Bonding Eros with virtue is neither unrealistic nor naive, contends Mike Martin. On the contrary, it's practical, even pragmatic. Virtues serve to focus, structure, and even define erotic love. In particular, caring, respect, faithfulness, honesty, fairness, wisdom, and gratitude are central to successful, long-term relationships.

"In Love's Virtues," Martin takes a look at why moral values enhance and solidify erotic and marital relationships. In the process, he challenges the widespread cynicism about marriage while remaining sensitive to the innumerable problems confronting couples. His approach to marital love is both traditional and modern. Traditional, by seeking to understand the moral significance of relationships based on long-term and lifelong commitments to love. Modern, by proceeding within a pluralist framework that affirms many kinds of erotic love, depending on the ideals partners embrace and their interpretations (within limits) of love's virtues.

Marriages, as Martin understands them, are moral relationships that involve sexual desires (at some time during the relationship) and are based on long-term commitment, whether or not those commitments are formally sanctioned by legal or religious authorities. In this sense, marriages are not restricted by the law, religious tenets, or the partners' sexual orientation.

Drawing on literature, psychology, and philosophy--from Plato and Shakespeare to Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bellah, and Carol Gilligan; from Tolstoy and D.H. Lawrence to Erich Fromm, Erica Jong, and Alice Walker--Martin reminds us that virtuous erotic love is a way to morally value another person. Understanding love as a virtue-structured way to appreciate others, he illustrates, is itself a step toward renewing marital faith.

Mindfulness is celebrated everywhere—especially in health psychology and spiritual practices, but also in the arts, business, education, environmentalism, sports, and the use of digital devices. While the current mindfulness movement may be in part the latest fad in a narcissistic and therapeutic culture, it is also worthy of greater philosophical attention. As a study in ethics and moral psychology, Mindfulness in Good Lives remedies the neglect of this subject within philosophy. Mike W. Martin makes sense of the striking variety of concepts of mindfulness by connecting them to the core idea of value-based mindfulness: paying attention to what matters, in light of relevant values. When the values are sound, mindfulness is a virtue that helps implement the kaleidoscope of values in good lives. Health psychologists, who currently dominate the study of mindfulness, often present their research as value-neutral science. Yet they invariably presuppose moral values that should be made transparent. These values, which lie at the interface of morality and mental health, form bridges between philosophy and psychology, and between literature and spirituality.

Memoir Ethics: Good Lives and the Virtues is a philosophical study of moral themes in memoirs, exploring how memoirists present and defend perspectives on good lives. It pays particular attention to the interplay of the virtues, including their interplay with additional (non-moral) types of values in good lives. More generally, it explores the relevance of memoir to moral philosophy, and in turn how moral philosophy enters into elucidating and critiquing memoirs. Memoirs are understood as non-fiction narratives written by oneself and significantly about oneself (including full-life autobiographies). Mike W. Martin explores perspectives on good lives as they are expressed in memoirs written by both philosophers and non-philosophers. Most of the chapters focus on one of the generic aspects of good lives: moral goodness, authenticity, meaningfulness, happiness, health, and self-fulfillment. The book clarifies how memoirists often employ life-based arguments in defending value perspectives, and it includes a discussion of whether philosophers' memoirs are distinctive, compared to memoirs by non-philosophers and also compared to other forums for doing philosophy. Martin highlights some parallels between features of good lives and features of memoirs; for example, both can be said to be meaningful, authentic, and having virtues such as wisdom and courage. Demonstrating how memoirs are rich resources in exploring the good lives and exploring ways in which philosophical ethics provide tools for interpreting memoirs, Memoir Ethics will be of interest to a broad audience of students, scholars, and general readers, including anyone interested in ethics or the connections between literature and philosophy.

Whether in slogans, catchphrases, adages or proverbs, we encounter mottos every day, but we rarely take time to reflect on them. In Of Mottos and Morals: Simple Words for Complex Virtues, Martin explores the possibility that mottos themselves are worthy of serious thought, examining how they contribute to moral guidance and help us grapple with complexity.

It is a platitude that most people, as they say, 'work to live' rather than 'live to work.' And in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, work weeks have expanded and the divide between work time and personal time has significantly blurred due to innovations in such things as electronic communications. Concerns over the value of work in our lives, as well as with the balance or use of time between work and leisure, confront most people in contemporary society. Discussions over the values of time, leisure, and work are directly related to the time-honored question of what makes a life good. And this question is of particular interest to philosophers, especially ethicists. In this volume, leading scholars address a range of value considerations related to peoples' thoughts and practices around time utilization, leisure, and work with masterful insight. In addressing various practical issues, these scholars demonstrate the timeless relevance and practical import of Philosophy to human lived experience.

It is a platitude that most people, as they say, 'work to live' rather than 'live to work.' And in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, work weeks have expanded and the divide between work time and personal time has significantly blurred due to innovations in such things as electronic communications. Concerns over the value of work in our lives, as well as with the balance or use of time between work and leisure, confront most people in contemporary society. Discussions over the values of time, leisure, and work are directly related to the time-honored question of what makes a life good. And this question is of particular interest to philosophers, especially ethicists. In this volume, leading scholars address a range of value considerations related to peoples' thoughts and practices around time utilization, leisure, and work with masterful insight. In addressing various practical issues, these scholars demonstrate the timeless relevance and practical import of Philosophy to human lived experience.

Creativity explores the moral dimensions of creativity in science in a systematic and comprehensive way. A work of applied philosophy, professional ethics, and philosophy of science, the book argues that scientific creativity often constitutes moral creativity_the production of new and morally variable outcomes. At the same time, creative ambitions have a dark side that can lead to professional misconduct and harmful effects on society and the environment. In this work, creativity is generally defined as the development of new and valuable outcomes such as significant truths, illuminating explanations, or useful technological products. Virtue and accompanying ideals are emphasized as a moral framework. Intellectual virtues, such as love of truth, intellectual honesty, and intellectual courage, are themselves moral virtues. Further moral topics concerning scientific creativity are explored: serendipity and its connection with moral luck, the paradoxes of moral motivation, scientific misconduct arising from unbalanced creative ambitions, forbidden knowledge, creative teaching and leadership in science, and the role of scientific creativity in good lives.

Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, Nobel Peace Laureate, theologian, and musician, developed a character-oriented ethics focused on self-realization, nature-centered spirituality, and moral idealism which anticipated the current renaissance of virtue ethics. Schweitzer's idea of 'reverence for life' underscores the contribution of moral ideals to self-realization, connects ethics to spirituality without religious dogma, and outlines a pioneering environmental ethics that bridges the gap between valuing life in its unity and valuing individual organisms. In this book Mike W. Martin interprets Schweitzer's 'reverence for life' as an umbrella virtue, drawing together all the more specific virtues, in particular: authenticity, love, compassion, gratitude, justice and peace loving, each of which Martin discusses in an individual chapter. Martin's treatment of his subject is sympathetic yet critical and for the first time clearly places Schweitzer's environmental ethics within the wider framework of his ethical theory.

Creativity explores the moral dimensions of creativity in science in a systematic and comprehensive way. A work of applied philosophy, professional ethics, and philosophy of science, the book argues that scientific creativity often constitutes moral creativity-the production of new and morally variable outcomes. At the same time, creative ambitions have a dark side that can lead to professional misconduct and harmful effects on society and the environment. In this work, creativity is generally defined as the development of new and valuable outcomes such as significant truths, illuminating explanations, or useful technological products. Virtue and accompanying ideals are emphasized as a moral framework. Intellectual virtues, such as love of truth, intellectual honesty, and intellectual courage, are themselves moral virtues. Further moral topics concerning scientific creativity are explored: serendipity and its connection with moral luck, the paradoxes of moral motivation, scientific misconduct arising from unbalanced creative ambitions, forbidden knowledge, creative teaching and leadership in science, and the role of scientific creativity in good lives.

Mindfulness is celebrated everywhere—especially in health psychology and spiritual practices, but also in the arts, business, education, environmentalism, sports, and the use of digital devices. While the current mindfulness movement may be in part the latest fad in a narcissistic and therapeutic culture, it is also worthy of greater philosophical attention. As a study in ethics and moral psychology, Mindfulness in Good Lives remedies the neglect of this subject within philosophy. Mike W. Martin makes sense of the striking variety of concepts of mindfulness by connecting them to the core idea of value-based mindfulness: paying attention to what matters, in light of relevant values. When the values are sound, mindfulness is a virtue that helps implement the kaleidoscope of values in good lives. Health psychologists, who currently dominate the study of mindfulness, often present their research as value-neutral science. Yet they invariably presuppose moral values that should be made transparent. These values, which lie at the interface of morality and mental health, form bridges between philosophy and psychology, and between literature and spirituality.

As usually understood, professional ethics consists of shared duties and episodic dilemmas: the responsibilities incumbent on all members of specific professions, together with the dilemmas that arise when these responsibilities conflict. This book challenges that "consensus paradigm," rethinking professional ethics to include personal commitments and ideals, including many not mandatory for all members of a profession. Taking these personal commitments seriously expands professional ethics to include neglected issues about moral psychology, character an the virtues, self-fulfillment and betrayal, and the interplay of private and professional life.

Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, Nobel Peace Laureate, theologian, and musician, developed a character-oriented ethics focused on self-realization, nature-centered spirituality, and moral idealism which anticipated the current renaissance of virtue ethics. Schweitzer's idea of 'reverence for life' underscores the contribution of moral ideals to self-realization, connects ethics to spirituality without religious dogma, and outlines a pioneering environmental ethics that bridges the gap between valuing life in its unity and valuing individual organisms. In this book Mike W. Martin interprets Schweitzer's 'reverence for life' as an umbrella virtue, drawing together all the more specific virtues, in particular: authenticity, love, compassion, gratitude, justice and peace loving, each of which Martin discusses in an individual chapter. Martin's treatment of his subject is sympathetic yet critical and for the first time clearly places Schweitzer's environmental ethics within the wider framework of his ethical theory.

Morality and mental health are now inseparably linked in our view of character. Alcoholics are sick, yet they are punished for drunk driving. Drug addicts are criminals, but their punishment can be court ordered therapy. The line between character flaws and personality disorders has become fuzzy, with even the seven deadly sins seen as mental disorders. In addition to pathologizing wrong-doing, we also psychologize virtue; self-respect becomes self-esteem, integrity becomes psychological integration, and responsibility becomes maturity. Moral advice is now sought primarily from psychologists and therapists rather than philosophers or theologians.
In this wide-ranging, accessible book, Mike W. Martin asks: are we replacing morality with therapy, in potentially confused and dangerous ways, or are we creatively integrating morality and mental health? According to him, it's a little bit of both. He surveys the ways in which morality and mental health are related, touching on practical concerns like love and work, self-respect and self-fulfillment, guilt and depression, crime and violence, and addictions. Terming this integrative development "the therapeutic trend in ethics," Martin uses examples from popular culture, various moral controversies, and draws on a line of thought that includes Plato, the Stoics, Freud, Nietzsche, and contemporary psychotherapeutic theories. Martin develops some interesting conclusions, among them that sound morality is indeed healthy, and that moral values are inevitably embedded in our conceptions of mental health. In the end, he shows how both morality and mental health are inextricably intertwined in our pursuit of a meaningful life. This book will beof interest to philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and sociologists, as well as the general reader.

The centrality of happiness to our well-being is such that it was affirmed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. In recent years, psychological research has built on years of philosophical inquiry into how we achieve happiness, giving rise to a cottage industry of "happiness studies."
Philosopher Mike W. Martin here contributes to the discussion by connecting the meaning of happiness with the philosophical notion of "the good life." He structures the book around key questions like, What is happiness? How is it related to morality and virtue? Is authenticity -- developing our "true self" -- the way to happiness? Does living with illusion promote or diminish happiness? How does happiness co-exist with suffering? Should we pursue happiness for its own sake, or focus on meaningful activities and relationships instead? Is helping others the way to happiness? Is it better to pursue happiness with a partner than alone? How should we balance leisure and work? Will happiness make for a virtuous person?
Defining happiness as loving one's life and valuing it in ways manifested by ample enjoyment and a deep sense of meaning, Martin explores the ways in which it interacts with all other dimensions of good lives -- in particular with moral decency and goodness, authenticity, mental health, self-fulfillment, and meaningfulness. He interweaves a variety of examples from memoirs, novels, and films along the way, connecting his discussion of the philosophical issues to related topics that interest all of us: happiness to the virtues, love, philanthropy, suffering, simplicity, balancing work and leisure, and politics. Drawing on this wide-ranging and robust evidence, Martin also makes the case that we need a "politics of happiness" whereby government would marshal the results of recent "happiness studies" in psychology in the application of public policy.

Bonding Eros with virtue is neither unrealistic nor naive, contends Mike Martin. On the contrary, it's practical, even pragmatic. Virtues serve to focus, structure, and even define erotic love. In particular, caring, respect, faithfulness, honesty, fairness, wisdom, and gratitude are central to successful, long-term relationships.

"In Love's Virtues," Martin takes a look at why moral values enhance and solidify erotic and marital relationships. In the process, he challenges the widespread cynicism about marriage while remaining sensitive to the innumerable problems confronting couples. His approach to marital love is both traditional and modern. Traditional, by seeking to understand the moral significance of relationships based on long-term and lifelong commitments to love. Modern, by proceeding within a pluralist framework that affirms many kinds of erotic love, depending on the ideals partners embrace and their interpretations (within limits) of love's virtues.

Marriages, as Martin understands them, are moral relationships that involve sexual desires (at some time during the relationship) and are based on long-term commitment, whether or not those commitments are formally sanctioned by legal or religious authorities. In this sense, marriages are not restricted by the law, religious tenets, or the partners' sexual orientation.

Drawing on literature, psychology, and philosophy--from Plato and Shakespeare to Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bellah, and Carol Gilligan; from Tolstoy and D.H. Lawrence to Erich Fromm, Erica Jong, and Alice Walker--Martin reminds us that virtuous erotic love is a way to morally value another person. Understanding love as a virtue-structured way to appreciate others, he illustrates, is itself a step toward renewing marital faith.