'Tense and intimate... an education.' Geoff Dyer 'Written with sensitivity and humanity... a remarkable insight into prison life.' Amanda Brown 'Authentic, fascinating and deeply moving.' Terry Waite 'Enriching, sobering and at times heartrending... a wonder' Lenny Henry __________ Can someone in prison be more free than someone outside? Would we ever be good if we never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness? Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. Every day he has conversations with people inside about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings, and listens as they explore new ways to think about their situation. When Andy goes behind bars, he also confronts his inherited trauma: his father, uncle and brother all spent time in prison. While Andy has built a different life for himself, he still fears that their fate will also be his. As he discusses pressing questions of truth, identity and hope with his students, he searches for his own form of freedom too. Moving, sympathetic, wise and frequently funny, The Life Inside is an elegantly written and unforgettable book. Through a blend of memoir, storytelling and gentle philosophical questioning, it offers a new insight into our stretched justice system, our failing prisons and the complex lives being lived inside. __________ 'Strives with humour and compassion to understand the phenomenon of prison' Sydney Review of Books 'A fascinating and enlightening journey... A legitimate page-turner' 3AM

This collection provides the first in-depth introduction to the theory of the religious imagination put forward by renowned philosopher Douglas Hedley, from his earliest essays to his principal writings. Featuring Hedley's inaugural lecture delivered at Cambridge University in 2018, the book sheds light on his robust concept of religious imagination as the chief power of the soul's knowledge of the Divine and reveals its importance in contemporary metaphysics, ethics and politics. Chapters trace the development of the religious imagination in Christian Platonism from Late Antiquity to British Romanticism, drawing on Origen, Henry More and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, before providing a survey of alternative contemporary versions of the concept as outlined by Karl Rahner, Rene Girard and William P. Alston, as well as within Indian philosophy. By bringing Christian Platonist thought into dialogue with contemporary philosophy and theology, the volume systematically reveals the relevance of Hedley's work to current debates in religious epistemology and metaphysics. It offers a comprehensive appraisal of the historical contribution of imagination to religious understanding and, as such, will be of great interest to philosophers, theologians and historians alike.

The Great Protector of Wits provides a new assessment of baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) and his circle. A challenging figure of the European Enlightenment, Paul-Henri Thiry d'Holbach was not only a radically materialistic philosopher, a champion of anticlericalism, the author of the Systeme de la nature - known as 'the Bible of atheists' -, an ideologue, a popularizer of the natural sciences and a prolific contributor to the Encyclopedie, but he also played a crucial role as an organizer of intellectual networks and was a master of disseminating clandestine literature and a consummate strategist in authorial fictions. In this collective volume, for the first time, all these different threads of d'Holbach's 'philosophy in action' are considered and analyzed in their interconnection. Contributors to this volume: Jacopo Agnesina, Nicholas Cronk, Melanie Ephreme, Enrico Galvagni, Jonathan Israel, Alan Charles Kors, Mladen Kozul, Brunello Lotti, Emilio Mazza, Gianluca Mori, Iryna Mykhailova, Gianni Paganini, Paolo Quintili, Alain Sandrier, Ruggero Sciuto, Maria Susana Seguin, and Gerhardt Stenger.

How can we be sure the oppressed do not become oppressors in their turn? How can we create a feminism that doesn't turn into yet another tool for oppression? It has become commonplace to argue that, in order to fight the subjugation of women, we have to unpack the ways different forms of oppression intersect with one another: class, race, gender, sexuality, disability, and ecology, to name only a few. By arguing that there is no single factor, or arche, explaining the oppression of women, Chiara Bottici proposes a radical anarchafeminist philosophy inspired by two major claims: that there is something specific to the oppression of women, and that, in order to fight that, we need to untangle all other forms of oppression and the anthropocentrism they inhabit. Anarchism needs feminism to address the continued subordination of all femina, but feminism needs anarchism if it does not want to become the privilege of a few. Anarchafeminism calls for a decolonial and deimperial position and for a renewed awareness of the somatic communism connecting all different life forms on the planet. In this new revolutionary vision, feminism does not mean the liberation of the lucky few, but liberation for all living creatures from both capitalist exploitation and an androcentric politics of domination. Either all or none of us will be free.

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."

This edited collection provides an in-depth and wide-ranging exploration of pragmatist philosopher Richard Shusterman's distinctive project of "somaesthetics," devoted not only to better understanding bodily experience but also to greater mastery of somatic perception, performance, and presentation. Against contemporary trends that focus narrowly on conceptual and computational thinking, Shusterman returns philosophy to what is most fundamental-the sentient, expressive, human body with its creations of living beauty. Twelve scholars here provide penetrating critical analyses of Shusterman on ontology, perception, language, literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, cuisine, music, and the visual arts, including films of his work in performance art.

This study examines the motivations and doctrinal coherence of the Commentary on the Elements of Theology of Proclus written by Berthold of Moosburg, O.P. ( c. 1361/1363). It provides an overview of Berthold's biography and intellectual contexts, his manuscript remains, and a partial edition of his annotations on Macrobius and Proclus. Through a close analysis of the three prefaces to the Commentary, giving special attention to Berthold's sources, it traces the Dominican's elaboration of Platonism as a soteriological science. The content of this science is then presented in a systematic reconstruction of Berthold's cosmology and anthropology. The volume includes an English translation of the three fundamental prefaces of the Commentary. The publication of this volume has received the generous support of the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the ERC Consolidator Grant NeoplAT: A Comparative Analysis of the Middle East, Byzantium and the Latin West (9th-16th Centuries), grant agreement No 771640 (www.neoplat.eu).

Responsibility is routinely overlooked, manipulated, and oversimplified. In Scandalous Obligation, Eric Severson explores the scope of Christian responsibility. This book delves into the slippery nature of obligation, the dilemma of competing calls for justice, and the perilous temptation to dismiss or avoid responsibility. Using examples from popular culture Severson casts an expansive and often daunting vision of responsibility that challenges the status quo.This book presses readers to consider the many complications that arise when Christians begin to understand the extent of their responsibility for the suffering that abounds in the world. It explores how Christians are to turn this approach to responsibility toward the clouds of injustice and pain that hang over our world today. With a brilliant use of Scripture, illustrations, and insights from classical literature and philosophy, Eric Severson makes us aware in this book that sin is not simply the breaking of rules, but is living with indifference to the needs of others when confronted by those needs.'--Tony CampoloProfessor Emeritus of Sociology, Eastern UniversityAuthor, Adventures in Missing the Point, Red Letter Christians In an era when so many Christians confuse their ethics with their politics, Severson summons the followers of Christ to once again take note of the 'alien at the gate.' Scandalous Obligation is a disturbing wake-up call to a church grown self-absorbed and complacent.'--Karl GibersonVice President, BioLogos FoundationCo-author, The Language of Faith and Science