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What is Intergenerational Justice?
by Axel GosseriesCan people alive now have duties to future generations, the unborn millions? If so, what do we owe them? What does “justice” mean in an intergenerational context, both between people who will coexist at some point, and between generations that will never overlap? In this book, Axel Gosseries provides a forensic examination of these issues, comparing and analyzing various views about what we owe our successors. He discusses links between justice and sustainability, and looks at the implications of the fact that our successors’ preferences are heavily influenced by what we will actually leave them and by the education they receive. He also points to how these theoretical considerations apply to real-life issues, ranging from pension reform and Brexit to biodiversity and the climate crisis. He ends by outlining how intergenerational considerations may translate into institutional design. Anyone grappling with the dilemmas of our obligations to the future, from students and scholars to policy makers and active citizens, will find this an invaluable theoretical and practical guide to this moral and political minefield.
What is International Relations?
by Knud Erik JørgensenAs International Relations enters its second century as an academic discipline, leading expert Knud Erik Jørgensen provides a provocative assessment of its past, present and future. In this book, Jørgensen traces International Relations scholarship, from its formative interwar years through to rapid growth in students and researchers in the wake of globalization. He examines the resultant widening of scholarship in the field, and the effects that this has had on the global discipline. The result is a concise and challenging appraisal of International Relations, one which both celebrates its value and maps possible future directions.
What is Iran?: Domestic Politics and International Relations in Five Musical Pieces (The Global Middle East #15)
by Arshin Adib-MoghaddamWhat is Iran? What are its domestic politics? Its history? Its international relations? Here, Arshin Adib-Moghaddam sheds fresh light on these questions, offering a general introduction to everything there is to know about this country. Uniquely, he uses musical pieces as a way to offer a holistic understanding of the full spectrum of Iranian affairs. As a result, even the general reader is invited to traverse a wide array of topics in an interactive format which merges approaches from the social sciences with philosophy, poetry and art. These topics include a variety of themes, issues and personalities: from Trump, Khomeini, the Shah, Saddam Hussein and Qasem Soleimani, to Israel, Syria, Latin America, China and the Gulf monarchies. Ultimately, this book demonstrates in clear and accessible prose the impact of Iranian politics on a global scale, and offers solutions to the various crises enveloping the country in the region and beyond.
What Is Life and How Might It Be Sustained?: Reflections in a Pandemic
by Jim LynchHow did the universe and life begin and what are the threats to people and the environment in a pandemic? This book is for anybody with interest in protecting life on the planet. Studies on the origin of life and scientific contributions to safeguarding the planet are examined in light of current thinking on climate change. A major focus is the spread of microbes, put in the context of environmental assessment and management, including descriptions of microbiomes and a consideration of the risks of genetic modifications. Professor Lynch shows how failure to control disease can lead to the collapse of any biotic population. To avoid this, the ethics of management of disease by biological control and by vaccination are discussed, at the practical level and in a moral theological context.
What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11
by Kenneth R. FeinbergAs head of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Kenneth Feinberg was asked to do the impossible: calculate the dollar value of over 5,000 dead and injured as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings (The Works of Mark Twain #19)
by Mark TwainThe volume includes Mark Twain's previously published philosophical writing. Fictional pieces (even some which develop arguments contained here) are ordinarily excluded, as are other works appropriate to different volumes in this edition. However, "Letter from the Recording Angel," "The Five Boons of Life," and "Letters from the Earth," although they are in a strict sense fictional, have been judged more relevant to the present volume that to the volumes of short fiction. "Things a Scotsman Wants to Know," previously unpublished, is included by agreement with the editor of The Mark Twain Papers, as being especially relevant to themes of this volume. Other unpublished items appear as supplements because of their close relation to What Is Man?, Christian Science, and " 'The Turning Point of My Life.' " The two works that break off with unfinished sentences, "Bible Teaching and Religious Practice" and the introductory section of "Letters from the Earth," were abandoned by the author or else their endings have been lost. The order of works in this volume is according to date of publication or, for those unpublished during the author's lifetime, date of composition. For works published during his lifetime, dates of first publication appear in roman type below titles; for works first published after his death, date are in italics and indicate time of composition.
What Is Marriage?
by Robert P George Ryan T Anderson Sherif GirgisUntil yesterday, no society had seen marriage as anything other than a conjugal partnership: a male-female union. What Is Marriage? identifies and defends the reasons for this historic consensus and shows why redefining civil marriage is unnecessary, unreasonable, and contrary to the common good.Originally published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, this book's core argument quickly became the year's most widely read essay on the most prominent scholarly network in the social sciences. Since then, it has been cited and debated by scholars and activists throughout the world as the most formidable defense of the tradition ever written. Now revamped, expanded, and vastly improved, What Is Marriage? stands poised to meet its moment as few books of this generation have.Rhodes Scholar Sherif Girgis, Heritage Foundation Fellow Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George offer a devastating critique of the idea that equality requires redefining marriage. They show why both sides must first answer the question of what marriage really is. They defend the principle that marriage, as a comprehensive union of mind and body ordered to family life, unites a man and a woman as husband and wife, and they document the social value of applying this principle in law.Most compellingly, they show that those who embrace same-sex civil marriage leave no firm ground-none-for not recognizing every relationship describable in polite English, including polyamorous sexual unions, and that enshrining their view would further erode the norms of marriage, and hence the common good.Finally, What Is Marriage? decisively answers common objections: that the historic view is rooted in bigotry, like laws forbidding interracial marriage; that it is callous to people's needs; that it can't show the harm of recognizing same-sex couplings, or the point of recognizing infertile ones; and that it treats a mere "social construct" as if it were natural, or an unreasoned religious view as if it were rational.If the marriage debate in America is decided soon, it will be with this book's help or despite its powerful arguments.
What is Nietzsche's Zarathustra?: A Philosophical Confrontation
by Heinrich MeierThus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche’s most famous and most puzzling work, one in which he makes the greatest use of poetry to explore the questions posed by philosophy. But in order to understand the movement of this drama, we must first understand the character of its protagonist: we must ask, What Is Nietzsche’s Zarathustra? Heinrich Meier attempts to penetrate the core of the drama, following as a guiding thread the question of whether Zarathustra is a philosopher or a prophet, or, if he is meant to be both, whether Zarathustra is able to unite philosopher and prophet in himself. Via a close reading that uncovers the book’s hidden structure, Meier develops a highly stimulating and original interpretation of this much discussed but still ill-understood masterwork of German poetic prose. In the process, he carefully overturns long-established canons in the academic discourse of Nietzsche-interpretation. The result is a fresh and surprising grasp of Nietzsche’s well-known teachings of the overman, the will to power, and the eternal return.
What Is Orientation in Global Thinking?: A Kantian Inquiry
by Katrin FlikschuhStarting from Kant's striking question 'What is orientation in thinking?', this book argues that the main challenge facing global normative theorising lies in its failure to acknowledge its conceptual inadequacies. We do not know how to reason globally; instead, we tend to apply our domestic political experiences to the global context. Katrin Flikschuh argues that we must develop a form of global reasoning that is sensitive to the variability of contexts: rather than trying to identify a uniquely shareable set of substantive principles, we need to appreciate and understand local reasons for action. Her original and incisive study shows how such reasoning can benefit from the open-ended nature of Kant's systematic but non-dogmatic philosophical thinking, and from reorientation from a domestic to a non-domestic frame of thought. It will appeal to all those interested in global moral issues, as well as to Kant scholars.
What is Pluralism? (Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought)
by Volker Kaul Ingrid SalvatoreIs pluralism inherent to the human condition? Does it have its origins in the diversity of cultures? Are disagreements among individuals the same as disagreements among societies? Focusing on these critical questions essential to the understanding of modern societies, this book traces the origins of pluralism in contemporary political thought and presents new, original interpretations of the idea by contemporary philosophers. The chapters in the volume bring clarity into an ongoing fractious debate and reveal the underlying roots and fissures in our understanding of a dynamic and contested idea. Drawing on the works of John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, and other major political philosophers, they delve into the different strands of the concept, their possible real-world political outcomes, and popular misconceptions. A key text, this volume will be essential reading for scholars and researchers of politics, political theory and philosophy, and social theory.
What Is Political Philosophy?
by Charles LarmoreA new understanding of political philosophy from one of its leading thinkersWhat is political philosophy? What are its fundamental problems? And how should it be distinguished from moral philosophy? In this book, Charles Larmore redefines the distinctive aims of political philosophy, reformulating in this light the basis of a liberal understanding of politics.Because political life is characterized by deep and enduring conflict between rival interests and differing moral ideals, the core problems of political philosophy are the regulation of conflict and the conditions under which the members of society may thus be made subject to political authority. We cannot assume that reason will lead to unanimity about these matters because individuals hold different moral convictions. Larmore therefore analyzes the concept of reasonable disagreement and investigates the ways we can adjudicate conflicts among people who reasonably disagree about the nature of the human good and the proper basis of political society. Challenging both the classical liberalism of Locke, Kant, and Mill, and more recent theories of political realism proposed by Bernard Williams and others, Larmore argues for a version of political liberalism that is centered on political legitimacy rather than on social justice, and that aims to be well suited to our times rather than universally valid.Forceful and thorough yet concise, What Is Political Philosophy? proposes a new definition of political philosophy and demonstrates the profound implications of that definition. The result is a compelling and distinctive intervention from a major political philosopher.
What is Politics?: The Activity and its Study
by Adrian LeftwichWhat is politics? Is it a universal feature of all human societies, past and present? Is it tied to specific institutional arenas? Or is it found in all groups and organizations, large or small, formal or informal? This new textbook seeks to provide answers to these important questions. Starting with what it means to 'think politically', the book goes on to explore a wide range of meanings attributed to the concept of politics from a variety of perspectives and theoretical traditions. It offers succinct and coherent overviews by some of the foremost scholars in the field, and each invites the reader to see the activity of politics in a distinctive way. Topics covered include politics as a form of rule, feminist approaches to politics, Marxism and politics, the politics of human behaviour, environmental politics, politics as collective choice, and Islam and politics. Written with the new student in mind, this concise introduction to the study and activity of politics is essential reading for all those coming to the discipline for the first time.
What Is Politics? Why Should we Care? And Other Big Questions (And Other Big Questions)
by Michael Rosen Annemarie YoungPolitics, in its widest sense, affects us all, every day. What if there were no politics? What would that look like? What does it mean to be political or non-political and what effect do each of these positions have? This book is a highly topical look at how politics affects everyone in society. It looks at the whole political spectrum, in countries around the world and examines what politics means in different contexts and situations. What forms can political action take, and what difference does it make?There are contributions from a range of writers, who, along with the authors, discuss how their ideas of what politics is and can do have been shaped by their life experiences. Readers are encouraged to think for themselves about the issues discussed and decide how or whether they would like to take part in politics at some level.
What Is Populism?
by Jan-Werner MüllerDonald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, Marine Le Pen, Hugo Chávez--populists are on the rise across the globe. But what exactly is populism? Should everyone who criticizes Wall Street or Washington be called a populist? What precisely is the difference between right-wing and left-wing populism? Does populism bring government closer to the people or is it a threat to democracy? Who are "the people" anyway and who can speak in their name? These questions have never been more pressing.In this groundbreaking volume, Jan-Werner Müller argues that at populism's core is a rejection of pluralism. Populists will always claim that they and they alone represent the people and their true interests. Müller also shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, populists can govern on the basis of their claim to exclusive moral representation of the people: if populists have enough power, they will end up creating an authoritarian state that excludes all those not considered part of the proper "people." The book proposes a number of concrete strategies for how liberal democrats should best deal with populists and, in particular, how to counter their claims to speak exclusively for "the silent majority" or "the real people."Analytical, accessible, and provocative, What Is Populism? is grounded in history and draws on examples from Latin America, Europe, and the United States to define the characteristics of populism and the deeper causes of its electoral successes in our time.
What is Possible Now: 33 Political Situations
by Navid KermaniNavid Kermani is one of the outstanding public intellectuals of his generation. Not one for drawing hard and fast conclusions, his style of thought is probing, observant, often straying from well-trodden paths and always peering beyond the present moment to trace connections and grasp the bigger picture. Well known for his prize-winning novels and major works of non-fiction, Kermani has also gained widespread acclaim as a journalist, displaying a rare political sensitivity which manages to illuminate what politicians fail to see and to seek out solutions where all appears hopeless. This volume brings together his brilliantly perceptive writing from the last thirty years, on topics ranging from terror in the Middle East to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a record of Kermani’s uniquely compassionate curiosity, this absorbing book is a welcome antidote to the confusion and despair that stalks global politics today.
What is Property?
by Pierre-Joseph ProudhonProudhon's most famous declaration that "property is theft" comes from this, his most famous work, published in French in 1840; the English translation dates from 1890. According to Proudhon, only that which is being used is real property. Land must be lived on or farmed to be property, and goods must have been made by one's own labor to be owned. These new definitions challenge the very basis of capitalist systems, and Proudhon used them as the foundation for his writings in support of anarchy. Activists, historians, and philosophers will find themselves pondering his arguments long after they have finished reading.
What is Religion? (Routledge Revivals)
by Alban G. WidgeryFirst Published in 1953 What is Religion provides an understanding of religious faith which embraces all of the great and enduring religions. In the process it strips off the irrelevant and inconsequential which every religion accumulates in the course of time, and gets in back of rigid formulations of faith to the primary experiences of the single religious man. Through its detailed consideration of world faiths runs an appealing and consistent philosophy of religion for everyman. Alban Widgery’s aim throughout is constructive, with the purpose of showing religion as supreme in life and of defending its beliefs against forms of antireligious thought. He maintains that the view he presents is more true of religion as it has been in history and also to the general conditions of mankind. This book is a must read for scholars and researchers of philosophy of religion and religion in general.
What is Systematic Theology?
by Robert Doran, S.J.In his classic work Method in Theology, Bernard Lonergan left many questions unanswered in regard to his treatment of systematics. In What Is Systematic Theology? Robert M. Doran attempts to articulate and respond to these questions. Doran begins by accepting four emphases presented by Lonergan concerning systematics: first, that its principal function is the hypothetical and analogical understanding of the mysteries of faith; second, that it should begin with those mysteries of faith that have received dogmatic status; third, that it must proceed in the 'order of teaching' rather than the 'order of discovery'; and last, that it must be explanatory rather than merely descriptive. He then addresses questions that are raised by each of these emphases. What Is Systematic Theology? is the most thorough attempt undertaken to date to advance Lonergan's program for systematics, fully in the spirit of his work but addressing issues that he left to others. Doran's idea of a core set of meanings for systematics – or a 'unified field structure' – is highly original, as is the integration of the systematic ideal and contemporary historical consciousness.
What is Terrorism?: A Book to Help Parents, Teachers and other Grown-ups Talk with Kids about Terror
by Atle Dyregrov Magne Raundalen William YuleTerror acts have taken place in several countries recently, and the media attention they generate means that children are more exposed to hearing about terrorism than ever before. Using simple language suited to children aged 7+, this book is designed for an adult to read along with a child to help ease their misunderstanding and fear.The authors, who are child psychologists, tackle a broad range of important but difficult questions with consideration, including: Why do some people and groups use terrorism? What are adults doing to prevent societies being hurt by terrorism? And what can we do when we feel worried and afraid?An honest and helpful guide to talking about terrorism with children aged 7+, this reassuring book helps adults address children's questions and concerns, in a society where children are unfortunately increasingly aware to it.
What Is the Constitution? (What Was?)
by Patricia Brennan Demuth Who Hq Tim FoleyWe the people at Who HQ bring readers the full story--arguments and all--of how the US Constitution came into being. Signed on September 17, 1787--four years after the American War for Independence--the Constitution laid out the supreme law of the United States of America. Today it's easy for us to take this blueprint of our government for granted. But the Framers--fifty-five men from almost all of the original 13 states--argued fiercely for many months over what ended up being only a four-page document. Here is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the hotly fought issues--those between Northern and Southern States; big states and little ones--and the key players such as James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington who suffered through countless revisions to make the Constitution happen.
What Is the Declaration of Independence? (What Was?)
by Jerry Hoare Kevin Mcveigh Michael C. HarrisStep back in time to the birth of America and meet the real-life rebels who made this country free!On a hot summer day near Philadelphia in 1776, Thomas Jefferson sat at his desk and wrote furiously until early the next morning. He was drafting the Declaration of Independence, a document that would sever this country's ties with Britain and announce a new nation--The United States of America. Colonists were willing to risk their lives for freedom, and the Declaration of Independence made that official. Discover the true story of one of the most radical and uplifting documents in history and follow the action that fueled the Revolutionary War.
What Is the Executive Branch (Your Guide To Government Ser.)
by James BowThe executive branch of the United States government is responsible for putting laws into action. This book carefully explains the workings of the executive branch, from its most visible figure, the President, through to the vice president, cabinet, and executive departments and agencies. Key roles such as the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General are profiled. A comparison to other executive powers in state and local governments, as well as other countries, is also included. Teacher's guide available.
What is the legislative branch (Your Guide to Government)
by James BowThe legislative branch of the United States government represents the people and makes the laws which they live by. This book introduces readers to the House of Representatives and Senate, and the main players in both. Whips, committees, and filibusters are also discussed. A comparison to other legislative bodies in state and local governments, as well as in other countries, is also included.
What Is the Supreme Court? (What Was?)
by Jill Abramson Who HQHear ye, hear ye! Get ready to learn all about the most powerful court in the United States.Ever since it was established in 1789, the United States Supreme Court has had a major impact on the lives of all Americans. Some of its landmark decisions have helped end segregation, protected a person&’s privacy, and allowed people to marry whomever they love. Best-selling author, former executive editor of The New York Times, and self-confessed political junkie, Jill Abramson has written a detailed and fascinating book that explains how the highest court in the United States works, who gets to serve on it, which cases have had the greatest impact on the country, and why the US justice system is so vital to democracy. With 80 black-and-white illustrations and an engaging 16-page photo insert, readers will be excited to read this addition to this New York Times Best-Selling series.
What Is the Truth About the Great Recession and Increasing Inequality?: Dialogues on Disputed Issues and Conflicting Theories
by Mario MorroniHave you ever puzzled over the causes of the 2007–8 financial crisis and wondered how it will affect all our futures? If so, this book is for you. Using imagined dialogue between three economists with contrasting theoretical perspectives and a student who knows little about economics, different interpretations are compared in straightforward, jargon-free language. The book explores both the consequences of neoliberal economic policies based on the belief in efficient, self-regulating markets and the implications of alternative economic visions formulated in response to the Great Recession. In all, nine dialogues are presented, each of which focuses on a key theme: increasing inequality, the failure of economists to predict the crash, the reasons for fiscal austerity, the rolling back of the welfare state, the roles of the state and the market, the repercussions of the German trade surplus and the Eurozone crisis, policies to confront the crisis, environmental degradation, and the need for an industrial policy appropriate to the present day. The book will be ideal for both general readers and those embarking on the study of economics.