For more information on the selections included here, click on a title. For your convenience, a new browser window will open. Simply close to return.The reviews are taken from Amazon.com and copyright of the respective authors.
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Ishmael
by Daniel Quinn
A man and a great ape conduct a series of philosophical conversations in a work that presents a new vision of evolution and humankind and asks the question: does the Earth belong to humans, or do humans belong to the Earth?
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
by Simon Wiesenthal
Author Simon Weisenthal recalls his demoralizing life in a concentration camp and his envy of the dead Germans who have sunflowers marking their graves. At the time he assumed his grave would be a mass one, unmarked and forgotten. Then, one day, a dying Nazi soldier asks Weisenthal for forgiveness for his crimes against the Jews. What would you do? This important book and the provocative question it poses is birthing debates, symposiums, and college courses. The Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Primo Levi, and others who have witnessed genocide and human tyranny answer Wiesenthal's ultimate question on forgiveness.
Identity and the Case for Gay Rights : Race, Gender, Religion As Analogies
by David A. J. Richards
Central to David Richards's elegant and provocative Identity and the Case for Gay Rights is the injustice of what he calls "moral slavery." This concept describes the cultural construction of stereotypes that dehumanize the affected group and are rationalized in the context of historical structural injustices. The burdens moral slavery places on individual's identity formation are similar to those associated with discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and religion, and are similarly unconstitutional and inhumane.
Beyond Good and Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future
by Walter Kaufmann (Translator), Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Returning to a favorite theme, Nietzsche offers a wealth of fresh insights into the self-destructive urge of Christianity, the prevalence of "slave moralities" and the terrible dangers in the pursuit of philosophical or scientific truth.
Civility
by Stephen L. Carter
In this follow-up to Integrity, Yale law professor Stephen Carter continues to meditate upon the "pre-political" qualities on which a healthy society is based. Why do people show poorer manners today than in previous ages? How did we come to confuse rudeness with self-expression and acting on our "rights"? Carter looks at these and other important questions with a combination of his personal experiences and an extremely long shelf of reading material, all the while maintaining an informal writing style that continually--but politely--engages the reader, inviting him or her to think about these issues along with Carter. There are important messages here about generosity and trust, about respecting diversity and dissent, and about resolving conflict through dialogue rather than mandate. Stephen Carter would never be so uncivil as to demand your attention, but Civility most definitely compels.
How Are We to Live?: Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest
by Peter Singer
As Peter Singer wrote, "The problem is that most people have only the vaguest idea of what it might be to lead an ethical life. They understand ethics as a system of rules forbidding us to do things. They do not grasp it as a basis for thinking about how we are to live. They live largely self-interested lives, not because they were born selfish, but because the alternatives seem awkward, embarrassing, or just plain pointless. They cannot see any way of making an impact on the world, and if they could, why should they bother?
The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man
by Dr. J. Budziszewski
The Revenge of Conscience is a brilliant and timely critique of secular political attempts to provide a satisfactory and satisfying notion of human good. By showing why they have and always will fail, Budziszewski has performed a great service to Christian and unbeliever alike. The Revenge of Conscience gives the Christian a clear path to understanding the difference between the City of Man and the City of God - and our obligations to each. But he also speaks to the one who stands where all of us once were, powerfully and compellingly demonstrating the inadequacy of any attempts to substitute for what may only be found in Christ
Ideas Have Consequences
by Richard M. Weaver
English professor and farmer Richard Weaver claims that the catastrophes of our age are the product of unintelligent choice, and the cure lies in man's recognition that ideas--like actions--have consequences.
Thirty-Eight Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Case
by A. M. Rosenthal
Thirty-five years after its first printing, Thirty-Eight Witnesses remains a starkly terrifying morality play, shocking the reader with the now-infamous tale of Catherine ("Kitty") Genovese, murdered on her Queens, New York, doorstep in full view of acquaintances, neighbors, and friends--all of whom did nothing, even though the woman was stabbed repeatedly and stalked by her killer for more than an hour. The book's republication adds a haunted echo to its story, reminding the reader that things have changed since 1964, and not at all for the better.
The Significance of Free Will
by Robert Kane
Kane does a superb job of untangling the confusions about free will, and explaining why and how it is of fundamental importance. We all start by knowing we have free will but 'clever' philosophers have always tried to bamboozle us into believing that we havent. Kane gives a scrupulously fair summary of the arguments but presents the case for 'incompatablist' free will in an overwhelming and successful manner. Required reading for anyone seriously interested in these matters, which are fundamental to morality, personal identity, love, and everything else that matters.
Freedom and Responsibilty
by Hilary Bok
Can we reconcile the idea that we are free and responsible agents with the idea that what we do is determined according to natural laws? For centuries, philosophers have tried in different ways to show that we can. Hilary Bok takes a fresh approach here, as she seeks to show that the two ideas are compatible by drawing on the distinction between practical and theoretical reasoning.
