Social Ethics

Fiction is an Art in every way, worthy to be called the sister and the equal of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, Music, and Poetry; that is to say, her field is as boundless, her possibilities as vast, her excellences as worthy of admiration, as may be claimed for any of her sister Arts.

As we cope with the lengthening effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic, considerations of everyday risk have been more pressing and inescapable. In the past, everyone engaged in some degree of risky behaviour, from mundane realities like taking a shower or getting into a car to purposely thrill-seeking activities like rock-climbing or BASE jumping. Many activities that seemed high-risk, such as flying, were claimed basically safe. But risk was, and always has been, a fact of life.

Are you interested in philosophy? Do the greatest thinkers from the past influence the way you think and act? Philosophers have been shaping the world for centuries. Their ideas have shaped the way we act as individuals and groups for as long as we can remember, and their deep thought processes have been marveled at and replicated by millions across the world.

In this groundbreaking book, Anita Hannig brings us into the lives of ordinary Americans who go to extraordinary lengths to set the terms of their own death. Faced with a terminal diagnosis and unbearable suffering, they decide to seek medical assistance in dying—a legal option now available to one in five Americans. The Day I Die tackles one of the most urgent social issues of our time: how to restore dignity and meaning to the dying process in the age of high-tech medicine.

When it comes to same-sex relationships, this book by Karen Keen contains the most thoughtful, balanced, biblically grounded discussion you’re likely to encounter anywhere. With pastoral sensitivity and respect for biblical authority, Keen breaks through current stalemates in the debate surrounding faith and sexual identity.

As Erich Fromm points out, ours is "a life between having and being"—between mere having and healthy being, between destructiveness and creativity, between narcissism and productive self-understanding, between passivity and the joy of positive activity. The alternatives of having and being are basic orientations of our character and determine our behavior. The mostly unpublished and unknown texts featured in The Essential Fromm encapsulate the psychologist's views on the fulfilling life.

As home life and work life become increasingly integrated in contemporary life, success (or failure) in either has an undeniable effect on the other. And while the profound events that began the 21st century have intensified the desire to focus on what matters most to us, there is still often a substantial gap between what we say matters most and the way we actually spend our time and money. Our credit-card and checking-account statements may clearly reflect this. But it is possible to keep both areas moving forward in positive ways.

The best-selling author of Perfectly Legal returns with a powerful new expose.

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, the leading free expression organisation, argues that alongside the necessary and long-overdue elevation of minority voices in recent years, there has also arisen an uncompromising intolerance. Charlotte Lydia Riley, historian of empire and editor of The Free Speech Wars, argues that accusations of cancel culture and defences of free speech are too often disingenuous attempts to fuel a culture war.

Philosophy is a life tool, a set of skills for engaging with any subject, and in Philosophy: The Audio Masterclass you will discover a body of wisdom and a way to develop your own critical and creative thinking. Explore the key ideas in Western Philosophy and the arguments that continue to shape our world. Discover what philosophy is really about, question free will and see how philosophy relates to everything from comics to coffee.

Most of us want to succeed. And most of us want to do the right thing. But we often forget that the way tosucceed is by doing the right thing, as Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe remind us in Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing. When the institutions that shape our society need to change, the people in them typically either make more rules or offer smarter incentives.

Meet the economic gangster. He's the United Nations diplomat who double-parks his Mercedes on New York City streets at rush hour because the cops can't touch him--he has diplomatic immunity. He's the Chinese smuggler who dodges tariffs by magically transforming frozen chickens into frozen turkeys. The dictator, the warlord, the unscrupulous bureaucrat who bilks the developing world of billions in aid

Sexual ethics has historically been a bleak landscape of three false alternatives - resist, abstain, or indiscriminately indulge. In Eros and Ethos, philosopher Jason Stotts presents a radical, new alternative in which sex is an ethically important part of a rich human life. He shows how sex is a significant expression of our character, because sex arises out of the deepest and most fundamental parts of who we are.

In this sensitive and probing book, Matthew Ichihashi Potts explores the complex moral terrain of forgiveness, which he claims has too often served as a salve to the conscience of power rather than as an instrument of healing or justice. Though forgiveness is often linked with reconciliation or the abatement of anger, Potts resists these associations, asserting instead that forgiveness is simply the refusal of retaliatory violence through practices of penitence and grief.

Why We Hate tackles a pressing issue of both longstanding interest and fresh relevance: why a social species like Homo sapiens should nevertheless be so hateful to itself. We go to war and are prejudiced against our fellow human beings. We discriminate on the basis of nationality, class, race, sexual orientation, religion, and gender. Why are humans at once so social and so hateful to each other? In this book, Michael Ruse looks at scientific understandings of human hatred, particularly Darwinian evolutionary theory.

Just and Unjust Wars has forever changed how we think about the ethics of conflict. In this modern classic, political philosopher Michael Walzer examines the moral issues that arise before, during, and after the wars we fight. Reaching from the Athenian attack on Melos, to the Mai Lai massacre, to the war in Afghanistan and beyond, Walzer mines historical and contemporary accounts and the testimony of participants, decision makers, and victims to explain when war is justified and what ethical limitations apply to those who wage it.

Even if you’re stressed, unhappy, or highly anxious in everyday life and have tried fixing it before with books, videos, or even a therapist, don’t worry. You’re not alone and this guide can help you like it helped many others. While most other philosophy books will only cover basics and not go into the underlying human mechanics that actually make you tick and feel what you feel right now, this book actually helps you to get under your own skin and systematically create the habits and tools to create lasting change from the inside-out.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was one of the most influential philosophers of all time. His profound thoughts on aesthetics, ethics, and knowledge has had an enormous impact on all subsequent philosophy. Kant asked questions like “What is morally permissible, and what is morally obligatory?” and explored the answers in Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals. Kant's idea of the categorical imperative is a logical proof of the golden rule and the centerpiece of this work.

Kant published this work in 1795, during the aftermath of the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The high hopes of the European Enlightenment had been dampened by the Reign of Terror in which tens of thousands of people died, and the perpetual cycle of war and temporary armistice seemed to be inescapable. Kant's essay is best known as an early articulation of the idea of a league of nations that could bring an end to all hostilities. Today, the United Nations continues to pursue that dream, but lasting peace still seems to be wishful thinking.

The True, the Good, and the Beautiful are as timeless a trio of concepts as Western culture has to offer. Since before Socrates, humankind has explored these virtues in an attempt to describe and categorize them. Our definitions of these concepts, moreover, have unceasingly changed over the ages and across continents.