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They Wouldn't Let Us Die: The Prisoners of War Tell Their Story
by Stephen A. RowanInterviews with American POWs illuminate their captivity in Vietnamese camps and the emotional and physical horrors that they experienced. <p><p> Immediately after their release from captivity in Vietnam, veteran broadcast journalist Rowan set out to discover how the POWs were able to survive their long years of physical and mental torture. In this classic, he presents twelve gripping interviews with the true heroes of that era: Navy Lieutenant Commander John S. McCain, Marine Corps pilot Ernest Brace, and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Stirm, among them.
Thick: Personal Autonomy in Ethics and Bioethics (Philosophical Studies Series #146)
by James F. Childress Michael QuanteThis book explores, in rich and rigorous ways, the possibilities and limitations of “thick” (concepts of) autonomy in light of contemporary debates in philosophy, ethics, and bioethics. Many standard ethical theories and practices, particularly in domains such as biomedical ethics, incorporate minimal, formal, procedural concepts of personal autonomy and autonomous decisions and actions. Over the last three decades, concerns about the problems and limitations of these “thin” concepts have led to the formulation of “thick” concepts that highlight the mental, corporeal, biographical and social conditions of what it means to be a human person and that enrich concepts of autonomy, with direct implications for the ethical requirement to respect autonomy. The chapters in this book offer a wide range of perspectives on both the elements of and the relations (both positive and negative) between “thin” and “thick” concepts of autonomy as well as their relative roles and importance in ethics and bioethics. This book offers valuable and illuminating examinations of autonomy and respect for autonomy, relevant for audiences in philosophy, ethics, and bioethics.
Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and Its Time to Take It Back
by Jim HightowerIn Thieves in High Places, Jim Hightower takes on the Kleptocrats, Wobblycrats, and Bushites with hilarious results. Digging up behind-the-scenes dirt on stories the corporate news media overlooks (and don’t get him started on them!), Hightower reveals the real stories behind BushCo’s "Friday Night Massacres," what’s happened to our food, and the Bush plan for empire. With grassroots solutions, drawing on Hightower’s national Rolling Thunder Down- Home Democracy Tour—a traveling festival of rebellion against every tentacle of the corporate-politico power grab—Hightower is tapping into the activist network that is thriving at kitchen tables all over America. This is the real America the rest of the world doesn’t get to see, delivered with Hightower’s own hilarious brand of wit and outrage.
Thieves of Purpose: Overcoming the 12 Mindsets Robbing You of Your Potential
by Davin SalvagnoDive Deep into Finding Your Purpose! Thieves of Purpose by Davin Salvagno is a transformative guide designed to help readers overcome obstacles and unlock their full potential.Laws of Success. Through this vital self help tool, Salvagno explores the 12 "thieves" that sabotage our potential and happiness, offering real-life examples, stories, and thought-provoking questions to help readers identify and overcome their personal obstacles and strengthen their moral principles. Drawing from psychology, business research, and interviews with successful leaders, Salvagno provides a comprehensive understanding of how these thief words impact our lives.Finding your purpose at any stage in life. This self help tool is a guide to navigate life's challenges and decision points in any critical stage in your life. Readers will uncover limiting thoughts, develop practical strategies, and cultivate resilience to achieve a more purpose-driven and fulfilling life. If you're seeking to find your purpose, improve work-life balance, and cultivate success, Thieves of Purpose is your self help tool to personal growth and happiness.Inside this valuable self help book you&’ll: Unlock your potential and achieve greater happiness and fulfillment Become empowered to take control of your life through chapters offering vital insights and actionable steps Find support for your journey of self-improvement If you liked The One Truth, The Greatness Mindset, or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you&’ll love Thieves of Purpose.
Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security
by Sarah ChayesA former adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff explains how government's oldest problem is its greatest destabilizing force. The world is blowing up. Every day a new blaze seems to ignite: the bloody implosion of Iraq and Syria; the East-West standoff in Ukraine; abducted schoolgirls in northern Nigeria. Is there some thread tying these frightening international security crises together? In a riveting account that weaves history with fast-moving reportage and insider accounts from the Afghanistan war, Sarah Chayes identifies the unexpected link: corruption. Since the late 1990s, corruption has reached such an extent that some governments resemble glorified criminal gangs, bent solely on their own enrichment. These kleptocrats drive indignant populations to extremes--ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion. Chayes plunges readers into some of the most venal environments on earth and examines what emerges: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government (but also redesigning Al-Qaeda), and Nigerians embracing both radical evangelical Christianity and the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. In many such places, rigid moral codes are put forth as an antidote to the collapse of public integrity. The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Through deep archival research, Chayes reveals that canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument connecting the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Thieves of State presents a powerful new way to understand global extremism. And it makes a compelling case that we must confront corruption, for it is a cause--not a result--of global instability.
Thieves of Virtue: When Bioethics Stole Medicine (Basic Bioethics)
by Tom KochAn argument against the “lifeboat ethic” of contemporary bioethics that views medicine as a commodity rather than a tradition of care and caring.Bioethics emerged in the 1960s from a conviction that physicians and researchers needed the guidance of philosophers in handling the issues raised by technological advances in medicine. It blossomed as a response to the perceived doctor-knows-best paternalism of the traditional medical ethic and today plays a critical role in health policies and treatment decisions. Bioethics claimed to offer a set of generally applicable, universally accepted guidelines that would simplify complex situations. In Thieves of Virtue, Tom Koch contends that bioethics has failed to deliver on its promises. Instead, he argues, bioethics has promoted a view of medicine as a commodity whose delivery is predicated not on care but on economic efficiency.At the heart of bioethics, Koch writes, is a “lifeboat ethic” that assumes “scarcity” of medical resources is a natural condition rather than the result of prior economic, political, and social choices. The idea of natural scarcity requiring ethical triage signaled a shift in ethical emphasis from patient care and the physician's responsibility for it to neoliberal accountancies and the promotion of research as the preeminent good. The solution to the failure of bioethics is not a new set of simplistic principles. Koch points the way to a transformed medical ethics that is humanist, responsible, and defensible.
Thieves of Virtue
by Tom KochBioethics emerged in the 1960s from a conviction that physicians and researchers needed the guidance of philosophers in handling the issues raised by technological advances in medicine. It blossomed as a response to the perceived doctor-knows-best paternalism of the traditional medical ethic and today plays a critical role in health policies and treatment decisions. Bioethics claimed to offer a set of generally applicable, universally accepted guidelines that would simplify complex situations. In Thieves of Virtue, Tom Koch argues that bioethics has failed to deliver on its promises. Instead, he argues, bioethics has promoted a view of medicine as a commodity whose delivery is predicated not on care but on economic efficiency. Koch questions the "founding myths" of bioethics by which moral philosophers became practical ethicists who served as adjudicators of medical practice and planning. High philosophy, he argues, does not provide a guide to the practical dilemmas that arise at the bedside of sick patients. Nobody, he writes, carries Kant to a clinical consult. At the heart of bioethics, Koch writes, is a "lifeboat ethic" that assumes "scarcity" of medical resources is a natural condition rather than the result of prior economic, political, and social choices. The idea of natural scarcity requiring ethical triage signaled a shift in ethical emphasis from patient care and the physician's responsibility for it to neoliberal accountancies and the promotion of research as the preeminent good. The solution to the failure of bioethics is not a new set of simplistic principles. Koch points the way to a transformed medical ethics that is humanist, responsible, and defensible.
Thin Blue Lie: The Failure of High-Tech Policing
by Matt StroudA wide-ranging investigation of how supposedly transformative technologies adopted by law enforcement have actually made policing worse—lazier, more reckless, and more discriminatoryAmerican law enforcement is a system in crisis. After explosive protests responding to police brutality and discrimination in Baltimore, Ferguson, and a long list of other cities, the vexing question of how to reform the police and curb misconduct stokes tempers and fears on both the right and left. In the midst of this fierce debate, however, most of us have taken for granted that innovative new technologies can only help. During the early 90s, in the wake of the infamous Rodney King beating, police leaders began looking to corporations and new technologies for help. In the decades since, these technologies have—in theory—given police powerful, previously unthinkable faculties: the ability to incapacitate a suspect without firing a bullet (Tasers); the capacity to more efficiently assign officers to high-crime areas using computers (Compstat); and, with body cameras, a means of defending against accusations of misconduct.But in this vivid, deeply-reported book, Matt Stroud shows that these tools are overhyped and, in many cases, ineffective. Instead of wrestling with tough fundamental questions about their work, police leaders have looked to technology as a silver bullet and stood by as corporate interests have insinuated themselves ever deeper into the public institution of law enforcement. With a sweeping history of these changes, Thin Blue Lie is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how policing became what it is today.
Thin Sympathy: A Strategy to Thicken Transitional Justice (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights)
by Joanna R. QuinnTransitional justice, commonly defined as the process of confronting the legacies of past human rights abuses and atrocities, often does not produce the kinds of results that are imagined. In multiethnic, divided societies like Uganda, people who have not been directly affected by harm, atrocity, and abuse go about their daily lives without ever confronting what happened in the past. When victims and survivors raise their voices to ask for help, or when plans are announced to address that harm, it is this unaffected population that see such plans as pointless. They complain about what they perceive as the "needless" time and money that will be spent to fix something that they see as unimportant and, ultimately, block any restorative processes.Joanna R. Quinn spent twenty years working in Uganda and uses its particular case as a lens through which she examines the failure of deeply divided societies to acknowledge the past. She proposes that the needed remedy is the development of a very rudimentary understanding—what she calls "thin sympathy"—among individuals in each of the different factions and groups of the other's suffering prior to establishing any transitional justice process. Based on 440 extensive interviews with elites and other thought leaders in government, traditional institutions, faith groups, and NGOs, as well as with women and children throughout the country, Thin Sympathy argues that the acquisition of a basic understanding of what has taken place in the past will enable the development of a more durable transitional justice process.
Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela
by William NeumanRichly reported...a thorough and important history." -Tim Padgett, The New York Times A nuanced and deeply-reported account of the collapse of Venezuela, and what it could mean for the rest of the world.Today, Venezuela is a country of perpetual crisis—a country of rolling blackouts, nearly worthless currency, uncertain supply of water and food, and extreme poverty. In the same land where oil—the largest reserve in the world—sits so close to the surface that it bubbles from the ground, where gold and other mineral resources are abundant, and where the government spends billions of dollars on public works projects that go abandoned, the supermarket shelves are bare and the hospitals have no medicine. Twenty percent of the population has fled, creating the largest refugee exodus in the world, rivaling only war-torn Syria’s crisis. Venezuela’s collapse affects all of Latin America, as well as the United States and the international community.Republicans like to point to Venezuela as the perfect example of the emptiness of socialism, but it is a better model for something else: the destructive potential of charismatic populist leadership. The ascent of Hugo Chávez was a precursor to the emergence of strongmen that can now be seen all over the world, and the success of the corrupt economy he presided over only lasted while oil sold for more than $100 a barrel. Chávez’s regime and policies, which have been reinforced under Nicolás Maduro, squandered abundant resources and ultimately bankrupted the country.Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse is a fluid combination of journalism, memoir, and history that chronicles Venezuela’s tragic journey from petro-riches to poverty. Author William Neuman witnessed it all firsthand while living in Caracas and serving as the New York Times Andes Region Bureau Chief. His book paints a clear-eyed, riveting, and highly personal portrait of the crisis unfolding in real time, with all of its tropical surrealism, extremes of wealth and suffering, and gripping drama. It is also a heartfelt reflection of the country’s great beauty and vibrancy—and the energy, passion, and humor of its people, even under the most challenging circumstances.
Think a Second Time
by Dennis PragerWhat are the two great lies of the 20th century? Is there a solution to evil? What matters more, blood or love? Can a good man go to a striptease show? Do you think you have the answers? ...Think a second time. Dennis Prager, theologian and philosopher turned talk-show host, is one of the most brilliant and compelling voices in America today. His extraordinarily popular radio show with the signature sign-off, "Think a second time," coupled with his own biweekly newsletter, has firmly established him as a fixture in intellectual communities nationwide. In Think a Second Time, Prager blends a rigorous and scholarly education with utterly original thinking on current events. From the dangers of idealism to the roots of extremism to his thoughts on God and an afterlife, Prager offers challenging answers to up-to-the-minute questions: Should a single woman have a child? Why don't good homes always produce good children? Is America really racist? Why does the Holocaust not negate the existence of God? Now, with an entirely new section on the precedent-setting "Baby Richard" custody case and an exploration of the issue of blood versus love, Prager continues to demonstrate his ability to draw clear moral lines in the sands of our very troubled times.
Think and Act Anew: How Poverty in America Affects Us All and What We Can Do About It
by Larry SnyderA call to action that challenges government, business, and individuals to reexamine poverty in America and to devise new, sustainable solutions. In Think and Act Anew, Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, asserts that poverty in America can be reduced or eliminated only if we take a fresh look at "the poor" and understand that there are as many causes of poverty as there are people. Looking at the lives of the millions of people who rely on Catholic Charities agencies for their basic needs, like housing, food, and healthcare, Snyder shows how the recent economic meltdown has affected Americans from every walk of life. Think and Act Anew also includes portraits of those who have fallen into poverty, such as a Tucson family that lost everything in the mortgage crisis and a life-long construction worker from Little Rock now on food stamps. It also includes examples of individuals, organizations, and local governments who are taking a new look at how we serve the poor, such as a celebrity chef in Washington, D. C. , who uses his talents to feed the hungry and to train them for jobs in the food industry, and innovative programs like the Harlem Children's Zone. Snyder draws on Catholic social teaching-particularly Pope Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate that declares the inherent dignity of all human beings and maintains that charity and justice are the core principles on which economic decisions must be based. Book jacket.
Think! Eat! Act!: A Sea Shepherd Chef's Vegan Recipes (Vegan Cookbooks Ser.)
by Raffaella TolicettiThink!, Eat!, Act! is a cookbook featuring the vegan food prepared on the Sea Shepherd ships' anti-whaling campaigns. Inspired by the Sea Shepherd's goal of protecting the animals that are victims of human cruelty, this book uses delicious vegan food to show readers that every action has a consequence, and that you can live both well and compassionately, even while facing the challenges of being an activist living on a ship.
Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die
by Steven NadlerFrom Pulitzer Prize-finalist Steven Nadler, an engaging guide to what Spinoza can teach us about life’s big questionsIn 1656, after being excommunicated from Amsterdam’s Portuguese-Jewish community for “abominable heresies” and “monstrous deeds,” the young Baruch Spinoza abandoned his family’s import business to dedicate his life to philosophy. He quickly became notorious across Europe for his views on God, the Bible, and miracles, as well as for his uncompromising defense of free thought. Yet the radicalism of Spinoza’s views has long obscured that his primary reason for turning to philosophy was to answer one of humanity’s most urgent questions: How can we lead a good life and enjoy happiness in a world without a providential God? In Think Least of Death, Pulitzer Prize–finalist Steven Nadler connects Spinoza’s ideas with his life and times to offer a compelling account of how the philosopher can provide a guide to living one’s best life.In the Ethics, Spinoza presents his vision of the ideal human being, the “free person” who, motivated by reason, lives a life of joy devoted to what is most important—improving oneself and others. Untroubled by passions such as hate, greed, and envy, free people treat others with benevolence, justice, and charity. Focusing on the rewards of goodness, they enjoy the pleasures of this world, but in moderation. “The free person thinks least of all of death,” Spinoza writes, “and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life."An unmatched introduction to Spinoza’s moral philosophy, Think Least of Death shows how his ideas still provide valuable insights about how to live today.
Think Like a Terrorist to Combat Terrorism and Radicalization in Prison
by William P. Sturgeon Francesca SpinaThink Like a Terrorist to Combat Terrorism and Radicalization in Prison provides guidelines for hardening facilities, training staff, preparing for radicalized-terrorist inmates’ incarceration, and monitoring these inmates after their release. The book combines practitioner experience with scholarly insights to offer practical suggestions bolstered by research. The authors offer suggestions for housing, programming, security, and staff training with the ultimate goal of keeping correctional facilities, staff, and other inmates, safe from radicalization and spreading terrorist doctrines and terrorist acts, which requires examining and potentially changing prison and correctional officer policies and procedures, hiring and training suitable staff, and ensuring technology is available. Correctional facilities can curtail the recruitment and radicalization of inmates by developing staff training, de-radicalization programs, management methods, techniques, and practices that address the recruitment issues associated with this threat. The need for understanding, and the role line correctional officers and first-line supervisors play in preventing radicalization, is critical in this process. It is also vital to connect with and maintain communication with appropriate security and intelligence agencies as needed. Key Features: • Outlines common terrorist and extremist activities in prison using relevant real-world examples • Instructs on how to detect and recognize such efforts as recruitment and radicalization and how to curtail and prevent such activity • Provides guidance on establishing de-radicalization programs within prison facilities • Presents recommendations on collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence to correctional, law-enforcement, and intelligence agencies on potential terrorist activities and recruitment efforts
Think Risk: A Practical Guide to Actively Managing Risk
by Shital Thekdi Terje AvenRisk is the single most prevalent and enduring factor that influences every individual, organization, and society. People often seek protection from negative risk events, but also seek to take advantage of opportunities arising from positive risk events. We may feel overwhelmed by messages encountered in daily interactions with media and society, contributing to a sense of ambiguity over how to act in response to risk-related information and misinformation. We seek to leverage evidence and reason to find our own balance between both positive and negative outcomes in an uncertain world. This groundbreaking book delivers practical concepts and tools that empower readers to leverage innovations in risk science to improve their abilities to interpret, assess, communicate, and handle risk. It provides a practical non-quantitative approach to understanding the risk and making better decisions involving risk. Think RISK covers several key themes in risk science: a) the main goals and strategies for understanding and managing risk; b) how readers can inform their risk stances by considering their own individual values and mission; c) the difference between risk and safety, and how that difference is critical for managing the risk; d) the role of psychological factors when understanding and managing the risk; e) the role of communication when understanding and managing the risk; and f) the general importance and incentives for effectively understanding and managing the risk. Written for business professionals in all private and public sectors, this book will also be relevant to non-business professionals such as medical practitioners and policymakers and would be an ideal fit for executive education and seminar-style courses in universities, corporate book clubs, and training seminars. Because it’s based on foundational and scientifically accepted ideas and principles, the book should remain relevant for many years.
Think Tanks in Australia: Policy Contributions and Influence (Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy Series)
by Trent HaglandThis book provides the most comprehensive study of the Australian think-tank industry to date. Drawing on empirical evidence, it first assesses the structure of the industry, the methods think tanks use to persuade policymakers, and public perceptions of their effectiveness. The book then proceeds to examine three unique policy cases to analyse think tank influence on policymaking. It argues that whilst think tanks play important roles in Australia’s policy process, their impacts vary depending on their approach and objectives. The book also demonstrates that policymakers with contrasting ideological orientations diverge in their assessments of the utility and influence of think tanks. It will appeal to students and scholars of public policy, and practitioners in public administration and governance.
Thinking about Bribery: Neuroscience, Moral Cognition and the Psychology of Bribery
by Nichols Philip M. Robertson Diana C.Bribery is perhaps the most visible and most frequently studied form of corruption. Very little research, however, examines the individual decision to offer or accept a bribe, or how understanding that decision can help to effectively control bribery. This book brings together research by scholars from a variety of disciplines studying the mind and morality, who use their research to explain how and why decisions regarding participation in bribery are made. It first examines bribery from the perspective of brain structure, then approaches the decision to engage in bribery from a cognitive perspective. It examines the psychological costs imposed on a person who engages in bribery, and studies societal and organizational norms and their impact on bribery. This is an ideal read for scholars and other interested persons studying business ethics, bribery and corruption, corruption control, and the applications of neuroscience in a business environment.
Thinking About Clinical Legal Education: Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives (Emerging Legal Education)
by Omar MadhloomThinking About Clinical Legal Education provides a range of philosophical and theoretical frameworks that can serve to enrich the teaching and practice of Clinical Legal Education (CLE). CLE has become an increasingly common feature of the curriculum in law schools across the globe. However, there has been relatively little attention paid to the theoretical and philosophical dimensions of this approach. This edited collection seeks to address this gap by bringing together contributions from the clinical community, to analyse their CLE practice using the framework of a clearly articulated philosophical or theoretical approach. Contributions include insights from a range of jurisdictions including: Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Ethiopia, Israel, Spain, UK and the US. This book will be of interest to CLE academics and clinic supervisors, practitioners, and students.
Thinking About Crime
by James Q. WilsonAs crime rates inexorably rose during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, disputes over how to handle the violence sweeping the nation quickly escalated. James Q. Wilson redefined the public debate by offering a brilliant and provocative new argument--that criminal activity is largely rational and shaped by the rewards and penalties it offers--and forever changed the way Americans think about crime. Now with a new foreword by the prominent scholar and best-selling author Charles Murray, this revised edition of Thinking About Crime introduces a new generation of readers to the theories and ideas that have been so influential in shaping the American justice system.
Thinking About Crime (Revised Edition)
by D. L. Wilson James P. WilsonAs crime rates inexorably rose during the tumultuous years of the 1970s, disputes over how to handle the violence sweeping the nation quickly escalated. James Q. Wilson redefined the public debate by offering a brilliant and provocative new argument-that criminal activity is largely rational and shaped by the rewards and penalties it offers-and forever changed the way Americans think about crime. Now with a new foreword by the prominent scholar and best-selling author Charles Murray, this revised edition of Thinking About Crime introduces a new generation of readers to the theories and ideas that have been so influential in shaping the American justice system.
Thinking About Medicine: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Healthcare
by David MisselbrookThis introduction to the philosophy of medicine surveys the landscape of western philosophy as it pertains to healthcare in an accessible way. Written by a doctor for doctors and other health professionals, framing the 'toolbox' of philosophy within the community of medicine, it encourages examination of the implicit assumptions made in the construction of medical knowledge and practice.Taking the reader step by step through the concepts that underpin modern philosophy, they will be challenged to reflect upon the premises within clinical practice which might benefit from scrutiny and challenge, including the nature of scientific knowledge, the limits of our biomedical model, the cultural and relational context, and the failure to recognise or manage adequately the fact/value distinction in medicine and healthcare.The book is an ideal textbook for students of medicine and medical philosophy and will also be of interest to bioethicists, medical sociologists, clinical commissioners and to practicing clinicians in medicine and the allied health professions seeking to improve their understanding of philosophy and ethics and sharpen their critical thinking skills.
Thinking about Nature: An Investigation of Nature, Value and Ecology (Routledge Revivals)
by Andrew BrennanEcology – unlike astronomy, physics, or chemistry – is a science with an associated political and ethical movement: the Green Movement. As a result, the ecological position is often accompanied by appeals to holism, and by a mystical quasi-religious conception of the ecosystem. In this title, first published in 1988, Andrew Brennan argues that we can reduce much of the mysticism surrounding ecological discussions by placing them within a larger context, and illustrating that our individual interests are bound with larger, community interests. Using an interdisciplinary approach, which bridges the gap between the sciences, philosophy, and ethics, this is an accessible title, which will be of particular value to students with an interest in the philosophy of environmental science and ethics.
Thinking about Statutes: Interpretation, Interaction, Improvement (The Hamlyn Lectures)
by Andrew BurrowsWe are in the age of statutes; and it is indisputable that statutes are swallowing up the common law. Yet the study of statutes as a coherent whole is rare. In these three lectures, given as the 2017 Hamlyn Lecture series, Professor Andrew Burrows takes on the challenge of thinking seriously and at a practical level about statutes in English law. In his characteristically lively and punchy style, he examines three central aspects which he labels interpretation, interaction and improvement. So how are statutes interpreted? Is statutory interpretation best understood as seeking to effect the intention of Parliament or is that an unhelpful fiction? Can the common law be developed by analogy to statutes? Do the judges have too much power in developing the common law and in interpreting statutes? How can our statutes be improved? These and many other questions are explored and answered in this accessible and thought-provoking analysis.
Thinking about the Prophets: A Philosopher Reads the Bible (JPS Essential Judaism)
by Kenneth SeeskinRethinking the great literary prophets whose ministry ran from the eighth to the sixth centuries BCE—Amos, Hosea, First Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Second Isaiah, and Job—Thinking about the Prophets examines their often-shocking teachings in light of their times, their influence on later Western and Jewish thinkers, and their enduring lessons for all of us. As a noted scholar of Jewish philosophy, Kenneth Seeskin teases out philosophical, ethical, and theological questions in the writings, such as the nature of moral reasoning, the divine persona, divine providence, the suffering of the innocent, the power of repentance, and what it means to believe in a monotheistic conception of God. Seeskin demonstrates that great ideas are not limited by time or place, but rather once put forth, take on a life of their own. Thus he interweaves the medieval and modern philosophers Maimonides, Kant, Cohen, Buber, Levinas, Heschel, and Soloveitchik, all of whom read the prophets and had important things to say as a result. We come to see the prophets perhaps in equal measure as divinely authorized whistle-blowers and profound thinkers of the human condition. Readers of all levels will find this volume an accessible and provoking introduction to the enduring significance of biblical prophecy.