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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy
Noted economist Douglas Vickers reexamines the relationship between
economics and moral philosophy. That relationship, once very
strong, is again the subject of increasing attention and discussion
both within and beyond the academy. Vickers reestablishes the
substantial bridges between ethical philosophy and economics. He
addresses three main issues: first, the historical means by which
economics has consciously surrendered its original association with
ethical categories and criteria; second, the need to articulate the
appropriate thoughtforms and vocabulary of ethical theory; and
third, the illustration of areas in economics where ethical
awareness is desirable and should be allowed to exert influence.
This work is a major analysis which will be of considerable
interest to economists, the business community, government
regulators, and all concerned with economic decisionmaking in
modern society.
What could Wittgenstein's work contribute to the rapidly growing
literature on life's meaning? This book not only examines
Wittgenstein's scattered remarks about value and 'sense of life'
but also argues that his philosophy and 'way of seeing' has far
reaching implications for the ways theorists approach an ancient
question: 'How shall one live?'.
The Human Right to Democracy is the first major study to offer a
comprehensive and up-to-date account of the debate. It reconstructs
the relevant positions in that debate, identifies the key points of
disagreement, and proposes an understanding of the human right to
democracy that might form the basis of a wide consensus. The book
rejects the idea of a comprehensive right to democratic
institutions, and instead argues for a minimal "human right to
democracy" which is best understood as an individual's right to
voice. The human right to voice is a right, enjoyed by any
individual independently of his or her place of residence or
nationality, to be heard and supported in cases of severe injustice
that is tolerated or condoned by the political community or polity
of which the individual is a member. By bringing together human
rights discourse and democratic theory, as well as taking into
account practical politics, this study broadens the scope of the
debatefrom a sometimes overly-narrow focus. The book is of interest
not only to political philosophers, but also to international
lawyers, diplomats, representatives of civil society, human rights
activists, and specialists in development economics.
This book forwards a line of argument that indicates how feminist
analyses can ameliorate the standard consequential (and
occasionally deontological) lines in applied ethics. Drawing on
core concepts in feminist philosophy, Feminist Analyses of Applied
Ethics investigates five major issues: immigration, environmental
preservation, intervention in medical areas, the peace movement,
and matters of citizenship. Although most of these areas have
received extensive analysis, there is no one work that covers all
five areas from a feminist point of view. This book aims to remedy
that defect. The work draws on key thinkers in feminist ethics,
such as Card and Gilligan, and also ventures to other areas of
feminist philosophy.
Interest in ethics within the field of public administration has
grown steadily since the late 1970s. Harold Gortner focuses on
public administration ethics theory and how it applies to the lives
of managers operating in the middle ranges of public bureaucracy.
Using a general review of the literature on public administration
ethics and a comparison of that literature to the real-life
experiences of civil service managers, he categorizes the
literature and measures its relevance to the thought processes,
decisions, and actions of individuals within a bureaucracy.
According to Gortner, the literature on public administration
can be divided into five meaningful categories: philosophical
discussions of ethics; professional aspects of ethics; personal
characteristics and their influence on ethics; organizational
dynamics and their influence on ethics; and legal aspects of
ethics. Because an understanding of these five approaches to public
administration is helpful in understanding the arguments that are
presented, each is discussed at some length within the volume.
Gortner then examines these categories in light of the real-life
experiences of public managers, thereby helping the reader to
understand which of the various ethical arguments are most
meaningful to practicing managers, and why those particular
approaches are useful or applicable to their ethical dilemmas.
Gortner's effort to balance theory and practice will interest
scholars and practitioners of public administration alike.
This book explores recent developments in ethics of virtue. While
acknowledging the Aristotelian roots of modern virtue ethics - with
its emphasis on the moral importance of character - this collection
recognizes that more recent accounts of virtue have been shaped by
many other influences, such as Aquinas, Hume, Nietzsche, Hegel and
Marx, Confucius and Lao-tzu. The authors also examine the bearing
of virtue ethics on other disciplines such as psychology, sociology
and theology, as well as attending to some wider public,
professional and educational implications of the ethics of virtue.
This pioneering book will be invaluable to researchers and students
concerned with the many contemporary varieties and applications of
virtue ethics.
Human, All Too Human is the first book by Friedrich Nietzsche to
use the aphoristic style that would become emblematic of his most
famous philosophy. This compact and inexpensive print edition
ensures that you can absorb and appreciate these philosophical
insights at little expense. His style, combining Nietzsche's
vehement brand of argument with keynote nihilistic energy, is
evident. Quickfire, furious nature of the points made in some
respects foreshadow later works in which these qualities are
enhanced still further. For the clinical yet perceptive style
present in this early work, Nietzsche's adherents compare Human,
All Too Human to the earliest works of psychology. Throughout the
text, Nietzsche examines human traits and behaviours in a series of
short passages, presenting a number of posits and philosophic
arguments in each. The shortest of these are only a single
paragraph, while the longest run for several.
The Stoics are known to have been a decisive influence on early
Christian moral thought, but the import of this influence for
contemporary Christian ethics has been underexplored. Elizabeth
Agnew Cochran argues that attention to the Stoics enriches a
Christian understanding of the virtues, illuminating precisely how
historical Protestant theology gives rise to a distinctive virtue
ethic. Through examining the dialogue between Roman Stoic ethics
and the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards,
Cochran illuminates key theological convictions that provide a
foundation for a contemporary Protestant virtue ethic, consistent
with theological beliefs characteristic of the historical Reformed
tradition.
Grete Hermann (1901-1984) was a pupil of mathematical physicist
Emmy Noether, follower and co-worker of neo-Kantian philosopher
Leonard Nelson, and an important intellectual figure in post-war
German social democracy. She is best known for her work on the
philosophy of modern physics in the 1930s, some of which emerged
from intense discussions with Heisenberg and Weizsacker in Leipzig.
Hermann's aim was to counter the threat to the Kantian notion of
causality coming from quantum mechanics. She also discussed in
depth the question of 'hidden variables' (including the first
critique of von Neumann's alleged impossibility proof) and provided
an extensive analysis of Bohr's notion of complementarity. This
volume includes translations of Hermann's two most important essays
on this topic: one hitherto unpublished and one translated here
into English for the first time. It also brings together recent
scholarly contributions by historians and philosophers of science,
physicists, and philosophers and educators following in Hermann's
steps. Hermann's work places her in the first rank among
philosophers who wrote about modern physics in the first half of
the last century. Those interested in the many fields to which she
contributed will find here a comprehensive discussion of her
philosophy of physics that places it in the context of her wider
work.
This new digital edition of The Trial and Death of Socrates:
Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo presents Benjamin Jowett's
classic translations, as revised by Enhanced Media Publishing. A
number of new or expanded annotations are also included.
This book explores a wide range of topics in digital ethics. It
features 11 chapters that analyze the opportunities and the ethical
challenges posed by digital innovation, delineate new approaches to
solve them, and offer concrete guidance to harness the potential
for good of digital technologies. The contributors are all members
of the Digital Ethics Lab (the DELab), a research environment that
draws on a wide range of academic traditions. The chapters
highlight the inherently multidisciplinary nature of the subject,
which cannot be separated from the epistemological foundations of
the technologies themselves or the political implications of the
requisite reforms. Coverage illustrates the importance of expert
knowledge in the project of designing new reforms and political
systems for the digital age. The contributions also show how this
task requires a deep self-understanding of who we are as
individuals and as a species. The questions raised here have
ancient -- perhaps even timeless -- roots. The phenomena they
address may be new. But, the contributors examine the fundamental
concepts that undergird them: good and evil, justice and truth.
Indeed, every epoch has its great challenges. The role of
philosophy must be to redefine the meaning of these concepts in
light of the particular challenges it faces. This is true also for
the digital age. This book takes an important step towards
redefining and re-implementing fundamental ethical concepts to this
new era.
The whole field of drug research has become a minefield of
sensitive issues with the opponents entrenched at opposite extremes
taking pot shots at each other. The attacks made on drug research
and the pharmaceutical industry in particular have become so
venomous that an attempt needed to be made to provide a balanced
ethical appraisal of the situation. Neither pro- nor antagonists
are fully right, but some common grounds need to be found. The
author believes that this commons grounds resides in the religious
and philosophical foundations on which western industrial society
has been built.
Kai Draper begins his book with the assumption that individual
rights exist and stand as moral obstacles to the pursuit of
national no less than personal interests. That assumption might
seem to demand a pacifist rejection of war, for any sustained war
effort requires military operations that predictably kill many
noncombatants as "collateral damage," and presumably at least most
noncombatants have a right not to be killed. Yet Draper ends with
the conclusion that sometimes recourse to war is justified. In
making his argument, he relies on the insights of John Locke to
develop and defend a framework of rights to serve as the foundation
for a new just war theory. Notably missing from that framework is
any doctrine of double effect. Most just war theorists rely on that
doctrine to justify injuring and killing innocent bystanders, but
Draper argues that various prominent formulations of the doctrine
are either untenable or irrelevant to the ethics of war. Ultimately
he offers a single principle for assessing whether recourse to war
would be justified. He also explores in some detail the issue of
how to distinguish discriminate from indiscriminate violence in
war, arguing that some but not all noncombatants are liable to
attack.
This volume features more than 25 papers that were presented at the
2014 Conference of the International Association for the Study of
Controversies, IASC, held at the University of Salento, Lecce,
Italy. It looks at conflict and conflict resolution from diverse
perspectives, including philosophy, psychology, law, and history.
Coverage explores the paradox of conflict and examines how discord,
whether large or small, international or internal, can be both a
source of chaos as well as a foundation for unity, a limitation of
potential as well as an entryway to a greater depth of living.
Inside, readers will discover thought-provoking answers to such
questions as: What are the conditions to ensure that a conflict can
be converted into cooperation? If the conflict between interests
can be solved by a compromise, what happens when a conflict
involves non-negotiable values ? In the management of a conflict,
what role is played by argumentation? What are the latest
perspectives in conflict management? How does the theory of
controversies allows us to recognize and resolve conflicts? By the
end of the book, readers will have a better understanding of how
conflict can be transcended and how it's possible to redefine the
conflicting situation so that what seemed incompatible and locked
may, in fact, open a new perspective.
The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 prompted unprecedented public
interest in the ethics of war, a debate that has raged furiously in
the media, in politics and in the public consciousness ever since.
In this fascinating and informative book, Nicholas Fotion explores
the notion of developing an ethical theory that guides the
behaviour of those who are at war.Fotion gives a clear account of
just war theory, presenting it as a useful device in helping us
make decisions about what we should do when war appears on the
horizon. Examining conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Israel,
the Falklands and Afghanistan, the book interrogates the roles of
the various parties involved in military action. Articulate,
provocative and stimulating, "War and Ethics" is an ideal
introduction to this hugely important debate."Think Now" is a brand
new series of stimulating and accessible books examining key
contemporary social issues from a philosophical perspective.
Written by experts in philosophy, these books offer sophisticated
and provocative yet engaging writing on political and cultural
themes of genuine concern to the educated reader.
Rightness as Fairness provides a uniquely fruitful method of
'principled fair negotiation' for resolving applied moral and
political issues that requires merging principled debate with
real-world negotiation.
Albert Camus was a formative artist, writer and public figure whose
work defies conventional labels, and whose legacy is controversial
but substantial. His distinctive contribution to modern ethical and
political thought remains far from settled. Camus and the Challenge
of Political Thought comprehensively yet concisely explores how
Camus's compelling ideas of absurdity and rebellion emerged, how
his complex political engagements and positions developed, and how
his conception of an ethics of limits and measure retains a vital,
contemporary resonance in an era of unsettling global politics.
Drawing upon the full range of Camus's notebooks, novels, plays and
philosophical essays, Hayden shows Camus to be an original
political thinker of human dignity and freedom whose life and work
sought to navigate between the twin dangers of idealistic optimism
and nihilistic despair.
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