as a complete way of life - and not simply an intellectual discipline. It traces how, for many ancient thinkers, philosophy was not just to be studied or even used to solve particular practical problems.Trade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2012 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers "[E]legant... Mr. Cooper's book proves to be an antidote to the rosy nostalgia that poisons stories about what philosophy was and what it has become... Unlike in the natural sciences, the central questions in philosophy are pretty much the same as they ever were: What should I believe in? How should I live? Mr. Cooper's book lucidly presents six appealing answers to those questions."--Brendan Boyle, Wall Street Journal "In this insightful and well-written survey, Cooper presents the ancient Greek and Roman philosophical tradition as one that is unified around philosophy as a way of life... Cooper offers an excellent survey that deserves a wide readership."--Choice "Cooper's book is comprehensive, accessible, and well-written, and his claim that we could follow the ancients in allowing philosophy to steer our lives in order to understand what they were up to makes his book a provocative and worthwhile read."--Angela Schwenkler, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly "Cooper's attempt to write a book for a wide readership is successful. Readers interested in the subject of ancient philosophy as a way of life will find the book provocative, and those who seek a sophisticated introduction to ancient moral theory will learn a great deal from it."--Christopher Edelman, Journal of the History of Philosophy "Pursuits of Wisdom is aimed at a 'wide readership' rather than at 'co-specialists'. Doubtless it deserves a wide readership, and as I am writing here as a 'co-specialist' I would say that it deserves reading by us too. Of course we might miss comments about the scholarly literature, but readers should be assured that Cooper is highly reliable... What does 'living a philosophical life' involve? This book is a good place to go for several competing answers."--Antony Preus, Polis "Pursuits of Wisdom is an original, clearly written, and brilliantly argued reinterpretation of six ways of life offered by ancient Greek philosophers: Socrates/Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism, and the Platonism of Plotinus. Cooper writes vividly, with an unfaltering clarity of purpose, and he manages to balance accessibility and rigor. The book is the culmination of years of rigorous study in ancient philosophy and an invitation for a wide audience to engage seriously with these ancient ways of life. I think this invitation is worth accepting."--Antonis Coumoundouros, Philosophy in Review "Pursuits of Wisdom is a well-written, thoroughly argued book. It undoubtedly makes an important contribution to contemporary understandings of ancient philosophy. It might even contribute to broadening the audience of those who see the relevance and seriousness of philosophy for their lives."--Ben Mulvey, Metapsychology Online Reviews "[T]he book as a whole offers a comprehensive overview of ancient ethics that is sensitive to historical context and that tries to comprehend ancient philosophy on its own terms. Many readers will learn a lot from it."--John Sellars, MindTable of ContentsPreface ix Chapter 1 Introduction: On Philosophy as a Way of Life 1 1.Philosophy Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary 1 Chapter 2. What It Means to Live a Philosophy 17 2The Socratic Way of Life 24 1.Ancient Philosophy as Intellectual Pursuit vs. as Way of Life 24 2.Socrates in Plato's Apology 32 3.Socratic Dialectic, Socratic Knowledge, and Human Wisdom 42 4.Socratic Philosophy as a Way of Life 48 5.Socrates and the Subsequent Tradition 60 Chapter 3 Aristotle: Philosophy as Two Ways of Life 70 1.Introduction 70 2.Practical vs. Theoretical Knowledge 74 3.The Highest Good, Happiness, and Virtue 79 4.Two Happy Lives, Two Happinesses: The Contemplative and the Practically Active Lives 91 5.Theoretical vs. Practical Virtue as Highest Good 96 6.The Practical Virtues: General Account 99 7.The Specific Practical Virtues 105 8.Practical Knowledge and Ethical "Theory" 117 9.Political Community and the Highest Good 123 10.Conclusion: Philosophy as Two Ways of Life 137 Chapter 4 Stoicism as a Way of Life 144 1.Introduction: The Three Hellenistic Philosophies 144 2.Stoicism: Tradition and Texts 147 3.Stoic Eudaimonism 150 4.Stoic Moral Psychology and the Human Virtues 158 5.Virtue: Agreement with the World-Mind's Plans 166 6.What Is Good vs. What Is Merely of Some Value 184 7.Consequences of the Stoic Theory of Value 190 8.Stoic vs. Aristotelian Conceptions of Emotions or Passions 203 9.The Stoic Way of Life 214 Chapter 5 The Epicurean and Skeptic Ways of Life 226 1.Introduction 226 2.Epicurus's Theory of the Human Good: "Kinetic" and "Katastematic" Pleasure 229 3.The Epicurean Way of Life: Virtue, Irreligion, Friendship 246 4.The Epicurean Life: Concluding Summary 271 5.Ancient Skepticism: Living without Believing Anything 276 6.The Pyrrhonian Skepticism of Sextus Empiricus 282 7.The Skeptic Way of Life 291 Chapter 6 Platonism as a Way of Life 305 1.Introduction: Pythagoras, Plato, and Ancient Greek Wisdom 305 2.Plotinus's Platonist Metaphysics 317 3.Plotinus's Theory of the Human Person 326 4.Three Levels of Human Virtues: "Civic", "Purifying," and "Intellectual" 341 5.Virtue and Happiness 363 6.Philosophy: The Sole Way Up to Life Itself 381 7.Epilogue: The Demise of Pagan Philosophy, and of Philosophy as a Way of Life 383 Further Readings 389 Endnotes 401 Bibliography 425 Index 431

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of The Atlantic's Best Books of 2018""In . . . Perfect Me, Heather Widdows, a philosophy professor at the University of Birmingham, England, convincingly argues that the pressures on women to appear thinner, younger and firmer are stronger than ever."---Amanda Hess, New York Times"In 1990 . . . Naomi Wolf published The Beauty Myth, her examination—and her indictment—of the way attractiveness functions as both a metaphor for and a mandate over women’s lives. The book now has a sequel, of sorts. . . . Perfect Me: Beauty as an Ethical Ideal . . . [is] a scholarly work that is urgently relevant to the current cultural moment."---Meagan Garber, The Atlantic"Perfect Me, a buzzed-about new book by Heather Widdows, argues women face unprecedented pressure to appear thinner, younger and firmer."---Anne Kingston, Maclean's"Heather Widdows, in Perfect Me, considers the far-ranging implications of attractiveness rendered in the imperative, giving beauty itself, in the process, the rigorously intellectual treatment it deserves. The book, an academic title with mass-market implications, considers beauty as a construction, racialized and gendered; beauty as a constriction, often punishing and occasionally cruel; and beauty as a goal that remains, for most, persistently out of reach. Perfect Me is a treatise that often reads, fittingly, as an indictment—a book that recognizes all the ways people are taught, still, to judge books by their covers." * The Atlantic *"A sharp and accessible read."---Regan Penaluna, Guenrica"Widdows is at her best in her analysis of liberalism’s uncritical glorification of choice (and therefore responsibility), which fails to consider social contexts and pressures and so allows for victim blaming when women ‘choose’ to comply with beauty standards."---M.A. Betz, Choice Reviews"Widdows deserves high praise for her interdisciplinary work in this book and its combination with philosophical rigor."---Samantha Brennan, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Perfect Me is well-worth reading for anyone who is concerned about the importance of beauty in modern life and the imperative to develop critical perspectives for thinking about it. It sets out the questions that we need to be thinking about and does so in a way that makes it clear what is at stake in our search for evermore-perfect bodies."---Kathy Davis, European Journal of Women's Studies"Heather Widdows[‘s Perfect Me] gave me language to understand my own thought processes around my body, and that framework freed me from years of accidentally accumulated bullshit thinking. I’m grateful I stumbled onto it. I think of it frequently."---Bri Lee, Sydney Morning Herald

Read more less

Book SynopsisMost people in the world today think democracy and gender equality are good, and that violence and wealth inequality are bad. But most people who lived during the 10,000 years before the nineteenth century thought just the opposite. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, biology, and history, Ian Morris explains why. Fundamental long-term changes inTrade Review"Excellent and thought-provoking... More important, by putting forth a bold, clearly formulated hypothesis, Morris has done a great service to the budding field of scientific history."--Peter Turchin, Science "A provocative explanation for the evolution and divergence of ethical values... In the hands of this talented writer and thinker, [this] material becomes an engaging intellectual adventure."--Kirkus "A very good and enjoyable read."--Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist "Stimulating."--Russell Warfield, Resurgence & EcologistTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction by Stephen Macedo xiii Chapter 1 Each Age Gets the Thought It Needs 1 Chapter 2 Foragers 25 Chapter 3 Farmers 44 Chapter 4 Fossil Fuels 93 Chapter 5 The Evolution of Values: Biology, Culture, and the Shape of Things to Come 139 Comments Chapter 6 On the Ideology of Imagining That "Each Age Gets the Thought It Needs," Richard Seaford 172 Chapter 7 But What Was It Really Like? The Limitations of Measuring Historical Values, Jonathan D. Spence 180 Chapter 8 Eternal Values, Evolving Values, and the Value of the Self, Christine M. Korsgaard 184 Chapter 9 When the Lights Go Out: Human Values after the Collapse of Civilization, Margaret Atwood 202 Response Chapter 10 My Correct Views on Everything, Ian Morris 208 Notes 267 References 305 Contributors 341 Index 343

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpanning many historical and literary contexts, this book brings together a dozen essays by one of America's premier cultural critics. It explores the importance of imagination and sympathy to suggest how these faculties may illuminate the motives of human action and the reality of justice.Trade ReviewShortlisted for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, Pen American Center One of The Times Higher Education Supplement's Books of the Year 2014, chosen by Jane Shaw "A historically informed examination of moral imagination and human sympathy, as seen through the lives of such figures as Edmund Burke, Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."--Sewell Chan, New York Times "[T]hey shed much light on the frame of mind in which Bromwich approached the ambiguous figure of Burke in his biography, and even more on how Bromwich is relevant to the politics of our own times... Those who read these essays alongside Bromwich's account of Burke's intellectual and political career will find their eye caught by three topics, all with Burkean overtones, deeply relevant to the present, and handled with Bromwich's characteristic sharpness... Bromwich is particularly sharp on the way government spokesmen wrap the realities of massacre, torture, and gratuitous cruelty in euphemism... The central essays of Bromwich's book are more meditative, and none the worse for it... The final chapter, 'Comments on Perpetual War,' displays Bromwich's skills as a critic in the tradition of Hazlitt and Orwell."--Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books "[A] rich and memorable book... Bromwich appears here in his well-established role as a public intellectual, as civilized as he is trenchant, observing with a mixture of dark wit and moral exasperation diverse aspects of the contemporary American scene. He has a good essay, both horrifying and funny, on the destruction of privacy in the modern United States; a remarkable essay on the psychopathology of political ambition; a fine piece questioning 'cultural identity' as a liberal shibboleth."--Seamus Perry, Times Literary Supplement "Moral Imagination brings together a dozen pieces published over the past twenty years in which [Bromwich] mostly explores the minds of people he admires. There is a particularly fine discussion of Lincoln and the constitutional necessity of the Civil War. There are also spirited attacks on the culture of celebrity and on the chicanery of Dick Cheney, which will have most readers whooping."--Ferdinand Mount, London Review of Books "Bibliophiles, scholars and concerned citizens--all will find provocation and enlightenment here."--Kirkus Reviews "Bromwich delivers a probing and incisive collection of essays about culture, politics, imagination, and the war on terror... Moral Imagination is an eloquent, demanding, and fiercely polemical work likely to appeal most to independent-minded readers and scholars alike."--Lee Polevoi, Foreword Reviews "Bromwich as a stylist belongs to the older, better class... [Moral Imagination] is clearly a product of ... bracing self-reflection."--Helen Andrews, Books & Culture "Moral Imagination is an important book... [T]he patient reader will be well rewarded by the author's many insights into some of our nation's most pressing concerns."--Walter G. Moss, History News Network "In this collection of essays, Bromwich eschews identity politics and multiculturalism from a 'left' perspective, preferring instead the concept he articulates with the book's title: 'moral imagination.'... These essays are demanding but well worth the effort."--Choice "Bromwich's book of essays is rich, well-cooked and a most satisfying dish."--Bob Lane, Metapsychology Online ReviewsTable of ContentsPreface xi ONE 1 Moral Imagination 3 2 A Dissent on Cultural Identity 40 3 The Meaning of Patriotism in 1789 70 TWO 4 Lincoln and Whitman as Representative Americans 91 5 Lincoln's Constitutional Necessity 118 6 Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Ambition 160 THREE 7 The American Psychosis 183 8 How Publicity Makes People Real 222 9 The Self-Deceptions of Empire 250 FOUR 10 What Is the West? 273 11 Holy Terror and Civilized Terror 287 12 Comments on Perpetual War 304 Cheney's Law 304 Euphemism and Violence 310 William Safire: Wars Made out of Words 324 What 9/11 Makes Us Forget 330 The Snowden Case 334 Index 345

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe intellectual legacy of Confucianism has loomed large in efforts to understand China's past, present, and future. While Confucian ethics has been thoroughly explored, the question remains: what exactly is Confucian political thought? Classical Confucian Political Thought returns to the classical texts of the Confucian tradition to answer this viTrade Review"A probing, well-organized, clearly written work. . . . She contextualizes her arguments knowledgeably in historical and textual terms alike, constructing a surprisingly sophisticated presentation of a wide-ranging yet clearly defined reading of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi. . . . . This sinologically and philosophically solid study deserves a wide readership and belongs in all collections."---Russell Kirkland, Religious Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Note on Translations and Transliterations xi Prologue 1 * Ethics and Politics in Classical Confucianism 2 * The Thesis of This Book 9 * Historical Background 16 * Chapter Outline 26 Chapter 1. Ruler and Ruled 29 * The Virtue Argument 30 * The People-Continued 37 * Hegemons 51 * Conclusion 61 Chapter 2. Rules and Regulations 62 * Security 63 * Welfare 68 * Promoting the Worthy 73 * Conclusion 80 Chapter 3. A Harmonious Society 82 * The Case against the Mohists 84 * Rituals 91 * Filiality 107 * Conclusion 114 Chapter 4. Rulers and Ministers 117 * Xunzi's Vision 118 * Insubordinate Ministers 124 * Revisiting the Question of Virtuous Rulership 135 * Conclusion 140 Chapter 5. Political Involvement 143 * Biographical Preliminaries 144 * The Virtue of Political Involvement 145 * Dilemmas of Political Life 151 * Conclusion 174 Chapter 6. Heaven in Politics 176 * Heaven's Allotments 180 * Uncertainty and Political Involvement 184 * Heaven's Patterns 190 * Conclusion 193 Epilogue 194 Bibliography 197 Index 207

Read more less

Book SynopsisIs it ever acceptable to lie? This question plays a surprisingly important role in the story of Europe's transition from medieval to modern society. According to many historians, Europe became modern when Europeans began to lie--that is, when they began to argue that it is sometimes acceptable to lie. This popular account offers a clear trajectoryTrade Review"[The Devil Wins is] an informative, sophisticated, and thought-provoking account of the efforts of theologians and philosophers from the early Christian era to the Enlightenment to define lies and understand their ethical, social, and political implications."--Glenn Altschuler, Psychology Today "Denery explores analyses of an enormous variety of deceptions, and does so with an erudition that is never pedantic or monotonous. He is an entertaining writer, with a healthy skepticism about the dogmatic condemnation of lying as always, or even mostly, morally blameworthy... I think Nietzsche would have loved this book."--Clancy Martin, Chronicle of Higher Education "The Devil Wins is a learned and accessible introduction to a fascinating subject."--Biancamaria Fontana, Times Higher Education "What emerges through all five chapters is a fascinating trajectory that takes us from a time when lies were considered by some theologians to be absolutely and categorically sinful, to an age when it was widely accepted that modern society depended on them ... well researched, fluidly written, and persuasively argued."--Hans Rollman, PopMatters "The Devil Wins sets forth lucidly the arguments of texts that grapple with how human beings should live in a world full of deception... This important book's reach and ambition is amply vindicated in this conclusion in which the old alternatives--spanning Christian antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early eighteenth century--of rejecting or accepting a mendacious world yield to a third way: being true to one's sentiments, even when one lies, as a natural solution to a natural problem."--Edwin D. Craun, The Medieval Review "The Devil Wins is an enjoyable and well-written book, a serious contribution to what might constitute a history of the complicated elements of culture and society that enable people to tell lies."--Andrew Hadfield, Textual Practice "Denery ... has written an impressively clear account of a difficult group of subjects, cleaving mostly to familiar figures but taking the time to get to know them properly."--Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Intellectual History Review "Asking whether it is ever acceptable to lie, The Devil Wins offers the reader a fascinating historical account of apodictic as well as iconoclastic answers."--Lewis Fried, Key Reporter "A splendid book... The best among the many virtues of the book is its successful combination of history and philosophy."--Jeffrey Burton Russell, Catholic Historical Review "[A] fascinating and convincing argument."--Michaela Valente, Journal of Early Modern StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Is It Ever Acceptable to Lie? 1 Part One: Theologians Ask the Question Chapter One. The Devil 21 Six Days and Two Sentences Later 21 The Devil and the Lie 22 Making Sense of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 28 The Devil's Lie from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages 35 The Devil's Lie from the Middle Ages to the Reformation 47 The Prince of This World 52 From Satan's Stratagems to Human Nature 55 Chapter Two. God 62 Can God Lie? 62 On Lions, Fishhooks, and Mousetraps 67 Divine Deception and the Sacrament of Truth 77 Luther, Calvin, and the Hidden God 88 Rene Descartes, Pierre Bayle, and the End of Divine Deception 94 Chapter Three. Human Beings 105 Every Lie Is a Sin 105 Every Sin Is a Lie 110 Biblical Liars 116 Augustine among the Scholastics 119 Institutional Transformations 131 Equivocation, Mental Reservation, and Amphibology 135 From Pascal to Augustine and Beyond 145 Part Two: Courtiers and Women Ask the Question Chapter Four. Courtiers 153 Flatterers, Wheedlers, and Gossipmongers 153 Early Modern Uncertainty and Deception 158 Uncertainty and Skepticism in the Medieval Court 163 Entangled in Leviathan's Loins 169 Christine de Pizan and Just Hypocrisy 175 From Lies to Civility 181 Bernard Mandeville and the World Lies Built 190 Chapter Five. Women 199 Lessons about Lies 199 All about Eve, All about Women 205 The Biology of Feminine Deceit 211 Christine de Pizan, Misogyny, and Self-Knowledge 216 All Men Are Liars 226 Madeleine de Scudery, the Salon, and the Pleasant Lie 237 Conclusion: The Lie Becomes Modern 247 Notes 257 Bibliography 303 Index 327

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe human propensity to take an ethical stance toward oneself and others is found in every known society, yet we also know that values taken for granted in one society can contradict those in another. Does ethical life arise from human nature itself? Is it a universal human trait? Or is it a product of one's cultural and historical context? Webb KeTrade Review"A book that masterfully interweaves insights from philosophy and the natural and social sciences."--Max Hayward, Times Literary Supplement "This far-reaching discussion of ethical life and moral systems by anthropologist Keane aspires to combine the traditions of what he calls 'natural history' with those of 'social history'... This rich and original study will certainly fascinate anyone with an intellectual interest in morality and ethics."--Choice "Ethical Life is an extraordinary book. It is broad in its scope, careful and reflective in its elaboration of a theoretical vocabulary, it deals with basic issues for the humanities and the social sciences and manages to produce genuine and thought-provoking new insights."--Ethical Theory and Moral Practice "An extraordinary achievement that deserves a wide readership way beyond anthropology. In short, Keane has given social scientists a theoretically informed way in which to approach ethics as an empirical phenomenon and he has provided scholars usually working within moral philosophy new challenges with his invitation to think of ethics as socially engrained--all the way down."--Klaus Hoeyer, Ethical Theory and Moral PracticeTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Part One Natures Introduction Ethical Affordances, Awareness, and Actions 3 Some Questions about Ethical Life 6 Defining Ethics and Morality 16 Awareness and Reflexivity 21 Ethical Affordances 27 Overview of the Book 32 Chapter 1 Psychologies of Ethics 39 Seeking Ethical Foundations 39 How Psychologists Define Ethics and Morality 40 Empathy and Altruism 46 Self and Other 48 Mind Reading 51 Psychology's Challenge to Ethical Awareness 54 Moral Emotions and Normative Judgments 58 Third-Person Perspective 63 Making Things Explicit 67 Ethical Affordances in Psychology 70 Part Two Interactions Chapter 2 Selves and Others 77 Giving Accounts 77 Intersubjectivity 79 Intention-Seeking 83 Conversational Inferences 86 Shared Reality 88 Regard for One Another 93 A Semiotics of Character 96 Ethical Vulnerability 99 Chapter 3 Problematizing Interaction 110 Dignity and Respect 110 Variations on Intersubjectivity 117 Underdetermined Emotions, Specific Concepts 122 The Opacity of Other Minds 124 Interiority 126 One's Own Thoughts 128 Local Themes, Affordances Everywhere 130 Chapter 4 Ethical Types 133 Moral Breakdown? 133 Self-Awareness and Other People 136 Standing before the Law 140 The Inner Clash of Ethical Voices 143 Dysfluency and Ethical Conflict 146 Disciplining the Clash of Voices 148 Typifying Character Explicitly 151 Ethical Figures and Types 153 Defining the Situation 156 Interaction as Affordance 160 Part Three Histories Chapter 5 Awareness and Change 167 Shifting Stances 167 Ethical Progress? 172 The Social Production of Ethical Problems 180 Abolitionism 184 Consciousness-Raising 187 From Personal Experiences to Analytical Categories 190 Reconstructing Ethical Feelings 194 Chapter 6 Making Morality in Religion 199 Ethical Life and Morality Systems 199 Historical Objects 201 Taking Ethics in Hand 203 Ethics as Piety 206 Habitual Ethics 207 The God's-Eye Point of View 208 Entextualization and Sacred Truth 211 Abstraction and Struggle 214 Chapter 7 Making Morality in Political Revolution 216 The Ethical Attack on Religion 216 Ethical Sources of Vietnamese Revolutionary Thought 218 Everyday Ethics, Everyday Oppression 221 Revolutionary Ethics 223 Reforming Social Interaction 228 The Various Fates of Ethical Revolution 233 History's Affordances 237 Conclusion 241 Affordances, Awareness, Agency 241 Human Rights 248 Humanitarianism 256 First-, Second-, and Third-Person Positions 259 Bibliography 263 Index 281

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhen a government in a democracy acts in our name, are we, as citizens, responsible for those acts? What if the government commits a moral crime? The protestor's slogan--Not in our name!--testifies to the need to separate ourselves from the wrongs of our leaders. Yet the idea that individual citizens might bear a special responsibility for politiTrade Review"Beerbohm addresses crucially important questions with philosophical insight and some imagination: When are people in a democratic system complicit in and responsible for unjust government actions and structures? What is required of citizens under unjust circumstances?"--Choice "Beerbohm's research and range are impressive; he is precise in definition and argumentation: he tests his proposed principles against a staggering variety of hypothetical situations (and the occasional real one): and he is fearless in suggesting that our current political practices may defy justification... Although other books have sought to treat the theme of citizen complicity in public wrongdoing, none approaches this one in its care, seriousness, and sophistication."--Andrew Sabl, Perspectives on Politics "[T]he book provides us with a breathtakingly expansive, and ultimately compelling, account of citizens' duties within representative government. In Our Name is a distinctive and important contribution to democratic theory."--Melissa Schwartzberg, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Beerbohm's contribution can be considered obligatory reading for political philosophers who occupy themselves with questions related to the moral implication of citizens in policy writing and execution by their elected officials and with democratic agency in general."--Jos Leys, Ethical Perspectives "Combining wide learning with a tenacious and undogmatic focus on the problems of democratic citizenship, Beerbohm has written a book that identifies fresh solutions to some important problems and should become a key reference point for democratic theorists."--Matthew Festenstein, Political Studies ReviewTable of ContentsPreface ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1- How to Value Democracy 25 Chapter 2- Paper Stones: The Ethics of Participation 51 Chapter 3- Philosophers-Citizens 82 Chapter 4- Superdeliberators 105 Chapter 5- What Is It Like to Be a Citizen? 125 Chapter 6- Democracy's Ethics of Belief 142 Chapter 7- The Division of Democratic Labor 166 Chapter 8- Representing Principles 193 Chapter 9- Democratic Complicity 226 Chapter 10- Not in My Name: Macrodemocratic Design 252 Conclusion 278 Notes 287 Bibliography 327 Index 324

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Rosenblum] draws on a wide range of historical, literary, and sociological sources--from the stories of Raymond Carver to an ethnography of Crown Heights, Brooklyn--to produce a kaleidoscopic picture of American neighborliness."--Joshua Rothman, New YorkerTable of ContentsIntroduction: Good Neighbor Nation 1 Part I. The Lay of the Land 21 1. Who Is My Neighbor? 23 2. Narrative Threads: Settlers, Immigrants, and Suburban "Grotesques" 44 Part II. The Democracy of Everyday Life 69 3. Reciprocity among "Decent Folk" 71 4. Taking Offense, Speaking Out 91 5. What Anyone Would Do, Here 108 6. Live and Let Live 131 Part III. Holding Our Lives in Their Hands 151 7. Betrayal 153 8. Killing 174 9. Disasters 200 Part IV. Minding Our Own Business 217 10. Thoreau's Neighbors 219 Conclusion: Political Theory and the Democracy of Everyday Life in America 234 Acknowledgments 249 Notes 251 Index 293

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"If all this hardheaded, disenchanted talk is getting you down, consider the refined and rarefied argument in Tolerance Among the Virtues."--James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review "Bowlin delivers here an extremely timely book... Detailed, exhaustive, and often highly nuanced."--ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Abbreviations and Translations 16 Chapter 1 Tolerance and Resentment 18 Chapter 2 A Natural Virtue 60 Chapter 3 Among the Virtues 106 Chapter 4 A Virtue's Vocabulary 160 Chapter 5 Liberalism and Lists 187 Chapter 6 Love's Endurance 206 Epilogue: Nature, Grace, and Cockfights 242 Acknowledgments 251 Bibliography 253 Index 263

Read more less

Trade Review"Axel Honneth's book is stimulating, insightful, philosophically interesting, and analytically sophisticated. Its main contribution lies in its sympathetic, philosophically acute reconstruction of Hegel's position on individual freedom, which is made with an eye to lending it contemporary relevance. The book succeeds admirably and makes a great contribution to the English-language literature on Hegel."—Fred Neuhouser, Barnard CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii I: Hegel's Philosophy of Right as a Theory of Justice 1 The Idea of Individual Freedom: Intersubjective Conditions of Autonomy 7 "Right" in the Philosophy of Right: Necessary Spheres of Self-Realization 18 II: The Connection between the Theory of Justice and the Diagnosis of the Age 25 Suffering from Indeterminacy: Pathologies of Individual Freedom 28 "Liberation" from Suffering: The Therapeutic Significance of "Ethical Life" 42 III: The Theory of Ethical Life as a Normative Theory of Modernity 48 Self-Realization and Recognition: Conditions of "Ethical Life" 49 The Over-Institutionalization of "Ethical Life": Problems of the Hegelian Approach 63 Index 81

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"This book is itself very good at illuminating matters half-known, pointing out things about the Victorian novel that the reader might already have been aware of, but rendering them newly interesting... In an exhilarating series of conceptual connections, the brilliant final chapter on George Eliot's Daniel Deronda moves from exploring the development of statistics, to the psychology of gambling, to new close readings of Eliot's narrative complications..."--Kirsty Martin, Times Literary Supplement "At once familiar and original, brilliant and intuitive, Good Form ... will inform studies of narrative well beyond the temporal boundaries of the Victorian period."--Jonathan Farina, Wordsworth CircleTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Introduction "Moralised Fables" 1 1 What Feels Right: Ethics, Intuition, and the Experience of Narrative 10 2 The Subject of the Newgate Novel: Crime, Interest, What Novels Are About 42 3 Getting David Copperfield: Humor, Sensus Communis, and Moral Agreement 78 4 Back in Time: The Bildungsroman and the Source of Moral Agency 124 5 The Large Novel and the Law of Large Numbers: Daniel Deronda and the Counterintuitive 153 Afterword 191 Notes 197 Bibliography 235 Index 251

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewShortlisted for the 2015 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, Pen American Center One of The Times Higher Education Supplement's Books of the Year 2014, chosen by Jane Shaw "A historically informed examination of moral imagination and human sympathy, as seen through the lives of such figures as Edmund Burke, Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."--Sewell Chan, New York Times "[T]hey shed much light on the frame of mind in which Bromwich approached the ambiguous figure of Burke in his biography, and even more on how Bromwich is relevant to the politics of our own times... Those who read these essays alongside Bromwich's account of Burke's intellectual and political career will find their eye caught by three topics, all with Burkean overtones, deeply relevant to the present, and handled with Bromwich's characteristic sharpness... Bromwich is particularly sharp on the way government spokesmen wrap the realities of massacre, torture, and gratuitous cruelty in euphemism... The central essays of Bromwich's book are more meditative, and none the worse for it... The final chapter, 'Comments on Perpetual War,' displays Bromwich's skills as a critic in the tradition of Hazlitt and Orwell."--Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books "[A] rich and memorable book... Bromwich appears here in his well-established role as a public intellectual, as civilized as he is trenchant, observing with a mixture of dark wit and moral exasperation diverse aspects of the contemporary American scene. He has a good essay, both horrifying and funny, on the destruction of privacy in the modern United States; a remarkable essay on the psychopathology of political ambition; a fine piece questioning 'cultural identity' as a liberal shibboleth."--Seamus Perry, Times Literary Supplement "Moral Imagination brings together a dozen pieces published over the past twenty years in which [Bromwich] mostly explores the minds of people he admires. There is a particularly fine discussion of Lincoln and the constitutional necessity of the Civil War. There are also spirited attacks on the culture of celebrity and on the chicanery of Dick Cheney, which will have most readers whooping."--Ferdinand Mount, London Review of Books "Bibliophiles, scholars and concerned citizens--all will find provocation and enlightenment here."--Kirkus Reviews "Bromwich delivers a probing and incisive collection of essays about culture, politics, imagination, and the war on terror... Moral Imagination is an eloquent, demanding, and fiercely polemical work likely to appeal most to independent-minded readers and scholars alike."--Lee Polevoi, Foreword Reviews "Bromwich as a stylist belongs to the older, better class... [Moral Imagination] is clearly a product of ... bracing self-reflection."--Helen Andrews, Books & Culture "Moral Imagination is an important book... [T]he patient reader will be well rewarded by the author's many insights into some of our nation's most pressing concerns."--Walter G. Moss, History News Network "In this collection of essays, Bromwich eschews identity politics and multiculturalism from a 'left' perspective, preferring instead the concept he articulates with the book's title: 'moral imagination.'... These essays are demanding but well worth the effort."--Choice "Bromwich's book of essays is rich, well-cooked and a most satisfying dish."--Bob Lane, Metapsychology Online ReviewsTable of ContentsPreface xi ONE 1 Moral Imagination 3 2 A Dissent on Cultural Identity 40 3 The Meaning of Patriotism in 1789 70 TWO 4 Lincoln and Whitman as Representative Americans 91 5 Lincoln's Constitutional Necessity 118 6 Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Ambition 160 THREE 7 The American Psychosis 183 8 How Publicity Makes People Real 222 9 The Self-Deceptions of Empire 250 FOUR 10 What Is the West? 273 11 Holy Terror and Civilized Terror 287 12 Comments on Perpetual War 304 Cheney's Law 304 Euphemism and Violence 310 William Safire: Wars Made out of Words 324 What 9/11 Makes Us Forget 330 The Snowden Case 334 Index 345

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner of the 2015 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, Quebec Writers' Federation One of The Australian's Books of the Year 2015 (selected by Aminatta Forna) Longlisted for the 2016 Sheikh Zayed Book Award in Arabic Culture in Other Languages "Engagingly anecdotal."--Peter Adamson, Times Literary Supplement "What unites [the classroom conversations] is [Fraenkel's] skill in the art of posing questions designed to perplex and provoke. He lets us overhear the Socratic form of dialogue that Plato invented and that Mr. Fraenkel practices much to his students' pleasure, and ours."--Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal "Fresh, iconoclastic, stimulating debates."--Kirkus "The author urges religious people who aren't bound by literalism, secularists who don't dismiss all religion as anachronism, and inquisitive types of all persuasions to try something. First, accept freedom of expression, recognize your fallibility and prepare yourself to revise received assumptions. And then plunge into debates about morality, faith, governance, rights and other matters that divide us ... the discussions you engage in, as suggested by his and his students' experiences, will likely broaden your horizons and nourish your intellect."--Rayyan Al-Shawaf, Toronto Star "If you read one book published this year, then you might make it Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World."--Aminatta Forna, The Independent "Teaching Plato in Palestine is a slim, straightforward yet surprisingly rich work of philosophy that will intrigue the amateur as well as the expert."--Sarah Gustafson, Key Reporter "Carlos Fraenkel ... persuasively shows the value of philosophical work that engages the broader public and other cultures... Each [episode in the book] is beautifully described and the results are utterly captivating."--Daniel A. Bell, Literary Review of Canada "A refreshing perspective."--Frank Freeman, The Hedgehog Review "A lively, informative book."--Alexander Orwin, Claremont Review of Books "Fraenkel's commitment to democratizing philosophy is both authentic and admirable. His book reminds us that philosophy is a practice of educating citizens, a dialogical quest for mutual understanding. It is a timely reminder that engaging others over disputed values and beliefs requires not only skill in argument but also an openness toward different views and a commitment to the shared pursuit of truth. This remarkable experiment in practicing Socratic dialogue in a divided world proves that we need philosophy now more than ever, especially when ideology and nihilism threaten to undermine any ethical culture of debate."--Robert Sinnerbrink, Los Angeles Review of BooksTable of ContentsForeword by Michael Walzer ix Preface xiii Part I 1 Teaching Plato in Palestine 3 2 Teaching Maimonides in Makassar 30 3 Spinoza in Shtreimels: An Underground Seminar 53 4 Citizen Philosophers in Brazil 79 5 Word-Warriors: Philosophy in Mohawk Land 100 Part II 6 Diversity and Debate 139 Acknowledgments 189 Notes 193 Bibliography 205 Index 215

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Brighouse and Swift raise some important issues and come to some conclusions that are bound to be controversial, which is exactly why this book is so important and so worthy of considerable thought and debate. The work is scholarly and well documented, with 30 pages of notes and bibliography accompanying the 181-page text. That's a welcome distinction over the political diatribes that often cloud family value debates... Highly recommended."--Talking Ethics "This thoughtful work addresses tensions between the liberty of parents to raise children as they see fit, parents' duty to ensure that children develop the capacity for autonomy, and the role of the family as an obstacle to fair equality of opportunity."--Choice "It presents and negotiates the issues at stake in exceptionally nuanced, elegant and meticulously-crafted ways."--Gideon Calder, European Journal of Political Theory "In their clearly written and elegantly structured book, Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift develop a normative account of child-rearing that deftly weaves together positions associated with both the political left and the right... Their principled account of the rights of parents and children is the best of which I am aware, and I expect it to set the standard for discussion of these issues for some time to come."--George Sher, Social Theory and Practice "Family Values is an original, important, and well-written book that will influence the discussion concerning the moral status of the family for years to come, and it can be recommended to any reader who is interested in this topic."--Jorg Loschke, Ethical Theory and Moral PracticeTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Part One Liberty, Equality, Family 1 Introduction 2 Chapter 1 Liberalism and the Family 5 Chapter 2 Equality and the Family 23 Part Two Justifying the Family 47 Introduction 48 Chapter 3 Children 57 Chapter 4 Adults 86 Part Three Parents' Rights 113 Introduction 114 Chapter 5 Conferring Advantage 123 Chapter 6 Shaping Values 149 Conclusion 175 Notes 183 Bibliography 201 Index 213

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"[The Devil Wins is] an informative, sophisticated, and thought-provoking account of the efforts of theologians and philosophers from the early Christian era to the Enlightenment to define lies and understand their ethical, social, and political implications."--Glenn Altschuler, Psychology Today "Denery explores analyses of an enormous variety of deceptions, and does so with an erudition that is never pedantic or monotonous. He is an entertaining writer, with a healthy skepticism about the dogmatic condemnation of lying as always, or even mostly, morally blameworthy... I think Nietzsche would have loved this book."--Clancy Martin, Chronicle of Higher Education "The Devil Wins is a learned and accessible introduction to a fascinating subject."--Biancamaria Fontana, Times Higher Education "What emerges through all five chapters is a fascinating trajectory that takes us from a time when lies were considered by some theologians to be absolutely and categorically sinful, to an age when it was widely accepted that modern society depended on them ... well researched, fluidly written, and persuasively argued."--Hans Rollman, PopMatters "The Devil Wins sets forth lucidly the arguments of texts that grapple with how human beings should live in a world full of deception... This important book's reach and ambition is amply vindicated in this conclusion in which the old alternatives--spanning Christian antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early eighteenth century--of rejecting or accepting a mendacious world yield to a third way: being true to one's sentiments, even when one lies, as a natural solution to a natural problem."--Edwin D. Craun, The Medieval Review "The Devil Wins is an enjoyable and well-written book, a serious contribution to what might constitute a history of the complicated elements of culture and society that enable people to tell lies."--Andrew Hadfield, Textual Practice "Denery ... has written an impressively clear account of a difficult group of subjects, cleaving mostly to familiar figures but taking the time to get to know them properly."--Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Intellectual History Review "Asking whether it is ever acceptable to lie, The Devil Wins offers the reader a fascinating historical account of apodictic as well as iconoclastic answers."--Lewis Fried, Key Reporter "A splendid book... The best among the many virtues of the book is its successful combination of history and philosophy."--Jeffrey Burton Russell, Catholic Historical Review "[A] fascinating and convincing argument."--Michaela Valente, Journal of Early Modern StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction: Is It Ever Acceptable to Lie? 1 Part One: Theologians Ask the Question Chapter One. The Devil 21 Six Days and Two Sentences Later 21 The Devil and the Lie 22 Making Sense of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 28 The Devil's Lie from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages 35 The Devil's Lie from the Middle Ages to the Reformation 47 The Prince of This World 52 From Satan's Stratagems to Human Nature 55 Chapter Two. God 62 Can God Lie? 62 On Lions, Fishhooks, and Mousetraps 67 Divine Deception and the Sacrament of Truth 77 Luther, Calvin, and the Hidden God 88 Rene Descartes, Pierre Bayle, and the End of Divine Deception 94 Chapter Three. Human Beings 105 Every Lie Is a Sin 105 Every Sin Is a Lie 110 Biblical Liars 116 Augustine among the Scholastics 119 Institutional Transformations 131 Equivocation, Mental Reservation, and Amphibology 135 From Pascal to Augustine and Beyond 145 Part Two: Courtiers and Women Ask the Question Chapter Four. Courtiers 153 Flatterers, Wheedlers, and Gossipmongers 153 Early Modern Uncertainty and Deception 158 Uncertainty and Skepticism in the Medieval Court 163 Entangled in Leviathan's Loins 169 Christine de Pizan and Just Hypocrisy 175 From Lies to Civility 181 Bernard Mandeville and the World Lies Built 190 Chapter Five. Women 199 Lessons about Lies 199 All about Eve, All about Women 205 The Biology of Feminine Deceit 211 Christine de Pizan, Misogyny, and Self-Knowledge 216 All Men Are Liars 226 Madeleine de Scudery, the Salon, and the Pleasant Lie 237 Conclusion: The Lie Becomes Modern 247 Notes 257 Bibliography 303 Index 327

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of the greatest of all philosophical friendships--and how it influenced modern thought David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as the Great Infidel for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith wasTrade Review"One of The Australian Review’s 2017 Books of the Year""One of The Guardian’s Best Books of 2017""Selected for Bloomberg View’s “Must-Reads of 2017: From Space to Chinese Noir”""One of Project Syndicate’s Best Reads in 2017 (chosen by Kaushik Basu)""Shortlisted for the 2018 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society""A wonderfully written book about a beautiful friendship."---Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg View"Dennis Rasmussen . . . tells the story of Smith and Hume's bond, arguing convincingly and engagingly that there is ‘no higher example of a philosophical friendship in the entire Western tradition.’"---Ruth Scurr, Wall Street Journal"Rasmussen tells an engaging and sometimes moving story of how the friendship between Smith and David Hume shaped, and was shaped by, their attempt to comprehend the rapid development of the social and political order under which we still live."---Alexander Douglas, Times Literary Supplement"Lively and accessible--of broad interest to readers in philosophy, economics, political science, and other disciplines." * Kirkus *"Masterly. . . . Easy to digest and smart. Recommended."---Mark Spencer, Library Journal"In The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought, Dennis Rasmussen . . . tells the story of their friendship well. Fourteen nicely-judged chapters take the reader through the overlapping lives of the two men, including such incidents as Hume's notorious falling-out with Rousseau, through to the natural climax of their friendship at Hume’s death, and Smith’s own demise 14 years later. . . . A short and lively book that sustains the interest not merely of the general reader but the specialist to the end. That is a considerable achievement."---Jesse Norman, Prospect"[Rasmussen] deftly examines not only Hume and Smith's personal relationship, but also the indispensable part that they played in shaping the Scottish Enlightenment. The result is a valuable study of the rise of the liberal tradition."---Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest"The Infidel and the Professor is a lean, easy to digest read that is rich in interesting detail. It is anchored in weighty scholarship but not burdened by excessive demonstrations of it. . . . [Rasmussen] makes the distinctive qualities of each more evident. Pick up his book and you might find yourself agreeing with Hume that ‘reading and sauntering and lownging and dozing, which I call thinking, is my supreme Happiness'."---Julian Baggini, Literary Review"What his book does offer . . . is a clearer, more exhaustive picture of the common ground that existed between the two thinkers, a map of the intersections, echoes and mirroring perspectives that connect their works. The Infidel and the Professor is written in a style that makes it accessible to non-specialists, who can discover through it the story of two exceptional and very engaging personalities. But it is also of interest for those who are already familiar with Hume's and Smith’s lives and works, as it allows us to see them as part of a collective intellectual project. Above all, it reminds us of what the social sciences were originally meant to be: a broad critical reflection on the condition of human beings exposed to the bewildering transformations that modernity brought to their lives."---Biancamaria Fontana, Times Higher Education"As a total Hume fan, I enjoyed reading it, and it’s a well-written book. You don’t need to be an expert on either [Hume or Smith] to enjoy it, and get some flavour of the milieu of the Scottish Enlightenment."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"In addition to painting a vivid portrait of the intellectual life of 18th-century Scotland, Professor Rasmussen provides a road map of the development of Smith's ideas based on his personal history and the broader political, social, theological and academic environments. [His] greatest contribution, however, is to shed new light on the surprising depth and nature of the intellectual and personal influence of the radical skeptic philosopher David Hume on Smith. Touching and illuminating."---Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times"The best authoritative scholarly book on David Hume and Adam Smith published in the last 5 years. It is destined to be the classic book of those times."---Gavin Kennedy, Adam Smith's Lost Legacy"The Infidel and the Professor shone a deserved spotlight on David Hume and Adam Smith."---Julian Baggini, The Guardian"This is a well-written and well-researched history. It rewards a careful reading. . . . I recommend this book highly."---John Mullen, Metapsychology"The Infidel and the Professor, [Rasmussen’s] account of a 'friendship that changed modern thought', is a charming work. Our politicians would benefit from reading it and so, frankly, would you."---Alex Massie, The Times"Rasmussen has written an excellent book which offers a clear account of the ideas of Smith and Hume, and celebrates the importance of philosophical friendship."---Robin Downie, Philosophy"Wonderful. . . . [This] book should prove to be an indispensable starting point for future inquiries into Hume and Smith’s personal and philosophical relationship."---Erik W. Matson, Review of Austrian Economics"Rasmussen’s story about this strong and stable friendship will be engaging for those who are unfamiliar with Hume’s entertaining letters or Smith’s personal quirks, and it is a valuable contribution for scholars working on the philosophical views of each."---Lauren Kopajtic, Journal of the History of Philosophy"A sympathetic account of the closeness of two of the world’s greatest thinkers and the warmth of the affection that he evokes is a fine testament to their friendship and his writing."---Craig Smith, Perspectives on Politics"Rasmussen is at his interpretive best here, and his reading of how these events affected the friendship between Hume and Smith is both novel and persuasive."---John Rick, Reading Religion"[N]ot a few times did I mark in the margins a thread of inquiry I should like to pull on in the future, using The Infidel and the Professoras a starting point. I do not doubt but it will be likewise stimulating for you."---Edward Austin Middleton, EH.net"This original, elegantly written, compelling essay, which combines textual analysis with a contextual approach, is likely to have a momentous impact on the historiography of the Scottish Enlightenment and of the Age of Enlightenment as a whole."---Diego Lucci, Journal of Ecclesiastical History"Compelling . . . gripping."---James R. Otteson, History of Political Economy"Rasmussen’s beautifully written book is the kind of work that any serious David Hume and Adam Smith scholars might have once or twice dreamed of writing."---Tatsuya Sakamoto, Journal of the History of Economic Thought"An excellent introduction for those coming to Hume and Smith for the first time."---Ralph McLean, Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliograpical Society"Rasmussen succeeds not only in uncovering the uniquely intimate friendship between Hume and Smith among the group of like-minded literati who produced the Scottish Enlightenment, but a kind of inter-generational ‘passing of the baton’ from Hume (eleven years older) to his younger colleague."---Patrick Madigan, Heythrop Journal"Admirable. . . . Rasmussen’s book is to be highly recommended for the legion of readers of Hume . . . and Smith."---Peter Loptson, European Legacy

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Magee's writing always makes very easy reading."--Anthony Kenny, Standpoint "[Magee] writes with relaxed fluency."--Rowan Williams, New Statesman "[Bryan Magee] writes with grace and offers a thoughtful summation of human experience."--Library Journal "Living and dying in a world we accept we do not understand may not sound easy, but if Magee is any guide, the reward of doing so is endless and profound wonder."--Julian Baggini, Independent "Magee is refreshingly comfortable acknowledging the uncanniness of human experience, including the aesthetic as well as the ethical... His case for acknowledging the extent of what we do not know is a useful corrective to 'jolly hockey sticks' humanism as well as religious dogma."--Dolan Cummings, Spiked "[Ultimate Questions] is ... a deeply personal and elegant summary of [Magee's] own individual journey to and through profound philosophical questions."--ChoiceTable of Contents1 Time and Space 1 2 Finding Our Bearings 17 3 The Human Predicament 33 4 Can Experience Be Understood? 59 5 Where Such Ideas Come From 69 6 Personal Reflections 87 7 Our Predicament Summarized 105 Index 129

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, Association of American Colleges and Universities""Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Education""For those of us who work with strivers. . . . Moving Up Without Losing Your Way provides an empathetic and clear-eyed analysis of the difficult choices they must make, and the costs of those choices to both themselves and their communities."---James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education"This important and accessible study demonstrates the value of ethical analyses to understand these issues, aimed at strivers, their families, their communities, and the entire higher education community." * Choice *"Morton is not the first person to describe the myths and ordeals of upward mobility. Nor is she the first to call attention to this group of striving students. But where Morton differs—and meaningfully contributes—is in her perspective as a philosopher."---Shaun Ossei-Owusu, Public Books"Morton makes her main argument through an astute and very accessible philosophical analysis. . . . Morton’s book is valuable because it not only focuses on the ethical costs of social mobility but also hints at solutions."---Helen De Cruz, The Philosphers’ Magazine"A good guide to a road not yet well-enough traveled but increasingly important if higher education is to better serve more of the students coming its way."---Mary Taylor Huber, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning"Compelling and momentous. . . . Morton’s book occasions a critical reflection for strivers, educators, administrators in higher education, and for anyone who wishes to better understand and support strivers they know."---Vikramaditya Joshi, Studies in Philosophy and Education

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Spirituality and Practice's 50 Best Spirituality Books of 2018""[Rosenblum] draws on a wide range of historical, literary, and sociological sources--from the stories of Raymond Carver to an ethnography of Crown Heights, Brooklyn--to produce a kaleidoscopic picture of American neighborliness."---Joshua Rothman, New Yorker"Rosenblum's book is an accessible, always interesting, narrative-filled theoretical engagement. Whether one agrees or disagrees, the journey is nuanced, insightful and original."---P.E. Digeser, Perspectives on Politics"A creative and enlightening book on neighbors, democratic public life, and the rigors and toxins of politics in America."---Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Practice

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Bloomberg Opinion's Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018 (Stephen L. Carter)""One of our most provocative philosophers argues that if we can use force to stop others from hurting people unjustly, we can also use force to stop the government from hurting people unjustly."---Stephen L. Carter, Bloomberg Opinion"This book is essential reading in an age in which political systems appear to be failing and in flux and populations are becoming insecure and distrustful of their governments. . . . It should stimulate a debate that we need to have."---Lisa Mckenzie, Times Higher Education"Provocative and entertaining. . . . Much of the book is Brennan defending his moral parity thesis from challenges, such as the social contract (we consent to government rule), good faith (agents are just doing their jobs as best as they can), and dangerous misapplication (dumb people will make terrible mistakes). Brennan deftly knocks down these objections one by one. . . . When All Else Fails argues persuasively that even if a government agent or official is part of a popularly elected democratic regime, this doesn't magically confer immunity from defensive action when the agent or official engages in unjust, immoral actions."---Matthew Harwood, Reason"[An] excellent book."---Amit Varma, Pragati"Brennan . . . presses his readers to examine and justify . . . moral and political dispositions, and denies them easy recourse to democratic legitimacy as a way out."---Luke Philip Plotica, Democratization

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"This book is a spirited and convincing critique of utopianism and a compelling defense of pluralistic liberalism, and it offers a welcome contribution to the ongoing conversation about the nature and importance of political liberty."---Kenneth B. McIntyre, Anamnesis"Gaus lays out a vigorous and widely useful exposition of what a philosophy focused on justice needs to do in order to shift from the real of pure moral philosophy . . . to making recommendations about the political world."---Christopher Cochrane, Perspectives on Politics

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Honorable Mention for the Order of the Coif Book Award""[James Lindley] Wilson . . . offers a robust argument that justice requires democracy. . . . Highly recommended."---M. R. Michelson, Choice

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"If all this hardheaded, disenchanted talk is getting you down, consider the refined and rarefied argument in Tolerance Among the Virtues."---James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review"Bowlin delivers here an extremely timely book. . . . Detailed, exhaustive, and often highly nuanced." * Choice *"Bowlin's account of tolerance is powerful."---Molly Farneth, Commonweal"Bowlin’s book superbly marshals the power of the Thomistic virtue tradition to make a compelling argument for locating tolerance among the virtues. . . . Powerful and necessary."---James Calvin Davis, Interpretation

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Good Form: The Ethical Experience of the Victorian Novel is a major contribution to the study of ethics in realist fiction. Grounded in a masterful command of philosophy and literary theory, and argued through careful readings of Victorian novels, it sheds considerable light on a central topic in fiction studies. It will be vigorously discussed and greatly valued in Victorian studies and narrative studies generally."---John Kucich, Victorian Studies"This book is itself very good at illuminating matters half-known, pointing out things about the Victorian novel that the reader might already have been aware of, but rendering them newly interesting. . . . In an exhilarating series of conceptual connections, the brilliant final chapter on George Eliot's Daniel Deronda moves from exploring the development of statistics, to the psychology of gambling, to new close readings of Eliot’s narrative complications. . . ."---Kirsty Martin, Times Literary Supplement"At once familiar and original, brilliant and intuitive, Good Form . . . will inform studies of narrative well beyond the temporal boundaries of the Victorian period."---Jonathan Farina, Wordsworth Circle"This thoughtful study adds an interesting set of coordinates by which to map Victorian novels as a genre. It recovers a branch of Victorian moral philosophy that has languished under the critique (or neglect) of modernism and post-structuralism and supplies a methodology for examining with fresh theoretical sophistication the very 'readerliness' of those texts that fall on the wrong side of Roland Barthes's 'writerly/readerly' dichotomy. Such reconsideration is over-due, and Rosenthal presents it with admirable erudition."---Sarah Gates, Dickens Quarterly"Each of the body chapters is rich with rewards of its own. . . . If scholarship consists, as Rosenthal proposes, of an ongoing temporally extended conversation with ‘ourselves,' I was left with no doubt that Rosenthal was one of the selves with whom I would want to speak."---John Plotz, Nineteenth Century Literature"Jesse Rosenthal's Good Form: The Ethical Experience of the Victorian Novel provides a meticulously researched and original approach to both Victorian literature and novel theory, all the more impressive given that this is the author’s first book. . . . A compelling work of scholarship, one that is sure to be of use to scholars of Victorian literature and culture and novel theory alike."---Isabella Cooper, Studies in the Novel"Rosenthal enlivens our sense of the possibilities and powers of narrative by arguing that the temporal unfolding of a novel is a moral, philosophical, and ethical matter."---Katherine Voyles, Victorian Review"Brilliant. . . . [Good Form] is a formidably inventive, urbane, and compelling work of scholarship that marshals historical and philosophical insight alongside deft close analysis to reimagine key tenets of novel theory."---Daniel Williams, MLN"A major contribution to the study of ethics in realist fiction. Grounded in a masterful command of philosophy and literary theory, and argued through careful readings of Victorian novels, [Good Form] sheds considerable light on a central topic in fiction studies. It will be vigorously discussed and greatly valued in Victorian studies and narrative studies generally."---John Kucich, Victorian Studies"A most inspiring and insightful book where he brings up the interconnectedness between moral intuition and the form of the novel—the nineteenth century Victorian novel, to be more specific; but with implications for contemporary literature as well."---Jan Kyrre Berg Friis, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A profoundly insightful and indeed magisterial new book. . . . [The Two Greatest Ideas] is a wild and informative ride through the centuries and up to what may intellectually come next in the human adventure. It was a marvel of an experience."---Tom V. Morris, Plato's Lemonade Stand: Stirring Change into Something Great"Zagzebski offers a fascinating meta-level view of these two foundational ideas, taking readers on a journey that includes the many connections between cultural developments, not least the current politically polarized situation in the US. The book is well written and should be accessible to intelligent lay readers." * Choice *"A brilliant, panoramic and original contribution to the history of ideas, providing a new framework that sheds light on many of our current social and political tensions."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"[A]n ambitious essay in intellectual history. . . . [Zagzebski] has written a highly original study of what it is that makes the modern world modern."---John Crosby, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A pithy guide to eternal questions, by a specialist in ethics and moral psychology."---Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review"The text is accompanied by . . . clever and charming illustrations. . . . And throughout, Velleman offers a resolutely first-person meditation that, in the spirit of Descartes, eschews technical jargon and scholarly references."---Emrys Westacott, Philosophers' Magazine"Each reader will find a different mapping onto their own experience, but it is a stimulating journey." * Paradigm Explorer *"By reading [On Being Me] we should let its very personal prose nourish our understanding of the world and of ourselves. . . . On Being Me introduces many topics of academic philosophy – the self, the nature of time, free-will and responsibility – without getting lost in professional discussion and without losing sight of the importance of those themes in our daily life."---Daniel Peixoto Murata, The Journal of Value Inquiry

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"“[A] clear-eyed, meticulously argued study. . . . By bringing grief to philosophy Mr. Cholbi brings philosophy closer to the other humanities; he’s as incisive a critic as he is a philosopher."---Hamilton Cain, Wall Street Journal"An informative, sweeping, and provocative examination of grief as a complex phenomenon when undertaken in response to the death of others."---Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today"Fascinating, insightful, and accessible. . . . This well-written, engaging, and thought-provoking book is a brilliant example of applied philosophy. It is relevant to important debates within medicine (for example, recent controversy about definitions of a prolonged grief disorder). It will be interesting and helpful for clinicians caring for those who are bereaved, for philosophers of emotions, and of course, for all of us who, sooner or later, have to navigate the long, dark, and winding valley of loss."---Dominic Wilkinson, Journal of Applied Philosophy"One of the strengths of Cholbi’s book is in the range of authors from whom he takes accounts of grief: from the personal disclosures of C.S. Lewis to Joan Didion to the fiction of Tolstoy, Camus, and Shakespeare, just to name a few. . . . Excellent. . . . Grief certainly fulfills its aim of encouraging other philosophers to consider the existential phenomenon of grief. Cholbi has prompted such a conversation here in a significant, thoroughgoing, and engaging way."---Brad Deford, Philosophy in Review"[A] clearly written guide, which addresses many of the most important philosophical issues surrounding grief."---Becky Millar, Philosophical Quarterly"There is much to like about Cholbi's book. It is short, densely argued, and shows great familiarity with the relevant philosophical, literary, and psychological literatures."---John Danaher, Philosopher’s Magazine"The ideas [Cholbi] contributes to the experiences of grief were surprisingly comforting. . . . Michael Cholbi’s newest book is definitely one to consider for your next read. I think we could all benefit from understanding the experience of grief a little more."---Joi Foote, Redbrick"[A] wise book."---Dave Luhrssen, Shepherd Express"Cholbi’s book is a valuable addition to the contemporary analytic literature on the emotions and on grief"---Ashley Atkins, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The subject of Vassilis Lambropoulo's ambitious book: the delineation of Hellenic (analytic) as opposed to Hebraic (hermeneutic) mode of thought; and the contest between the two for supremacy in European philosophy and literary criticism." * The Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The subject of Vassilis Lambropoulo's ambitious book: the delineation of Hellenic (analytic) as opposed to Hebraic (hermeneutic) mode of thought; and the contest between the two for supremacy in European philosophy and literary criticism." * The Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Trade Review"[A] useful book. . . . Risinger's explanations of the importance of Stoicism in the period's literature make a valuable contribution to the literature of the Romantic period." * Choice Reviews *"Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion is a sustained and sensitive engagement with a range of literary work that shows the nuances of changing perspectives in a changing world. It is no small feat that virtually every sentence is a triumph of craftsmanship, or that the text reads with a confidence and ease found usually in the most seasoned critics."---Denise Gigante, Nineteenth-Century Literature"With elegant readings that work against the grain of the consistent and determinate, Risinger remind us that writers like Wordsworth and Wollstonecraft were not simply subject over time to shifting political views, but, in the space of a single poem or essay, under the heady influence of diffuse competing aesthetic and ethical commitments."---Samantha Botz, European Romantic Review"Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion is an excellent study. Erudite, eloquent, and critically expert, it is all the more remarkable for being a first book. . . . Risinger has blazed a bright trail into Stoic Romanticism in England and America."---Adam Potkay, The Wordsworth Circle"Erudite and elegantly argued. . . . So utterly effective is Risinger at showing that ‘Romantic Stoicism is a corollary of the period’s “gravitational pull toward feeling” rather than a blinkered rejection of that force’ . . . that one is left wondering, as with any fine book, how this never occurred to anyone until now."---Julie Murray, Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Financial Times FT Critics' Book of the Year""A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""This book found me at just the right time. . . . [The Good-Enough Life] offers a bit of an antidote or a countercultural approach to designing communities and systems. . . [It’s a] philosophical, semi-political, pro-social, contemplative approach to designing a new way forward."---Alyson Stoner, New York Magazine"[Alpert’s] vision of a good-enough world is energizing."---Lily Meyer, The Atlantic"The Good-Enough Life leaves no meritocracy standing. . . . [A] jolt of reorientation."---Emily Ogden, Los Angeles Review of Books"[W]e should bestow social recognition . . . .on common moral qualities, not on uncommon talent. It should be good enough just to be good enough . . . . [This is] Alpert’s case, and he makes it well."---Andrew Stark, Times Literary Supplement"Read this book, breathe a sigh of relief, and then go take a nap."---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times"This is an amazing and deeply inspiring book. Alpert employs a prose style that is wrought like fine gold jewelry. There is scarcely a page from which this reader does not wish to quote and share Alpert's wisdom with others." * Choice *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Bloomberg Opinion's Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018 (Stephen L. Carter)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, Association of American Colleges and Universities""Winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Education"

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] useful book. . . . Risinger's explanations of the importance of Stoicism in the period's literature make a valuable contribution to the literature of the Romantic period." * Choice Reviews *"Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion is a sustained and sensitive engagement with a range of literary work that shows the nuances of changing perspectives in a changing world. It is no small feat that virtually every sentence is a triumph of craftsmanship, or that the text reads with a confidence and ease found usually in the most seasoned critics."---Denise Gigante, Nineteenth-Century Literature"With elegant readings that work against the grain of the consistent and determinate, Risinger remind us that writers like Wordsworth and Wollstonecraft were not simply subject over time to shifting political views, but, in the space of a single poem or essay, under the heady influence of diffuse competing aesthetic and ethical commitments."---Samantha Botz, European Romantic Review"Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion is an excellent study. Erudite, eloquent, and critically expert, it is all the more remarkable for being a first book. . . . Risinger has blazed a bright trail into Stoic Romanticism in England and America."---Adam Potkay, The Wordsworth Circle"Erudite and elegantly argued. . . . So utterly effective is Risinger at showing that ‘Romantic Stoicism is a corollary of the period’s “gravitational pull toward feeling” rather than a blinkered rejection of that force’ . . . that one is left wondering, as with any fine book, how this never occurred to anyone until now."---Julie Murray, Eighteenth-Century Fiction

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year""Erudite and beautifully written. . . . Gill gives us a marvelous book that is engaging and thoughtful about what constitutes beauty and why we need it."---Lee Trepanier, The Russell Kirk Center

Read more less