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Should laws about sex and pornography be based on social conventions about what is disgusting? Should felons be required to display bumper stickers or wear T-shirts that announce their crimes? This powerful and elegantly written book, by one of America's most influential philosophers, presents a critique of the role that shame and disgust play in our individual and social lives and, in particular, in the law. Martha Nussbaum argues that we should be wary of these emotions because they are associated in troubling ways with a desire to hide from our humanity, embodying an unrealistic and sometimes pathological wish to be invulnerable. Nussbaum argues that the thought-content of disgust embodies \"magical ideas of contamination, and impossible aspirations to purity that are just not in line with human life as we know it.\" She argues that disgust should never be the basis for criminalizing an act, or play either the aggravating or the mitigating role in criminal law it currently does. She writes that we should be similarly suspicious of what she calls \"primitive shame,\" a shame \"at the very fact of human imperfection,\" and she is harshly critical of the role that such shame plays in certain punishments. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich variety of philosophical, psychological, and historical references--from Aristotle and Freud to Nazi ideas about purity--and on legal examples as diverse as the trials of Oscar Wilde and the Martha Stewart insider trading case, this is a major work of legal and moral philosophy.

This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly pragmatic project resulted in the view that truth is what would be agreed upon, were inquiry to be pursued as far as it could fruitfully go. The view that a belief is true if it would be indefeasible connects truth to human practices, but which takes truth to be something to be discovered. That is, Peirce’s view of truth is much more objectivist than some currently popular brands of pragmatism. In this expanded edition, advances in the understanding of Peirce’s theory of truth are noted, and include a new chapter which shows how Peirce’s view of truth is friendly to moral judgements.

Le colloque ici rapporte acheve une trilogie autour des themes de l'interpretation, du sens et du non sens des mots du droit (Interpreter et traduire, Bruylant, 2007; Le faux, le droit et le juste, Bruylant, 2009). Il s'agit cette fois de s'interroger sur les limites de l'application de la regle de droit.On pense spontanement la transgression en reference aux categories traditionnelles de la faute ou de la sanction. Ces formes elementaires de la transgression recouvrent certes une partie importante du sujet, mais elles ne l'epuisent pas. Une telle assimilation presuppose meme, a y regarder de pres, un certain nombre de prenotions quant a ce qu'est le droit. C'est cette vision naive de la transgression - le bien et le mal, le continu et le discontinu - que nous avons souhaite transgresser en la dedramatisant. Pour ce faire, nous avons pris le parti de passer en revue des aspects aussi varies que possible du phenomene pour proceder ensuite, au terme de la confrontation, a la dedramatisation souhaitee. Le colloque s'acheve sur quelques evasions du cote de la litterature et de la philosophie.

A brilliant distillation of the key ideas behind successful self-improvement practices throughout history, showing us how they remain relevant today Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.     Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world's advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.

Put together to honour one of the most influential philosophers in recent times, Mrinal Miri, this book brings together articles on philosophy, politics, literature and society, and updates the status of enquiry in each of these fields. In his philosophical writings, Miri has broken the stranglehold that early training has on academics and written on a range of themes and areas, including analytical philosophy, political philosophy, tribal identity, ethics and, more recently, an abiding engagement with the ideas of Gandhi. The articles in this volume mirror some of Miri's concerns and philosophical interests, but go beyond the format of a festschrift, as they seek to enhance and restate themes in moral philosophy, ethics, questions of identity, Gandhi's philosophy, and offer a fresh perspective on themes such as secularism, religion and politics.

Can people ever really change? Do they ever become more ethical, and if so, how?Overcoming Our Evilfocuses on the way ethical and religious commitments are conceived and nurtured through the methodical practices that Pierre Hadot has called \"spiritual exercises.\" These practices engage thought, imagination, and sensibility, and have a significant ethical component, yet aim for a broader transformation of the whole personality. Going beyond recent philosophical and historical work that has focused on ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, Stalnaker broadens ethical inquiry into spiritual exercises by examining East Asian as well as classical Christian sources, and taking religious and seemingly \"aesthetic\" practices such as prayer, ritual, and music more seriously as objects of study. More specifically,Overcoming Our Evilexamines and compares the thought and practice of the early Christian Augustine of Hippo, and the early Confucian Xunzi. Both have sophisticated and insightful accounts of spiritual exercises, and both make such ethical work central to their religious thought and practice. Yet to understand the two thinkers' recommendations for cultivating virtue we must first understand some important differences. Here Stalnaker disentangles the competing aspects of Augustine and Xunxi's ideas of \"human nature.\" His groundbreaking comparison of their ethical vocabularies also drives a substantive analysis of fundamental issues in moral psychology, especially regarding emotion and the complex idea of \"the will,\" to examine how our dispositions to feel, think, and act might be slowly transformed over time. The comparison meticulously constructs vivid portraits of both thinkers demonstrating where they connect and where they diverge, making the case that both have been misunderstood and misinterpreted. In throwing light on these seemingly disparate ancient figures in unexpected ways, Stalnaker redirects recent debate regarding practices of personal formation, and more clearly exposes the intellectual and political issues involved in the retrieval of \"classic\" ethical sources in diverse contemporary societies, illuminating a path toward a contemporary understanding of difference.

Improve your personal and professional life with compelling strategies and practical advice  Don't Push Too Many Trolleys: And Other Tips from Navigating Life and Business teaches readers ten crucial principles required to succeed in life and business. Written by Ying Tan, Founder and CEO of a multimillion pound financial services company, Don't Push Too Many Trolleys imparts sage advice suitable for anyone, at any stage of their life.  The author describes the attitudes, lessons, and traits that allowed him to become one of the youngest Vice Presidents ever at Goldman Sachs. He shows readers how he built a company from the ground up to create one of the most influential and powerful financial services companies in the UK. Full of concrete strategies and practical advice, this book provides:  A deeply personal and humble perspective on success in life and business  Actionable advice that makes a real difference in the pursuit of happiness and wealth  A front-row seat to the economic meltdown of 2008 and how the author managed to survive it with his business intact  Written for entrepreneurs, business people, financial professionals, and anyone else with an interest in improving their personal and professional life by taking full responsibility for their choices and actions, Don't Push Too Many Trolleys is an indispensable addition to the libraries of people across the world. 

This is a major reinterpretation of ancient philosophy that recovers the long Greek and Roman tradition of philosophy as a complete way of life--and not simply an intellectual discipline. Distinguished philosopher John Cooper traces how, for many ancient thinkers, philosophy was not just to be studied or even used to solve particular practical problems. Rather, philosophy--not just ethics but even logic and physical theory--was literally to be lived. Yet there was great disagreement about how to live philosophically: philosophy was not one but many, mutually opposed, ways of life. Examining this tradition from its establishment by Socrates in the fifth century BCE through Plotinus in the third century CE and the eclipse of pagan philosophy by Christianity,Pursuits of Wisdomexamines six central philosophies of living--Socratic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, Skeptic, and the Platonist life of late antiquity. The book describes the shared assumptions that allowed these thinkers to conceive of their philosophies as ways of life, as well as the distinctive ideas that led them to widely different conclusions about the best human life. Clearing up many common misperceptions and simplifications, Cooper explains in detail the Socratic devotion to philosophical discussion about human nature, human life, and human good; the Aristotelian focus on the true place of humans within the total system of the natural world; the Stoic commitment to dutifully accepting Zeus's plans; the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure through tranquil activities that exercise perception, thought, and feeling; the Skeptical eschewal of all critical reasoning in forming their beliefs; and, finally, the late Platonist emphasis on spiritual concerns and the eternal realm of Being. Pursuits of Wisdomis essential reading for anyone interested in understanding what the great philosophers of antiquity thought was the true purpose of philosophy--and of life.