Social Ethics

How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? This audiobook version of a David Foster Wallace commencement speech, read by his sister, Amy Wallace-Havens, captures his electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

Written in Greek, without any intention of publication, by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Ranging from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the nature of moral virtue, human rationality, divine providence, and Marcus' own emotions.

On the Genealogy of Morals: A Polemic is an 1887 work by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It consists of a preface and three interconnected essays that expand on concepts Nietzsche first raised in Beyond Good and Evil (1886). The three essays question and critique the value of our moral judgments based on a method whereby Nietzsche examines the origins and meanings of our different moral concepts.

Reparations for slavery have become a reinvigorated topic for public debate over the last decade. Most theorizing about reparations treats it as a social justice project—either rooted in reconciliatory justice focused on making amends in the present; or, they focus on the past, emphasizing restitution for historical wrongs. Olúfemi O. Táiwò argues that neither approach is optimal, and advances a different case for reparations—one rooted in a hopeful future that tackles the issue of climate change head on, with distributive justice at its core.

This audiobook is the most affordable version of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius that also has high quality, masterfully engineered audio. We modify audio for your pleasure. We use a computer-assisted dynamic-leveling process to ensure audio stays within an optimal listening range. Noise-gate technology is used in all books to eliminate all background and room noise disturbances for your enjoyment of the book. We are dedicated to providing you with the best possible audio experience at the best possible price. Enjoy this classic to the fullest!

As a young father and a self-proclaimed “radically assimilated immigrant,” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son’s moral fiber, today’s America is woefully lacking. For millennia, the world’s great ethical and religious traditions have taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits.

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, narrated by Richard Stibbard, is a foundational work of transcendentalist philosophy that explores the profound connection between humanity and the natural world. In this timeless essay, Emerson encourages readers to look beyond the superficial and appreciate the deeper spiritual and philosophical lessons that nature offers. By finding unity and harmony with nature, Emerson suggests, individuals can achieve greater self-awareness, insight, and enlightenment.

In Knowing the Score, philosopher David Papineau uses sports to illuminate some of modern philosophy's most perplexing questions. As Papineau demonstrates, the study of sports clarifies, challenges, and sometimes confuses crucial issues in philosophy. The tactics of road bicycle racing shed new light on questions of altruism, while sporting family dynasties reorient the nature v. nurture debate. Why do sports competitors choke? Why do fans think God will favor their team over their rivals? How can it be moral to deceive the umpire by framing a pitch?

In the original meaning of the word, hackers are enthusiastic computer programmers who share their work with others; they are not computer criminals. This is the book that cracks the stigma of the hacker and articulates their invaluable role in the information age.

As Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch labored to make a place for themselves in a male-dominated world, as they made friendships and families, and as they drifted toward and away from each other, they never stopped insisting that some lives are better than others. Drawing on a cluster of recently opened archives and extensive correspondence and interviews with those who knew them best, Benjamin Lipscomb traces the lives and ideas of four friends who gave us a better way to think about ethics, and ourselves.

Figura capital del pensamiento filosófico de Grecia junto con Platón, su maestro, Aristóteles (384-322 a.C.) fue autor de una vasta obra que abarcó desde la lógica y la metafísica a la biología y las ciencias naturales, pasando por la retórica, la poética, la política y la ética. Conjunto de recomendaciones dirigidas en un principio a la educación de su hijo, su Ética a Nicómaco plantea y trata esencialmente la cuestión de cómo debe el ser humano ordenar su conducta para alcanzar la felicidad.

To flourish, humans need to develop virtues of independent thought and acknowledged social dependence. In this book, a leading moral philosopher presents a comparison of humans to other animals and explores the impact of these virtues.

A book of everyday ethics by a man whom Pope St. John Paul II called “one of the great ethicists of the 20th century”, The Art of Living is Dietrich von Hildebrand’s essential guide to the moral life. In just over four hours, Dietrich von Hildebrand, with his wife Alice, presents a distinctive view of the virtuous life that begins with reverence, “the mother of all virtues”, and includes chapters on “Faithfulness”, “Goodness”, “Hope”, “The Human Heart”, and many others.

This audiobook, the culmination of 40 years of theorizing about the moral status of animals, explicates and justifies society’s moral obligation to animals in terms of the commonsense metaphysics and ethics of Aristotle’s concept of telos.

In 2008, the American economy collapsed, taking with it millions of Americans' jobs, homes, and life savings. The impending financial crisis was devastating, and many are still feeling its effects today. Though the crisis was debilitating, the US government has yet to implement policies that would prevent a repeat of the Great Recession. Nothing Is Too Big to Fail holds a microscope to the very policies and corruption that led to this major economic recession.

Worldwide, more people die by suicide than by murder, and many more are left behind to grieve. Despite distressing statistics that show suicide rates rising, the subject, long a taboo, is infrequently talked about. In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history, poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht channels her grief for two friends lost to suicide into a search for history’s most persuasive arguments against the irretrievable act, arguments she hopes to bring back into public consciousness.

Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, one of America's first spies, said, "Any kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary." A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and is it really true that any kind of service is permissible for the public good? These questions are at the heart of James M. Olson's book, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying.

Too often, different fields do not talk to each other, and specialized professions cannot touch sensitive matters, which slows and even stops our ability to find the truth. This book's initial purpose was to break free of these cultural chains, but the journey that started with this simple question—how to wake people up—became an answer to what evil’s origin could be. If you are not afraid to look into the darkness, then this book is for you.

Today, it is usually not long before a problem gets expressed as a human rights issue. Indeed, human rights law continues to gain increasing attention internationally, and must move quickly in order to keep up with a social world that changes so rapidly. This Very Short Introduction title, in its second edition, brings the issue of human rights up to date, considering the current controversies surrounding the movement.

Counsels and Maxims is a classic work by noted German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. His work has influenced some of the modern world's greatest thinkers, including Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Erwin Schrödinger. This piece was originally translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders.