Most people first encounter Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) as one of the leading lights of the Marxist philosophers known as the Frankfurt School and as the collaborator with Max Horkheimer on Dialectic of Enlightenment, which argued that the Enlightenment emphasis on reason gave rise to Nazi politics and genocide. Yet Adorno's writings ranged widely from aesthetics and music to ethics and literature. This elegant translation of Claussen's 2003 biography of his teacher provides the first glimpse of the depth of Adorno's life and thought.
This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time, and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was a proponent of a moral philosophy called Objectivism-and ethic of rational self-interest-that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice. The fundamentals of this morality-"a philosophy for living on earth-are here vibrantly set forth by the spokeswoman for a new kind of intellectual.
BBC Everyday Ethics: Assisted Suicide - Right or Wrong?
On this weeks' Everyday Ethics - David Cameron launches an attack on absent fathers, but is his raw language counter-productive? It was one of the most disturbing TV programmes most viewers will have seen for quite some time. This week, the BBC broadcast a documentary about assisted dying, presented by Sir Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimers, in which we watched the suicide of Peter Smedley. Was it right to do so? And what are the implications from this film?
Ethics, Hunger and Globalization; In Search of Appropriate Policies
This unique book adds an ethics dimension to the debate and research about poverty, hunger, and globalization. Scholars and practitioners from several disciplines discuss what action is needed for ethics to play a bigger role in reducing poverty and hunger within the context of globalization. The book concludes that much of the rhetoric is not followed up with appropriate action, and discusses the role of ethics in attempts to match action with rhetoric.
The work consists of ten books, originally separate scrolls, and is understood to be based on notes said to be from his lectures at the Lyceum which were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus. In many ways this work parallels the similar Eudemian Ethics, which has only eight books, and the two works can be fruitfully compared. Books V, VI, and VII of the Nicomachean Ethics are identical to Books IV, V, and VI of the Eudemian Ethics.
