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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General
Every year nine million people are diagnosed with tuberculosis,
every day over 13,400 people are infected with AIDs, and every
thirty seconds malaria kills a child. For most of the world,
critical medications that treat these deadly diseases are scarce,
costly, and growing obsolete, as access to first-line drugs remains
out of reach and resistance rates rise. Rather than focusing
research and development on creating affordable medicines for these
deadly global diseases, pharmaceutical companies instead invest in
commercially lucrative products for more affluent customers. Nicole
Hassoun argues that everyone has a human right to health and to
access to essential medicines, and she proposes the Global Health
Impact (global-health-impact.org/new) system as a means to
guarantee those rights. Her proposal directly addresses the
pharmaceutical industry's role: it rates pharmaceutical companies
based on their medicines' impact on improving global health,
rewarding highly-rated medicines with a Global Health Impact label.
Global Health Impact has three parts. The first makes the case for
a human right to health and specifically access to essential
medicines. Hassoun defends the argument against recent criticism of
these proposed rights. The second section develops the Global
Health Impact proposal in detail. The final section explores the
proposal's potential applications and effects, considering the
empirical evidence that supports it and comparing it to similar
ethical labels. Through a thoughtful and interdisciplinary approach
to creating new labeling, investment, and licensing strategies,
Global Health Impact demands an unwavering commitment to global
justice and corporate responsibility.
In As A Man Thinketh, New Thought teacher James Allen reveals the
fundamental truth of human nature: "A man is literally what he
thinks." Allen's deceptively simple principle has changed the lives
of millions of readers, making As A Man Thinketh a classic
bestseller for decades. In addition to the original text of As A
Man Thinketh, this edition also includes Allen's deeply thoughtful
work From Poverty to Power. Allen explains that our character,
identity, ability, and success are all determined by the thoughts
in our minds. Instead of finding ourselves victims of the world,
each of us has the ability to shape and define our own destinies.
Finances, health, social status, and success are all external
manifestations of the thoughts that populate our minds. Allen
offers his readers an opportunity to seize control of their minds
and create the lives they've always imagined.
The Essential Berkeley and Neo-Berkeley is an introduction to the
life and work of one of the most significant thinkers in the
history of philosophy and a penetrating philosophical assessment of
his lasting legacy. Written in clear and user-friendly style,
Berman provides: * A concise summary of George Berkeley
(1685-1753)'s life and writings * An accessible introduction to the
structure of Berkeley's most authoritative work, The Principles of
Human Knowledge * An overview of common misunderstandings of
Berkeley's philosophy, and how to avoid them Beyond solely an
introduction, Berman also gives us a broader and deeper
appreciation of Berkeley as a philosopher. He argues for Berkeley's
work as a philosophical system with coherence and important key
themes hitherto unexplored and provides an analysis of why he
thinks Berkeley's work has had such lasting significance. With a
particular focus on Berkeley's dualist thinking and theories of
'mental types', Berman provides students and scholars with a key to
unlocking the significance of this work. This introductory text
will provide an insight into Berkeley's full body of work, the
distinctiveness of his thinking and how deeply relevant this key
thinker is to contemporary philosophy.
Collecting together numerous examples of Augustine's musical
imagery in action, Laurence Wuidar reconstructs the linguistic
laboratory and the hermeneutics in which he worked. Sensitive and
poetical, this volume is a reminder that the metaphor of music can
give access not only to human interiority, but allow the human mind
to achieve proximity to the divine mind. Composed by one of
Europe's leading musicologists now engaging an English-speaking
audience for the first time, this book is a candid exploration of
Wuidar's expertise. Drawing on her long knowledge of music and the
occult, from antiquity to modernity, Wuidar particularly focuses
upon Augustine's working methods while refusing to be distracted by
questions of faith or morality. The result is an open and at times
frightening vista on the powers that be, and our complex need to
commune with them.
In his Treatise on the Virtues, Aquinas discusses the character and
function of habit; the essence, subject, cause, and meaning of
virtue; and the separate intellectual, moral, cardinal, and
theological virtues. His work constitutes one of the most thorough
and incisive accounts of virtue in the history of Christian
philosophy. John Oesterle's accurate and elegant translation makes
this enduring work readily accessible to the modern reader.
Aristotle's discussion of the motivation of the good person is both
complicated and cryptic. Depending on which passages are
emphasized, he may seem to be presenting a Kantian style view
according to which the good person is and ought to be motivated
primarily by reason, or a Humean style view according to which
desires and feelings are or ought to be in charge. In this book,
Paula Gottlieb argues that Aristotle sees the thought, desires and
feelings of the good person as interdependent in a way that is sui
generis, and she explains how Aristotle's concept of choice
(prohairesis) is an innovative and pivotal element in his account.
Gottlieb's interpretation casts light on Aristotle's account of
moral education, on the psychology of good, bad and half-bad
(akratic) people, and on the aesthetic and even musical side to
being a good person.
The figure of the mistress is undoubtedly controversial. She
provokes intense reactions, ranging from fear, to disgust and
revulsion, to excitement and titillation, to sadness and perhaps to
some, love. The mistress is conventionally depicted as a threat to
moral living and someone whose sexuality is considered defective
and toxic. Of course, she is a woman that you would not have as
your friend, and certainly not your wife, since her ethical sense,
if she even has one, is dubious at best. This book subverts these
traditional judgements and offers an unflinching look at the lived
experience of the mistress. Here she is recast as a potentially
loving, free, intimate 'other' woman. Drawing upon feminist
philosophy, contemporary sexual ethics and the current cultural
moment of #MeToo, Mistress Ethics moves beyond a narrative of
infidelity, conventional judgment, the safeguarding of monogamy and
conventional heterosex that permeates our society. It asks what
happens when we let go of our insecurities, judgments and
moralistic relationship philosophies and opt, instead, for an
ethics of kindness. This kindness - underpinned by engaging with
those deemed 'other' and learning from mistresses, both straight
and queer - will teach us new ways of thinking about ethics and
sex, and reveal how we have better sex, and how we can be better to
each other.
Here is a lucid, accessible, and inspiring guide to the six
perfections--Buddhist teachings about six dimensions of human
character that require "perfecting": generosity, morality,
tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Drawing on the Diamond
Sutra, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, and other essential
Mahayana texts, Dale Wright shows how these teachings were
understood and practiced in classical Mahayana Buddhism and how
they can be adapted to contemporary life in a global society. What
would the perfection of generosity look like today, for example?
What would it mean to give with neither ulterior motives nor
naivete? Devoting a separate chapter to each of the six
perfections, Wright combines sophisticated analysis with real-life
applications. Buddhists have always stressed self-cultivation, the
uniquely human freedom that opens the possibility of shaping the
kind of life we will live and the kind of person we will become.
For those interested in ideals of human character and practices of
self-cultivation, The Six Perfections offers invaluable guidance."
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