Vice & Virtue in Everyday Life PDF Download

Author: Christina Hoff Sommers
Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company
ISBN: 9780534605346
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A comprehensive and provocative collection of both classical and contemporary voices in perennial ethical debates, VICE AND VIRTUE has established itself as one of the truly outstanding anthologies for Introduction to Ethics Courses. In contradistinction to many other introduction to ethics books that focus on the application of moral theories to various institutionally based social dilemmas, VICE AND VIRTUE is unabashedly committed to the exploration of private, individual virtue and responsibility. This book provides both an overview of seminal ethical theories as well as many stimulating readings chosen to encourage students' own reflection on how these abstract theories impact decisions they face individually in their everyday lives.

Author: Michael W. Austin
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802865658
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
This volume offers a fresh, timely, practical look at eleven key Christian virtues: faith, open-mindedness, wisdom, zeal, hope, contentment, courage, love, compassion, forgiveness, and humility. Writing from a distinctively Christian perspective, the authors thoughtfully explore and explain these select virtues, seeking to nurture readers in lifelong character growth and to promote the centrality of the virtues to the Christian faith. Grouped under the headings Faith, Hope, and Love, the chapters each conclude with questions for further reflection. Contributors: Michael W. Austin Jason Baehr Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung R. Douglas Geivett David A. Horner William C. Mattison III Paul K. Moser Andrew Pinsent Steve L. Porter James S. Spiegel Charles Taliaferro David R. Turner.

Author: Kevin Timpe
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019964554X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
A comprehensive philosophical treatment of the virtues and their competing vices. The first four sections focus on historical classes of virtue: the cardinal virtues, the capital vices and the corrective virtues, intellectual virtues, and the theological virtues. A final section discusses the role of virtue theory in a number of disciplines.

Author: Emrys Westacott
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691141991
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"In The Virtues of Our Vices, philosopher Emrys Westacott takes a fresh look at important everyday ethical questions--and comes up with surprising answers. He makes a compelling argument that some of our most common vices--rudeness, gossip, snobbery, tasteless humor, and disrespect for others' beliefs--often have hidden virtues or serve unappreciated but valuable purposes."--P. [2] of jacket.

Author: Nathan Nobis
Publisher: Open Philosophy Press
ISBN: 0578532638
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 77

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Book Description
This book introduces readers to the many arguments and controversies concerning abortion. While it argues for ethical and legal positions on the issues, it focuses on how to think about the issues, not just what to think about them. It is an ideal resource to improve your understanding of what people think, why they think that and whether their (and your) arguments are good or bad, and why. It's ideal for classroom use, discussion groups, organizational learning, and personal reading. From the Preface To many people, abortion is an issue for which discussions and debates are frustrating and fruitless: it seems like no progress will ever be made towards any understanding, much less resolution or even compromise. Judgments like these, however, are premature because some basic techniques from critical thinking, such as carefully defining words and testing definitions, stating the full structure of arguments so each step of the reasoning can be examined, and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of different explanations can help us make progress towards these goals. When emotions run high, we sometimes need to step back and use a passion for calm, cool, critical thinking. This helps us better understand the positions and arguments of people who see things differently from us, as well as our own positions and arguments. And we can use critical thinking skills help to try to figure out which positions are best, in terms of being supported by good arguments: after all, we might have much to learn from other people, sometimes that our own views should change, for the better. Here we use basic critical thinking skills to argue that abortion is typically not morally wrong. We begin with less morally-controversial claims: adults, children and babies are wrong to kill and wrong to kill, fundamentally, because they, we, are conscious, aware and have feelings. We argue that since early fetuses entirely lack these characteristics, they are not inherently wrong to kill and so most abortions are not morally wrong, since most abortions are done early in pregnancy, before consciousness and feeling develop in the fetus. Furthermore, since the right to life is not the right to someone else’s body, fetuses might not have the right to the pregnant woman’s body—which she has the right to—and so she has the right to not allow the fetus use of her body. This further justifies abortion, at least until technology allows for the removal of fetuses to other wombs. Since morally permissible actions should be legal, abortions should be legal: it is an injustice to criminalize actions that are not wrong. In the course of arguing for these claims, we: 1. discuss how to best define abortion; 2. dismiss many common “question-begging” arguments that merely assume their conclusions, instead of giving genuine reasons for them; 3. refute some often-heard “everyday arguments” about abortion, on all sides; 4. explain why the most influential philosophical arguments against abortion are unsuccessful; 5. provide some positive arguments that at least early abortions are not wrong; 6. briefly discuss the ethics and legality of later abortions, and more. This essay is not a “how to win an argument” piece or a tract or any kind of apologetics. It is not designed to help anyone “win” debates: everybody “wins” on this issue when we calmly and respectfully engage arguments with care, charity, honesty and humility. This book is merely a reasoned, systematic introduction to the issues that we hope models these skills and virtues. Its discussion should not be taken as absolute “proof” of anything: much more needs to be understood and carefully discussed—always.

Author: Shawn R. Tucker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630878464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, greed, and lust. The seven virtues are prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice, faith, hope, and love. This book brings all of them together and for the first time lays out their history in a collection of the most important philosophical, religious, literary, and art-historical works. Starting with the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian antecedents, this anthology of source documents traces the virtues-and-vices tradition through its cultural apex during the medieval era and then into their continued development and transformation from the Renaissance to the present. This anthology includes excerpts of Plato's Republic, the Bible, Dante's Purgatorio, and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and C. S. Lewis. Also included are artworks from medieval manuscripts; paintings by Giotto, Veronese, and Paul Cadmus; prints by Brueghel; and a photograph by Oscar Rejlander. What these works show is the vitality and richness of the virtues and vices in the arts from their origins to the present. You can continue this book's conversation by visiting http://www.virtuesvicesinthearts.blogspot.com/. There you can join conversations, find out more, and meet other scholars and artists interested in this vibrant tradition.

Author: Kristján Kristjánsson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107292395
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Positive psychology is one of the biggest growth industries in the discipline of psychology. At the present time, the subfield of 'positive education' seems poised to take the world of education and teacher training by storm. In this first book-length philosophical study of positive psychology, Professor Kristján Kristjánsson subjects positive psychology's recent inroads into virtue theory and virtue education to sustained conceptual and moral scrutiny. Professor Kristjánsson's interdisciplinary perspective constructively integrates insights, evidence and considerations from social science and philosophy in a way that is easily accessible to the general reader. He offers an extended critique of positive psychology generally and 'positive education' in particular, exploring the philosophical assumptions, underpinnings and implications of these academic trends in detail. This provocative book will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge research on positive psychology and on the virtues that lie at the intersection of psychology, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy, education, and daily life.

Author: André Comte-Sponville
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805045567
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Drawing on thinkers from Aristotle to Simone Weil, by way of Aquinas, Kant, Rilke, Nietzsche, Spinoza, and Rawls, among others, Comte-Sponville elaborates on the qualities that constitute the essence and excellence of humankind.

Author: Mike W. Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195304713
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Morality and mental health are now inseparably linked in our view of character. Alcoholics are sick, yet they are punished for drunk driving. Drug addicts are criminals, but their punishment can be court ordered therapy. The line between character flaws and personality disorders has become fuzzy, with even the seven deadly sins seen as mental disorders. In addition to pathologizing wrong-doing, we also psychologize virtue; self-respect becomes self-esteem, integrity becomes psychological integration, and responsibility becomes maturity. Moral advice is now sought primarily from psychologists and therapists rather than philosophers or theologians.In this wide-ranging, accessible book, Mike W. Martin asks: are we replacing morality with therapy, in potentially confused and dangerous ways, or are we creatively integrating morality and mental health? According to him, it's a little bit of both. He surveys the ways in which morality and mental health are related, touching on practical concerns like love and work, self-respect and self-fulfillment, guilt and depression, crime and violence, and addictions. Terming this integrative development "the therapeutic trend in ethics," Martin uses examples from popular culture, various moral controversies, and draws on a line of thought that includes Plato, the Stoics, Freud, Nietzsche, and contemporary psychotherapeutic theories. Martin develops some interesting conclusions, among them that sound morality is indeed healthy, and that moral values are inevitably embedded in our conceptions of mental health. In the end, he shows how both morality and mental health are inextricably intertwined in our pursuit of a meaningful life. This book will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and sociologists, as well as the general reader.

Author: Philip E. Dow
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830884335
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Teacher-administrator Philip Dow explores the implications of setting intellectual character (rather than intellectual content) at the heart of our educational programs. With ample stories and practical suggestions, Dow shows how intellectual virtues like tenacity, carefulness and curiosity are teachable traits that can produce good lives.