Ethics and moral philosophy is an area of particular interest today. This book brings together some of the most important essays in this area. The essays have all appeared recently in the Journal of Moral Philosophy, an internationally recognized leading philosophy journal. This book is divided into five sections: practical reason, particularism, moral realism, virtue ethics, and ethics and moral philosophy more generally.

Global justice and international affairs is perhaps the hottest topic in political philosophy today. This book brings together some of the most important essays in this area. The essays have all appeared recently in the Journal of Moral Philosophy, an internationally recognized leading philosophy journal. Topics include sovereignty and self-determination, cosmopolitanism and nationalism, global poverty and international distributive justice, and war and terrorism.

Julius Kovesi's Moral Notions (1967) was a startlingly original contribution to moral philosophy and theory of meaning. After initial positive reviews Kovesi's book was largely forgotten. Nevertheless, it continued to have an enduring influence on a number of philosophers and theologians some of whom have contributed to this volume. The original essays collected here critique, analyze, deepen and extend the work of Kovesi. The book will be of particular interest to moral philosophers and those working on concept formation, while also having a broader appeal to social scientists...

In Philosophy as Frustration: Happiness Found and Feigned from Greek Antiquity to Present Bruce Silver analyzes important views of happiness from Greek antiquity into the present. He argues that in many cases philosophers and positive psychologists do a poor job of defending the views of happiness they promote. Too often the philosophical approaches to what constitutes happiness are at odds with themselves and with possibilities for living happily. In some cases readers discover that the phrase "happy human being" is oxymoronic and that the most a person can expect is a life that is a...

Philosophy and Political Power in Antiquity is a collection of essays examining ancient philosophers' reflections on the connection between political power and philosophy. The ancient Greeks both invented political philosophy and were the first to conceptualize the implicit tension between political activity and the contemplative life as found in ideal political institutions and under conditions of repressive rule. These essays examine discussions of these issues within a wide variety of the major schools of antiquity from both interpretive and analytical perspectives. While providing...

What is the relation between law and democracy and how might it be improved? What values should inform the body of laws that govern us all? How should we determine crimes from non-crimes? What justifies state punishment, if anything? Law and Legal Theory brings together some of the most important essays in the area of the philosophy of law written by leading, international scholars and offering significant contributions to how we understand law and legal theory to help shape future debates. Contributors include Christopher Bennett, Samantha Besson, Thom Brooks, Brian Butler, Sean...

States of emergency are declared by governments with alarming frequency. When they are declared, it is taken for granted that their nature is understood. This book argues against this established view. Instead, the view advanced here analyzes what makes emergencies different from other types of similar events. Defending a hybrid liberal/republican approach, the book proposes that states of emergency are in fact poorly understood and therefore needlessly mismanaged when they occur. This mismanagement leads to a troubling derogation of established liberal democratic rights in the name of an...

Wittgenstein and Normative Inquiry examines the relevance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy for ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, and religion. It analyzes the intellectual contexts which shaped Wittgenstein's normative thought, traces his influences, and presents contemporary uses of his philosophy in normative fields. The chapters focus on the nature of normative inquiry. Together, they present a Wittgensteinian approach to normative inquiry, which, while broad and contested, stands in contrast to dominant deductive approaches. Arguing to normative conclusions by showing...

To be happy is to be emotionally and evaluatively satisfied with one's life according to a standard of satisfaction one can claim as one's own as a reasoning being. Since there is no definitive proof of what the standard of satisfaction is, being open to the devising and testing of standards by others is part of claiming one's own standard as a reasoning being. This open-ness is equivalent to being open to and hence respecting and caring for the pursuit of happiness of others. Since such respect and care is what it is to be moral, it follows that one cannot be happy without being moral.

In Kant on Conscience Emre Kazim offers the first systematic treatment of Kant s theory of conscience. Contrary to the scholarly consensus, Kazim argues that Kant s various discussions of conscience - as practical reason, as a feeling, as a power, as a court, as judgement, as the voice of God, etc. - are philosophically coherent aspects of the same unified thing ( Unity Thesis ). Through conceptual reconstruction and historical contextualisation of the primary texts, Kazim both presents Kant s notion of conscience as it relates to his critical thought and philosophically evaluates the...