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The Worth of a Child
by Thomas H. MurrayThomas Murray's graceful and humane book illuminates one of the most morally complex areas of everyday life: the relationship between parents and children. What do children mean to their parents, and how far do parental obligations go? What, from the beginning of life to its end, is the worth of a child?Ethicist Murray leaves the rarefied air of abstract moral philosophy in order to reflect on the moral perplexities of ordinary life and ordinary people. Observing that abstract moral terms such as altruism and selfishness can be buried in the everyday doings of families, he maintains that ethical theory needs a richer description than it now has of the moral life of parents and children. How far should adults go in their quest for children? What options are available to women who do not want to bear a child now? Should couples be allowed to reject a child because of genetic disability or "wrong" gender? How can we weigh the competing claims of the genetic and the rearing parents to a particular child?The Worth of a Child couples impressive learning with a conversational style. Only by getting down to cases, Murray insists, can we reach moral conclusions that are unsentimental, farsighted, and just. In an era of intense public and private acrimony about the place and meaning of "family values," his practical wisdom about extraordinary difficult moral issues offers compelling reading for both experienced and prospective parents, as well as for ethicists, social and behavioral scientists, and legal theorists.
The Wounded Animal: J. M. Coetzee and the Difficulty of Reality in Literature and Philosophy
by Stephen MulhallIn 1997, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee, invited to Princeton University to lecture on the moral status of animals, read a work of fiction about an eminent novelist, Elizabeth Costello, invited to lecture on the moral status of animals at an American college. Coetzee's lectures were published in 1999 as The Lives of Animals, and reappeared in 2003 as part of his novel Elizabeth Costello; and both lectures and novel have attracted the critical attention of a number of influential philosophers--including Peter Singer, Cora Diamond, Stanley Cavell, and John McDowell. In The Wounded Animal, Stephen Mulhall closely examines Coetzee's writings about Costello, and the ways in which philosophers have responded to them, focusing in particular on their powerful presentation of both literature and philosophy as seeking, and failing, to represent reality--in part because of reality's resistance to such projects of understanding, but also because of philosophy's unwillingness to learn from literature how best to acknowledge that resistance. In so doing, Mulhall is led to consider the relations among reason, language, and the imagination, as well as more specific ethical issues concerning the moral status of animals, the meaning of mortality, the nature of evil, and the demands of religion. The ancient quarrel between philosophy and literature here displays undiminished vigor and renewed significance.
The Wounded Heart of God
by Andrew S. ParkPark asserts that one cannot grasp the full meaning of the sin and guilt of sinners until one has looked at the Korean concept of han--the relational consequence of sin--and shame of their victims. To reconcile with God and with other humans, one's sin must be repented, guilt must be forgiven, the han of those who have been wronged must be healed, and the shame which results from that wrong must be erased.
The Wow Factor: A Comprehensive Guide for Performers
by Steve ZegreeDr. Steve Zegree of Western Michigan University, choral arranger and conductor of Western Michigan's Gold Company has developed this practical guide for performers, students, teachers and parents which offers fundamental philosophies and concepts that are essential to a person's growth and development and will contribute to a successful professional life in music.
The Wrath of Capital: Neoliberalism and Climate Change Politics (New Directions in Critical Theory #48)
by Adrian ParrAlthough climate change has become the dominant concern of the twenty-first century, global powers refuse to implement the changes necessary to reverse these trends. Instead, they have neoliberalized nature and climate change politics and discourse, and there are indications of a more virulent strain of capital accumulation on the horizon. Adrian Parr calls attention to the problematic socioeconomic conditions of neoliberal capitalism underpinning the world's environmental challenges, and she argues that, until we grasp the implications of neoliberalism's interference in climate change talks and policy, humanity is on track to an irreversible crisis.Parr not only exposes the global failure to produce equitable political options for environmental regulation, but she also breaks down the dominant political paradigms hindering the discovery of viable alternatives. She highlights the neoliberalization of nature in the development of green technologies, land use, dietary habits, reproductive practices, consumption patterns, design strategies, and media. She dismisses the notion that the free market can solve debilitating environmental degradation and climate change as nothing more than a political ghost emptied of its collective aspirations. Decrying what she perceives as a failure of the human imagination and an impoverishment of political institutions, Parr ruminates on the nature of change and existence in the absence of a future. The sustainability movement, she contends, must engage more aggressively with the logic and cultural manifestations of consumer economics to take hold of a more transformative politics. If the economically powerful continue to monopolize the meaning of environmental change, she warns, new and more promising collective solutions will fail to take root.
The Wreckage of Philosophy: Carlo Michelstaedter and the Limits of Bourgeois Thought (Toronto Italian Studies)
by Mimmo CangianoThe work of Carlo Michelstaedter (1887–1910) was the first to analyze modernist philosophy in strict connection with social changes in mass society. Revealing how Michelstaedter was able to unveil the relations between pivotal early-modernist philosophies and social restructurings, The Wreckage of Philosophy examines the ongoing processes of "specialization," "rationalization," and "atomization." It points out how Michelstaedter connected the main theoretical expressions of modernism with the decisive social transformations of the early twentieth century, taking into consideration the key players of modernist philosophy, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Ernst Mach, and William James. By following Michelstaedter’s analysis and strategies, The Wreckage of Philosophy focuses on several intertwined issues: the distinct philosophical positions within the modernist area; the connections between philosophy and modernist literature; the relations between intellectual positions and social upheavals; and the early-twentieth-century links among traditional philosophy, critique of language, and epistemology of technique.
The Writer as Migrant
by Ha JinHa Jin's journey from an uneducated soldier in the People's Liberation Army in China to a resident of the United States raises questions about language, migration, and the place of literature in a globalizing world.
The Writing of Innocence: Blanchot and the Deconstruction of Christianity (SUNY series, Literature . . . in Theory)
by Aïcha Liviana MessinaThe Writing of Innocence explores the topic of innocence and the peculiar relationship to Christianity in the writing of Maurice Blanchot. Its starting point is that innocence is not a condition relegated to a mythical past but rather one resulting from the construction of the subject in and through language. Hence, we don't lose innocence; instead, we are lost by innocence. It is an excess, not a lack. This inverted notion of innocence raises new ethical and political issues that Aïcha Liviana Messina unfolds through vigorous re-readings of a series of biblical motifs, including law, grace, and apocalypse. The closing chapter turns to the convergences and divergences between Jean-Luc Nancy's and Blanchot's understandings of the deconstruction of Christianity. With a foreword by philosopher Serge Margel, The Writing of Innocence offers a fresh perspective on Blanchot's writings in general and on his dialogue with Hegel in particular. While staging innocence in its philosophical and literary dimensions, The Writing of Innocence provides singular readings of works by Kierkegaard, Agamben, Derrida, Nancy, Camus, Hugo, and Kafka.
The Writing of Spirit: Soul, System, and the Roots of Language Science
by Sarah M. PourciauContemporary thought has been profoundly shaped by the early-twentieth-century turn toward synchronic models of explanation, which analyze phenomena as they appear at a single moment, rather than diachronically as they develop through time. But the relationship between time and system remains unexplained by the standard account of this shift. Through a new history of systematic thinking across the humanities and sciences, The Writing of Spirit argues that nineteenth-century historicism wasn’t simply replaced by a more modern synchronic perspective. The structuralist revolution consisted rather in a turn toward time’s absolutely minimal conditions, and thus also toward a new theory of diachrony.Pourciau arrives at this surprising and powerful conclusion through an analysis of language-scientific theories over the course of two centuries, associated with thinkers from Jacob Grimm and Richard Wagner to the Russian Futurists, in domains as disparate as historical linguistics, phonology, acoustics, opera theory, philosophy, poetics, and psychology. The result is a novel contribution to a pressing contemporary question—namely, what role history should play in the interpretation of the present.
The Writings of William James
by John J. McdermottA Modern Library collection of writings by the American psychologist, philosopher, and writer William James. His writings touch on themes of psychology, religion, free will, and pragmatism.
The Wrong of Law: Metaphysics, Logics and Law's Claim of Right
by Valerie KerruishThis book combines metaphysics, aspects of modern logic, and legal theory in order to conceptualise a wrong in law’s claim of right.The book takes as its starting point a restriction on the freedom of concept formation that is dictated by classical logic’s inability to handle antinomies in reason’s attempts to constitute its own foundations. Relating this to law’s claim of right, the notion of ‘wrong’ does not fasten on law’s violence or injustice, and neither does it seek to elaborate a moral or ethical critique of law. On the contrary: it is sceptical of, and seeks an alternative to, the various ethical turns of recent legal and political theory. The ‘wrong’ of the wrong of law is logical and epistemic in character. It is a failure or refusal to recognise the cognitive relevance of contradictions of self-reference. In this respect, The Wrong of Law draws on a metaphysical-logical development from Kant via Hegel and Marx to the foundations of modern logic, in order to establish the sense in which a restriction on self-reference amounts to a limitation on truth-seeking or comprehension. This limitation is then demonstrated through analysis of the reasoning in a series of legal cases in Australia, concerning Indigenous peoples.This book will be of significant interest to scholars in critical legal theory, the philosophy of law and jurisprudence; as well as others with an interest in foundational studies across the disciplinary borders of metaphysics, mathematical logic, sociology and legal theory.
The Wrong of Rudeness: Learning Modern Civility from Ancient Chinese Philosophy
by Amy OlberdingIn a time of fractious politics, being rude can feel wickedly gratifying, while being polite can feel simple-minded or willfully naïve. Do manners and civility even matter now? Is it worthwhile to make the effort to be polite? When rudeness has become routine and commonplace, why bother? When so much of public and social life with others is painful and bitterly acrimonious, why should anyone be polite? <p><p> As Amy Olberding argues, civility and ordinary politeness are linked both to big values, such as respect and consideration, and to the fundamentally social nature of human beings. Being polite is not just a nicety--it has deep meaning. Olberding explores the often overwhelming temptations to incivility and rudeness, and the ways that they must and can be resisted. <p><p> Drawing on the wisdom of early Chinese philosophers who lived through great political turmoil but nonetheless avidly sought to "mind their manners," the book articulates a way of thinking about politeness that is distinctively social. We can feel profoundly alienated from others, and others can sometimes be truly terrible, yet, as the Confucian philosophers encourage us to see, because we are social, neglecting the social and political courtesies comes at perilous cost. <p><p> The book considers not simply why civility and politeness are important, but how. It reveals how small insults can accumulate to damage social relations, how separating people into tribes undermines our better interests, and how even bodily and facial expressions can influence our lives with others. Many of us, in spite of our best efforts, are often tempted to be rude, and will find here tools for fighting that temptation.
The Xmas Files: The Philosophy Of Christmas
by Stephen LawA philosophical but fun look at the meanings of Christmas myths and rituals, from carving the turkey to why Santa wears red.Picture the scene: Aunt Gertrude has just given you the most appalling Christmas tie, complete with snow-flecked kittens in a bowler hat. Do you smile, nod, and confine it to the bottom drawer? Or do you tell the truth and spare yourself future ties from hell? Kant would say that we must, at all costs, tell the truth - whilst Mill would insist that we should think of the consequences. THE XMAS FILES is a philosophical meander though the myths and rituals of Christmas today, asking such important questions as does Santa exist? What's wrong with Christmas kitsch? Is it all just a commercial racket? What was Augustine's attitude to 'peace on earth'? And what would David Hume have to say about the virgin birth? For underneath all the festive fun, the way we celebrate Christmas does raise serious questions about the beliefs that sustain us, and the ways in which we still value ritual and tradition as a means of coming together.
The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas
by Stephen LawA philosophical but fun look at the meanings of Christmas myths and rituals, from carving the turkey to why Santa wears red.Picture the scene: Aunt Gertrude has just given you the most appalling Christmas tie, complete with snow-flecked kittens in a bowler hat. Do you smile, nod, and confine it to the bottom drawer? Or do you tell the truth and spare yourself future ties from hell? Kant would say that we must, at all costs, tell the truth - whilst Mill would insist that we should think of the consequences. THE XMAS FILES is a philosophical meander though the myths and rituals of Christmas today, asking such important questions as does Santa exist? What's wrong with Christmas kitsch? Is it all just a commercial racket? What was Augustine's attitude to 'peace on earth'? And what would David Hume have to say about the virgin birth? For underneath all the festive fun, the way we celebrate Christmas does raise serious questions about the beliefs that sustain us, and the ways in which we still value ritual and tradition as a means of coming together.
The Year of Intelligence in the United States: Public Opinion, National Security, and the 1975 Church Committee
by Dafydd TownleyThis book will offer a unique approach to the Year of Intelligence, the sixteen-month period between January 1975 and April 1976 that saw the innermost secrets of various US intelligence agencies laid bare before the world. After allegations of intelligence abuses were made in the press, Congress investigated and revealed numerous cases of unwarranted and unconstitutional activity conducted by a number of intelligence agencies. Chief among the investigations was the Senate enquiry, popularly known as the Church Committee after its chairman, Senator Frank Church of Idaho. This study’s objective is to examine the relationship between national security policy and public opinion using extensive archival evidence, including previously unidentified indicators of public opinion. This monograph makes an important contribution to the historiography of the Church Committee, of public opinion, and of national security policy. The research contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of the Church Committee by challenging the conclusions within the established historiography of the limited impact of the committee’s quest for reform. Furthermore, it widens the very limited scholarship that engages with public opinion’s effect on national security policy. And the project also indicates to policymakers the lessons that can be learnt from the case study, principally, that public opinion is a vital ingredient in the decision making process of successful national security policy.
The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
by Alan JacobsAlan Jacobs explores the poems, novels, essays, reviews, and lectures of these five central figures, in which they presented, with great imaginative energy and force, pictures of the very different paths now set before the Western democracies. Working mostly separately and in ignorance of one another's ideas, the five developed a strikingly consistent argument that the only means by which democratic societies could be prepared for their world-wide economic and political dominance was through a renewal of education that was grounded in a Christian understanding of the power and limitations of human beings. The Year of Our Lord 1943 is the first book to weave together the ideas of these five intellectuals and shows why, in a time of unprecedented total war, they all thought it vital to restore Christianity to a leading role in the renewal of the Western democracies.
The Years of Theory: Lectures on Modern French Thought
by Fredric JamesonMagisterial lectures on the major figures of French theory from 'America&’s leading Marxist critic'Fredric Jameson introduces here the major themes of French theory: existentialism, structuralism, poststructuralism, semiotics, feminism, psychoanalysis, and Marxism. In a series of accessible lectures, Jameson places this effervescent period of thought in the context of its most significant political conjunctures, including the Liberation of Paris, the Algerian War, the uprisings of May &’68, and the creation of the EU.The philosophical debates of the period come to life through anecdotes and extended readings of work by the likes of Sartre, Beauvoir, Fanon, Barthes, Foucault, Althusser, Derrida, Deleuze, groups like Tel Quel and Cahiers du Cinéma, and contemporary thinkers such as Rancière and Badiou. Eclectic, insightful, and inspired, Jameson&’s seminars provide an essential account of an intellectual moment comparable in significance to the Golden Age of Athens, historically fascinating and of persistent relevance.
The Yellow Pad: Making Better Decisions in an Uncertain World
by Robert E. RubinRobert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain timesIn 1958, as a college sophomore, Robert Rubin took a class that changed his life. The class was introduction to philosophy, and the professor, Raphael Demos, instilled in his students an idea that was simple yet profound: There is no such thing as certainty. For Rubin, this led to a critically important question: How can we make sound decisions in a fundamentally uncertain world?While serving in some of the most significant roles in markets, business, and government, Rubin has grappled with that question. Time and again, when faced with a high-stakes decision, he turned to his most trusted tool: a simple yellow legal pad. Rubin&’s yellow pad (or more recently, his iPad) became an expression of a larger decision-making philosophy that has both lasted and shaped a lifetime. In The Yellow Pad, Rubin lays out that philosophy with depth and detail, and presents a compelling intellectual framework for confronting some of the most difficult issues we face today.The Yellow Pad contains a former Treasury secretary&’s approach to economic policymaking. A former Goldman Sachs senior partner&’s approach to personal investing and understanding risk. A former director of the National Economic Council&’s approach to managing people in both private- and public-sector organizations. And much more. Yet despite his lifetime of experiences, Rubin remains refreshingly open-minded, interested in exploring ideas rather than promoting ideologies. With its combination of wisdom and relevance, The Yellow Pad is an essential guide for anyone looking to make better decisions in life, work, and public policy.
The Yi River Commentary on the Book of Changes (World Thought in Translation)
by Cheng YiA translation of a key commentary on perhaps the most broadly influential text of classical China This book is a translation of a key commentary on the Book of Changes, or Yijing (I Ching), perhaps the most broadly influential text of classical China. The Yijing first appeared as a divination text in Zhou-dynasty China (ca. 1045–256 bce) and later became a work of cosmology, philosophy, and political theory as commentators supplied it with new meanings. While many English translations of the Yijing itself exist, none are paired with a historical commentary as thorough and methodical as that written by the Confucian scholar Cheng Yi, who turned the original text into a coherent work of political theory.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by Patañjali James Haughton WoodsOne of yoga's most important and influential works, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali forms a keystone of Indian philosophical and religious thought. Written by a sage in the second century B.C., the sutras have been translated many times. This interpretation by Professor James Haughton Woods, originally published under the aegis of the highly esteemed Harvard Oriental Series, ranks among the most acclaimed translations.Patañjali's path is that of Raja Yoga, the royal yoga, or the yoga of the eight steps: restraint, observances, posture, breath control, sublimation (or withdrawal from the senses), attention, concentration, and meditation. The complete sutras appear here, encompassing a four-part analytical study intended to purify the practitioner's mind, body, and soul. Additional features include a commentary by Veda-Vyāsa and explanations by Vāchaspati-Miҫra that are crucial to developing an understanding of Patañjali's intent, along with invaluable background information provided by the translator's introduction and appendixes.This outstanding English edition of a profound work of spiritual enlightenment is essential reading for all scholars and practitioners of yoga.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by PatanjaliThe 'Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali' are 196 Indian sūtras (aphorisms) that constitute the foundational text of Ashtanga Yoga, also called Raja Yoga. In medieval times, Ashtanga Yoga was cast as one of the six orthodox āstika schools of Hindu philosophy.
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali (Library of Arabic Literature #68)
by Abū Rayḥān al-BīrūnīA brilliant cross-cultural Arabic interpretation of a key text of yoga philosophyThe Yoga Sutras of Patañjali is the foundational text of yoga philosophy to this day and is still used by millions of yoga practitioners and students worldwide. Written in a question-and-answer format, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali deals with the theory and practice of yoga and the psychological question of the liberation of the soul from attachments.This book is a new edition and translation into English of the Arabic translation and commentary on this text by the brilliant eleventh-century polymath al-Bīrūnī. Given the many historical variants of the Yoga Sutras, his Kitāb Bātanjali is important for yoga studies as the earliest translation of the Sanskrit text. It is also of unique value as an Arabic text within Islamic studies, given the intellectual and philosophical challenges that faced the medieval Muslim reader when presented with the intricacy of composition, interpretation, and allusion that permeates this translation.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
The Yoga Sutras: A New Translation and Study Guide
by Nicholas SuttonThis short course sets out a detailed study of the text, philosophy, and significance of the millennia-old yoga system defined in the Yogasutras. The popular practice of yoga finds its origin in one of the most venerated wisdom books of India: the Yogasutras. Comprised of 196 short statements on the essential teachings of yoga, Patanjali&’s Yogasutras holds the position of being the seminal work that defines the yoga system. Over the centuries many important commentaries have been written that seek to explain and extrapolate the full meaning of the sutras, and to this day, the text continues to be appreciated for the profound wisdom contained within it. While the Yogasutras were originally written in Sanskrit, this short course offers an accessible translation and commentary without sacrificing any of its profound wisdom. This edition will allow the reader to study and dive into the meaning and philosophy of this ancient text with its significant contemporary relevance. Yoga students, practitioners, and scholars alike will appreciate the way in which this short course guides the reader through the text.
The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice
by Georg FeuersteinThe author is founder-director of the Yoga Research Center in Northern California and the author of 30 books on yoga. The present volume is a revised and greatly enlarged edition of the author's 1989 work, Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy .
The Yoga of Truth: The Ancient Path of Silent Knowledge
by Peter MarchandA guide to Jnana Yoga--the Way of Silent Knowledge--by direct contemplation of the Unchangeable • Shows that everything in one’s body, personality, thoughts, memories, and experiences has form and is changeable and, thus, is neither essential nor eternal • Identifies the witnessing consciousness within--all that remains when the ephemeral is eliminated--as the real Self, the one and only unchanging eternal Being In The Yoga of Truth, Peter Marchand, through a series of deceptively simple introspective questions, leads the seeker into discarding everything--body, personality, thoughts, memories, experiences--that disguises the ego’s relentless masquerade as the Self. This form of contemplation, with its constant commitment to witnessing without attachment, disempowers the ego’s fixation on its products, leading instead to the realization that the witnessing consciousness is, in fact, the one immutable Being within or without--the real Self, the true You. The universal illusion rests upon space and time, body and elements, the life force, mind, intellect, ego, and Self. Jnana Yoga reveals not only the insubstantial and illusory nature of our presumptions but also our habitual commitment to the illusion of being an individual that they create. This illusion collapses like a house of cards before direct inspection. When something has form, when it can change, it cannot be the eternal with which we seek union. Witnessing consciousness stands alone as that which is without form. In The Yoga of Truth, Marchand leads us simply, and compellingly, to the truth of our nature and the peaceful bliss of true Being.