Realism Ethics And Secularism

Author : George Levine
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2008-10-09
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781139474658

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Realism, Ethics and Secularism by George Levine Pdf

George Levine is one of the world's leading scholars of Victorian literature and culture. This collection of his essays develops the key themes of his work: the intersection of nineteenth-century British literature, culture and science and the relation of knowledge and truth to ethics. The essays offer perspectives on George Eliot, Thackeray, the Positivists, and the Scientific Naturalists, and reassess the complex relationship between Ruskin and Darwin. In readings of Lawrence and Coetzee, Levine addresses Victorian and modern efforts to push beyond the limits of realist art by testing its aesthetic and epistemological limits in engagement with the self and the other. Some of Levine's most important contributions to the field are reprinted, in revised and updated form, alongside previously unpublished material. Together, these essays cohere into an exploration both of Victorian literature and culture and of ethical, epistemological, and aesthetic problems fundamental to our own times.

Author : Paul Kurtz
Publisher : Prometheus Books
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2010-10-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781615921485

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Forbidden Fruit by Paul Kurtz Pdf

Paul Kurtz, America's leading secular humanist philosopher, affirms that it is possible to live the good life and be morally responsible, without belief in religion. In this original and penetrating book, Kurtz delineates the means by which humanity can transcend the limitations of traditional religious loyalties and achieve a higher stage of ethics. Fundamentalists deny the possibility of ethics without belief in God. Conservatives rail against secularists. Yet belief in God is no guarantee of moral virtue - as the evils committed in the name of religion have vividly shown. Are there secular ethical principles and values that are vital for a world in crisis? In this new edition of Forbidden Fruit, Kurtz defends the ethics of secularism and humanism. In order to progress to a maximum level of creative development, he maintains that we must be nourished by the "forbidden fruit" of the knowledge of good and evil, grounding principles and values in autonomous reason. This is the path that leads to the discovery of significant ethical truths that can guide both self-reliant conduct and consideration for the rights of others. By breaking the bonds of theistic illusion, we can summon the courage and wisdom to develop a rational ethic based on a realistic appraisal of nature and an awareness of the centrality of the moral decencies common to all peoples. The ultimate key to the good life, Kurtz writes, is to eat of the fruit of the second tree in the Garden of Eden - the tree of life - discovering for ourselves the manifold potentialities for a bountiful existance. Forbidden Fruit contains important chapters on ethical excellences for individuals, moral education for children, and thoughts on privacy and human rights, in addition to presenting concrete ethical recommendations as alternatives to the reigning orthodoxies.

Author : William Greenway
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2016-12-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781498202398

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Agape Ethics by William Greenway Pdf

Consider intense moments when you have been seized by joy or, in different contexts, by anguish for another person, or a cat or dog, or perhaps even for a squirrel or possum struck as it dashed across the road: whether glorious or haunting, these are among the most profound and meaningful moments in our lives. Agape Ethics focuses our attention on such moments with utter seriousness and argues they reveal a spiritual reality, the reality of agape. Powerful streams of modern Western rationality reject the idea of agape. This has created a crisis of foundations in modern ethics and alienated us from love for all creatures. Working wholly within the bounds of reason, Agape Ethics joins an increasingly vibrant struggle to legitimate the spiritual reality of agape, to awaken people to its power, to clarify its ethical implications, and to validate our spiritual communion with all creatures in all creation. The result is a powerful, inclusive, and wholly reasonable defense of moral realism that should speak to all who are passionate about creating a maximally loving and good world.

Author : Ian S. Markham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 1994-03-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521453283

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Plurality and Christian Ethics by Ian S. Markham Pdf

Too many parts of the world testify to the difficulties religions have in tolerating each other. It is often concluded that the only way tolerance and plurality can be protected is to keep religion out of the public sphere. Ian Markham challenges this secularist argument. In the first half of the book, he advances a careful critique of European culture which exposes the problem of plurality. His analysis of the Christendom Group is contrasted with the outlook found in the USA, where a religiously informed culture may be seen to be tolerant. In the second half of the book, the author argues that plurality is better safeguarded by a theistic, rather than a secularist, foundation. He submits that too often secularists use relativist arguments, while theists want to appeal to the complexity of God's world. He concludes that in our post-modern world the religious affirmation of diversity offers genuine political possibilities for cultural enrichment.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Analysis (Philosophy)
ISBN : 1472594312

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Humanism and Embodiment by Anonim Pdf

Author : William Greenway
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2020-12-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781725270442

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Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age by William Greenway Pdf

Our global community desperately needs overt awakening to an age of reason and faith. Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age meets this need by interpreting faith not in terms of belief in propositions but in terms of living surrender to having been seized by agape for every Face, including one’s own. Virtually all faith traditions, from Buddhism to Humanism to Wiccan, are rooted in agape and therefore share considerable spiritual and ethical common ground (a truth long veiled). In contrast to ethically feckless secular rationality—over which a devastating, global social Darwinism currently runs roughshod—faith qua living surrender to agape grounds moral realism, awakens us to love for all creatures, and inspires struggles for justice. Inspired by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Christian spirituality, Greenway engages, on the one hand, intellectuals like Stanley Hauerwas, Richard Rorty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jeffery Stout, Charles Taylor, and Bernard Williams, and, on the other, contemporary debates over consciousness, free will, evil, and metaethics. He details the character of secular rationality’s devastating scission from moral reality and clarifies the promise of understanding faith and spirituality in terms of agape.

Author : Terry Nardin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1998-02-15
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780691058405

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The Ethics of War and Peace by Terry Nardin Pdf

A superb introduction to the ethical aspects of war and peace, this collection of tightly integrated essays explores the reasons for waging war and for fighting with restraint as formulated in a diversity of ethical traditions, religious and secular. Beginning with the classic debate between political realism and natural law, this book seeks to expand the conversation by bringing in the voices of Judaism, Islam, Christian pacifism, and contemporary feminism. In so doing, it addresses a set of questions: How do the adherents to each viewpoint understand the ideas of war and peace? What attitudes toward war and peace are reflected in these understandings? What grounds for war, if any, are recognized within each perspective? What constraints apply to the conduct of war? Can these constraints be set aside in situations of extremity? Each contributor responds to this set of questions on behalf of the ethical perspective he or she is presenting. The concluding chapters compare and contrast the perspectives presented without seeking to adjudicate their differences. Because of its inclusive, objective, comparative, and dialogic approach, the book serves as a valuable resource for scholars, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else who wants to acquire a better understanding of the range of moral viewpoints that shape current discussion of war and peace. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Joseph Boyle, Michael G. Cartwright, Jean Bethke Elshtain, John Finnis, Sohail H. Hashmi, Theodore J. Koontz, David R. Mapel, Jeff McMahan, Richard B. Miller, Aviezer Ravitzky, Bassam Tibi, Sarah Tobias, and Michael Walzer.

Author : Robert K. Garcia,Nathan L. King
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780742551701

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Is Goodness Without God Good Enough? by Robert K. Garcia,Nathan L. King Pdf

"Morality and religion: intimately wed, violently opposed, or something else? Discussion of this issue appears in pop culture, the academy, and the media - often generating radically opposed views. At one end of the spectrum are those who think that unless God exists, ethics is unfounded and the moral life is unmotivated. At the other end are those who think that religious belief is unnecessary for - and even a threat to - ethical knowledge and the moral life." "This volume provides an accessible, charitable discussion that represents a range of views along this spectrum. The book begins with a lively debate between Paul Kurtz and William Lane Craig on the question, Is goodness without God good enough? Kurtz defends the affirmative position and Craig the negative. Following the debate are new essays by prominent scholars. These essays comment on the debate and advance the broader discussion of religion and morality. The book closes with final responses from Kurtz and Craig."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Peter Byrne
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 202 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : UVA:X006045015

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The Moral Interpretation of Religion by Peter Byrne Pdf

This text takes the reader through the essential characteristics of moral interpretation, including the idea of a personal creator and the secular problem of evil, assessing its viability as an approach.

Author : Anna Tomaszewska,Hasse Hämäläinen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2017-10-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783319653945

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The Sources of Secularism by Anna Tomaszewska,Hasse Hämäläinen Pdf

This book examines the importance of the Enlightenment for understanding the secular outlook of contemporary Western societies. It shows the new ways of thinking about religion that emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries and have had a great impact on how we address problems related to religion in the public sphere today. Based on the assumption that political concepts are rooted in historical realities, this collection combines the perspective of political philosophy with the perspective of the history of ideas. Does secularism imply that individuals are not free to manifest their beliefs in public? Is secularization the same as rejecting faith in the absolute? Can there be a universal rational core in every religion? Does freedom of expression always go hand in hand with freedom of conscience? Is secularism an invention of the predominantly Christian West, which cannot be applied in other contexts, specifically that of Muslim cultures? Answers to these and related questions are sought not only in current theories and debates in political philosophy, but also in the writings of Immanuel Kant, Benedict Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Collins, Adriaan Koerbagh, Abbé Claude Yvon, Giovanni Paolo Marana, and others.

Author : David Owen Brink
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 1989-02-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521359376

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Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics by David Owen Brink Pdf

A systematic analysis considers the objectivity of ethics, the relationship between the moral point of view and a scientific or naturalist worldview and its role in a person's rational lifespan.

Author : Todd H. Weir
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-04-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107041561

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Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth-Century Germany by Todd H. Weir Pdf

This book explores the culture, politics, and ideas of the nineteenth-century German secularist movements of Free Religion, Freethought, Ethical Culture, and Monism. In it, Todd H. Weir argues that although secularists challenged church establishment and conservative orthodoxy, they were subjected to the forces of religious competition.

Author : Austin Dacey
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : UOM:39015076143695

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The Secular Conscience by Austin Dacey Pdf

From Washington to the Vatican to Tehran, religion is a public matter as never before, and secular values -- individual autonomy, pluralism, separation of religion and state, and freedom of conscience -- are attacked on all sides and defended by few. The godly claim a monopoly on the language of morality, while secular liberals stand accused of standing for nothing. Secular liberals did not lose their moral compass: they gave it away. For generations, too many have insisted that questions of conscience -- religion, ethics, and values -- are "private matters" that have no place in public debate. Ironically, this ideology hinders them from subjecting religion to due scrutiny when it encroaches on individual rights and from unabashedly advocating their own moral vision in politics for fear of "imposing" their beliefs on others. In his incisive new book, philosopher Austin Dacey calls for a bold rethinking of the nature of conscience and its role in public life. Inspired by an earlier liberal tradition that he traces to Spinoza and John Stuart Mill, Dacey urges liberals to lift their self-imposed gag order and defend a renewed secularism based on the objective moral value of conscience. Dacey compares conscience to the press in an open society: it is protected from coercion and control, not because it is private, but because it has a vital role in the public sphere. It is free, but not liberated from shared standards of truth and right. It must come before any and all faiths, for it is what tells us whether or not to believe. In this way, conscience supplies a shared vocabulary for meaningful dialogue in a diverse society, and an ethical lingua franca in which to address the world.

Author : Albert Plotkin,Karl Pohlhaus,Tim Broumley
Publisher : Fogfree Incorporated
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2005-06-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0977030113

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The Ethics of World Religions by Albert Plotkin,Karl Pohlhaus,Tim Broumley Pdf

The Ethics of World Religions is an essential book for those who take their religion seriously and sincerely seek to abide by its ethical teachings. Rabbi Plotkin takes a close look at his own religion of Judaism and then the religion he has spent a good part of his life both studying and encountering, Christianity. Being a student of World Religions and Philosophy, he extends his search to include Eastern Religions and Islam. He goes on to look at secular expressions of ethics to round out a complete picture. Writing in an easy style, he nevertheless points out shortcomings in denominational theologies that short change ethics in favor of salvation preoccupations. An excellent book for the student of religion and those seekers committed to living an honest life.

Author : Michael Rectenwald,Rochelle Almeida,George Levine
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 355 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2015-10-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781614519317

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Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age by Michael Rectenwald,Rochelle Almeida,George Levine Pdf

Global Secularisms addresses the state of and prospects for secularism globally. Drawing from multiple fields, it brings together theoretical discussion and empirical case studies that illustrate "on-the-ground," extant secularisms as they interact with various religious, political, social, and economic contexts. Its point of departure is the fact that secularism is plural and that various secularisms have developed in various contexts and from various traditions around the world. Secularism takes on different social meanings and political valences wherever it is expressed. The essays collected here provide numerous points of contact between empirical case studies and theoretical reflection. This multiplicity informs and challenges the conceptual theorization of secularism as a universal doctrine. Analyses of different regions enrich our understanding of the meanings of secularism, providing comparative range to our notions of secularity. Theoretical treatments help to inform our understanding of secularism in context, enabling readers to discern what is at stake in the various regional expressions of secularity globally. While the bulk of the essays are case-based research, the current thinking of leading theorists and scholars is also included.