Moral Philosophy

Luther’s War is inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Unlike this classic novel, Luther’s War plays off the mental anguish several characters experience. Luther Kelly, an ex-Air Force OSI investigator has fled to Alaska, thinking himself a murderer. He lives on the edge of mental collapse, riddled with guilt. Until a woman from his past shows up to reveal he was innocent and to take him back to a broken society. But then his war begins when his saving grace in the wilderness, Britton Bush who merely goes by Hemingway, psychologically suffers over dreams in which he ...

Revolutionary War officer Nathan Hale, one of America's first spies, said, "Any kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary." A statue of Hale stands outside CIA headquarters, and the agency often cites his statement as one of its guiding principles. But who decides what is necessary for the public good, and is it really true that any kind of service is permissible for the public good? These questions are at the heart of James M. Olson's book, Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying.

We should be very careful, when trying to scrutinize our cosmos. Who knows, if we succeed, if we have a major breakthrough, we might just blow it all. Like a soap bubble, when touched by the fingertip of a curious child. Maybe that is what it's about. To blow it all. The meaning of life. So, occasionally I contemplate murder... Stefan Stenudd is a Swedish author, artist, historian of ideas, and instructor in the peaceful martial art aikido. In this book, he lets his thoughts wander through questions about life, death, and the meaning of it all. This book was previously published with the ...

As the COVID-19 pandemic revealed, we have become not just a hyper-partisan society but also a deeply cynical one, distrustful of traditional sources of knowledge and wisdom. Skepticism about vaccines led to the needless deaths of at least 230,000 Americans. “Do your own research” is now a rallying cry in many online rabbit holes. Yet experts can make mistakes, and institutions can lose their moral compass. So how can we navigate through all this? In The Road to Wisdom, Francis Collins reminds us of the four core sources of judgement and clear thinking: truth, science, faith, and trust.

Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals is the first of Immanuel Kant's mature works on moral philosophy and remains one of the most influential in the field. Kant conceives his investigation as a work of foundational ethics - one that clears the ground for future research by explaining the core concepts and principles of moral theory, and showing that they are normative for rational agents.

Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male?

"Would you remove your soul, to save your life?" Unlock the continuing mind-bending possibilities of ethical and moral dilemmas with "After Dinner Conversation - Season Two," the next installment of the must-read collection of the best short stories from the critically acclaimed After Dinner Conversation magazine series. Spanning all genres, from science-fiction to historical fiction and everything in between, each story is guaranteed to captivate you and leave you questioning your own beliefs. Perfect for philosophy students and fiction lovers alike, each story comes with five suggested ...

A protocol is a formally or informally set of agreed upon steps about what is to be done and how is to be done in a given situation. They serve several functions. In medicine they establish standard procedures in the light of decades or even centuries of experience. In political meetings and discussions they establish parity between the two sides. In dangerous situations protocols keep people safe. People who advocate Moral Relativism directly and indirectly attack social and moral protocols because the protocols generally tend to preserve morality, whereas moral relativism can reign only ...

Joseph O. Chapa, with unique credentials as Air Force officer, Predator pilot, and doctorate in moral philosophy, serves as our guide to understanding this future, able to engage in both the language of military operations and the language of moral philosophy. Through gripping accounts of remote pilots making life-and-death decisions and analysis of high-profile cases such as the killing of Iranian high government official General Qasem Soleimani, Chapa examines remote warfare within the context of the just war tradition, virtue, moral psychology, and moral responsibility.

On the Genealogy of Morality (The Genealogy of Morals) is an 1887 book by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It consists of a preface and three interrelated essays that expand and follow through on concepts Nietzsche sketched out in Beyond Good and Evil. The three essays trace episodes in the evolution of moral concepts with a view to confronting moral prejudices, specifically those of Christianity and Judaism. Some Nietzsche scholars consider Genealogy to be a work of sustained brilliance and power as well as his masterpiece.

In recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Michael Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society. In What Money Can't Buy, Sandel examines one of the biggest ethical questions of our time and provokes a debate that's been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy?

Struggling with guilt? Questioning your choices? From Sin to Redemption isn’t here to sugarcoat the truth. Sin is real. It’s more than bad habits—it’s the moral failures that weigh on our lives and impact the world around us. But although sin creates wounds, wounds can be healed. This book takes a raw, honest look at sin from many different viewpoints: What is sin? Understand it through the lens of major religions, philosophies, and secular ethics. Why does guilt matter? Guilt isn’t your enemy—it’s a wake-up call to change. How do we respond? Learn from the wisdom of great ...

Robert Jackall's Moral Mazes offers an eye-opening account of how corporate managers think the world works, and how big organizations shape moral consciousness. Based on extensive interviews with managers at every level of two industrial firms and of a large public relations agency, IMoral Mazes takes the reader inside the intricate world of the corporation.

In 2018, scientists manipulated the DNA of human babies for the first time. As biologist and historian Matthew Cobb shows in As Gods, this achievement was one many scientists have feared from the start of the genetic age. Four times in the last fifty years, geneticists, frightened by their own technology, have called a temporary halt to their experiments. They ought to be frightened.

Is moral philosophy more foundational than political theory? It is often assumed to be. David Schmidtz argues that the reverse is true: the question of how to live in a community is more fundamental than questions about how to live. This book questions whether we are getting to the foundations of human morality when we ignore contingent features of communities in which political animals live.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations, his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. It earned him an enormous reputation and would become one of the most influential works on economics ever published. Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics and capitalism. Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford.

A logical fallacy, on the other hand, is a faulty thought process that violates a rule of proper thinking. A rule of proper thinking is a rule defined by logicians through discovery of logical truths and how to frame good arguments. Correct arguments are defined as proper generalized expressions that define logical truths or knowledge. With a logical fallacy, either the contrary or the contradictory of the logical argument is said to be true. In effect, a rule of logical reasoning addresses all of the common modes of valid argument while the faulty argument contradicts them. This book ...

Dive into the heart of ethical philosophy with Ethical Perspectives: Deontology and Consequentialism for the Curious, a powerful 2-in-1 volume. Inside, you’ll find Deontology for Beginners: An Introduction to Moral Responsibility and Consequentialism for Beginners: An Introduction to Ethical Decision-Making. This dual guide unravels the distinct yet interconnected worlds of duty and outcome, offering readers a well-rounded approach to understanding right and wrong. Whether you’re fascinated by principles or driven by results, these two books in one are your gateway to mastering the ...

Just and Unjust Wars has forever changed how we think about the ethics of conflict. In this modern classic, political philosopher Michael Walzer examines the moral issues that arise before, during, and after the wars we fight. Reaching from the Athenian attack on Melos, to the Mai Lai massacre, to the war in Afghanistan and beyond, Walzer mines historical and contemporary accounts and the testimony of participants, decision makers, and victims to explain when war is justified and what ethical limitations apply to those who wage it.

In this groundbreaking book, the philosopher Martin Hägglund challenges our received notions of faith and freedom. The faith we need to cultivate, he argues, is not a religious faith in eternity but a secular faith devoted to our finite life together. He reveals that all spiritual questions of freedom are inseparable from economic and material conditions. What ultimately matters is how we treat one another in this life, and what we do with our time together.