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The Little Logic Book
by Lee Hardy Del Ratzsch Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung Gregory MellemaWritten by four members of the Calvin College philosophy department, this book is a valuable resource for teachers and undergraduate students of philosophy. In addition to providing clear introductions to the modes of reasoning students encounter in their philosophy course readings, it includes a nuanced description of common informal fallacies, a narrative overview of various philosophical accounts of scientific inference, and a concluding chapter on the ethics of argumentation. <p><p>The book features engaging dialogues on social, philosophical and religious issues based on the styles of argument taken up in the chapters. In addition to core concepts, distinctions, explanations, rules of inference, methods of assessment, and examples, The Little Logic Book provides philosophical commentary that will stimulate discussion of the assumptions and implications of various kinds of human reasoning. Free downloadable exercises are available from the publisher.
The Little Philosophy Book
by Robert C. SolomonThe Little Philosophy Book provides a concise and engaging introduction to deep and perennial philosophical questions. In a lively and accessible style, acclaimed author Robert C. Solomon leads students and other readers through an exploration of the self, the universe, and the nature of truth and morality, posing such questions as "Who are we, really?" "Why are we here?" and "How should we live?" The Little Philosophy Book begins with a quick tour of ancient philosophy that ranges from Socrates' Greece, to Vedic India, to Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist China, and to the Middle East. The book goes on to examine consciousness, from Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" to phenomenology and the mind-body problem. It then considers God, nature, and spirituality; cosmology; freedom and responsibility; and morality and ethics, ending with an examination of happiness and the meaning of life and the role of philosophy in determining both. Solomon covers topics that are often omitted from other introductions, including existentialism, phenomenology, spirituality, and death. Throughout, he incorporates material on key figures and traditions in philosophy, showing how some of history's most important thinkers and movements have addressed fundamental philosophical issues. Major figures are listed at the end of each chapter. An ideal introduction for students and novices, The Little Philosophy Book does not provide any definitive answers to universal philosophical questions, but instead encourages readers to think for themselves and to integrate philosophy into their own lives.
Little Platoons: A Defense of Family in a Competitive Age
by Matt FeeneyThis eye-opening book brilliantly explores the true roots of over-parenting, and makes a case for the vital importance of family life.Parents naturally worry about the future. They want to prepare their children to compete in an uncertain world. But often, argues political philosopher and father of three Matt Feeney, today's worried parents surrender their family's autonomy to gain a leg up in this competition.In the American ideal, family life is a sacred and private sphere, distinct from the outside world. But in our hypercompetitive times, Feeney shows, parents have become increasingly willing to let the inner life of the family be colonized by outside forces that promise better futures for their kids: prestigious preschools, "educational" technologies, youth sports leagues, a multitude of enrichment activities, and -- most of all -- college. A provocative, eye-opening book for any parent who suspects their kids' stuffed schedules are not serving their best interests, Little Platoons calls us to rediscover the distinctive, profound solidarity of family life.
Little Rock
by Karen AndersonThe desegregation crisis in Little Rock is a landmark of American history: on September 4, 1957, after the Supreme Court struck down racial segregation in public schools, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called up the National Guard to surround Little Rock Central High School, preventing black students from going in. On September 25, 1957, nine black students, escorted by federal troops, gained entrance. With grace and depth, Little Rock provides fresh perspectives on the individuals, especially the activists and policymakers, involved in these dramatic events. Looking at a wide variety of evidence and sources, Karen Anderson examines American racial politics in relation to changes in youth culture, sexuality, gender relations, and economics, and she locates the conflicts of Little Rock within the larger political and historical context. Anderson considers how white groups at the time, including middle class women and the working class, shaped American race and class relations. She documents white women's political mobilizations and, exploring political resentments, sexual fears, and religious affiliations, illuminates the reasons behind segregationists' missteps and blunders. Anderson explains how the business elite in Little Rock retained power in the face of opposition, and identifies the moral failures of business leaders and moderates who sought the appearance of federal compliance rather than actual racial justice, leaving behind a legacy of white flight, poor urban schools, and institutional racism. Probing the conflicts of school desegregation in the mid-century South, Little Rock casts new light on connections between social inequality and the culture wars of modern America.
Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve
by Lenora ChuNew York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ PickIn the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and educationWhen students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting: Ancient Chinese Philosophy And The Art Of Raising Mindful, Resilient, And Compassionate Kids
by Erin ClineA philosopher and mother mines classic Daoist and Confucian texts of Chinese philosophy for wisdom relevant to today’s parents. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius compared children to tender sprouts, shaped by soil, sunlight, water, and, importantly, the efforts of patient farmers and gardeners. At times children require our protection, other times we must take a step back and allow them to grow. Like sprouts, a child’s character, tendencies, virtues, and vices are at once observable and ever-changing. A practical parenting manual, philosophical reflection on the relationship between parent and child, and necessary response to modern stereotypes of Eastern parenting, Little Sprouts and the Dao of Parenting reconsiders cultural definitions of success and explores how we might support and nourish young people. Engaging deeply with foundational Daoist and Confucian thinkers, Georgetown philosopher Erin Cline offers accessible, provocative musings on key parenting issues. She reveals how ancient Chinese philosophers encourage surprisingly modern values—a love of nature and of learning, mindfulness in everyday interactions, an embrace of disabilities and diversity, and the power of performing rituals with reflection—and relates these to concrete parenting practices, whether celebrating special occasions or finding a child’s unique talents and gifts. Little Sprouts shows how—through the nurturing efforts of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and teachers—we can strengthen innate virtues of compassion, generosity, and individuality in our own tender sprouts. With an engaging and intuitive approach, Cline offers a balanced philosophy that helps us grow into better parents of joyful, fulfilled children.
The Little Things: Why You Really Should Sweat the Small Stuff
by Andy AndrewsWall Street Journal BestsellerHave you ever wondered why we spend so much time and energy thinking about the big challenges in our lives when all the evidence proves it&’s actually the little things that change everything? That&’s right… Absolutely everything.Little Things embodies Andy&’s own approach to life and work, detailing for the first time some of the exclusive material that he uses to teach and coach some of the most successful corporations, teams, and individuals around the world. In his unique humorous style, Andy shows how people succeed by actually going against the modern adage, &“don&’t sweat the small stuff&”. By contrast, Andy proves that it is in concentrating on the smaller things that we add value and margin.Discover a new perspective and a game plan for meeting various challenges, such as:Managing life in a society that seems to be constantly offended by something or someoneCreating change that is permanent and not short termDramatically increasing results by harnessing the fraction of margin between second place and firstUnderstanding our spiritual connection with God and how that affects planning and outcomeIdentifying the very moment when asking the question why? multiplies the success of an endeavorRecognizing the smallest details that ensure the greatest success
A Little Tour Through European Poetry
by John TaylorThis book is both a sequel to author John Taylor's earlier volume Into the Heart of European Poetry and something different. It is a sequel because this volume expands upon the base of the previous book to include many more European poets. It is different in that it is framed by stories in which the author juxtaposes his personal experiences involving European poetry or European poets as he travels through different countries where the poets have lived or worked. Taylor explores poetry from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Albania, Romania, Turkey, and Portugal, all of which were missing in the previous gathering, analyzes heady verse written in Galician, and presents an important poet born in the Chuvash Republic. His tour through European poetry also adds discoveries from countries whose languages he reads fluently-Italy, Germany (and German-speaking Switzerland), Greece, and France. Taylor's model is Valery Larbaud, to whom his criticism, with its liveliness and analytical clarity, is often compared. Readers will enjoy a renewed dialogue with European poetry, especially in an age when translations are rarely reviewed, present in literary journals, or studied in schools. This book, along with Into the Heart of European Poetry, motivates a dialogue by bringing foreign poetry out of the specialized confines of foreign language departments.
The Little Zen Companion
by David SchillerWhile it seeks neither to define Zen nor answer its most famous koan (a riddle unanswerable by conventional thinking, in this case the sound of one hand clapping), this bestselling little book with 437,000 copies in print possesses a maverick Zen spirit that points to a different way of looking at the world.With each page featuring a quote, phrase, story, koan, haiku, or poem, Zen Companion combines the feeling and format of a meditation book with 2,500 years of wisdom-from Lao-tzu and Groucho Marx, William Carlos Williams and The Little Prince, D. T. Suzuki and Walker Percy, the Buddha and the Bible, Einstein and Gertrude Stein. It's a celebration of intuition: "If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark"-St. John the Cross. Individuality: "Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought."-Basho. Uncomplicated nature: "Among twenty snowy mountains/The only moving thing/Was the eye of the blackbird."-Wallace Stevens. Childlike spontaneity: "Goodnight stars. Goodnight air."-Margaret Wise Brown. Irreverent paradox: "Wakuan complained when he saw a picture of bearded Bodhidharma: 'Why hasn't that fellow a beard?'" And above all, the simple pleasure of life lived in the moment. "Chop wood, carry water."
Liturgical Power: Between Economic and Political Theology (Commonalities)
by Nicholas HeronIs Christianity exclusively a religious phenomenon, which must separate itself from all things political, or do its concepts actually underpin secular politics? To this question, which animated the twentieth-century debate on political theology, Liturgical Power advances a third alternative. Christian anti-politics, Heron contends, entails its own distinct conception of politics. Yet this politics, he argues, assumes the form of what today we call “administration,” but which the ancients termed “economics.” The book’s principal aim is thus genealogical: it seeks to understand our current conception of government in light of an important but rarely acknowledged transformation in the idea of politics brought about by Christianity.This transformation in the idea of politics precipitates in turn a concurrent shift in the organization of power; an organization whose determining principle, Heron contends, is liturgy—understood in the broad sense as “public service.” Whereas until now only liturgy’s acclamatory dimension has made the concept available for political theory, Heron positions it more broadly as a technique of governance. What Christianity has bequeathed to political thought and forms, he argues, is thus a paradoxical technology of power that is grounded uniquely in service.
Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur (Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought)
by Brian A. ButcherWhile only rarely reflecting explicitly on liturgy, French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) gave sustained attention to several themes pertinent to the interpretation of worship, including metaphor, narrative, subjectivity, and memory. Inspired by his well-known aphorism, “The symbol gives rise to thought,” Liturgical Theology after Schmemann offers an original exploration of the symbolic world of the Byzantine Rite , culminating in a Ricoeurian analysis of its Theophany “Great Blessing of Water.” . The book examines two fundamental questions: 1) what are the implications of the philosopher’s oeuvre for liturgical theology at large? And 2)how does the adoption of a Ricoeurian hermeneutic shape the study of a particular rite? Taking the seminal legacy of Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983) as its point of departure, Butcher contributes to the renewal of contemporary Eastern Christian thought and ritual practice by engaging a spectrum of current theological and philosophical conversations.
The Livable and the Unlivable
by Judith Butler Frédéric WormsThe unlivable is the most extreme point of human suffering and injustice. But what is it exactly? How do we define the unlivable? And what can we do to prevent and repair it? These are the intriguing questions Judith Butler and Frédéric Worms discuss in a captivating dialogue situated at the crossroads of contemporary life and politics. Here, Judith Butler criticizes the norms that make life precarious and unlivable, while Frédéric Worms appeals to a “critical vitalism” as a way of allowing the hardship of the unlivable to reveal what is vital for us.For both Butler and Worms, the difference between the livable and the unlivable forms the critical foundation for a contemporary practice of care. Care and support, in all their aspects, make human life livable, that is, “more than living.” To understand it, we must draw on the concrete practices of humans who are confronted with the unlivable: the refugees of today and the witnesses and survivors of past violations and genocide. They teach us what is intolerable but also undeniable about the unlivable, and what we can do to resist it. Crafted with critical rigor, mutual respect, and lively humor, the compelling dialogue transcribed and translated in this book took place at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) on April 11, 2018, at a time when close to two thousand migrants were living in nearby makeshift camps in northern Paris. The Livable and the Unlivable showcases this 2018 dialogue in the context of Butler’s and Worms’s ongoing work and the evolution of their thought, as presented by Laure Barillas and Arto Charpentier in their equally engaging introduction. It concludes with a new afterword that addresses the crises unfolding in our world and the ways a philosophically rigorous account of life must confront them.While this book will be of keen interest to readers of philosophy and cultural criticism, and those interested in vitalism, new materialism, and critical theory, it is a far from merely academic text. In the conversation between Butler and Worms, we encounter questions we all grapple with in confronting the distress and precarity of our times, marked as it is by types of survival that are unlivable, from concentration camps to prisons to environmental toxicity, to forcible displacement, to the Covid pandemic.The Livable and the Unlivable at once considers longstanding philosophical questions around why and how we live, while working to retrieve a philosophy of life for today’s Left.
Live and Let Live: A Critique of Intellectual Tolerance
by Dominik BalgTolerance - desired by many and often demanded: By UNESCO, by the Pope, by Angela Merkel and Barack Obama. But what exactly does it mean to be tolerant? Does tolerance imply rejection? Or is tolerance merely the opposite of dogmatism? And how does a tolerant attitude differ from an indifferent one? Dominik Balg, starting from a well-founded explication of the concept of tolerance, subjects a tolerant attitude as an intellectual attitude toward conflicting opinions to a detailed critique and discusses the plausibility of general tolerance claims in specific domains such as politics, religion, or ethics. He considers possible alternatives to a tolerant attitude and presents with intellectual open-mindedness and humility two substantial attitudes that can be clearly distinguished from a tolerant attitude and - in contrast to tolerance - can also be easily demanded on a general level. - With a foreword by Thomas Grundmann. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Leben und leben lassen by Dominik Balg, published by J.B. Metzler, an imprint of Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.
Live Carefully: The Importance of Caring in a Life of Significance
by Jerry TraylorLive CAREfully is a glimpse into the life of the author, Jerry Traylor. Born with cerebral palsy, Jerry faced physical pain and loneliness that few children ever know. Yet it was this early difficulty that drew others to Jerry in caring and love. The stories included in this book are a powerful example of how caring can mold a life and change a world. Others empowered Jerry to set goals and achieve greatness even in his imperfection. His example compels many to look at their own lives and take positive action.
Live Life Like a Kung Fu Master
by Paul Volponi William MoyLive Life Like a Kung Fu Master is William Moy&’s personal invitation to become your teacher or &“sifu,&” as he presents over twenty attributes/techniques that will contribute to living a life made better by possessing Kung Fu. Attributes such as balance, structure, distance awareness, relaxation and traveling the shortest route between two points are presented both in terms of self-defense and in making an impact on your daily life—at home, school, work, business and social encounters. The text also features positional sketches drawn by William, as well as links to a number of videos in which William demonstrates physical techniques for students to model. William is joined on this literary Kung Fu journey by this long-time student and disciple, multi-award-winning author Paul Volponi. In turn, the co-authors are joined by several renowned martial artists, including Sammo Huang, Karen Sheperd, Grandmaster Tak Wah Eng, Grandmaster Doc-Fei Wong and Sifu Leo Imamura. A score of contributors such as basketball Hall of Famer Dave Cowens, two-time Olympic Gold medalist Kayla Harrison, glass-ceiling breaking baseball pitcher Ila Borders, famed tightrope walker Denis Josselin and World Scrabble Champion Joel Wapnick discuss how the attributes of Kung Fu relate to their many successes. The term &“Kung Fu&” actually translates as "time and effort equals a skill." That's why you see establishments with names such as Kung Fu Bread and Kung Fu Tea. These proprietors are not trumpeting their ability to fight. Rather, they're saying, we put in the time to study and learn our craft, and the result is that we are masters in our own arena—baking bread or brewing tea. In Asian culture, people who are said to have "good Kung Fu" have a handle on their lives. They are honest, direct, kindly and self-assured. These are values more highly prized than the ability to fight. What&’s the parallel between these prized qualities and the ability to physically defend yourself like a martial arts Kung Fu master? Kung Fu, especially Wing Chun Kung Fu, is based on a center-line theory of taking the shortest path, a straight line between two points, in defending yourself. It is also based on calmness and relaxation, enabling the practitioner to feel and quickly interpret incoming forces—therefore, bringing about a swifter and more focused reaction. Cultivating such abilities will allow you to transfer their martial benefits onto daily situations in your personal, social, and business interactions. William Moy&’s view of the teacher/student relationship is a simple one: &“Your sifu&’s role is to help you find your own Kung Fu.&” Hence, there are no cookie-cutter students. Each journey will be inherently different depending upon the individual student&’s physical attributes, personality and goals. In this very patient art, there are no failures, just students continuing on a path to their desired destination.
Live Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life
by Massimo Pigliucci Gregory Lopez Meredith Alexander KunzA wide-ranging philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers into daily modern life.What does life truly mean? Who do I want to become? And how do I get there? These are some of life's biggest questions that can be hard to think through. Fortunately, a group of philosophers from ancient Greece and Rome have already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Drawing on the philosophies, life lessons and experiences of key thinkers, Live Like a Philosopher will help you navigate these existential waters with invaluable insights for modern life.From finding balance with Aristotle and embracing uncertainty with Cicero to avoiding pain with Epicurus and learning how to rebel with Cynic Hipparchia, this is a powerful toolkit to help you navigate the highs and lows of modern life. Organized around three main themes of pleasure, virtue, and doubt, there's something to learn from each master in this philosophical quest. Live Like a Philosopher is the helping hand we all need to make life better.
Live Like A Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life
by Massimo Pigliucci Gregory Lopez Meredith Alexander KunzA wide-ranging philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers into daily modern life.What does life truly mean? Who do I want to become? And how do I get there? These are some of life's biggest questions that can be hard to think through. Fortunately, a group of philosophers from ancient Greece and Rome have already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Drawing on the philosophies, life lessons and experiences of key thinkers, Live Like a Philosopher will help you navigate these existential waters with invaluable insights for modern life.From finding balance with Aristotle and embracing uncertainty with Cicero to avoiding pain with Epicurus and learning how to rebel with Cynic Hipparchia, this is a powerful toolkit to help you navigate the highs and lows of modern life. Organized around three main themes of pleasure, virtue, and doubt, there's something to learn from each master in this philosophical quest. Live Like a Philosopher is the helping hand we all need to make life better.
The Lived Experience of Hate Crime: Towards a Phenomenological Approach (Contributions to Phenomenology #111)
by Michael Salter Kim McGuireThis book approaches the topic of the subjective, lived experience of hate crime from the perspective of Husserlian phenomenology. It provides an experientially well-grounded account of how and what is experienced as a hate crime, and what this reveals about ourselves as the continually reconstituted “subject” of such experiences. The book shows how qualitative social science methods can be better grounded in philosophically informed theory and methodological practices to add greater depth and explanatory power to experiential approaches to social sciences topics. The Authors also highlight several gaps and contradictions within Husserlian analyses of prejudice, which are exposed by attempts to concretely apply this approach to the field of hate crimes.Coverage includes the difficulties in providing an empathetic understanding of expressions of harmful forms of prejudice underlying hate crimes, including hate speech, arising from our own and others’ ‘life worlds’. The Authors describe a ‘Husserlian-based’ view of hate crime as well as a novel interpretation of the value of the comprehensive methodological stages pioneered by Husserl. The intended readership includes those concerned with discrimination and hate crime, as well as those involved in qualitative research into social topics in general. The broader content level makes this work suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students, even professionals within law enforcement.
The Lively Science: Remodeling Human Social Research
by Michael AgarThe Lively Science is Michael Agar's accessible, idiosyncratic, often humorous, and sometimes controversial explication of his own polestar truth: "Research on humans in their social world by other humans is not a traditional science like the one created by Galileo and Newton." However, if the social world is not a lab, neither is it a collection of random events. The book lays out a clear, straightforward path to carrying out the basic scientific tasks of forming questions and answering them to explore and account for that non-randomness. The author deploys myriad engaging examples drawn from a lifetime of applied and basic research to demonstrate how human science researchers can produce discoveries that are scientifically defensible and useful in the real world. Agar grounds his how-to guide in an approachable discussion of epistemology and draws on thinkers whose writings may be unfamiliar to many social scientists. He blends that work with new intellectual tools, such as complexity theory, disasters research, and conversational analysis. The result is an innovative and practical methodology that is true to the realities and surprises of research by and about humans, yet preserves scientific standards of falsifiability, empiricism, logic, and systematic presentation of results. This book represents the best of Michael Agar's visionary work. With a new foreword by Michael Brown celebrating Agar's enormous contribution to social science methodology, The Lively Science is for all researchers who seek to explore the full potential of a human social science.
Lives Entrusted: An Ethic of Trust for Ministry (Prisms Series)
by Barbara J. BlodgettThis book is about communities of faith and their leaders, and it argues that they should better learn how to practice trust. The book comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 defines trust and explains how it works between individuals and within communities. Chapter 2 takes up the issue of confidentiality in the ministry. Chapter 3 draws upon the work of Michael Power on the proliferation of "audit societies." Chapter 4 addresses gossip, and Chapter 5 deals with the temptation of clergy to bullshit.
Lives in Education: A Narrative of People and Ideas
by Joan K. SmithThis volume presents the history of Western education through the biographies of some 70 individuals, past and present, who exemplify the education of their times or have made important contributions to the development of educational theory or practice. In so doing, it links major issues and ideas in education to key historical personalities. Each chapter includes substantive background information, a summary, and chapter notes.
Lives of a Cell: Notes Of A Biology Watcher
by Lewis ThomasElegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us."
The Lives of Animals
by Amy Gutmann J. M. CoetzeeThe idea of human cruelty to animals so consumes novelist Elizabeth Costello in her later years that she can no longer look another person in the eye: humans, especially meat-eating ones, seem to her to be conspirators in a crime of stupefying magnitude taking place on farms and in slaughterhouses, factories, and laboratories across the world. Costello's son, a physics professor, admires her literary achievements, but dreads his mother's lecturing on animal rights at the college where he teaches. His colleagues resist her argument that human reason is overrated and that the inability to reason does not diminish the value of life; his wife denounces his mother's vegetarianism as a form of moral superiority. At the dinner that follows her first lecture, the guests confront Costello with a range of sympathetic and skeptical reactions to issues of animal rights, touching on broad philosophical, anthropological, and religious perspectives. Painfully for her son, Elizabeth Costello seems offensive and flaky, but--dare he admit it?--strangely on target. In this landmark book, Nobel Prize-winning writer J. M. Coetzee uses fiction to present a powerfully moving discussion of animal rights in all their complexity. He draws us into Elizabeth Costello's own sense of mortality, her compassion for animals, and her alienation from humans, even from her own family. In his fable, presented as a Tanner Lecture sponsored by the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, Coetzee immerses us in a drama reflecting the real-life situation at hand: a writer delivering a lecture on an emotionally charged issue at a prestigious university. Literature, philosophy, performance, and deep human conviction--Coetzee brings all these elements into play. As in the story of Elizabeth Costello, the Tanner Lecture is followed by responses treating the reader to a variety of perspectives, delivered by leading thinkers in different fields. Coetzee's text is accompanied by an introduction by political philosopher Amy Gutmann and responsive essays by religion scholar Wendy Doniger, primatologist Barbara Smuts, literary theorist Marjorie Garber, and moral philosopher Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation. Together the lecture-fable and the essays explore the palpable social consequences of uncompromising moral conflict and confrontation.
Lives of Confucius: Civilization’s Greatest Sage Through the Ages
by Michael Nylan Thomas WilsonIn a biography that fills in gaps in the life of Confucius/Kongzi (551-479 BC), Nylan (early Chinese history, U. of California at Berkeley) and Wilson (history, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York) trace the life and evolution of thought of the Middle Way philosopher from his inauspicious beginnings to veneration as a sage whose ideas on personal and government morality are still influential. They also discuss his critics and followers, and include a summary chart of American perceptions of the Chinese...
The Lives of Erich Fromm: Love's Prophet
by Lawrence FriedmanErich Fromm was a political activist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, and one of the most important intellectuals of the twentieth century. Known for his theories of personality and political insight, Fromm dissected the sadomasochistic appeal of brutal dictators while also eloquently championing love—which, he insisted, was nothing if it did not involve joyful contact with others and humanity at large. Admired all over the world, Fromm continues to inspire with his message of universal brotherhood and quest for lasting peace.The first systematic study of Fromm's influences and achievements, this biography revisits the thinker's most important works, especially Escape from Freedom and The Art of Loving, which conveyed important and complex ideas to millions of readers. The volume recounts Fromm's political activism as a founder and major funder of Amnesty International, the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, and other peace groups. Consulting rare archival materials across the globe, Lawrence J. Friedman reveals Fromm's support for anti-Stalinist democratic movements in Central and Eastern Europe and his efforts to revitalize American democracy. For the first time, readers learn about Fromm's direct contact with high officials in the American government on matters of war and peace while accessing a deeper understanding of his conceptual differences with Freud, his rapport with Neo-Freudians like Karen Horney and Harry Stack Sullivan, and his association with innovative artists, public intellectuals, and world leaders. Friedman elucidates Fromm's key intellectual contributions, especially his innovative concept of "social character," in which social institutions and practices shape the inner psyche, and he clarifies Fromm's conception of love as an acquired skill. Taking full stock of the thinker's historical and global accomplishments, Friedman portrays a man of immense authenticity and spirituality who made life in the twentieth century more humane than it might have been.