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The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
by Richard JoyceMoral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking—staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms—if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"—might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject.Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.
The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction
by Scott R. StroudThe story of how the Indian reformer Bhimrao Ambedkar reimagined John Dewey’s pragmatism. In The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, Scott R. Stroud delivers a comprehensive exploration of the influence of John Dewey’s pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Republic of India’s constitution. Stroud traces Ambedkar’s development in Dewey’s Columbia University classes in 1913–1916 through his final years in 1950s India when he rewrote the story of Buddhism. Stroud examines pragmatism’s influence not only on the philosophical ideas underpinning Ambedkar’s fight against caste oppression but also how his persuasive techniques drew on pragmatism’s commitment to reconstruction and meliorism. At the same time, Stroud is careful to point out the ways that Ambedkar pushed back against Dewey’s paradigm and developed his own approach to challenges in India. The result is a nuanced study of one of the most important figures in Indian history.
The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures)
by David B. Small Dmitri M. Bondarenko Stephen A. KowalewskiThis book presents a novel and innovative approach to the study of social evolution using case studies from the Old and the New World, from prehistory to the present. This approach is based on examining social evolution through the evolution of social institutions. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a vast number of social institutions that are constantly interacting and changing. As a result, the structure of society as a whole is also evolving and changing. The authors posit that the combination of evolving social institutions explains the non-linear character of social evolution and that every society develops along its own pathway and pace. Within this framework, society should be seen as the result of the compound effect of the interactions of social institutions specific to it. Further, the transformation of social institutions and relations between them is taking place not only within individual societies but also globally, as institutions may be trans-societal, and even institutions that operate in one society can arise as a reaction to trans-societal trends and demands. The book argues that it may be more productive to look at institutions even within a given society as being parts of trans-societal systems of institutions since, despite their interconnectedness, societies still have boundaries, which their members usually know and respect. Accordingly, the book is a must-read for researchers and scholars in various disciplines who are interested in a better understanding of the origins, history, successes and failures of social institutions.
The Evolution of Socialist Feminism from Eleanor Marx to AOC
by Karen BojarThe Evolution of Socialist Feminism from Eleanor Marx to AOC traces the intersection of feminism and socialism as it has played out in the socialist movements arising in Europe and North America in the nineteenth through early twenty-first centuries. From well-known figures in the history of socialism, such as Rosa Luxemburg, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Angela Davis, to lesser-known individuals including Claudia Jones, Sheila Rowbotham, and Zillah Eisenstein, this book examines the socialist feminists who have been among the most powerful voices insisting on freedom of expression and participatory democracy within the socialist movement as well as within the larger society. It considers how these figures contributed to what has become a twenty-first-century multiracial grassroots socialist feminist movement led by young women of color, playing a major role in radical movements across the globe.The Evolution of Socialist Feminism from Eleanor Marx to AOC is an important text for undergraduate students of politics, sociology, and gender studies, as well as for the general reader.
The Evolution of Team-Based Buddhist Scripture Translation in Tang China: United in Dharma (SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies)
by Sai Yau SiuOpen Access This open-access book provides a concise analysis of the apex of team-based translation of Buddhist scriptures during the Tang Dynasty, initiated by the notable gathering of translation experts led by Prabhākaramitra. Showcasing the diverse and innovative strategies of translators who joined forces to surmount barriers, this work highlights how their collaborative translation efforts facilitated the spread of Buddhist teachings throughout China. This book brings to light the often overlooked yet crucial roles of these translation teams and examines their organizational structures, translation processes, and the distinct roles of individual members, offering critical insights into the cultural and religious fabric of the period. By enhancing our understanding of the complex dynamics within these institutions, this work also addresses a significant gap in the historical study of sūtra translation in medieval China. It is an essential resource for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Buddhism, translation studies, and Chinese history.
The Evolution of the Private Language Argument (Ashgate Wittgensteinian Studies)
by Keld Stehr NielsenThe Evolution of the Private Language Argument presents a continuous view of modern analytical philosophy by telling the history of one of its central strands. It is an in-depth history of this well known philosophical argument, the evolution of Wittgenstein's thoughts and its influence on analytical philosophy of mind and language. Nielsen looks at early discussions of the private language argument in the Vienna Circle and the influence of Wittgenstein's ideas and examines the relation between the early and later Wittgenstein on this subject. He discusses which influential versions of the private language argument have been presented in the fifty years since Philosophical Investigations was published and how they relate to Wittgenstein's thoughts, and considers how the role and the interpretation of the argument, and Wittgenstein's philosophy, changed along with changes in the conception of the nature of analytic philosophy.
The Evolution of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values
by Nick SpencerWhat has Christianity ever done for us? A lot more than you might think, as Nick Spencer reveals in this fresh exploration of our cultural origins. <P><P>Looking at the big ideas that characterize the West, such as human dignity, the rule of law, human rights, science, and even, paradoxically, atheism and secularism,he traces the varied ways in which many of our present values grew up and flourished in distinctively Christian soil. <P><P>Always alert to the tensions and mess of history, and careful not to overstate or misstate the Christian role in shaping our present values, Spencer shows us how a better awareness of what we owe to Christianity can help us as we face new cultural challenges.
The Evolutionary Invisible Hand: The Problem of Rational Decision-Making and Social Ordering over Time (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)
by Matúš PošvancThe book presents a new theoretical approach to the description of economic phenomena over time. A realistic and meaningful description of economic phenomena over time is one of the basic preconditions for the success of any economic theory. The presented theoretical solution or proposal has two main characteristics. The first is a modification of the theory of subjective value in the form of the claim that one perceives the satisfaction of one's needs in the context of one's overall individual portfolio of goods. The causal relationship of the “old” theory in the form of “need is satisfied by good” is modified in terms of “sum of needs is satisfied by portfolio of goods (sum of goods)”. This is a small modification, which, however, brings several important elements to the description of economic phenomena over time. The old theoretical approach did not enable us to operate over time because of different value context of goods which is changing over time. However, the portfolio of goods is, in fact, a formally-logical homogeneous construction of the mind, which is applicable over time. The second characteristic is the anchoring of this modification of the theory of subjective value in evolutionary (intersubjective) apriorism. The book will be of interest to any Austrian and Mainstream Economists who deal with problems of description of economic phenomena in time. Also, for those involved in topics such as estimating of future, why entrepreneurs are successful or the problem of social ordering or equilibration and those who are interested in the new evolutionary approach to the emergence of criteria for rational decision-making.
The Evolutionary Limits of Liberalism: Democratic Problems, Market Solutions and the Ethics of Preference Satisfaction (Palgrave Studies in Classical Liberalism)
by Filipe Nobre FariaThis book assesses the evolutionary sustainability of liberalism. The book’s central claim is that liberal institutions ultimately weaken their social groups in the evolutionary process of inter-group competition. In this sense, institutions relying on the liberal satisfaction of preferences reveal maladaptive tendencies. Based on the model of multilevel selection, this work appraises the capacity of liberal democracy and free markets to satisfy preferences. In particular, the book re-evaluates public choice theory’s classic postulate that free markets are a suitable alternative to the shortcomings of western liberal democracies regarding preference satisfaction. Yet, the book concludes that free markets are not a solution to the problems of liberal democracy because both market and democratic liberal institutions rest on the liberal satisfaction of preferences, an ethic which hurts group evolutionary fitness. This volume is of interest to political theorists, evolutionary ethicists, political economists and to general readers interested in the future of liberalism.
The Evolving Landscape of Higher Education in India: Post-pandemic Policies and Transformations
by Sudhanshu BhushanThe edited volume discusses the long period of post-colonial developments in higher education in India. It examines the legitimacy of the policies pursued post-pandemic with a focus on the role of teachers and the students' voices. It addresses the essential question of how the technological ascendance in higher education addresses social justice. What is the role of teachers in a new landscape of higher education? It offers insights into the efficiency-centric proposition of the state-market-technology triad, the current paradigm of higher education worldwide. It presents evidence to understand how efficiency has a tradeoff with various aspects of social justice. The authors deal with questions, such as the challenges of privatization and how the commodification of higher education runs counter to the idea of inclusive higher education. The authors critically look at the online form of higher education and how it has led to the shrinkage of democratic spaces in higher education. It discusses the transformative role of teachers with increasing managerialism of higher education. The book highlights a deep understanding of the increasing role of the market and technology and their influence in negating an inclusive and democratic public space in higher education. It appeals to teachers and students by enabling them to understand the market's and technology's impacts on higher education. It has the potential to be a reference book in colleges and universities. It will help the large community of practitioners and policymakers guard against the dangers of overt marketization. The book benefits policymakers, university administrators and teachers, and researchers of higher education interested in governance, technology, teaching, and research in higher education.
The Evolving Physiology of Government: Canadian Public Administration in Transition (Governance Series)
by O. P. Dwivedi Tim A. Mau Byron M. SheldrickCanadian public administration has provided a rich ground for examining the changing nature of the state. Currents of political change have rippled through the administration of the public sector, often producing significant alterations in our understanding of how best to organize and administer public services. This volume brings together some of the leading Canadian and international scholars of public administration to reflect on these changes and their significance. Providing a historical perspective on public administration in Canada, the volume examines the shift from a traditional model of administration to newer forms such as new public management and governance, and explores current debates and the place of Canadian public administration within a broader comparative perspective.
The Evolving Project of Cormac McCarthy
by Ahmed Honeini Dr Vernon W. Cisney Jordan Dominy Alex Harmon Dr Trevor Jackson Dr Peter Lurie Dr John Vanderheide Dr Rachel B. Griffis Mgr. Kateřina Kovářová Dr David DeaconThe Evolving Project of Cormac McCarthy presents eleven essays of original scholarship that undertake a programmatic reassessment of McCarthy’s literary and philosophical worldview. Examining issues of race, morality, history, metaphysics, law, economics, and ecology in McCarthy’s writing reveals how these themes intersect in an overarching, positive gesture that characterizes his work. Taken together, the essays offer a more expansive understanding of McCarthy’s critique of contemporary society, while providing new clarity on his vision of alternate ways of living and community beyond their present life-denying manifestations.
The Evolving Psyche of Law in Europe: The Psychology of Human Rights and Asylum Frameworks
by Magdalena SmieszekThe book applies an interdisciplinary analytical framework, based on social psychology theories of inclusion and exclusion, to a discussion of legal discourse and the development of legal frameworks in Europe concerning migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and European citizens. It adopts a psycho-historical perspective to discuss the evolution of international and European law with regard to the rights of citizens and asylum-seeking non-citizens, from the law’s inception following the Second World War up to present-day laws and policies. The book reveals the embracing of a European identity based on human rights as the common feature in European treaties and institutions, one that is focused on European citizens and has inclusionary objectives. However, a cognitive dissonance can also be found, as this common identity-making runs counter to national proclivities, as well as securitized, threat-perception-oriented perspectives that can produce exclusionary manifestations concerning persons seeking asylum. In particular, a view of inclusion and exclusion via legal categorizations of status, as well as distributions of social and economic rights, draws attention to the links between social psychology and international law. What emerges in the analysis: a process of creating value is present both at its psychological roots and the expressions of value in the law. Fundamentally speaking, the emergence of laws and policies that center on human beings and human dignity, when understood from a psychological and emotion-based perspective, has the potential to transcend the dissonances identified.
The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations
by Robert NozickOne of this century’s most original philosophical thinkers, Nozick brilliantly renews Socrates’s quest to uncover the life that is worth living. In brave and moving meditations on love, creativity, happiness, sexuality, parents and children, the Holocaust, religious faith, politics, and wisdom, The Examined Life brings philosophy back to its preeminent subject, the things that matter most. We join in Nozick’s reflections, weighing our experiences and judgments alongside those of past thinkers, to embark upon our own voyages of understanding and change.
The Executioner
by Joseph de MaistreSince their first publication in 1821, de Maistre's dark writings have fascinated and appalled critics, with their relentless hatred of the Enlightenment and view of humans as murderous beasts who can only be controlled by the threat of overwhelming punishment. Terrifying and bizarre, The Executioner is a meditation on human evil like no other.Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
The Executive Functioning Workbook for Teens: help for unprepared, late & scattered teens
by Sharon A. HansenThe book also includes tips for initiating positive action and change, improving flexibility in thinking, sustaining attention, organizing, planning, enhancing memory, managing emotions, and building self-awareness.
The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
by Philip K. DickA glimpse into the mind of the bestselling science fiction author through a collection of his personal, metaphysical, religious, visionary writings.Based on thousands of pages of typed and handwritten notes, journal entries, letters, and story sketches, The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is the magnificent and imaginative final work of an author who dedicated his life to questioning the nature of reality and perception, the malleability of space and time, and the relationship between the human and the divine. Edited and introduced by Pamela Jackson and Jonathan Lethem, this will be the definitive presentation of Dick&’s brilliant, and epic, final work. In The Exegesis, Dick documents his eight-year attempt to fathom what he called &“2-3-74,&” a postmodern visionary experience of the entire universe &“transformed into information.&” In entries that sometimes ran to hundreds of pages, Dick tried to write his way into the heart of a cosmic mystery that tested his powers of imagination and invention to the limit, adding to, revising, and discarding theory after theory, mixing in dreams and visionary experiences as they occurred, and pulling it all together in three late novels known as the VALIS trilogy. In this abridgment, Jackson and Lethem serve as guides, taking the reader through the Exegesis and establishing connections with moments in Dick&’s life and work.The e-book includes a sample chapter from A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. &“A dyspeptic dystopian&’s mad secret notebooks, imposing order—at least of a kind—on a chaotic world…Fascinating and unsettling.&”—Kirkus Reviews
The Exform
by Erik Butler Nicolas BourriaudAuthor of the influential Relational Aesthetics examines the dynamics of ideology Leading theorist and art curator Nicolas Bourriaud tackles the excluded, the disposable and the nature of waste by looking to the future of art--the exform. He argues that the great theoretical battles to come will be fought in the realms of ideology, psychoanalysis and art. A "realist" theory and practice must begin by uncovering the mechanisms that create the distinctions between the productive and unproductive, product and waste, and the included and excluded. To do this we must go back to the towering theorist of ideology Louis Althusser and examine how ideology conditions political discourse in ways that normalize cultural, racial and economic practices of exclusion.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Exhaustion of Difference: The Politics of Latin American Cultural Studies
by Alberto MoreirasThe conditions for thinking about Latin America as a regional unit in transnational academic discourse have shifted over the past decades. In The Exhaustion of Difference Alberto Moreiras ponders the ramifications of this shift and draws on deconstruction, Marxian theory, philosophy, political economy, subaltern studies, literary criticism, and postcolonial studies to interrogate the minimal conditions for an effective critique of knowledge given the recent transformations of the contemporary world. What, asks Moreiras, is the function of critical reason in the present moment? What is regionalistic knowledge in the face of globalization? Can regionalistic knowledge be an effective tool for a critique of contemporary reason? What is the specificity of Latin Americanist reflection and how is it situated to deal with these questions? Through examinations of critical regionalism, restitutional excess, the historical genealogy of Latin American subalternism, testimonio literature, and the cultural politics of magical realism, Moreiras argues that while cultural studies is increasingly institutionalized and in danger of reproducing the dominant ideologies of late capitalism, it is also ripe for giving way to projects of theoretical reformulation. Ultimately, he claims, critical reason must abandon its allegiance to aesthetic-historicist projects and the destructive binaries upon which all cultural theories of modernity have been constructed. The Exhaustion of Difference makes a significant contribution to the rethinking of Latin American cultural studies.
The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction
by Yujin NagasawaDoes God exist? What are the various arguments that seek to prove the existence of God? Can atheists refute these arguments? The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction assesses classical and contemporary arguments concerning the existence of God: the ontological argument, introducing the nature of existence, possible worlds, parody objections, and the evolutionary origin of the concept of God the cosmological argument, discussing metaphysical paradoxes of infinity, scientific models of the universe, and philosophers’ discussions about ultimate reality and the meaning of life the design argument, addressing Aquinas’s Fifth Way, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the concept of irreducible complexity, and the current controversy over intelligent design and school education. Bringing the subject fully up to date, Yujin Nagasawa explains these arguments in relation to recent research in cognitive science, the mathematics of infinity, big bang cosmology, and debates about ethics and morality in light of contemporary political and social events. The book also includes fascinating insights into the passions, beliefs and struggles of the philosophers and scientists who have tackled the challenge of proving the existence of God, including Thomas Aquinas, and Kurt Gödel - who at the end of his career as a famous mathematician worked on a secret project to prove the existence of God. The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction is an ideal gateway to the philosophy of religion and an excellent starting point for anyone interested in arguments about the existence of God.
The Existence of the External World: The Pascal-Hume Principle
by Jean-Rene VernesAlthough thousands of works have been published on the philosophy of knowledge, philosophers have not yet managed to come to a consensus on the fundamental issue: is there a reality that exists outside of consciousness and, if so, how can we prove it? Apart from historical and critical writings, the essential works, those that contemporary thought can use as solid foundations to discover new truths, amount to a few hundred pages at most. We will discuss some of them.
The Existence of the World: An Introduction to Ontology (Routledge Library Editions: Metaphysics)
by Reinhardt GrossmannOriginally published in 1992. The history of Western philosophy can be seen as a battle between those that insist that the "physical universe" exists and those would claim that there is a much larger "world" which contains atemporal and nonspatial things as well. The central part of this book, and the battle, concerns the existence of universals. Starting with the mediaeval definition of the issue found in Porphry and Boethius, the author then considers modern and contemporary versions of the battle. He concludes that what is at stake between naturalists and ontologists is the existence and nature of a number of important categories, like structures, relations, sets, numbers and so on.
The Existential Crisis of Motherhood
by Claire Arnold-BakerThis book offers a new perspective on the motherhood experience. Drawing on existential philosophy and recent phenomenological research into motherhood, the book demonstrates how motherhood can be understood as an existential crisis. It argues that an awareness of the existential issues women face will enable mothers to gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted aspects of their experience. The book is divided into four sections: Existential Crisis, Maternal Mental Health Crisis, Social Crisis and Working with Existential Crisis, where each section. Each chapter is based on either experiential research or the author’s extensive therapeutic experience of working with mothers and reflects different aspects of the motherhood journey, all through the lens of a philosophical existential approach. The book is essential reading for mental health practitioners and researchers working with mothers, midwives and health visitors, but it is also written for mothers, with the aim to offer new insights on this important life transition.
The Existential Husserl: A Collection of Critical Essays (Contributions to Phenomenology #120)
by Marco Cavallaro George HeffernanThis book examines Husserl’s approach to the question concerning meaning in life and demonstrates that his philosophy includes a phenomenology of existence. Given his critique of the fashionable “philosophy of existence” of the late 1920s and early 1930s, one might think that Husserl posited an opposition between transcendental phenomenology and existential philosophy, as well as that in this respect he differed from existential phenomenologists after him. But texts composed between 1908 and 1937 and recently published in Husserliana XLII, Grenzprobleme der Phänomenologie (2014), show that the existential Husserl was not opposed but open to the phenomenological investigation of several basic topics of a philosophy of existence. A collection of contributions from a team of internationally recognized scholars drawing on these and other sources, the present volume offers insights into the relationship between phenomenology and philosophy of existence. It does so by (1) delineating the basic outlines of Husserl’s phenomenology of existence, (2) reinterpreting the tension between Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology and Jaspers’s and Heidegger’s philosophy of existence as well as Kierkegaard’s and Sartre’s existentialism, and (3) investigating the existential aspects of Husserl’s phenomenological ethics. Thus focusing on neglected aspects of Husserl’s thought, the volume shows that there is a consensus between classical phenomenology and existential phenomenology on the urgency of addressing the existential questions that in The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology (1936) Husserl calls “the questions concerning the meaning or meaninglessness of this entire human existence”. The Existential Husserl represents a major contribution to the clarification of the historical and philosophical developments from transcendental phenomenology to existential phenomenology. The book should appeal to a wide audience of many readers at all levels looking for phenomenological answers to existential questions.