This volume contains 11 essays which address the question: can virtue be taught? The essays illuminate the dilemma over the problematic role of moral education in a pluralistic society; in addition they illustrate the positive role diversity plays in the discussion of virtues and education.

Humans are deeply convinced that there is something distinct about us as a species, but have never been able to agree on what it is. The first group of essays in this volume make a philosophical attempt at definition, while the second recognizes that we are what we do as well as what we say we are.

This timely book brings together ten scholars in the varied fields of philosophy, theology, history, anthropology, and literature to reflect on the theme of courage. Contributors to this volume agree that courage is not just for the few or the dramatically heroic. While some of the authors do invoke awe-inspiring instances of death-defying courage, all recognize that courage is required of every one of us. The first section of Courage, entitled Courage in Philosophy and Literature, begins with William Desmond's exploration of the transcendent dimension of courage, which comes to us not from...

In this book philosophers, scholars of religion, and activists address the theme of responsibility. Barbara Darling-Smith brings together an enlightening collection of essays that analyze the ethics of responsibility, its relational nature, and its global struggle. With references to Homer's the Iliad and Buddhist teachings, these essays demonstrate that while selfhood is an illusion, there is still a conventional self that must be held responsible. This book finds the underlying distinctions between ultimate and conventional understandings of selfhood, which lead to variations on the role of...