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On Human Rights
by James GriffinIn this book, Griffin shows how the language of human rights has become debased. He takes on the task of showing the way towards a determinate concept of human rights, based on their relation to the human status that we all share. He works from certain paradigm cases, such as freedom of expression and freedom of worship, to more disputed cases such as welfare rights--for instance the idea of a human right to health.
On Humanism (Thinking in Action)
by Richard NormanWhat is humanism and why does it matter? Is there any doctrine every humanist must hold? If it rejects religion, what does it offer in its place? Have the twentieth century’s crimes against humanity spelled the end for humanism? On Humanism is a timely and powerfully argued philosophical defence of humanism. It is also an impassioned plea that we turn to ourselves, not religion, if we want to answer Socrates’ age-old question: what is the best kind of life to lead? Although humanism has much in common with science, Richard Norman shows that it is far from a denial of the more mysterious, fragile side of being human. He deals with big questions such as Darwinism and ‘creation science’, matter and consciousness, euthanasia and abortion, and then argues that it is ultimately through the human capacity for art, literature and the imagination that humanism is a powerful alternative to religious belief. This revised second edition includes a new chapter on the debates between ‘the New Atheists’ such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and their religious critics, asking why the two sides in the debate so often seem to be talking past one another, and suggesting how the conversation could be made more fruitful. Richard Norman is a committed humanist and the author of many books including The Moral Philosophers and Ethics, Killing and War. He was formerly Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kent, Canterbury
On Humbug
by Robert DessaixWith his trademark eloquence and humour, Robert Dessaix, one of Australia's eminent writers, tackles humbug in the modern world-the tide of mumbo jumbo where words fall short of what they mean and motivations are not always what they appear.
On Humour (Thinking in Action)
by Simon CritchleyDoes humour make us human, or do the cats and dogs laugh along with us? On Humour is a fascinating, beautifully written and funny book on what humour can tell us about being human. Simon Critchley skilfully probes some of the most perennial but least understood aspects of humour, such as our tendency to laugh at animals and our bodies, why we mock death with comedy and why we think it's funny when people act like machines. He also looks at the darker side of humour, as rife in sexism and racism and argues that it is important for reminding us of people we would rather not be.
On Identity
by Stan GrantWhy does identity demand a choice between black and white? Tribalism, nationalism and sectarianism are dividing the world into us and them. Are we hard wired for hate? Stan Grant argues that it is time to leave identity behind and to embrace cosmopolitanism. On Identity is a meditation on hope and community.'Love is always the answer, it is said. Not if you are trying from somewhere in the Aboriginal domain to answer the cruel question, "Are you black or white?" Mapping family ties or finding a sense of self should be about love, but in the end, it is too often about politics. You must read this book if you have wondered why we make the choices we do.' MARCIA LANGTON
On Ideology
by Louis Althusser Ben BrewsterThis major voice in French philosophy presents a classic study of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society. Spanning the years 1964 to 1973, On Ideology contains the seminal text, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus" (1970), which revolutionized the concept of subject formation. In "Reply to John Lewis" (1972-73), Althusser addressed the criticisms of the English Marxist toward On Marx and Reading Capital. Also included are "Freud and Lacan" (1964) and "A Letter on Art in Reply to Andr#65533; Daspre" (1966).
On Ideology: Ideology And Ideological State Apparatuses (Radical Thinkers Ser.)
by Louis AlthusserThis major voice in French philosophy presents a classic study of how particular political and cultural ideas come to dominate society. Spanning the years 1964 to 1973, On Ideology contains the seminal text, &“Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus&” (1970), which revolutionized the concept of subject formation. In &“Reply to John Lewis&” (1972–73), Althusser addressed the criticisms of the English Marxist toward On Marx and Reading Capital. Also included are &“Freud and Lacan&” (1964) and &“A Letter on Art in Reply to André Daspre&” (1966).
On Immigration and Refugees (Routledge Classics)
by Michael DummettThe philosopher Michael Dummett was one of the sharpest and most prominent commentators and campaigners for the fair treatment of immigrants and refugees in Britain and Europe. On Immigration and Refugees was the only book he wrote on the topic and among one of the most eloquent and important reflections on the subject to have been published in many years. Exploring the confused and often highly unjust and racist thinking about immigration, Dummett questions the principles and justifications governing state policies, pointing out that they often conflict with the rights of refugees as laid down by the Geneva Convention. With compelling and often moving examples, he points a new way forward for humane thinking and practice about a problem we cannot afford to ignore.This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Sarah Fine.
On Immigration and Refugees (Thinking in Action)
by Sir Michael DummettMichael Dummett, philosopher and social critic, was one of the sharpest and most prominent commentators and campaigners for the fair treatment of immigrants and refugees in Britain and Europe. This book insightfully draws together his thoughts on this major issue for the first time. Exploring the confused and often highly unjust thinking about immigration, Dummett then carefully questions the principles and justifications governing state policies, pointing out that they often conflict with the rights of refugees as laid down by the Geneva Convention. With compelling and often moving examples, On Immigration and Refugees points a new way forward for humane thinking and practice about a problem we cannot afford to ignore.
On Imposture: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Literary Lies, and Political Fiction (Studies in Continental Thought)
by Serge MargelImposture is an abuse of power. It is the act of lying for one's own benefit, of disguising the truth in order to mislead. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, however, imposture is first and foremost power itself. In On Imposture, French philosopher Serge Margel explores imposture within Rousseau's Discourses, Confessions, and Emile. For Rousseau, taking power, using it, or abusing it are ultimately one and the same act. Once there's power, and someone grants themselves the means, the right, and the authority to force another's beliefs or actions, there is imposture. According to Rousseau, imposture can be found through human history, society, and culture. Using a deconstructionist methodin the classic manner of Derrida, On Imposture explores Rousseau's thought concerning imposture and offers a unique analysis of its implications for politics, civil society, literature, and existentialist thought.
On Inception (Studies in Continental Thought)
by Martin HeideggerOn Inception is a translation of Martin Heidegger's ber den Anfang (GA 70). This work belongs to the crucial period, before and during WWII, when Heidegger was at work on a series of treatises that begins with "Contributions to Philosophy" and includes "The Event" and "The History of Beyng." These works are difficult, even hermetic, but represent a crucial development in Heidegger's thinking. On Inception deepens the investigation underway in the other volumes of the series and provides a unique perspective on Heidegger's thinking of Being and of Event. Here, Heidegger asks, with a greater insistence than anywhere else in his work, what it might mean to think of being as event, and not as presence. Event cannot be thought without the sense of a beginning—an inception—and so, Heidegger insists, we must try to think of being as inception, as fundamentally inceptive. On Inception pursues rigorously the difficult and puzzling implications of this speculation. It does not merely extend work already undertaken but also opens doors onto wholly other pathways.
On Indignation
by Don WatsonCorrosive, mad and frequently fatal, indignation is a great destructive force in human affairs, and just as often a wellspring of mirth and merriment. Don Watson traces this seemingly ineradicable emotion in a journey that takes us, via his forebears, Flaubert and The Sopranos, from the Old Testament to Donald Trump.Trump's pitch had less to do with offering voters money and security than with offering them vengeance. He exploited the anger we feel when we are slighted or taken for granted, turning the politics of a sophisticated democracy into something more like a blood feud. He promised to restore dignity, slay enemies, re-make the world according to old rites and customs. He stirred indignation into tribal rage and rode it into the White House.It was a scam, of course, but wherever there is indignation, stupidity and lies abound.'Indignation is both seductive and contagious, and transforms society and politics. Don Watson's essay is penetrating, astringent, witty and disturbing. It must be read, carefully.'BARRY JONES
On Inequality
by Harry G. FrankfurtEconomic inequality is one of the most divisive issues of our time. Yet few would argue that inequality is a greater evil than poverty. The poor suffer because they don't have enough, not because others have more, and some have far too much. So why do many people appear to be more distressed by the rich than by the poor?In this provocative book, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of On Bullshit presents a compelling and unsettling response to those who believe that the goal of social justice should be economic equality or less inequality. Harry Frankfurt, one of the most influential moral philosophers in the world, argues that we are morally obligated to eliminate poverty--not achieve equality or reduce inequality. Our focus should be on making sure everyone has a sufficient amount to live a decent life. To focus instead on inequality is distracting and alienating. At the same time, Frankfurt argues that the conjunction of vast wealth and poverty is offensive. If we dedicate ourselves to making sure everyone has enough, we may reduce inequality as a side effect. But it's essential to see that the ultimate goal of justice is to end poverty, not inequality.A serious challenge to cherished beliefs on both the political left and right, On Inequality promises to have a profound impact on one of the great debates of our time.
On Jean-Luc Nancy: The Sense of Philosophy (Warwick Studies in European Philosophy)
by Simon Sparks Darren Sheppard Colin ThomasThis is the first book to consider the increasing importance of Jean-Luc Nancy's work, which has influenced key thinkers such as Jacques Derrida. All his major works have been translated into English, yet until now little has been made available on his place in contemporary philosophy.By showing how he situates his work in a contemporary context - the collapse of communism, the Gulf War, and the former Yugoslavia - this outstanding collection reveals how Nancy's engagement with Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Derrida makes him one of the key contemporary continental philosophers.Providing new perspectives on the issues of sense, art and community, these essays make it impossible to approach philosophy without reference to the work Jean-Luc Nancy.
On John Stuart Mill (Core Knowledge)
by Philip KitcherJohn Stuart Mill expressed many of the central tenets of liberalism with unsurpassed clarity and enduring influence. Yet Mill’s apparent victory in the marketplace of ideas has numbed us to the power of his arguments. To many readers today, his views can seem utterly familiar, even banal.Sharing insights from teaching Mill for many years, the eminent philosopher Philip Kitcher makes a cogent case for why we should read this nineteenth-century thinker now. He portrays Mill as a conflicted humanist who wrestled with problems that are equally urgent in our own time. Kitcher reflects on Mill’s ideas in the context of contemporary ethical, social, and political issues such as COVID mandates, gun control, income inequality, gay rights, and climate change. More broadly, he shows, Mill’s writings help us cultivate our own capacities for critical thought and ethical decision making.Inviting readers into a conversation with Mill, this book shows that he supplies tools for thinking that are as valuable today as they were in the nineteenth century.
On Justifying Moral Judgements (Routledge Revivals)
by Lawrence C. BeckerMuch discussion of morality presupposes that moral judgments are always, at bottom, arbitrary. Moral scepticism, or at least moral relativism, has become common currency among the liberally educated. This remains the case even while political crises become intractable, and it is increasingly apparent that the scope of public policy formulated with no reference to moral justification is extremely limited. The thesis of On Justifying Moral Judgments insists, on the contrary, that rigorous justifications are possible for moral judgments. Crucially, Becker argues for the coordination of the three main approaches to moral theory: axiology, deontology, and agent morality. A pluralistic account of the concept of value is expounded, and a solution to the problem of ultimate justification is suggested. Analyses of valuation, evaluation, the ‘is-ought’ issue, and the concepts of obligation, responsibility and the good person are all incorporated into the main line of argument.
On Karl Marx (Radical Thinkers)
by John Maxwell Ernst Bloch“In 1968 we celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. We still have reason to hope for a concrete celebration in 2018” With a demonstrably thorough grasp of Marxist thought, and seemingly effortless literary flair, Ernst Bloch provides both the well-versed reader and the novice a truly enjoyable introduction to one of the most influential thinkers in history.
On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones
by Lieutenant Colon Wayne PhelpsA &“can&’t-miss for anyone interested in current military affairs,&” On Killing Remotely reveals and explores the costs—to individual soldiers and to society—of the way we wage war today (Kirkus Reviews, starred). Throughout history society has determined specific rules of engagement between adversaries in armed conflict. With advances in technology, from armor to in the Middle Ages to nerve gas in World War I to weapons of mass destruction in our own time, the rules have constantly evolved. Today, when killing the enemy can seem palpably risk-free and tantamount to playing a violent video game, what constitutes warfare? What is the effect of remote combat on individual soldiers? And what are the unforeseen repercussions that could affect us all? Lt Col Wayne Phelps, former commander of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft unit, addresses these questions and many others as he tells the story of the men and women of today&’s &“chair force.&” Exploring the ethics of remote military engagement, the misconceptions about PTSD among RPA operators, and the specter of military weaponry controlled by robots, his book is an urgent and compelling reminder that it should always be difficult to kill another human being lest we risk losing what makes us human.
On Kindness
by Barbara Taylor Adam PhillipsIn this brilliant, epigrammatic book, the eminent psychoanalyst Adam Phillips and the social historian Barbara Taylor examine the terrors of kindness and return to the reader the intense satisfactions of generosity and compassion. Kindness is the foundation of the world's great religions and most-enduring philosophies. Why, then, does being kind feel so dangerous? If we crave kindness with such intensity, why is it often the last pleasure we permit ourselves? And why—despite our longing—are we often suspicious when we are on the receiving end of it?Drawing on intellectual history, literature, psychoanalysis, and contemporary social theory, this brief and essential book will return to its readers what Marcus Aurelius declared was mankind's "greatest delight": the intense satisfactions of generosity and compassion.
On Knowing and the Known: Introductory Readings in Epistemology
by Kenneth G. LuceyWhat do we mean when we say we "know" something? What is this knowledge and how do we come by it? What exactly counts as an object of knowledge? And on what basis do we defend our claims to know against those the skeptics who deny that knowledge is possible or that our criteria for knowing can ever be satisfied? These questions and many others are addressed in this fascinating collection of essays by leading philosophers, who discuss the nature, meaning, and extent of human knowledge. Included are works by Robert Almeder, William P. Alston, Robert P. Amico, Roderick M. Chisholm, Edmund L. Gettier, Richard Feldman, Peter D. Klein, Keith Lehrer, Kenneth G. Lucey, John Pollock, and others. Several essays are original to this collection and break new ground on such issues as the Problem of the Criterion.
On Knowing--The Natural Sciences (Historical Studies Of Urban America Ser.)
by David B. Owen Richard P. McKeon Zahava K. McKeonWell before the current age of discourse, deconstruction, and multiculturalism, Richard McKeon propounded a philosophy of pluralism showing how "facts" and "values" are dependent on diverse ways of reading texts. This book is a transcription of an entire course, including both lectures and student discussions, taught by McKeon. As such, it provides an exciting introduction to McKeon's conception of pluralism, a central aspect of neo-Pragmatism, while demonstrating how pluralism works in a classroom setting. In his lectures, McKeon outlines the entire history of Western thinking on the sciences. Treating the central concepts of motion, space, time, and cause, he traces modern intellectual debates back to the ancient Greeks, notably Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, and the Sophists. As he brings the story of Western science up to the twentieth century, he uses his fabled semantic schema (reproduced here for the first time) to uncover new ideas and observations about cosmology, mechanics, dynamics, and other aspects of physical science. Illustrating the broad historical sweep of the lectures are a series of discussions which give detail to the course's intellectual framework. These discussions of Plato, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and Maxwell are perhaps the first published rendition of a philosopher in literal dialogue with his students. Led by McKeon's pointed questioning, the discussions reveal the difficulties and possibilities of learning to engage in serious intellectual communication.
On Knowing: The Social Sciences
by Richard P. McKeonAs a philosopher, Richard McKeon spent his career developing Pragmatism in a new key, specifically by tracing the ways in which philosophic problems arise in fields other than philosophy—across the natural and social sciences and aesthetics—and showed the ways in which any problem, pushed back to its beginning or taken to its end, is a philosophic problem. The roots of this book, On Knowing—The Social Sciences, are traced to McKeon’s classes where he blended philosophy with physics, ethics, politics, history, and aesthetics. This volume—the second in a series—leaves behind natural science themes to embrace freedom, power, and history, which, McKeon argues, lay out the whole field of human action. The authors McKeon considers—Hobbes, Machiavelli, Spinoza, Kant, and J. S. Mill—show brilliantly how philosophic methods work in action, via analyses that do not merely reduce or deconstruct meaning, but enhance those texts by reconnecting them to the active history of philosophy and to problems of ethics, politics, and history. The waves of modernism and post-modernism are receding. Philosophic pluralism is now available, fully formulated, in McKeon’s work, spreading from the humanities to the social sciences.
On Landscapes (Thinking in Action #29)
by Susan HerringtonThere is no escaping landscape: it's everywhere and part of everyone's life. Landscapes have received much less attention in aesthetics than those arts we can choose to ignore, such as painting or music – but they can tell us a lot about the ethical and aesthetic values of the societies that produce them. Drawing on examples from a wide range of landscapes from around the world and throughout history, Susan Herrington considers the ways landscapes can affect our emotions, our imaginations, and our understanding of the passage of time. On Landscapes reveals the design work involved in even the most naturalistic of landscapes, and the ways in which contemporary landscapes are turning the challenges of the industrial past into opportunities for the future. Inviting us to thoughtfully see and experience the landscapes that we encounter in our daily lives, On Landscapes demonstrates that art is all around us.
On Law, Morality, and Politics (Hackett Classics)
by Thomas AquinasThe second edition of Aquinas, On Law, Morality, and Politicsretains the selection of texts presented in the first edition but offers them in new translations by Richard J. Regan--including that of his Aquinas, Treatise on Law (Hackett, 2000). A revised Introduction and glossary, an updated select bibliography, and the inclusion of summarizing headnotes for each of the units--Conscience, Law, Justice, Property, War and Killing, Obedience and Rebellion, and Practical Wisdom and Statecraft—further enhance its usefulness.
On Legitimacy in Global Governance: Concept, Criteria, and Application
by Sören HilbrichGlobal governance has a major impact on the lives of people around the world. However, traditional theories of legitimacy were usually developed for states and are not suitable for the diversity of global governance institutions that exist today. This book first develops a normative concept of legitimacy that is applicable to all political institutions. According to this concept, to regard an institution as legitimate means ascribing it the right to exercise its function in political practice. Secondly, the book discusses how the use of this concept opens up new perspectives in the debate on legitimacy criteria for global governance institutions. In this context, the book analyses the relationship of legitimacy to the values of justice and democracy and discusses the role of feasibility constraints and the all-affected principle in legitimacy judgements. The concept of legitimacy as the right to function opens up the conceptual space to accommodate the insight that legitimacy criteriaare not the same for all global governance institutions, but depend on their function and context. Thirdly, the book applies the developed theoretical framework to a specific global governance institution, the G20.