This interdisciplinary work philosophically analyzes the role of positive duties in moral theory, the efficacy of theocratic republicanism, viable strategies for political revolutions, the implications of an enduring Sicilian ethos, and the profits and perils of the individual-community continuum, in service of distinctive interpretations of the lives and ideologies of Giuseppe Mazzini, Antonio Gramsci, and Salvatore Giuliano. Il Risorgimento Italiano, the national unification movement, refers to the period from 1821, the initial unsuccessful Milanese and Piedmontese insurrections against Austria, to 1870, the annexing of Rome into the Kingdom of Italy, which itself was established in 1861. The movement and its aftermath hovered over the lives of the Genoese republican prophet of Italian liberation and unification, the Sardinian communist political theorist imprisoned by The Black Shirts, and the Sicilian separatist murdering and fighting for his life and the honor of his island. By dissecting the lives and philosophies of Mazzini, Gramsci, and Giuliano, by extracting moral, political, and existential lessons from their aspirations and enterprises, by reflecting on their ideals from our divergent social context, by evaluating their virtues and vices from a wider perspective, we may confront the people that we are and reimagine the people we might become.

This is an interdisciplinary work that philosophically analyzes concepts such as heroism; practical wisdom; honor; Nietzsche's notions of will to power, the overman, and the three metamorphoses; Plato's understanding of love; creating meaning in life; the issue of morally dirty hands in political administration; the relationship between political means and ends; the proper role of positive duties in society; the aspirations of grand strivers; and the linkages between biological, biographical, and autobiographical lives, all in the context of explaining and evaluating the lives and works of fourteen historically significant Italian: Gaius Julius Caesar, Brunetto Latini, Dante Alighieri, Caterina Sforza, Niccolo Machiavelli, Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Francesca Cabrini, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Antonio Gramsci, Salvatore Giuliano, Oriana Fallaci, Giovanni Falcone, and Paolo Borsellino. By dissecting the lives and philosophies of the figures discussed in this work, by extracting moral, political, and existential lessons from their aspirations and enterprises, by reflecting on their ideals from the vantage point of our divergent social context, by evaluating their virtues and vices from a wider perspective, and by confronting the conceptual puzzles and social impediments hampering the exercise of practical wisdom and heroism, we may confront the people that we are and reimagine the people we might become.

Values, Virtues, and Vices, Italian Style illustrates the story of the evolution of Italian values, virtues, and vices is a narrative of longing, exhilaration, and devastation, a journey of the spirit that all human beings necessarily undertake but navigate with varying degrees of success. The lives of Caesar, Dante, Machiavelli, and Garibaldi demonstrate how we can lead staunchly meaningful lives even within an inherently meaningless universe. The ambition of this work is nothing more, nothing less, than entangling, through a careful examination of the values, virtues, and vices of four famous historical figures, a host of overlapping but distinct concepts, such as pride, honor, justification, excuse, repentance, and forgiveness that frame human existence. Belliotti's objective is that by conducting such an interdisciplinary inquiry we might better position ourselves to craft our characters within the limitations enjoined by our cosmic circumstances. As always, however, we must deliberate, choose, and act under conditions of inescapable uncertainty; assume responsibility for the people we are becoming; and, hopefully, depart the planet with honor and merited pride. Along the way, we might even magnify our link in the generational chain that defines our identity.

This book provides a recipe for healthy moral and personal transformation. Belliotti takes seriously Dante's deepest yearnings: to guide human well-being; to elevate social and political communities; to remedy the poisons spewed by the seven capital vices; and to celebrate the connections between human self-interest, virtuous living, and spiritual salvation. By closely examining and analyzing five of Dante's more vivid characters in hell-Piero della Vigna, Brunetto Latini, Farinata degli Uberti, Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, and Guido da Montefeltro-and extracting the moral lessons Dante intends them to convey, and by conceptually analyzing envy, arrogance, pride, and human flourishing, the author challenges readers to interrogate and refine their modes of living.

There are uncanny connections between nine baseball greats and the great thinkers of the West. This book offers a very practical application of Western philosophy by examining these icons of American sport and culture.The intensity and single-mindedness of Ted Williams breathes life into Camus' Sisyphus; Billy Martin's maniacal competitiveness recalls Niccolo Machiavelli's take on politics, which he characterized as a zero-sum game; the homespun philosophy of Satchel Paige echoes the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius; and the many facets of Joe DiMaggio's personality cry out for the resolution that Nietzsche's doctrine of perspectivism might have given.Also covered are the connections between Joe Torre and Aristotle; Jackie Robinson and Antonio Gramsci; Mickey Mantle and St. Thomas Aquinas; John Franco and William James; and Jose Canseco and Immanuel Kant.

This book provides a recipe for healthy moral and personal transformation. Belliotti takes seriously Dante's deepest yearnings: to guide human well-being; to elevate social and political communities; to remedy the poisons spewed by the seven capital vices; and to celebrate the connections between human self-interest, virtuous living, and spiritual salvation. By closely examining and analyzing five of Dante's more vivid characters in hell-Piero della Vigna, Brunetto Latini, Farinata degli Uberti, Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, and Guido da Montefeltro-and extracting the moral lessons Dante intends them to convey, and by conceptually analyzing envy, arrogance, pride, and human flourishing, the author challenges readers to interrogate and refine their modes of living.

In this work, Belliotti unravels the paradoxes of human existence. The purpose of this philosophical journey is to reveal paths for forging meaningful, significant, valuable, even important lives. By examining notions of The Absurd expressed within Search for the Holy Grail, The Seventh Seal, and The Big Lebowski, the author crafts a working definition of "absurdity." He then investigates the contributions of classical thinkers such as Shakespeare, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Sartre, Camus, as well as philosophers such as Nagel, Feinberg, and Taylor. After arguing that human life is not inherently absurd, Belliotti examines the implications of mortality for human existence, the relationship between subjective and objective meaning, and the persuasiveness of several challenging contemporary renderings of meaningful human lives.

The trial of Dmitri Karamazov embodies Dostoevsky's general legal and moral philosophy. This book explains and critically analyses such notions as the rule of law, the adversary system of adjudication, the principle of universal moral responsibility, the plausibility of unconditional love, and the contours of human nature. The ballast for conclusions about all these ideas is an understanding of the relationship between individuals and their communities.

This book reconstructs the cornerstones of Jesus's moral teachings about how to lead a good, even exemplary, human life. It does so in a way that is compatible with the most prominent, competing versions of the historical Jesus. The work also contrast Jesus' understanding of the best way to lead our lives with that of Friedrich Nietzsche. Both Jesus and Nietzsche were self-consciously moral revolutionaries. Jesus refashioned the imperatives of Jewish law to conform to what he was firmly convinced was the divine will. Nietzsche aspired to transvalue the dominant values of his time -which themselves were influenced greatly by Christianity- in service of what he took to be a higher vision. The interplay of these radical versions of the good human life, seasoned with critical commentary emerging from modern findings in the sciences and humanities, opens possibilities and lines of inquiry that can inform our choices in answering that enduring, paramount question, "How should we live our lives?"

It is said the champions of the ancient Olympic Games received a crown of olive leaves, symbolizing a divine blessing from Nike, the winged goddess of victory. While the mythology of the ancient games has come to exemplify the highest political, religious, community, and individual ideals of the time, the modern Olympic Games, by comparison, are widely known as an international, bi-annual sporting event where champions have the potential to earn not only glory for their country, but lucrative endorsement deals and the perks of worldwide fame. The Olympics and Philosophy examines the Olympic Movement from a variety of theoretical perspectives to uncover the connection between athleticism and philosophy for a deeper appreciation of the Olympic Pillars of Sport, Environment, and Culture. While today's Olympic champions are neither blessed by the gods nor rewarded with wreaths of olive, the original spirit and ancient ideals of the Olympic Movement endure in its modern embodiment. Editors Heather L. Reid and Michael W. Austin have assembled a team of international scholars to explore topics such as the concept of excellence, ethics, doping, gender, and race. Interweaving ancient and modern Olympic traditions, The Olympics and Philosophy considers the philosophical implications of the Games' intersection with historical events and modern controversy in a unique analysis of tradition and the future of the Olympiad.

This book is an interdisciplinary work that weaves literary interpretation, legal theory, and philosophical doctrine about sex and love into a coherent mosaic in the context of two of Shakespeare's plays: "The Merchant of Venice "and "Measure for Measure." In the process, the work advances literary interpretations of the plays including character studies of some of the main protagonists. The aim is partly theoretical but mostly practical: to demonstrate what we can learn about living a robustly meaningful and significant human life by taking Shakespeare's work seriously from contemporary philosophical and legal vantage points. Shakespeare does not reveal a tightly defined moral system that he is trying to urge upon his audience. Instead, Shakespeare challenges his audience to struggle with moral complexity as they confront conflicting elements surrounding legal and moral issues presented in his work and within the souls of his characters. His issues and their conflicts are also ours. Much of Shakespeare's work consists of raising weighty questions inextricably connected to the human condition and inviting his audience to ponder possible answers. The philosophical lessons about living our lives meaningfully and significantly that we can derive from Shakespeare are simple yet powerful.

Western philosophy began with two monumental aspirations: to unravel the mysteries of the universe and to construct the best recipe for living the good life. Today, sports play a major role in the lives of many people. A striking correlation exists between the noblest virtues of baseball and discussions of living the good life by the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy. The book explains the nine virtues of playing and eleven commandments of coaching baseball. These virtues and commandments are then connected to the best ways to live the good life according to the wisdom of classical and contemporary philosophers such as Camus, Epictetus, Gramsci, Machiavelli, Marx, Nietzsche, Nozick, Plato, Sartre, Schopenhauer, Socrates, and Unger.

This book examines core concerns of human life. What is the relationship between a meaningful life and theism? Why are some human beings radically adrift, without radical foundations, and struggling with hopelessness? Is the cosmos meaningless? Is human life akin to the ancient Myth of Sisyphus? What is the role of struggle and suffering in creating meaning? How do we discover or create value? Is happiness overrated as a goal of life? How, if at all, can we learn to die meaningfully?

Values, Virtues, and Vices, Italian Style illustrates the story of the evolution of Italian values, virtues, and vices is a narrative of longing, exhilaration, and devastation, a journey of the spirit that all human beings necessarily undertake but navigate with varying degrees of success. The lives of Caesar, Dante, Machiavelli, and Garibaldi demonstrate how we can lead staunchly meaningful lives even within an inherently meaningless universe. The ambition of this work is nothing more, nothing less, than entangling, through a careful examination of the values, virtues, and vices of four famous historical figures, a host of overlapping but distinct concepts, such as pride, honor, justification, excuse, repentance, and forgiveness that frame human existence. Belliotti's objective is that by conducting such an interdisciplinary inquiry we might better position ourselves to craft our characters within the limitations enjoined by our cosmic circumstances. As always, however, we must deliberate, choose, and act under conditions of inescapable uncertainty; assume responsibility for the people we are becoming; and, hopefully, depart the planet with honor and merited pride. Along the way, we might even magnify our link in the generational chain that defines our identity.

Jesus the Radical: The Parables and Modern Morality connects the lessons of six parables of the New Testament with philosophical issues structured around contemporary morality and the art of leading a good human life. In this manner, Raymond Angelo Belliotti highlights just how radical was the historical Jesus' moral message and how enormous a challenge he raised to the conventional wisdom of his time. More important, this book demonstrates how deeply opposed is Jesus' moral message to the dominant moral understandings of our time. Although our conventional morality is generally profoundly influenced by Judeo-Christianity, several of Jesus' revolutionary insights have been marginalized. By imagining how our world would appear if those insights were highlighted, we can perceive more clearly the people we are and the people we might become. Belliotti's analysis of the parables will be of keen interest to professional philosophers, theologians, and educated lay people interested in the connections between religion and philosophy.

Reasonable people agree that, other things being equal, it is immoral to fail to fulfill deathbed promises, to maliciously defame the dead, and to mistreat corpses. But philosophical controversy swirls over why such acts are morally wrong. Are these acts wrong only because they violate moral norms against breaking promises, lying, and abusing others? Are these acts morally deficient because they wrong the dead? Are these acts morally wrong because they harm or injure the dead? Or are these acts blameworthy because they wrong, harm, or injure those who survive the deaths? Who are the genuine victims, if any, of these morally wrong acts? When first confronting such questions seriously, we discover paradoxes. On one hand, we are inclined to think that the dead person is in some sense wronged, harmed, or injured by posthumous treachery. After all, when a promise is broken, when someone is maliciously defamed, and when someone's request concerning the disposition of his remains is dismissed, we are inclined to think of the victims as the promisee, the defamed person, and the ignored person, respectively. On the other hand, in the case of the dead there are no "people" who might be identified as victims. Assuming that death marks finality, once we are dead we are no more. So perhaps the typical moral paradigms dissolve in such cases. Posthumous Harm: Why the Dead are Still Vulnerable addresses these issues and the host of questions surrounding them.

Machiavelli is usually understood as a thinker who separated morality from politics or who championed Roman, pagan morality over conventional, Christian morality. Belliotti argues, instead, that Machiavelli's innovation is his understanding of the perhaps irresolvable moral conflicts that exist within political leaders who fulfill the duties of their offices while accepting the authority of absolute moral principles. Machiavelli is a moral pessimist who insists that politicians must 'risk their souls' when performing their public responsibilities. Politicians and military leaders must dirty their hands in service to their constituents. This is especially the case when one strong man founds a state or reforms a corrupt state. History washes away_that is, excuses_many of the horrifying deeds that are required in such cases. Belliotti does not try to domesticate Machiavelli by picturing him as a liberal humanist inclined only toward free government. Nor does he paint him as a teacher of evil. Instead, the book offers a balanced understanding of the Florentine, with special focus on his insights and his myopias. Machiavelli's view of human nature and his conclusion that international affairs have always been and will always be a series of zero-sum contests lead him to stunning discoveries and glaring errors alike.

A practical people not prone to be lured to philosophical abstraction for its own sake, the Romans looked toward philosophy for guidance on how to live. Though wary of Greek philosophy, the Romans would come to see the need for philosophies such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Platonism, and Aristotelianism to point the way to leading the good life. With the help of these philosophies, they attempted to grapple with some of most enduring concerns of the human condition: Who am I? How should I live my life? What, if anything, is my destiny? Raymond Angelo Belliotti's Roman Philosophy and the Good Life provides an accessible picture of these major philosophical influences in Rome and details the crucial role they played during times of major social upheaval. Belliotti demonstrates the contemporary relevance of some of the philosophical issues faced by the Romans, and offers ways in which today's society can learn from the Romans in our attempt to create meaningful lives. Roman Philosophy and the Good Life will certainly intrigue those who are drawn to Roman history and politics, and especially those who enjoy viewing philosophy in action.

Happiness Is Overrated begins with an historical overview of the development of the concept of 'happiness' from Plato to contemporary writers, highlighting the best scholarship emerging from philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Belliotti includes practical advice on how to attain happiness and addresses issues centered on the meaning of life. Happiness, he argues, is not the greatest personal good, or even a great good in itself. In fact, sometimes happiness isn't a good at all. If we pursue worthwhile, exemplary lives and find happiness along the way, then we are lucky. If we don't, then we can take pride and derive satisfaction from a life well lived. Ultimately, the greatest personal good is realized in leading a robustly meaningful, valuable life.