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.

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.

Addiction argues that addiction should be understood not as a disease but as a phenomenon that must be understood on many levels at once. Employing a complex dynamic systems approach and philosophical methodology, Shelby explains addiction as an irreducible neurobiological, psychological, developmental, environmental, and sociological phenomenon.

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.

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.

This book focuses on multiculturalism, racism and the interests of nonhuman animals. Each are, in their own right, rapidly growing and controversial fields of enquiry, but how do multiculturalism and racism intersect with the debate concerning animals and their interests? This a deceptively simple question but on that is becoming ever more pressing as we examine our societal practices in a pluralistic world. Collating the work of a diverse group of academics from across the world, the book includes writing on a wide range of subjects and addressing contemporary issues in this critical arena. Subjects covered include multiculturalism, group rights and the limits of tolerance; ethnocentrism and animals; racism and discrimination and non-Western alternatives to animal rights and welfare. The book will be of interest to researchers, lecturers and advanced students as well as range of social justice organisations, government institutions, animal activist organisations and environmental groups.

Both Aristotle and moral psychology have been flourishing areas of philosophical inquiry in recent years. This volume aims to bring the two streams of research together, offering a fresh infusion of Aristotelian insights into moral psychology and philosophy of action, and the application of developed philosophical sensibility as regards the reading of Aristotelian texts. The contributors offer stimulating new examinations of Aristotle's understanding of the various psychological states, dispositions, processes, and acts -- including reasoning and deliberation -- that contribute to the understanding of human action and its ethical appraisal.

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.

In Moral Animals, Catherine Wilson develops a theory of morality based on two fundamental premises: first that moral progress implies the evolution of moral ideals involving restraint and sacrifice; second that human beings are outfitted by nature with selfish motivations, intentions, and ambitions that place constraints on what morality can demand of them. Normative claims, she goes on to show, can be understood as projective hypotheses concerning the conduct of realistically-described nonideal agents in preferred fictional worlds. Such claims differ from empirical hypotheses, insofar as they cannot be verified by observation and experiment. Yet many, though not all, moral claims are susceptible of confirmation to the extent that they command the agreement of well-informed inquirers. With this foundation in place, Wilson turns to a defence of egalitarianism intended to address the objection that the importance of our non-moral projects, our natural acquisitiveness and partiality, and our meritocratic commitments render social equality a mere abstract ideal. Employing the basic notion of a symmetrical division of the co-operative surplus, she argues that social justice with respect to global disparities in well-being, and in the condition of women relative to men, depends on the relinquishment of natural and acquired advantage that is central to the concept of morality.

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 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.

We humans can enhance some of our mental and physical abilities above the normal upper limits for our species with the use of particular drug therapies and medical procedures. We will be able to enhance many more of our abilities in more ways in the near future. Some commentators have welcomed the prospect of wide use of human enhancement technologies, while others have viewed it with alarm, and have made clear that they find human enhancement morally objectionable. The Ethics of Human Enhancement examines whether the reactions can be supported by articulated philosophical reasoning, or perhaps explained in terms of psychological influences on moral reasoning. An international team of ethicists refresh the debate with new ideas and arguments, making connections with scientific research and with related issues in moral philosophy.

We prize loyalty in our friends, lovers and colleagues, but loyalty raises difficult questions. What is the point of loyalty? Should we be loyal to country, just as we are loyal to friends and family? Can the requirements of loyalty conflict with the requirements of morality? In this book, originally published in 2007, Simon Keller explores the varieties of loyalty and their psychological and ethical differences, and concludes that loyalty is an essential but fallible part of human life. He argues that grown children can be obliged to be loyal to their parents, that good friendship can sometimes conflict with moral and epistemic standards, and that patriotism is intimately linked with certain dangers and delusions. He goes on to build an approach to the ethics of loyalty that differs from standard communitarian and universalist accounts. His book will interest a wide range of readers in ethics and political philosophy.

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.

The Bungle Book presents a demythology of six salient concepts central to our modern self-understanding, The "suspects" of the self, the machine, and God, as well as the "senses" of home, love, and freedom are subjected to an intense analytical scrutiny that is back-dropped by the work of Gadamer, Heidegger, Lingis, Midgely, and other critical voices. Book-ended by a detailed introduction that asks us to "unexpect the expected" and a conclusion that suggests that we need to stop compulsively making sense of living on in order to become more sensible about its human ambiguities, The Bungle Book will be of interest to any who take seriously the contemporary challenge of a global and interconnected existence.

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).

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.

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.

Traditionally the ethic of care has been associated with women while the ethic of justice has been associated with men. In recent years some feminist philosophers have turned their energies to developing theories of care and to exploring the epistemological assumptions on which the ethic of care is based. This volume proposes an original theory of care, building on insights of both feminist and non-feminist critics of liberal moral theory, gleaning ideas from feminist ethics and epistemologies, and stimulated by the writings of post-colonial feminists. The author shows that a number of ethical and epistemological imperatives can be defined through the philosophical elaboration of an ethic of care and the endeavor to know and to care well.

Can the actual experienced practices of caring and the abstract conceptual thought process of philosophy be mutually informing? The author argues that the concrete everyday response of care provides the grounds for new ways of thinking about both ethics and reason. By examining the works of Kant, Mill, and Rawls, she describes and defends a radical critique of the liberal moral theory of Gilligan and Noddings and a transformed ethic of care, accounting for care as both action and disposition. This vigorous study will have applications in the fields of sociology, ethics, moral and political philosophy, political science, nursing, medicine, and education. A comprehensive and up-to-date Bibliography provides readers with excellent resources for further study.

As we live our lives, we repeatedly make decisions that shape our future circumstances and affect the sort of person we will be. When choosing whether to start a family, or deciding on a career, we often think we can assess the options by imagining what different experiences would be like for us. L. A. Paul argues that, for choices involving dramatically new experiences, we are confronted by the brute fact that we can know very little about our subjective futures. This has serious implications for our decisions. If we make life choices in the way we naturally and intuitively want to-by considering what we care about, and what our future selves will be like if we choose to have the experience-we only learn what we really need to know after we have already committed ourselves. If we try to escape the dilemma by avoiding an experience, we have still made a choice. Choosing rationally, then, may require us to regard big life decisions as choices to make discoveries, small and large, about the intrinsic nature of experience, and to recognize that part of the value of living authentically is to experience one's life and preferences in whatever way they may evolve in the wake of the choices you make. Using classic philosophical examples about the nature of consciousness, and drawing on recent work in normative decision theory, cognitive science, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind, Paul develops a rigorous account of transformative experience that sheds light on how we should understand real-world experience and our capacity to rationally map our subjective futures.

Modality, morality and belief are among the most controversial topics in philosophy and few philosophers have shaped these debates as deeply as Ruth Barcan Marcus. Inspired by her work, a distinguished group of philosophers explore these issues, refine and sharpen arguments and develop fresh positions on such topics as possible worlds, moral dilemmas, essentialism and the explanation of actions by beliefs. This collection honours one of the most rigourous and iconoclastic of philosophical pioneers.

A major force in American society, the work ethic has played a pivotal role in U.S. history, affecting cultural, social, and economic institutions. But what is the American work ethic? Not only has it changed from one era to another, but it varies with race, gender, and occupation. Considering such diverse groups as Colonial craftsmen, slaves, 19th century women, and 20th century factory workers, this book provides a history of the American work ethic from Colonial times to the present. Tracing both continuities and differences, the book is divided into sections on the Colonial era, the 19th century and the 20th century and includes chapters on both major occupational groups, such as farmers, factory workers, laborers, and gender, racial, and ethnic minorities.

This approach, which covers all major groups in U.S. history, enables the reader to discern how the work ethic applied to different occupational and ethnic groups over time. The book subjects the work ethic to an analysis based on historical, sociological, economic, and anthropological perspectives and provides an analysis of current thinking about how the work ethic applied to various groups and classes in different historical periods.

Defending Poetry studies the tradition of poetic defence, or apologia, as it has been pursued and developed by three of the twentieth century's leading poet-critics: Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, and Geoffrey Hill. It begins with an extended introduction to philosophical debates over the ethical value of literature from Plato to Levinas and continues by situating these three poets as in one sense historically continuous with the defences of Horace, Sidney, Coleridge, and Shelley, but also as drastically other. This otherness is bounded on one side by the example of T. S. Eliot's career-long contemplation of the ideal of poetic 'integrity', and on the other by a collective recognition of the twentieth century's great horrors, which seem to corrode all associations of art and the good. Through close readings of the poems and prose essays of Brodsky, Heaney, and Hill, Defending Poetry makes a timely intervention in current debates about literature's ethics, arguing that any ethics of literature ought to take into account not only poetry, but also the writings of poets on the value of poetry.

This book examines the works of major artists between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, as important barometers of individual and collective values toward non-human life. Once viewed as merely representational, these works can also be read as tangential or morally instrumental by way of formal analysis and critical theories. Chapter Two demonstrates the discrimination toward large and small felines in Genesis and The Book of Revelation. Chapter Three explores the cruel capture of free roaming animals and how artists depicted their furs, feathers and shells in costume as symbols of virtue and vice. Chapter Four identifies speciest beliefs between donkeys and horses. Chapter Five explores the altered Dutch kitchen spaces and disguised food animals in various culinary constructs in still life painting. Chapter Six explores the animal substances embedded in pigments. Chapter Seven examines animals in absentia-in the crafting of brushes. The book concludes with the fish paintings of William Merritt Chase whose glazing techniques demonstrate an artistic approach that honors fishes as sentient beings.