This book offers the first comprehensive discussion of Lacan's Kant with Sade, an essay widely recognised as one of his most important and difficult texts. Here, the reader will find a detailed roadmap for each section of the essay, including clarifications of the allusions, implicit borrowings and references in Lacan's text, unique insights into the essay's publication history, and a critical assessment of its reception. The author expertly defines key terms, explains complex theoretical arguments, and contextualises the work within a larger philosophical discourse. No prior knowledge of Lacan, Kant or Sade is assumed, allowing both newcomers and those who are well-versed in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and literary criticism to benefit from the book. This engaging book clears the path for a long overdue re-discovery and a proper appreciation of one of Lacan's most challenging works, inspiring a renewed debate on the significance of Lacanian psychoanalysis for moral philosophy and literary theory.

This book on the history of palliative care, 1500-1970 traces the historical roots of modern palliative care in Europe to the rise of the hospice movement in the 1960s. The author discusses largely forgotten premodern concepts like cura palliativa and euthanasia medica and describes, how patients and physicians experienced and dealt with terminal illness. He traces the origins of hospitals for incurable and dying patients and follows the long history of ethical debates on issues like truth-telling and the intentional shortening of the dying patients' lives and the controversies they sparked between physicians and patients. An eye opener for anyone interested in the history of ethical decision making regarding terminal care of critically ill patients.

"An Essay toward the Other" considers the three fundamental verities of the human experience-the True, the Good, and the Beautiful-and presents three arguments, one from the domain of each verity, in support of theism and in opposition to materialism. "The True" is the way things are. "The Good" is that which contributes to the happiness of the individual and the group. "The Beautiful" is an indefinable quality that evokes a pleasing and enjoyable inner experience. The verities derive from a Divine source and point toward that Divine source, thus the opening sentence, "From the One, three; from the three, One." While the verities are part of the human experience, their source and their vision transcend our realm. They are of God. The author accepts the classical view that all human intention, however flawed and misguided, looks to a final good. That final good we call happiness, and insofar as our aims and ways are shaped and guided by the True, the Good, and the Beautiful, we are drawn toward happiness.

In Orthodoxy, Gilbert K. Chesterton explains how and why he came to believe in Christianity and more specifically the Catholic Church's brand of orthodoxy. In the book, Chesterton takes the spiritually curious reader on an intellectual quest. While looking for the meaning of life, he finds truth that uniquely fulfills human needs. This is the truth revealed in Christianity. Chesterton likens this discovery to a man setting off from the south coast of England, journeying for many days, only to arrive at Brighton, the point he originally left from. Such a man, he proposes, would see the wondrous place he grew up in with newly appreciative eyes. This is a common theme in Chesterton's works, and one which he gave fictional embodiment to in Manalive. A truly lively and enlightening book!

The book is one of the first to focus on responsible leadership in the contemporary Asian century context. It adopts a unique context driven social innovation based responsible leadership approach to explain how context can impact and shape the theory and practice of responsible leadership. This unique work will strongly appeal to a broad spectrum of researchers and scholars across disciplines with a particular interest in the interplay between leadership, responsibility and ethics. As Asia's influence on the global economy continues to grow in the Asian Century, this book offers a culturally integrated view of how the shift in economic power to Asia and the rising new global economic order can influence the theory and practice of responsible leadership. The book focuses particularly on the Asian century opportunities and challenges as a strong contextual factor that shapes the 'responsibility' of responsible leadership. The scholarly literature on the topic, the case studies developed through interviews and secondary data, and author's corporate experiences in the Asia-Pacific region in leading organisations are key sources for the book's assertions. It fills an important gap in the literature on how Asian cultural factors might influence the predominantly Western developed responsible leadership theory and practice. This book covers key topics including the moral basis for responsibility, theory and practice of responsible leadership, Asian challenges to responsible leadership, and socially innovative responsible leadership. "Fernando's book provides a fresh and novel perspective on how evolutionary changes in economic power between Asia and the rest of the world undoubtedly will affect the practice of responsible leadership. He examines varying views on responsible leadership across cultures, demonstrating how Asian and Western leadership styles have evolved as our economy continues to become more globally integrated." Prof. Laura Pincus Hartman Director, Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy Boston University, Questrom School of Business, Boston, USA "There is little doubt that this is the Asian Century and that economic and political influences from the east will increase. But so too may cultural, ethical and even religious influences. It is therefore important that researchers understand these significant changes. In this book Mario Fernando gives us an insight into what this means for responsible leadership. It is primarily an excellent work of scholarship, written for academics who teach and research in this area by someone who knows Asian business and culture from the inside. But it will also reward careful study by practicing leaders and those who are the potential leaders of the future." Professor of Business Ethics, Geoff Moore Durham Business School Durham University, UK

This book defends antitheodicism, arguing that theodicies, seeking to excuse God for evil and suffering in the world, fail to ethically acknowledge the victims of suffering. The authors argue for this view using literary and philosophical resources, commencing with Immanuel Kant's 1791 "Theodicy Essay" and its reading of the Book of Job. Three important twentieth century antitheodicist positions are explored, including "Jewish" post-Holocaust ethical antitheodicism, Wittgensteinian antitheodicism exemplified by D.Z. Phillips and pragmatist antitheodicism defended by William James. The authors argue that these approaches to evil and suffering are fundamentally Kantian. Literary works such as Franz Kafka's The Trial, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, are examined in order to crucially advance the philosophical case for antitheodicism.

The issue of prisoners in war is a highly timely topic that has received much attention from both scholars and practitioners since the start of the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ensuing legal and political problems concerning detainees in those conflicts. This book analyzes these contemporary problems and challenges against the background of their historical development. It provides a multidisciplinary yet highly coherent perspective on the historical trajectory of legal and ethical norms in this field by integrating the historical analysis of war with a study of the emergence of the modern legal regime of prisoners in war. In doing so, it provides the first comprehensive study of prisoners, detainees and internees in war, covering a broad range of both regular and irregular wars from the crusades to contemporary counterinsurgency campaigns.
The book revolves around two major developments: First, there has been a continuous increase in the political relevance of prisoners in war, in particular since the emergence of POW camps in the nineteenth century. Secondly, and related, the growth in the legal regime pertaining to prisoners had contradictory consequences. Whilst it enhanced the protection of prisoners in regular conflicts, its state-centric bias tends to exclude combatants who do not fit the template of regular inter-state war. Detainees in the 'war on terror' embody both tendencies, the development of which, however, is by no means a novel phenomenon.
This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

This title provides an introduction to the philosophical implications of the recent surge of political and ethical interest in historical redress. Should the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles to Greece? Should settler societies in North America and Australasia compensate the aboriginal people whom they dispossessed? Should Israel have accepted Germany's compensation for Nazi extermination policies? The last twenty years have seen a remarkable surge of political and ethical interest in historical redress - that is, the righting of old wrongs. In this fascinating book, Richard Vernon argues that whatever the kind of redress that's at issue, and whether the wrong is large or small, an important philosophical issue arises. Exploring recent and high profile cases, Vernon focuses on the issue of responsibility. Responsibility isn't something inherited, like property or one's DNA. How, then, can it fall to one generation to make good the wrongs done by another? The book addresses all the main issues and arguments relating to justice, memory, apology and citizenship, and concludes by arguing for a forward-looking approach that focuses on the right of future generations to live just lives. "Think Now" is a new series of books which examines central contemporary social and political issues from a philosophical perspective. These books aim to be accessible, rather than overly technical, bringing philosophical rigour to modern questions which matter the most to us. Provocative yet engaging, the authors take a stand on political and cultural themes of interest to any intelligent reader.

The James M. H. Gregg Selected Works includes four books. Each book was written to inspire future generations to think and act in ways to improve themselves and society. Mr. Gregg's most recent work, Social Justice (A Blueprint), explores a new set of ideas and strategies for moving humans to a higher cultural plane on which all can live to their full potential. In Ideas of a Twentieth Century Grandfather the author reveals to his grandchildren his knowledge and insight that he may not otherwise get a chance to tell them. Zen Master is a dialogue between a Zen Master and students. The students ask him questions about many subjects to include the meaning of life and living, death, the essences of Zen, and peace of mind. Finally, Some Poems is a compilation of poems that the author has written over the years about loving, living, being, and love.

Anthropocentrism in philosophy is deeply paradoxical. Ethics investigates the human good, epistemology investigates human knowledge, and antirealist metaphysics holds that the world depends on our cognitive capacities. But humans' good and knowledge, including their language and concepts, are empirical matters, whereas philosophers do not engage in empirical research. And humans are inhabitants, not 'makers', of the world. Nevertheless, all three (ethics, epistemology, and antirealist metaphysics) can be drastically reinterpreted as making no reference to humans.

This book explores what science fiction can tell us about the human condition in a technological world, with the ethical dilemmas and consequences that this entails. This book is the result of the joint efforts of scholars and scientists from various disciplines. This interdisciplinary approach sets an example for those who, like us, have been busy assessing the ways in which fictional attempts to fathom the possibilities of science and technology speak to central concerns about what it means to be human in a contemporary world of technology and which ethical dilemmas it brings along. One of the aims of this book is to demonstrate what can be achieved in approaching science fiction as a kind of imaginary laboratory for experimentation, where visions of human (or even post-human) life under various scientific, technological or natural conditions that differ from our own situation can be thought through and commented upon. Although a scholarly work, this book is also designed to be accessible to a general audience that has an interest in science fiction, as well as to a broader academic audience interested in ethical questions.

Do philosophers have a responsibility to their society that is distinct from their responsibility to it as citizens? This edited volume explores both what type of contribution philosophy can make and what type of reasoning is appropriate when addressing public matters now. These questions are posed by leading international scholars working in the fields of moral and political philosophy. Each contribution also investigates the central issue of how to combine critical, rational analysis with a commitment to politically relevant public engagement. The contributions to this volume analyse issues raised in practical ethics, including abortion, embryology, and assisted suicide. They consider the role of ethical commitment in the philosophical analysis of contemporary political issues, and engage with matters of public policy such as poverty, the arts, meaningful work, as well as the evidence base for policy. They also examine the normative legitimacy of power, including the use of violence.

This book aims to answer two simple questions: what is it to want and what is it to intend? Because of the breadth of contexts in which the relevant phenomena are implicated and the wealth of views that have attempted to account for them, providing the answers is not quite so simple. Doing so requires an examination not only of the relevant philosophical theories and our everyday practices, but also of the rich empirical material that has been provided by work in social and developmental psychology. The investigation is carried out in two parts, dedicated to wanting and intending respectively. Wanting is analysed as optative attitudinising, a basic form of subjective standard-setting at the core of compound states such as 'longings', 'desires', 'projects' and 'whims'. The analysis is developed in the context of a discussion of Moore-paradoxicality and deepened through the examination of rival theories, which include functionalist and hedonistic conceptions as well as the guise-of-the-good view and the pure entailment approach, two views popular in moral psychology. In the second part of the study, a disjunctive genetic theory of intending is developed, according to which intentions are optative attitudes on which, in one way or another, the mark of deliberation has been conferred. It is this which explains intention's subjection to the requirements of practical rationality. Moreover, unlike wanting, intending turns out to be dependent on normative features of our life form, in particular on practices of holding responsible. The book will be of particular interest to philosophers and psychologists working on motivation, goals, desire, intention, deliberation, decision and practical rationality.

Shaftesbury's Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times is a collection of treatises on interconnected themes in moral philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and politics. It was immensely influential on eighteenth-century British taste and manners, literature, and thought, and also on the Continental Enlightenment. The author was a Whig, a Stoic, and a theist, whose commitment to political liberty and civic virtue shaped all of his other concerns, from the role of the arts in a free state to the nature of the beautiful and the good. This is the first new edition of Shaftesbury's Characteristicks as a coherent collection for almost a century. A substantial Introduction discusses Shaftesbury's works and ideas in the context of his times, and traces the reception and influence of his writings through the eighteenth century and beyond. A full and scholarly commentary is provided, as well as a complete textual apparatus. The very thorough Index is Shaftesbury's own. The text is essentially that of the first edition of 1711, as marked up with changes by Shaftesbury himself in preparation for the posthumous second edition of 1714; and the striking emblematic engravings he commissioned especially for the second edition are incorporated.

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen tackles the major questions concerning luck egalitarianism, providing deep, penetrating and original discussion of recent academic discourses on distributive justice as well as responses to some of the main objections in the literature. He offers a new answer to the "Why equality?" and "Equality of what?" questions, and provides a robust luck egalitarian response to the recent criticisms of luck egalitarianism by social relations egalitarians. This systematic, theoretical introduction illustrates the broader picture of distributive justice and enables the reader to understand the core intuitions underlying, or conflicting with, luck egalitarianism.

For Gustav Landauer, literary critic and anarchist, scholar of mysticism and participant of the Bavarian revolution, culture and politics occupied the same spiritual space. While identifying with ethical socialism, his Jewish sensibility increasingly gained over the years, not only, but in great measure due to Buber's influence. This volume brings together leading scholars to assess Landauer's ramified literary and political activities, his life as a Jew and anarchist, paying particular attention to his impact on Martin Buber.

Drawing on research in plant science, systems ecology, environmental philosophy, and cultural anthropology, Andrew F. Smith shatters the distinction between vegetarianism and omnivorism. The book outlines the implications that these manufactured distinctions have for how we view food and ourselves as eaters.

T]his is much more than a conventional reference guide. The 12 carefully written chapters examine significant issues and contemporary views of many of the basic problems in the field. Topics are approaches to the study of ethics in government, ethical dilemmas and standards for public officials, techniques for incorporating ethical considerations in policy-making, and several substantive problems--professional ethics, the ethical use of quantitative analysis, several forms of corruption, and morality in foreign policy-making. The volume assimilates most of the contemporary literature, presents a number of interesting cases, and is ideally suited as a text for upper-division or graduate courses in public administration and public policy. . . . an essential item in any collection that deals with the subject of ethics and public policy. "Choice"

Although democracy in the United States was founded upon ethical principles that Americans continue to hold sacrosanct, these values are seldom explicitly heeded in the policy-making processes that affect the destiny of the country and its citizens. With the professionalization of public administration during the past one-hundred years, managerial efficiency and scientific methods have been promoted at the expense of both ethics and politics. In this important new work, a distinguished group of social scientists, management scholars, attorneys, and philosophers explores the implications of neglecting these vital concerns. The authors focus on the difficult questions facing policymakers, administrators, and elected officials and suggest approaches to reconciling bureaucratic necessity with democratic values.

The first part of the volume examines contemporary ethical perspectives and establishes a framework for analysis. The moral dilemmas faced by public servants and the ethical standards governing the conduct of legislators are considered next. Chapters devoted to the techniques and methods of ethical policy-making discuss such issues as risk analysis, negotiation of rules and standards, the ombudsman in conflict resolution, and equal opportunity and affirmative action legislation. Chapters exploring systemic issues include professionalism in politics and administration; quantitative analysis in decision-making; waste, fraud, and abuse in government; and morality in the making of foreign policy. The volume concludes with an overview of ethics and public policy from a comparative perspective. Addressing the fundamental ethical relations between organizational authority and public employees, this unique new study is pertinent to many of the most pressing problems of our time. It will be of interest to scholars, students, practitioners, and other readers concerned with public administration, public policy, ethics in government, and professional ethics.

How does an understanding of the non-human lead us to a greater understanding of the incarnation? Are non-human animals morally relevant within Christian theology and ethics? Is there a human ethical responsibility towards non-human animals? In Animals, Theology and the Incarnation, Kris Hiuser argues that if we are called to represent both God to creation, and creation to God, then this has considerable bearing on understanding what it means to be human, as well as informing human action towards non-human creatures.

Benedict de Spinoza's writings laid the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and for modern Biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the Ethics, Spinoza is considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists. Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most part, very prone to credulity. The human mind is readily swayed this way or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over-confident, and vain. After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness. Spinoza was one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy. He helped lay the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. His correspondence helps shed light on his ethical opinions and positions. Required reading for those who wish a deeper understanding of the writings of Benedict de Spinoza.

What do physicians, nurses, chaplains, and social workers think about moral and religious issues in care for the dying? These professionals live with death, including many untimely and difficult deaths, on a daily basis. Based on intensive interviews with a cross sample of health care professionals, David H. Smith details how the churches could not only be supportive of these primary caregivers in dealing with end of life issues, but how they could enlist their help in informing their own congregations about the realities of death. To care for the dying is spiritually demanding work. Churches should not let health professionals struggle with religious issues whether of patients, families, or their own in isolation. Smith's respondents offer powerful perspectives on the issue of physician assisted suicide. Religious and theological ethics cannot afford to ignore insights and questions that come from those who deal with dying every day. Finding meaning in the face of human suffering comes less from doctrine than from living a certain kind of life. This book is a clarion call for new, practical, and vital forms of education, support, and commitment, particularly within the churches, in the cause of improving care for the dying.

This title examines the ethical and philosophical questions confronting activists, policy makers and educators in the battle against climate change. "Future Ethics: Climate Change and Political Action" presents a comprehensive examination of the philosophical questions facing activists, policy makers and educators fighting the causes of climate change. These questions reflect a genuine crisis in ethical reflection for individuals and groups in today's society and are also underpinned by a broader question of how the future forms the basis for action in the present. For instance, does the reporting of impending 'points of no return' in global warming renew a spirit of resistance or a spirit of fatalism? How is the future of the human species really imagined in society and how does this affect our sense of ethical responsibility? In this fascinating book, thirteen leading experts explore the philosophical and ethical issues underlying social responses to climate change and in particular how these responses draw upon ideas about the future. Ideal for students of environmental ethics in multiple disciplines, the book provides sources and discussion for anyone interested in issues to do with environment, society and ethics.

Here, in one volume, are two classic treatises on individual freedom and inherent human worth from one of the most importantand most overlookedthinkers of the late 18th century. Revolutionary in all senses of the word, A Vindication of the Rights of Man, first published in 1790, and A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which followed two years later, were written against the background of the French Revolution, the debate over which caused an uproar in both England and France. In passionate and beautifully witty language, Wollstonecraft rebukes the crumbling and ineffectual traditions that allowed rich men to dominate society, and offers a stirring call for a new kind of culture, one in which all citizensmen and women, moneyed and working classare granted equal opportunity to access wealth both material and spiritual. Well received in their day and still important resources for anyone wishing to understand the history of feminism as well as the development of liberal republican thought in the wake of the American and French revolutions, these are must-reads for students of cultural history. British writer and educator MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (17591797), the mother of Frankenstein author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, espoused her then-radical feminist and liberal philosophies in other such works as Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and History and Moral View of the Origins and Progress of the French Revolution (1793).