Social Ethics

Humanity is currently facing a series of interconnected emergencies that threaten our very survival—from climate change to economic inequality and beyond. And yet, at the same time, a global shift towards harnessing our collective power to create a life-affirming future is flourishing. Featuring chapters by forty-three leading-edge contributors, Our Moment of Choice provides eye-opening and inspirational visions for a unified, peaceful, and thriving world.

Americans are in the midst of a world-historic drug binge. Opiates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, marijuana, antidepressants, antipsychotics—across the board, consumption has shot up in the twenty-first century. At the same time, the United States is home to the largest prison system in the world, justified in part by a now zombified "war" on drugs. How did we get here?

Each of us struggles with the existential questions of meaning, purpose, and responsibility. In The Meaning of Life, the Dalai Lama examines these questions from the Buddhist perspective, skillfully guiding us to a clearer understanding which can liberate us from the prison of selfishness and suffering. Also from the Dalai Lama:
The Art of Happiness.

Parents, educators, and the media wring their hands about the plight of America's children and teens - soaring rates of emotional problems, limited coping skills, disengagement from learning - and yet there are ways to reverse these disheartening trends. Teach Your Children Well acknowledges that every parent wants successful children. However, until we are clearer about our core values and the parenting choices that are most likely to lead to authentic, and not superficial, success, we will continue to raise exhausted, externally driven, impaired children.

As Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch labored to make a place for themselves in a male-dominated world, as they made friendships and families, and as they drifted toward and away from each other, they never stopped insisting that some lives are better than others. Drawing on a cluster of recently opened archives and extensive correspondence and interviews with those who knew them best, Benjamin Lipscomb traces the lives and ideas of four friends who gave us a better way to think about ethics, and ourselves.

Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle’s most famous work on the subject of ethics and virtue. He believed that ethical knowledge is not precise knowledge, like logic and mathematics, but general knowledge like nutrition and exercise. Since ethics is a practical discipline rather than a theoretical one, he thought that to become "good", one could not simply study what virtue is; one must actually be virtuous.

In 2008, the American economy collapsed, taking with it millions of Americans' jobs, homes, and life savings. The impending financial crisis was devastating, and many are still feeling its effects today. Though the crisis was debilitating, the US government has yet to implement policies that would prevent a repeat of the Great Recession. Nothing Is Too Big to Fail holds a microscope to the very policies and corruption that led to this major economic recession.

Este libro fue escrito por Boecio en el año 524 en el período previo a su brutal ejecución, donde, afligido por la injusticia de su encarcelamiento por involucrarse en una conspiración, Boecio medita sobre la naturaleza de Dios, la inconstancia de la fortuna, la idea del libre albedrío, por qué le suceden cosas malas a la gente buena y la naturaleza de la felicidad. Sus argumentos toman la forma de un diálogo rico y exquisito entre él y la Filosofía en un intento de crear una ideología coherente que apoye su visión del mundo.

"Civil Disobedience" is an essay by Henry David Thoreau. Published in 1849 under the title "Resistance to Civil Government", it expressed Thoreau’s belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

When sin is disguised as virtue, the path to cultivating righteousness becomes impossible. Such is the challenge Christians face in the modern age. Not long ago, most people would agree that the seven deadly sins are in fact deadly. But ask them today, and you’ll hear a different answer. Today, “anger” is often considered an admirable emotion, “lust” the only expression of love, and “greed” the unassailable right to “get what’s yours”. The world can rebrand sin all it wants and declare the death of truth, but it has no power against the truth of the Scripture.

A train is racing toward five men, tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. If a fat man is pushed onto the line, although he will die, his body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man? As David Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex, and important, than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong.

In the 21st century the basic questions of ethics are no longer the abstract terms of ethical theory, but the concrete and burning issues related to the influence of life sciences, the impact of a globalized economy, and the consequences of present decisions for the future of humankind.

The book is one of the most influential ethical treatises of all time. Written in 350 BC, it identifies happiness as life's goal. How do we achieve this goal? Not through the satisfactions that come from pleasure, wealth, or fame. According to Aristotle, the true path to happiness lies in contemplation of philosophic truth. This is the only action through which humans can exercise their distinctively unique trait: the ability to reason.

If you're into self-help and personal development, you've most likely come across the terms stoicism and stoic philosophy a lot these days. Unlike a fancy-sounding pop psychology trend or personal development quick fix, stoicism is a powerful ancient Greek philosophy concept.

Dr. Dyer reads his collection of over 200 insightful quotes and observations.

If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones! He's both a mild-mannered archaeology professor and an intrepid adventurer traversing the globe in search of lost artifacts. Whether seeking the Ark of the Covenant in Egypt, the Sankara Stones in India, the Holy Grail in Turkey, or a mysterious crystal skull in Peru, Indy's adventures never fail to delight audiences. Indiana Jones and Philosophy takes you on a whirlwind journey to investigate some of the most enduring questions about the human condition.

In this sensitive and probing book, Matthew Ichihashi Potts explores the complex moral terrain of forgiveness, which he claims has too often served as a salve to the conscience of power rather than as an instrument of healing or justice. Though forgiveness is often linked with reconciliation or the abatement of anger, Potts resists these associations, asserting instead that forgiveness is simply the refusal of retaliatory violence through practices of penitence and grief.

Theres no arguing that we live in turbulent times. In a world which often seems to be spinning out of control, New York Times best-selling author James Arthur Ray, takes an aggressive stance suggesting there are three fundamental dilemmas that have brought us to this fascinating, often frustrating, fulcrum in history.

Praised by Newsweek as a "compelling read" and Library Journal as "accessible and down-to-earth", Dale McGowan’s Parenting Beyond Belief offered freethinking parents everywhere a compassionate introduction to raising caring, ethical children without religious guidance. Now, for the more than 40 million people in the United States who identify themselves as nonreligious, Raising Freethinkers offers solutions to the unique challenges secular parents face and provides specific answers to common questions, as well as over 100 activities for both parents and their children.

Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, narrated by Richard Stibbard, is a foundational work of transcendentalist philosophy that explores the profound connection between humanity and the natural world. In this timeless essay, Emerson encourages readers to look beyond the superficial and appreciate the deeper spiritual and philosophical lessons that nature offers. By finding unity and harmony with nature, Emerson suggests, individuals can achieve greater self-awareness, insight, and enlightenment.