Download or read book The Virtues of Abandon written by Charly Coleman and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: France in the eighteenth century glittered, but also seethed, with new goods and new ideas. In the halls of Versailles, the streets of Paris, and the soul of the Enlightenment itself, a vitriolic struggle was being waged over the question of ownership—of property, of position, even of personhood. Those who championed man's possession of material, spiritual, and existential goods faced the successive assaults of radical Christian mystics, philosophical materialists, and political revolutionaries. The Virtues of Abandon traces the aims and activities of these three seemingly disparate groups, and the current of anti-individualism that permeated theology, philosophy, and politics throughout the period. Fired by the desire to abandon the self, men and women sought new ways to relate to God, nature, and nation. They joined illicit mystic cults that engaged in rituals of physical mortification and sexual license, committed suicides in the throes of materialist fatalism, drank potions to induce consciousness-altering dreams, railed against the degrading effects of unfettered consumption, and ultimately renounced the feudal privileges that had for centuries defined their social existence. The explosive denouement was the French Revolution, during which God and king were toppled from their thrones.

Download or read book Wild Abandon written by Joe Dunthorne and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-01-31 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kate and Albert have always lived on the secluded communal farm run by their father. But now, after twenty years, the community is disintegrating, taking their parents' marriage with it. To escape, Kate, at seventeen, flees to a suburbia she knows only through fiction; and Albert, at eleven, dives into preparations for the end of the world that he is sure is coming. Don- the father of the family, leader, and maker of elaborate speeches- is faced with the prospect of saving his community, his marriage, his son from apocalyptic visions, ad his daughter from impending men. He convinces himself that the only way to save his world is... to throw the biggest party of his life. But will anyone show up?

Download or read book The Treasure of the City of Ladies written by Christine de Pizan and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2003-10-30 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by Europe’s first professional woman writer, The Treasure of the City of Ladies offers advice and guidance to women of all ages and from all levels of medieval society, from royal courtiers to prostitutes. It paints an intricate picture of daily life in the courts and streets of fifteenth-century France and gives a fascinating glimpse into the practical considerations of running a household, dressing appropriately and maintaining a reputation in all circumstances. Christine de Pizan’s book provides a valuable counterbalance to male accounts of life in the middle ages and demonstrates, often with dry humour, how a woman’s position in society could be made less precarious by following the correct etiquette.

Download or read book Barbarian Virtues written by Matthew Frye Jacobson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-04-16 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an examination of national identity in a crucial period. The United States first announced its power on the international scene at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 and first demonstrated that power during World War I. The years in between were a period of dramatic change, when the dynamics of industrialization rapidly accelerated the rate at which Americans were coming in contact with foreign peoples, both at home and abroad. In this work, the author shows how American conceptions of peoplehood, citizenship, and national identity were transformed in these crucial years by escalating economic and military involvements abroad and by the massive influx of immigrants at home. Drawing upon a diverse range of sources, not only traditional political documents, but also novels, travelogues, academic treatises, and art, he demonstrates the close relationship between immigration and expansionism. By bridging these two areas, so often left separate, he rethinks the texture of American political life in a keenly argued and persuasive history. This book shows how these years set the stage for today's attitudes and ideas about "Americanism" and about immigrants and foreign policy, from Border Watch to the Gulf War.

Download or read book Integrity and the Virtues of Reason written by Greg Scherkoske and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-18 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many people have claimed that integrity requires sticking to one's convictions come what may. Greg Scherkoske challenges this claim, arguing that it creates problems in distinguishing integrity from fanaticism, close-mindedness or mere inertia. Rather, integrity requires sticking to one's convictions to the extent that they are justifiable and likely to be correct. In contrast to traditional views of integrity, Scherkoske contends that it is an epistemic virtue intimately connected to what we know and have reason to believe, rather than an essentially moral virtue connected to our values. He situates integrity in the context of shared cognitive and practical agency and shows that the relationship between integrity and impartial morality is not as antagonistic as many have thought - which has important implications for the 'integrity objection' to impartial moral theories. This original and provocative study will be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of ethics.

Download or read book Friendship and Virtue Ethics in the Book of Job written by Patricia Vesely and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines friendship as a moral category in the Book of Job through an Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective.

Download or read book Self Abandonment to Divine Providence written by Rev. Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade and published by TAN Books. This book was released on 1987-06 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written to help those who despair of ever becoming holy, Fr. de Caussade explains in Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence how surrendering our will to God is key to attaining peace and holiness in this life, and that it is readily available to all people-- from beginners to those well advanced in the spiritual life. This edition contains over 150 letters from Fr. de Caussade to his spiritual children on the practice of self-abandonment. These exchagnes provide insights and practical tips for applying the timeless lessons found in this classic guide to achieving holiness.

Download or read book A Companion to Jesuit Mysticism written by Robert Aleksander Maryks and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Companion to Jesuit Mysticism, Robert A. Maryks provides thirteen unique essays discussing the Jesuit mystical tradition, a somewhat neglected aspect of Jesuit historiography that stretches as far back as the order’s co-founder, Ignatius of Loyola, his spiritual visions at Manresa, and ultimately the mystical perspective contained in his Spiritual Exercises.

Download or read book Virtues in Action written by M. Austin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-10-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, many philosophers have considered the strengths and weaknesses of a virtue-centered approach to moral theory. Much less attention has been given to how such an approach bears on issues in applied ethics. The essays in this volume apply a virtue-centered perspective to a variety of contemporary moral issues, and in so doing offer a fresh and illuminating perspective. Some of the essays focus on a particular virtue and its application to one or more realms of applied ethics, such as temperance and sex or humility and environmental ethics. Other chapters focus on an issue in applied ethics and bring several virtues into a discussion of that issue or realm of life, such as sport, education, and business. Finally, several of the chapters engage relevant psychological research as well as current neuroscience, which enhances the strength of the philosophical arguments.

Download or read book Tolerance Among the Virtues written by John R. Bowlin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a pluralistic society such as ours, tolerance is a virtue—but it doesn't always seem so. Some suspect that it entangles us in unacceptable moral compromises and inequalities of power, while others dismiss it as mere political correctness or doubt that it can safeguard the moral and political relationships we value. Tolerance among the Virtues provides a vigorous defense of tolerance against its many critics and shows why the virtue of tolerance involves exercising judgment across a variety of different circumstances and relationships—not simply applying a prescribed set of rules. Drawing inspiration from St. Paul, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein, John Bowlin offers a nuanced inquiry into tolerance as a virtue. He explains why the advocates and debunkers of toleration have reached an impasse, and he suggests a new way forward by distinguishing the virtue of tolerance from its false look-alikes, and from its sibling, forbearance. Some acts of toleration are right and good, while others amount to indifference, complicity, or condescension. Some persons are able to draw these distinctions well and to act in accord with their better judgment. When we praise them as tolerant, we are commending them as virtuous. Bowlin explores what that commendation means. Tolerance among the Virtues offers invaluable insights into how to live amid differences we cannot endorse—beliefs we consider false, actions we think are unjust, institutional arrangements we consider cruel or corrupt, and persons who embody what we oppose.

Download or read book The Tyranny of Virtue written by Robert Boyers and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From public intellectual and professor Robert Boyers, a thought-provoking volume of nine essays that elegantly and fiercely addresses recent developments in American culture and argues for the tolerance of difference that is at the heart of the liberal tradition. Written from the perspective of a liberal intellectual who has spent a lifetime as a writer, editor, and college professor, The Tyranny of Virtue is a precise and nuanced insider’s look at shifts in American culture—most especially in the American academy—that so many people find alarming. Part memoir and part polemic, an anatomy of important and dangerous ideas, and a cri de coeur lamenting the erosion of standard liberal values, Boyers’s collection of essays is devoted to such subjects as tolerance, identity, privilege, appropriation, diversity, and ableism that have turned academic life into a minefield. Why, Robert Boyers asks, are a great many liberals, people who should know better, invested in the drawing up of enemies lists and driven by the conviction that on critical issues no dispute may be tolerated? In stories, anecdotes, and character profiles, a public intellectual and longtime professor takes on those in his own progressive cohort who labor in the grip of a poisonous and illiberal fundamentalism. The end result is a finely tuned work of cultural intervention from the front lines.

Download or read book The Abandoned Generation written by Gabriele Kuby and published by St. Augustine's Press. This book was released on 2021-11-19 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broken family throws formidable stumbling blocks onto the path of life that a society as a whole must traverse. But the stones under the feet of the children in these situations are the most hurtful and most in need of redress. Gabriele Kuby answers the call and does so with an acute sense of responsibility. As a child of divorce and later divorcee, Kuby speaks to herself when she urges the men and women of her generation to consider how failing as spouses we fail as parents, and as such cause the most trouble for our children. Reading Kuby's analysis of cultural, sociological and biological data, the danger is clear and present. Yet Kuby asserts that, generally, our plight goes unnoticed and is veiled from our eyes. We need to see children for who and what they really are to us, to the family, and society at large. In the words of Fulton Sheen, "Children play a redeemer role in the family. The represent the victory of love over the insatiable ego. They symbolize the defeat of selfishness and the triumph of giving love." Tragically, children are increasingly less a part of Western culture. This leaves the family, in the best case scenario, an artifact, and in the worst case, a casualty. The topics addressed by Kuby cover towering influences in postmodern family life: Gender politics, the abortion mentality, daycare ("Socialism 2.0"), premature stress, rights of children, digital distractions, pornography, and divorce. A native German, Kuby's work is, heartbreakingly, as relevant to American society as her own. This European perspective drives home the urgent need to recognize our situation as global and embedded, and one that requires more than political mobilization of mainstream efforts and responses. What really is good and normal, and how to we realize it? Listen to the heartstrings that yearn for true knowledge of oneself, Kuby implores, of God, and how in the surprise of God's mercy we are guided through life. Kuby backs up this invitation to personal conversion and betterment with hard data.

Download or read book The Ordinary Virtues written by Michael Ignatieff and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During a 3-year, 8-nation journey, Michael Ignatieff found that while human rights is the language of states and liberal elites, the moral language that resonates with most people is that of everyday virtues: tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience. These ordinary virtues are the moral system of global cities and obscure shantytowns alike.

Download or read book Abandonment to Divine Providence written by Jean-Pierre De Caussade and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2011-09-06 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: God is to be found in the simplest of our daily activities and especially through total surrender to whatever is His will for each of us. That is the message of this 18th-century inspirational classic by Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Its encouragement to ""live in the present moment,"" accepting everyday obstacles with faith, humility and love, has guided generations of believers to holiness and spiritual peace. This special volume of the famous spiritual treatise also includes the many insightful letters of Father de Caussade on the practice of self-abandonment. These numerous letters provide a great additional source of wisdom and practical guidance for how to grow in abandonment and to deepen our union with God in our daily lives. De Caussade shows that this practice of self-abandonment to God's will is the key to attaining true peace and virtue, and that it is readily available to all people - from beginners to those well advanced in the spiritual life. He also shows how to determine what God's will is for us. He reveals that it is not extraordinary feats that God expects for our growth in holiness, but rather heroic attention to every detail in our lives and humble acceptance of our daily lot in life as coming from His hand. The rich spiritual lessons in this book have stood the test of time, offering real and practical assistance to all people because its message is simple and clear, one that the reader will find to be a rare treasure of inspiration and direction to be referred to again and again.

Download or read book Practical Intelligence and the Virtues written by Daniel C. Russell and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important developments in modern moral philosophy is the resurgence of interest in the virtues. In this new book, Daniel Russell explores two important hopes for such an approach to moral thought: that starting from the virtues should cast light on what makes an action right, and that notions like character, virtue, and vice should yield a plausible picture of human psychology. Russell argues that the key to each of these hopes is an understanding of the cognitive and deliberative skills involved in the virtues. If right action is defined in terms of acting generously or kindly, then these virtues must involve skills for determining what the kind or generous thing to do would be on a given occasion. Likewise, Russell argues that understanding virtuous action as the intelligent pursuit of virtuous goals yields a promising picture of the psychology of virtue. This book develops an Aristotelian account of the virtue of practical intelligence or 'phronesis'—an excellence of deliberating and making choices—which Russell argues is a necessary part of every virtue. This emphasis on the roots of the virtues in the practical intellect contrasts with ambivalence about the practical intellect in much recent work on the virtues—a trend Russell argues is ultimately perilous for virtue theory. This book also takes a penetrating look at issues like the unity of the virtues, responsibility for character, and that elusive figure, 'the virtuous person'. Written in a clear and careful manner, Practical Intelligence and the Virtues will appeal to philosophers and students alike in moral philosophy and moral psychology.

Download or read book Ockham on the Virtues written by Rega Wood and published by Purdue University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's great philosophers, William of Ockham's On the Connection of the Virtues (De connexione virtutum) provides insightful perspectives on ordinary issues of human conduct. Written in reasonably simple and nontechnical language, it is translated into English here for the first time. Ockham's views on many subjects have been misunderstood, his views on ethics as much as any. This book is designed to avoid some pitfalls that arise in reading medieval philosophy generally and Ockham in particular. Wood begins her introduction with an account of what is known about Ockham's life and works and with a discussion of his place in the history of philosophy, followed by a brief general guide to his views. Finally, there is a historical account of the medieval debate on the connection of the virtues, to which Ockham's treatise is an important contribution. Problems of interpretation are addressed in the commentary, which follows the translation. Translation, commentary, and introduction provide students of Ockham's treatise with what they need to appreciate his stance on ethical issues and to approach his arguments critically.

Download or read book Choosing Terror written by Marisa Linton and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the leaders of the French Revolution - Robespierre and his fellow Jacobins - and particularly the gradual process whereby many of them came to 'choose terror', evolving from humanitarian idealists into ruthless politicians, ready to adopt the use of terror to defend the Revolution.