The Changing Terrain of Religious Freedom offers theoretical, historical, and legal perspectives on religious freedom, while examining its meaning as an experience, value, and right. The volume starts from the premise that the terrain of religious freedom has never been easy and smooth. Across societies and throughout history, defending or contesting principles of religious freedom has required compromise among multiple interests, balancing values, and wrangling with the law. Drawing on examples from the United States and around the world, and approaching the subject from the disciplines of history, law, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, and political science, the essays in this volume illustrate these challenges. They sketch the contours of contemporary debates while showing how the landscape of religious freedom has shifted over time. They consider various stakeholders that have asserted competing claims, among them individuals and groups; members of minority and majority communities; states and corporations (including both religious organizations and businesses); and believers and non-believers. Taken together, the studies in this volume suggest that understanding religious freedom means grappling with conflicting and perhaps irreconcilable claims about whose rights should prevail over others, what religion is or may be, and how religion should relate to other cultural values.

This book examines the surprising ramifications of Kant's late account of practical reason's obligatory ends as well as a revolutionary implication of his theory of property. It thereby sheds new light on Kant's place in the history of modern moral philosophy.

This book examines the surprising ramifications of Kant's late account of practical reason's obligatory ends as well as a revolutionary implication of his theory of property. It thereby sheds new light on Kant's place in the history of modern moral philosophy.

An interdisciplanary collection of essays focused on Kant's work on the concept of community. The concept of community plays a central role in Kant's theoretical philosophy, his practical philosophy, his aesthetics, and his religious thought. Kant uses community in many philosophical contexts: the category of community introduced in his table of categories in the Critique of Pure Reason; the community of substances in the third analogy; the realm of ends as an ethical community; the state and the public sphere as political communities; the sensus communis of the Critique of Judgment; and the idea of the church as a religious community in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason. Given Kant's status as a systematic philosopher, volume editorsPayne and Thorpe maintain that any examination of the concept of community in one area of his work can be understood only in relation to the others. In this volume, then, scholars from different disciplines -- specializing in various aspects of and approaches to Kant's work -- offer their interpretations of Kant on the concept of community. The various essays further illustrate the central relevance and importance of Kant's conception of community to contemporary debates in various fields. Charlton Payne is postdoctoral fellow at Plattform Weltregionen und Interaktionen, Universitat Erfurt, Germany. Lucas Thorpe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy atBogazici University, Turkey. Contributors: Ronald Beiner, Jeffrey Edwards, Michael Feola, Paul Guyer, Jane Kneller, Beatrice Longuenesse, Jan Mieszkowski, Onora O'Neill, Charlton Payne, Susan M. Shell, Lucas Thorpe, Eric Watkins, Allen W. Wood

The scandals, mysteries, and human stories behind the world's greatest gems are brought to life by the curator of the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection Dr. Jeffrey E. Post, curator of the National Gem Collection for more than 25 years, separates fact from fiction in an all-new and original book, revealing fresh information and regaling the reader with anecdotes and tales of some of the world's greatest and most famous gemstones. Dr. Post is the author of the now out-of-print book The National Gem Collection (Abrams, 1997), which has sold more than 50,000 copies. In this brand-new book, he tells the stories of the Smithsonian's most famous gems, including the Hope Diamond, Star of Asia Sapphire, Carmen Lucia Ruby, Hooker Emerald, and Blue Heart Diamond-and also presents the tales, details, and fascinating facts surrounding rarely displayed gems from the Smithsonian vault and additions made to the collection since 1997. Not only a resource for learning about rare and beautiful gems, the book also presents the stories of the people who once owned or were associated with these jewels-from ordinary people to kings, emperors, maharajas, celebrities, and captains of industry.

In this sequel to his prize-winning book, The Eyes of the People, Jeffrey Edward Green draws on philosophy, history, social science, and literature to ask what democracy can mean in a world where it is understood that socioeconomic status to some degree will always determine opportunities for civic engagement and career advancement. Under this shadow of unfairness, Green argues that the most advantaged class are rightly subjected to compulsory public burdens. And just as provocatively, he urges ordinary citizens living in polities permanently darkened by plutocracy to acknowledge their second-class status and the uncomfortable civic ethics that come with it - specifically an ethics whereby the pursuit of egalitarianism is informed, at least in part, by indignation, envy, uncivil modes of discourse, and even the occasional suspension of political care. Deeply engaged in the history of political thought, The Shadow of Unfairness is still first and foremost an effort to illuminate present-day politics. With the plebeians of ancient Rome as his muse, Green develops a plebeian conception of contemporary liberal democracy, at once disenchanted yet idealistic in its insistence that the Few-Many distinction might be enlisted for progressive purpose. Green's analysis is likely to unsettle all sides of the political spectrum, but its focus looks beyond narrow partisan concerns and aims instead to understand what the ongoing quest for free and equal citizenship might require once it is accepted that our political and educational systems will always be tainted by socioeconomic inequality.

"Sex with multiple females, the abuse of drugs from marijuana to mushrooms, and ecstasy to tobacco, and cocaine to alcohol, and prescription pills to paradise was probably the reason why our relationship was facing pure pandemonium. We rode the surf; this getaway took its toll. I knew, in retrospect, this would happen the moment we planned the trip (except we didn't remember planning it), but I didn't think drugs and alcohol would spoil a good buzz this quickly. Grabbing the phone from my hands with a smile, Mr. Edwards-the blame for half of my mistakes-said, "Its over," and fell on the floor after he unplugged the phone from its outlet."

"Paradise Island, Bahamas, January 2005": Joseph James and Jeffrey Edwards are two men who push life to the edge. But they're on the verge of going overboard.

Traveling to Paradise Island from Detroit, Michigan, the two cousins disrespect and destroy the tourist haven in an attempt to break the paradox between total control and reckless abandon. From mixing with happy families, high-stakes gambling, and nightlife with upper society to sharing a pint of rum with a homeless local and sleeping with random women, the pair's contribution to the Bahamas is nothing more than an abuse of free will and destiny.

This work is the result of a vivid imagination. What you are about to read is a rarity; A brand new theme in a brand new setting. The style is futuristic fiction that could very possibly be a glimpse into our own future. There are no other parallels between this work and any other. The ideas for this work came to me in the middle of the night in the form of dreams. What you are about to indulge in is the equivalent of fine Swiss chocolate or pheasant under glass, but for the mind. It is a journey that cannot be described. You just have to experience it. The setting is in the year 2037. Chalk Weeland and a Cajun freshwater shellfish farmer has to make a choice. Should he stay in a land that is drying up due to increasing temperatures and decreasing opportunities or should he make a move to Antarctica where new minerals have been discovered and work is plentiful and the rewards are bountiful? Chalk and his family will journey through basic colonization and the building of a school, raising their children and getting involved in their community and in their Church. There are struggles along the way that include dealing with a sickness that threatens to take the lives of some of the key characters and to destroy everything that has been worked so hard for. There are subplots that include the building of a football team to help the colonist feel more at home on this block of ice and a passionate, but innocent young love between two teenagers from rival communities. You will get a glimpse of new technology and the invention of some very interesting devices that may be available to us in the not so distant future. The Weeland Family, along with their neighbors live in domed, comfort-controlled homes and take public transportation everywhere they go. You will need to take this food for the soul one slice at a time due to the rich savory subplots and the mind nourishing content. Enjoy

A new understanding of Kant's theory of a priori knowledge and his natural philosophy emerges from Jeffrey Edwards's mature and penetrating study. In the Third Analogy of Experience, Kant argues for the existence of a dynamical plenum in space. This argument against empty space demonstrates that the dynamical plenum furnishes an a priori necessary condition for our experience and knowledge of an objective world.
Such an a priori existence proof, however, transgresses the limits Kant otherwise places on transcendental arguments in the "Critique of Pure Reason" because it establishes a "material" transcendental condition of possible experience. This finding motivates Edwards to examine the broader context of Kant's views about matter, substance, causal influence, and physical aether in connection with the developmental history of his theory of transcendental idealism. Against the backdrop of early modern metaphysics and contemporaneous physical theory, Edwards explicates the origins of the Third Analogy in Kant's early work on the metaphysics of nature.
The argument against empty space presented in the Third Analogy reveals a central aspect of Kant's transcendental theory of experience that Edwards explains lucidly. By clarifying the epistemological standpoint at issue in the Third Analogy, he shows that the fundamental revisions to which Kant subjects his theory of knowledge in the "Opus postumum" not only originate in his precritical metaphysics of nature but are developments of an argument central to the "Critique of Pure Reason" itself. Edwards's work is important to scholars working in the history of philosophy and the history and philosophy of science, as well as to Kant specialists.

This international collaborative project on G. W. F. Hegel's philosophy includes contributions by eighteen scholars of 18th to 20th century philosophy. It will be an essential reference tool for students and scholars of modern philosophic thought in general and of 19th century German thought in particular. The first part of the volume examines Hegel's early writings up to and including the 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit. The second part is devoted to Hegel's major mature works and lectures as well as to the primary themes of his system of philosophy. It opens with a comprehensive account of Hegel's Science of Logic followed by detailed treatments of the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Spirit from the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences. Three further parts of this volume investigate key concepts and interpretive issues, paradigmatic forms of Hegelian argumentation, and main lines of Hegel's influence since the mid-19th century. The volume contains chronologies of Hegel's life and works, a bibliography of primary and secondary sources and an analytical index.

Kant, Fichte, and the Legacy of Transcendental Idealism contains ten new essays by leading and rising scholars from the United States, Europe, and Asia who explore the historical development and conceptual contours of Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy. The collection begins with a set of comparative essays centered on Kant's transcendental idealism, placing special stress on the essentials of Kant's moral theory, the metaphysical outlook bound up with it, and the conception of the legitimate role of religion supported by it. The spotlight then shifts to the post-Kantian period, in a series of essays exploring a variety of angles on Fichte's pivotal role: his uncompromising constructivism, his overarching conception of the philosophical project, and his radical accounts of the nature of reason and the constitution of meaning. In the remaining essays, the focus falls on German idealism after Fichte, with particular attention to Jacobi's critique of idealism as "nihilism," Schelling's development of an idealistic philosophy of nature, and Hegel's development of an all-encompassing idealistic "science of logic." The collection, edited by Halla Kim and Steven Hoeltzel, will be of great value to scholars interested in Kant, Fichte, German idealism, post-Kantian philosophy, European philosophy, or the history of ideas.

For centuries it has been assumed that democracy must refer to the empowerment of the People's voice. In this pioneering book, Jeffrey Edward Green makes the case for considering the People as an ocular entity rather than a vocal one. Green argues that it is both possible and desirable to understand democracy in terms of what the People gets to see instead of the traditional focus on what it gets to say. The Eyes of the People examines democracy from the perspective of everyday citizens in their everyday lives. While it is customary to understand the citizen as a decision-maker, in fact most citizens rarely engage in decision-making and do not even have clear views on most political issues. The ordinary citizen is not a decision-maker but a spectator who watches and listens to the select few empowered to decide. Grounded on this everyday phenomenon of spectatorship, The Eyes of the People constructs a democratic theory applicable to the way democracy is actually experienced by most people most of the time. In approaching democracy from the perspective of the People's eyes, Green rediscovers and rehabilitates a forgotten "plebiscitarian" alternative within the history of democratic thought. Building off the contributions of a wide range of thinkers-including Aristotle, Shakespeare, Benjamin Constant, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, and many others-Green outlines a novel democratic paradigm centered on empowering the People's gaze through forcing politicians to appear in public under conditions they do not fully control. The Eyes of the People is at once a sweeping overview of the state of democratic theory and a call to rethink the meaning of democracy within the sociological and technological conditions of the twenty-first century.

This international collaborative project on G. W. F. Hegel's philosophy includes contributions by eighteen scholars of 18th to 20th century philosophy. It will be an essential reference tool for students and scholars of modern philosophic thought in general and of 19th century German thought in particular. The first part of the volume examines Hegel's early writings up to and including the 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit. The second part is devoted to Hegel's major mature works and lectures as well as to the primary themes of his system of philosophy. It opens with a comprehensive account of Hegel's Science of Logic followed by detailed treatments of the Philosophy of Nature and the Philosophy of Spirit from the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences. Three further parts of this volume investigate key concepts and interpretive issues, paradigmatic forms of Hegelian argumentation, and main lines of Hegel's influence since the mid-19th century. The volume contains chronologies of Hegel's life and works, a bibliography of primary and secondary sources and an analytical index.