Social Ethics

Thoughtful observers agree that the planetary crisis we now face - climate change; species extinction; the destruction of entire ecosystems; the urgent need for a more just economic-political order - is pushing human civilization to a radical turning point: change or perish. But precisely how to change remains an open question.

The Apology of Socrates was written by Plato. In fact, it's a defensive speech of Socrates that he said in a court noted down by Plato. The main subject of the speech is a problem of the evil. Socrates insists that neither death nor death sentence is evil. We shouldn't be afraid of the death because we don't know anything about it. Socrates proved that the death shouldn't be taken as the evil with the following dilemma: the death is either a peace or a transit from this life to the next. Both can't be called evil. Consequently, the death shouldn't be treated as evil.

Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the first century AD. He has been referred to as the Roman Socrates and is also remembered for being the teacher of Epictetus. He taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero and so was sent into exile in 65 AD, returning to Rome only under Galba. Twenty-one of his lectures survive together with a few fragmentary notes from others, all of which are contained in this narration.

Entrepreneurs, businessmen, and investors are constantly looking for principles and rules that will pave the way for success. Usually, those at the forefront are successful entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley or legendary Wall Street investors. But the principles of economic growth, wealth creation, and preservation were written long before the rise of the modern market economy and its heroes.

The preeminent sociologist Richard Sennett traces the anguished relation between how cities are built and how people live in them, from ancient Athens to twenty-first-century Shanghai. He shows how Paris, Barcelona, and New York City assumed their modern forms; rethinks the reputations of Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford, and others; and takes us on a tour of emblematic contemporary locations, from the backstreets of Medellin, Colombia, to Google headquarters in Manhattan.

Breakthroughs in genetics present us with a promise and a predicament. The promise is that we will soon be able to treat and prevent a host of debilitating diseases. The predicament is that our newfound genetic knowledge may enable us to manipulate our nature - to enhance our genetic traits and those of our children. Although most people find at least some forms of genetic engineering disquieting, it is not easy to articulate why.

El Libro de los Cinco Anillos (en japonés 五輪書 [Go-rin no sho]) es un tratado sobre el kentutsu escrito por Miyamoto Musashi en su vejez - durante su retiro de ermitaño en la cueva de Reignando en 1643 - y finalizado el 19 de mayo de 1645, pocas semanas antes de su muerte. El libro está dedicado a su pupilo Terao Magonojo Se considera un tratado clásico sobre la estrategia militar de Japón, en una línea semejante a El Arte de la Guerra, escrito por el estratega chino Sun Tzu.

Le "Discours de la méthode" est un texte composite, assez peu méthodique en vérité, qui touche à la morale, à la logique, aux sciences. La méthode proprement dite se résume en peu de règles : "ne recevoir jamais aucune chose pour vraie, que je ne la connusse évidemment être telle" ; "diviser chacune des difficultés que j'examinerais" ; "conduire par ordre mes pensées" et m'assurer, par des "dénombrements si entiers, et des revues si générales", de n'avoir rien omis dans ces "chaînes de raisons", sur le modèle des géomètres.

We like to think of ourselves, our friends, and our families as decent people. We may not be saints, but we are still honest, relatively kind, and mostly trustworthy. Christian Miller argues here that we are badly mistaken in thinking this. Hundreds of recent studies in psychology tell a different story: that we all have serious character flaws that prevent us from being as good as we think we are - and that we do not even recognize that these flaws exist.

In "Praise of Folly", also translated as "The Praise of Folly", is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by previous works of the Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a satirical attack on superstitions, other traditions of European society and on the Western Church. Erasmus revised and extended his work, which was originally written in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's house in Bucklersbury in the City of London.

Leo Tolstoy was born to an aristocratic Russian family, became a world-famous influential novelist, and then chose to lead the simple life of a peasant. Dating from this last part of his life, Tolstoy’s influential book What I Believe takes readers along on the path to a life modeled literally on Jesus Christ’s "Sermon on the Mount" and the teachings of the Gospels. In revealing and frank essays he reimagines a faith without dogma, centered solely on Jesus’ doctrine of love, humility, and self-denial.

This is a completely unabridged edition of Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. You may also know this work as Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals, or The Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Our rendition of this classic has crisp, well-edited audio.

Tida como uma obra única na história da Filosofia, Meditações contém as mais profundas e reveladoras reflexões espirituais e éticas já registradas. Apresentados de maneira direta, os insights reúnem os fundamentos do Estoicismo que guiaram os pensamentos do imperador filósofo Marco Aurélio, um dos líderes mais inteligentes e bem-sucedidos de sua época. Uma obra-prima essencial para gestores, curiosos e qualquer pessoa que já tenha enfrentado momentos difíceis, porém, sem deixar de cultivar a esperança em dias melhores.

The True, the Good, and the Beautiful are as timeless a trio of concepts as Western culture has to offer. Since before Socrates, humankind has explored these virtues in an attempt to describe and categorize them. Our definitions of these concepts, moreover, have unceasingly changed over the ages and across continents.

Peter Singer dirige nuestra atención a un movimiento nuevo en el que sus propias ideas han jugado un papel fundamental: el altruismo eficaz. El altruismo eficaz se construye sobre la idea, simple pero profunda, de que llevar una vida totalmente ética implica hacer «el máximo bien que puedas». Dicha vida requiere una visión práctica de las donaciones benéficas: si una organización pretende ser digna de nuestro apoyo, deberá ser capaz de demostrar que el bien que hará con nuestro dinero o tiempo será mayor que el de otras alternativas a nuestro alcance.

Richard Rashke leads us through the myriad of charges and countercharges, theories and facts, and reaches conclusions based solely on the evidence in hand. Originally published in 1981, his audiobook offers a vivid, edgy picture of the tensions that racked this country in the 1970s. However, the volume is not only an important historical document. Complex, fascinating characters populate this compelling insider's view of the nuclear industry.

Become Ungovernable is a provocative new work of political thought setting out to reclaim "freedom", "justice", and "democracy", revolutionary ideas that are all too often warped in the interests of capital and the state. Revealing the mirage of mainstream democratic thought and the false promises of liberal political ideologies, H. L. T. Quan offers an alternative approach: an abolition feminism drawing on a kaleidoscope of refusal praxes, and on a deep engagement with the Black Radical Tradition and queer analytics.

Human rights capture what people need to live minimally decent lives. Recognized dimensions of this minimum include physical security, due process, political participation, and freedom of movement, speech, and belief, as well as subsistence, shelter, health, education, culture, and community. Far less attention has been paid to the interpersonal, social dimensions of a minimally decent life. This collection of essays aims to remedy the neglect of social needs and rights in human rights theory and practice by exploring the social dimensions of the human-rights minimum.

One of the most prominent features of our world is that there is so much bullshit. Yet we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, how it’s different from lying, what purposes it serves, and what it means. In his acclaimed bestseller On Bullshit, which was featured on The Daily Show and 60 Minutes, Harry Frankfurt, who was one of the world’s most influential moral philosophers, explores one of the most serious problems of our politics and our world.

From social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner comes a strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and compassion for one another. Revolutionary Love proposes a method to replace what Lerner terms the "capitalist globalization of selfishness" with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity.