This is the final work of the distinguished philosopher Paul Ziff, whose earlier books include Understanding Understanding, Philosophical Turnings, and Semantic Analysis. It is carefully crafted and written in numbered paragraphs rather than chapters, in style of the later Wittgenstein. The work concerns morality, rationality, symbolism and imagery.
In the words of the author: "The primary thesis of this essay is that, although there are many different and conflicting moralities, both here in America and throughout the world, some of them can be criticized and rejected on rational grounds. There are other moralities that one can personally reject, but they cannot be criticized on rational grounds. The same is true of the various values and priorities that different people have. Some are open to criticism on rational grounds; others are not open to such criticism." His conclusion is: "Symbolism and imagery constitute the real and only basis of the moralities that I have endeavored to characterize here, my own morality and that of others. But the most fundamental image of all of my morality is that which is created by an appreciation of life, all life."

Ever since Harts The Concept of Law, legal philosophers agree that the practice of law-applying officials is a fundamental aspect of law. Yet there is a huge disagreement on the nature of this practice. Is it a conventional practice? Is it like the practice that takes place, more generally, when there is a social rule in a group? Does it share the nature of collective intentional action? The book explores the main responses to these questions, and claims that they fail on two main counts: current theories do not explain officials beliefs that they are under a duty qua members of an institution, and they do not explain officials disagreement about the content of these institutional duties. Based on a particular theory of collective action, the author elaborates then an account of certain institutions, and claims that the practice is an institutional practice of sorts. This would explain officials beliefs in institutional duties, and officials disagreement about those duties.

The book should be of interest to legal philosophers, but also to those concerned with group and social action theories and, more generally, with the nature of institutions."

Originally published between 1921 and 2003, the 48 volumes in this set cover one of the most problematic areas of moral philosophy, and one which is a key component of many undergraduate philosophy degrees. The volumes in this set include volumes on all the main areas: Applied, normative, descriptive, consequentialist and metaethics and touch on the vital issues of objectivity and subjectivity, relativism and realism, reason and feeling, necessity and freedom.

Olympiodorus (AD c. 500-570), possibly the last non-Christian teacher of philosophy in Alexandria, delivered these lectures as an introduction to Plato with a biography. For us, they can serve as an accessible introduction to late Neoplatonism. Olympiodorus locates the First Alcibiades at the start of the curriculum on Plato, because it is about self-knowledge. His pupils are beginners, able to approach the hierarchy of philosophical virtues, like the aristocratic playboy Alcibiades. Alcibiades needs to know himself, at least as an individual with particular actions, before he can reach the virtues of mere civic interaction. As Olympiodorus addresses mainly Christian students, he tells them that the different words they use are often symbols of truths shared between their faiths.

Freedom of the sort implicated in acting freely or with free will is important to the truth of different sorts of moral judgment, such as judgments of moral responsibility and those of moral obligation. Little thought, however, has been invested into whether appraisals of good or evil presuppose free will. This important topic has not commanded the attention it deserves owing to what is perhaps a prevalent assumption that freedom leaves judgments concerning good and evil largely unaffected. The central aim of this book is to dispute this assumption by arguing for the relevance of free will to the truth of two sorts of such judgment: welfare-ranking judgments or judgments of personal well-being (when is one's life intrinsically good for the one who lives it?), and world-ranking judgments (when is a possible world intrinsically better than another?). The book also examines free will's impact on the truth of such judgments for central issues in moral obligation and in the free will debate. This book should be of interest to those working on intrinsic value, personal well-being, moral obligation, and free will.

For anyone who has ever wondered about the ethics of killing animals for food, this is the definitive collection of essays on the ethical debate. Written by internationally recognized scholars on both sides of the debate, the provocative articles here compiled will give vegetarians and meat-eaters a thorough grounding in all aspects of this controversial issue. After an introduction to the nature of the debate by editor Steve F. Sapontzis, Daniel Dombrowski reviews the history of vegetarianism. There follows a discussion of health issues and what anthropology has to tell us about human diet. Also included are the classic cases for vegetarianism from philosophers Peter Singer and Tom Regan, and new essays rebutting those classic positions from humanists Roger Scruton and Carl Cohen, among others. Various scholars then examine religious teachings about eating animals, which are drawn from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as Native American and Eastern traditions. Finally, Carol J. Adams, Deanne Curtin, and Val Plumwood, among other outstanding advocates, debate the ethics of eating meat in connection with feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism. Containing virtually a "Who's Who" of philosophers, social critics, environmentalists, feminists, and religious scholars who have participated in the vegetarianism debate over the past quarter century, this outstanding anthology of expert articles, most of them new, provides the latest thinking on a subject of increasing public interest.

These two essays by the famous 19th-century champion of Darwin's theory of evolution tackle a subject that is still a major focus of ethical debates today: the relation of science as a whole, and specifically evolutionary ideas, to ethics and morality. Written toward the end of Huxley's career when he was already famous as a persuasive lecturer and a fascinating expositor of new ideas, these essays demonstrate his rhetorical gifts and talent for explaining the importance of science to a lay audience.
"Evolution and Ethics," his last major talk delivered at Oxford in 1893, was written in response to the then fashionable "Social Darwinism" popularized by philosopher Herbert Spencer. Spencer and his followers had been labeling the poor, criminals, and other social undesirables as "unfit" and suggesting that society deal with them as harshly as nature deals with the physically unfit. Huxley found this approach both morally repugnant and a serious misapplication of Darwinian theory to the subject of ethics. Society progresses, Huxley maintained, through individuals who prove themselves to be ethically the best, not physically the most fit. Ethics is designed to curb our antisocial animal instincts and therefore must be detached from natural competition.
In "Science and Morals," written some years earlier (1886), Huxley addresses three criticisms: namely, that he and his associates refuse to take seriously anything that (1) cannot be verified by the senses, that (2) is beyond the bounds of physical science, and that (3) cannot be subjected to laboratory experimentation and chemical analysis. To all of these criticisms Huxley replies that he takes very seriously a host of mental phenomena that do not, strictly speaking, fall within these narrow physical limits: the universal law of causation, or the esthetic pleasure of the arts, or the truths of mathematics, for example. He goes on to say that he repudiates the doctrine of Materialism as much as he does that of Spiritualism, and that he coined the term "Agnostic" to apply to his own particular philosophical viewpoint. He concludes with comments on the existence of God and free will, suggesting that science does not necessarily rule out either postulate.
Students of ethics, the history of science, and the ongoing debates over evolution will welcome this new edition of two masterful essays by "Darwin's Bulldog."

The idea of human dignity is central to any reflection on the nature of human worth, and has become a key concept in international and national law, in medical ethics, and in much philosophical and political theory. However, the idea is a complex one that also takes on many different forms. This collection explores the idea of human dignity as it arises within these many different domains, opening up the possibility of a multidisciplinary conversation that illuminates the concept itself, as well as the idea of the human to which it stands in an essential relation. The book is not only an intriguing and stimulating exploration of human dignity from a range of perspectives, but also provides an important resource for those who wish to take the exploration further.

The UNESCO International Bioethics Committee is an international body that sets standards in the field of bioethics. This collection represents the contributions of the IBC to global bioethics. The IBC is a body of 36 independent experts that follows progress in the life sciences and its applications in order to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom. Currently, some of the topics of the IBC contributions have been discussed in the bioethics literature, mostly journal articles. However, this is a unique contribution by the scholars who developed these universal declarations and reports. The contributors have not only provided a scholarly up to date discussion of their research topics, but as members of the IBC they have also discussed specific practical challenges in the development of such international documents. This book will be suited to academics within bioethics, health care policy and international law.

Messages from the media and pressures from peers all seem to conspire against raising children with strong Christian values. As kids grow older the potential for things to go wrong just seems to multiply. How can parents nurture their families with confidence, without the fear that they are making some big mistake? Tim Stafford sets you free from worrying about the Joneses or anyone else. He shows you how to build core Christian values into your children in a way that fits who God made your family to be, unique and different from every other family. In this practical and freeing book, you'll find: Why your family doesn't have to be like other families How to build core values into your children that will last a lifetime How you can find the patterns that fit who you and your family are Ways to build family life that kids enjoy and that parents find satisfying Why there's more than one, good, right way to be a family How to build grace and freedom into your family life while still providing structure and security Release from the fear that you are parenting the wrong way Stafford identifies thirteen core biblical values and describes a wide variety of ways to build these into families. He explores the many options that are available for parents to help their children develop in truthfulness, contentment, hard work, joy, rest, forgiveness and putting God first. Some books suggest there is only one right way to parent, no matter who you are. InNever Mind the Joneses Stafford frees you to explore the ways God has provided that fit your family best.

This volume provides an in-depth discussion on the central question - how can people express and survive dissent and disagreement in confined habitats in space? The discussion is an important one because it could be that the systems of inter-dependence required to survive in space are so strong that dissent becomes impossible. John Locke originally said that people have a right to use revolution to overthrow a despotic regime. But if revolution causes violence and damage that causes depressurisation with the risk of killing many people, is it even permissible to have a revolution? How then are people to express their liberty or dissatisfaction with their rulers? The emergence of structures of dissent and disagreement is an essential part of the construction of a framework of liberty in space (revolution is just the extreme example) and thus the topic deserves in-depth and immediate attention. Even today, the way in which we assemble organisations and corporations for the government and private exploration of space must take into account the need for mechanisms to allow people to express dissent.

What effect does creativity have on individuals, groups and societies, and on the fundamental values on which they base their actions and institutions? What constitutes good and evil, right and wrong, and how does creativity disrupt these beliefs? 'The Ethics of Creativity' brings together an impressive collaboration of thinkers from several countries and disciplines to illuminate the thorny issues that arise when novel ideas and products brought forth by creativity collide with the rules and norms of what we believe to be right or good.

C.C.W. Taylor presents a selection of his essays in ancient philosophy, drawn from forty years of writings on the subject. The central theme of the volume is the moral psychology of Plato and Aristotle, with a special focus on pleasure and related concepts, an area central to Greek ethical thought. Taylor also discusses Socrates and the Greek atomists (including the Epicureans), showing how Plato's ethics grows out of the thought of Socrates, and that pleasure is also a central concept for the atomists.
Pleasure, Mind, and Soul provides a fascinating survey of a range of important topics in the work of some of the greatest ancient philosophers, and which remain the subject of lively philosophical debate today.

This volume focuses on contemporary Confucianism, and collects essays by famous sinologists such as Guy Alitto, John Makeham, Tse-ki Hon and others. The content is divided into three sections - addressing the "theory" and "practice" of contemporary Confucianism, as well as how the two relate to each other - to provide readers a more meaningful understanding of contemporary Confucianism and Chinese culture. In 1921, at the height of the New Culture Movement's iconoclastic attack on Confucius, Liang Shuming ( ) fatefully predicted that in fact the future world culture would be Confucian. Over the nine decades that followed, Liang's reputation and the fortunes of Confucianism in China rose and fell together. So, readers may be interested in the question whether it is possible that a reconstituted "Confucianism" might yet become China's spiritual mainstream and a major constituent of world culture.

Medicine and Money: A Study of the Role of Beneficence in Health Care Cost Containment is a frank discussion of the moral problems associated with the need to control health care costs. The book provides a base for physicians to address these concerns and examines the events leading to America's current health care crisis, diminishing beneficence. After a brief definition of the problem, Frank H. Marsh and Mark Yarborough continue by describing the threat of cost containment and justifying beneficence-based health care system. Special importance is given to Medicine and Money by the lengthy suggestions on implementing beneficence in the health care system. Marsh and Yarborough address the problem of eroding morality and rising cost concerns of our present health care system. They argue that if the central role of beneficence is abandoned, the medical profession will be unable to properly meet the challenge it faces. Medicine and Money divides its argument into two sections. In the first section, the current crisis in health care is examined and a justification for beneficence is given. The second section describes how beneficence can be implemented in the health care system as a means to control health care costs. Medicine and Money is written for every member of the medical and philosophical communities.

Written while Boethius was in prison awaiting execution, The Consolation of Philosophy consists of a dialogue in alternating prose and verse between the author, lamenting his own sorrows, and a majestic woman, who is the incarnation of his guardian Philosophy. The woman develops a modified form of Neoplatonism and Stoicism, demonstrating the unreality of earthly fortunes, then proving that the highest good and the highest happiness are in God, and reconciling the apparent contradictions concerning the existence of everything.

"A magisterial work (that) culminates twenty-five years of thinking about the problems of free will. For those who believe both that robust free will cannot survive in a deterministic climate and that a viable free will need be scientifically respectable, Kane's work may prove salvific." -- Mark Bernstein, University of Texas at San Antonio. In the past quarter-century, there has been a resurgence of interest in philosophical questions about free will. After a clear and broad-reaching survey of these recent debates, Robert Kane presents his own controversial view. Arguing persuasively for a traditional incompatibilist or libertarian conception of free will, Kane demonstrates that such a conception can be made intelligible without appeals to obscure or mysterious forms of agency and thus can be reconciled with a contemporary scientific picture of the world.

Foreword by Alexandra Stoddard, author of Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty and Joy to Every Day of Your Life. "Often we come to a point in our lives when we dispense with thetrivial and tire of ordinary superficialities," writes Peter MegargeeBrown in Figure It Out: A Guide to Wisdom. Here he has collected someof the most profound statements of all time, and gathered them intotopical sections reflecting the depth of the thinker behind the triallawyer. Sprinkled with his comments on the quotations he has carefullyselected over many years, sparkling anecdotes and essays complementthe quotations and provide a complete and thought-provoking portraitof each subject. Brown leads you through the great subjects mankind has grappledwith since the beginning-spirituality, love, life, death, friendship-and offers much more-his appraisal of the complexities of character, writing, history, memory, privacy, travel-drawing on the wisdom ofgreat philosophers including Aristotle, Hillel, Voltaire and Hegel, Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes, Benjamin Cardozo andJoseph Story, the late Tony Snow, writers such as George Bernard Shaw, Ayn Rand, Maureen Dowd and Malachy McCourt, politicians WinstonChurchill and Theodore Roosevelt, painter Henri Matisse and architectFrank Lloyd Wright. A collection that can be read cover-to-cover or flipped throughfor a moment of illumination, Figure It Out: A Guide to Wisdom willentertain and enlighten seekers of truth. Turn to this treasury forinspiration, as Alexandra Stoddard says in the Foreword, "Whether youare a reader, a writer, a historian, a philosopher, or a speaker atimportant events-even making a toast-this personal selection willdelight you, uplift you, and help you to Figure It Out." Peter Megargee Brown began his legal career as assistant counselto John Marshall Harlan on the New York State Crime Commission. AfterMr. Harlan was appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Brownwent on to become chief litigator for the New York firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. In 1982, he founded his own law firm in New York, Brown & Seymour. He is a Past President of the Federal Bar Council anda Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is the author ofnumerous books, including The Art of Questioning: Thirty Maxims ofCross Examination. He was educated at Yale College and Yale Law Schooland lives with his wife, the designer and author Alexandra Stoddard, in Stonington, Ct. The Peter Megargee Brown Papers, the legal papers of the author, comprising 303 bound volumes of his principal law suits over 50 yearsof practice in the United States Supreme Court and Appellate Courts, are available for the use of students and scholars and can be found inthe "Manuscripts and Archives" section of the Yale University Library.

This book explores the strong links between sustainability and the humanities, which go beyond the inclusion of social sciences in discussions on sustainability, and offers a holistic discussion on the intellectual and moral aspects of sustainable development. The contributions from researchers in the fields of education, social sciences, religion, humanities, and sustainable development fulfill three main aims: They provide university lecturers interested in humanities and sustainable development with an opportunity to present their work; foster the exchange of information, ideas and experiences acquired in the execution of teaching and research; and discuss methodological approaches and projects that provide a better understanding of how the humanities can contribute to the debate on sustainable development. Prepared by the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme and the World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre, the book reiterates the need to promote integrated approaches to sustainable development. Including practice-based lessons learnt that can be replicated further, it is a valuable resource for scientists and practitioners working in the humanities and sustainable development.

Being Apart from Reasons deals with the question of how we should go about using reasons to decide what to do. More particularly, the book presents objections to the most common response given by contemporary legal and political theorists to the moral complexity of decision-making in modern societies, namely: the attempt to release public agents from their argumentative burden by insulating a particular set of reasons from the general pool of reasons and assigning the former systematic priority over all other reasons. If those attempts succeed, public agents should not reason comprehensively, taking into account all reasons and weighing them against one another. Some reasons would be excluded from decision-making by kind.

That strategy is apparent both in Rawlsa (TM) claim that reasons concerning the right are systematically prior to reasons concerning the good and in Raza (TM)s claim that pre-emptive reasons are systematically prior to first-order reasons. The same strategy is also instantiated by certain arguments for the procedural value of law, such as Jeremy Waldrona (TM)s. In the book, each of those arguments for the insulation of reasons is objected to in order to defend the thesis the reasoning by public agents must always be as comprehensive as possible.

In order to reach that conclusion a particular picture of public decision-making in needed. That picture in provided by the comparison between the use of reasons in public and private decision-making which is carried out in the first two chapters of the book. That comparison brings to light peculiar features of public decision-making that imply the need for public agents to reason comprehensively before deciding. Theremaining chapters object to those arguments mentioned above which aim at justifying the exclusion of certain reasons from public agenta (TM)s decision-making.

The author presents a new philosophical theory according to which we need intuitions and emotions in order to have objective moral knowledge, which is called affectual intuitionism. Affectual Intuitionism combines ethical intuitionism with a cognitive theory of emotions.

What does it mean to say that imagination plays a role in moral reasoning, and what are the theoretical and practical implications? Engaging with three traditions in moral theory and confronting them with three contexts of moral practice, this book offers a more comprehensive framework to think about these questions. The author develops an argument about the relation between imagination and principles that moves beyond competition metaphors and center-periphery schemas. He shows that both cooperate and are equally necessary to cope with moral problems, and combines insights of different theories and disciplines to explore how this works in practice.

This work is an introductory treatment of issues and options in social and bioethics which center on the end of life. Moreland and Geisler have attempted to simplify and summarize various end-of-life topics without being simplistic or caricaturing different viewpoints, even though the authors' own viewpoints are made perfectly clear. A comprehensive bibliography, glossary, and subject and author index make this a valuable textbook as well as a resource for further study. The major purpose of this book is to make the reader think more clearly and deeply about the important issues discussed between its covers. Beginning the work is an essay that introduces the dilemma of ethical decisions. The following chapters separately discuss the situations of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, suicide, capital punishment, and war. The discussion concludes with a chapter of practical and theoretical guidance for making ethical decisions. A glossary, subject index, author index, and selected bibliography for each chapter make this a valuable text. This important work will not only appeal to experienced philosophers, but also to students of moral philosophy, theology, and ethics.

A disciple of Kant and a significant factor in shaping Nietzsche's thinking, Arthur Schopenhauer worked from the foundation that all knowledge derives from our experience of the world but that our experience is necessarily subjective and formed by our own intellect and biases: reality, therefore, is but an extension of our own will. In this essay, translated by THOMAS BAILEY SAUNDERS (1860-1928) and first published in English in the 1890s, Schopenhauer offers his outlook on human nature... and a pessimistic one it is, for Schopenhauer saw life through a Buddhist-like lens of desire leading to suffering, and the abjuration of desire as the only path to temporary relief. Here, the philosopher examines human institutions such as government, human ideals such as free will, and human understanding of character and morality, and finds underlying them a fatalistic impulse driving culture from extremes of despotism to those of anarchy, with little stopping along the way. Students of philosophy and of 19th-century intellectualism will find this a fascinating read.