This book provides the first systematic, book-length defence of natural law ideas in ethics, politics and jurisprudence since John Finnis's influential Natural Law and Natural Rights. Incorporating insights from recent work in ethical, legal and social theory, it presents a robust and original account of the natural law tradition, challenging common perceptions of natural law as a set of timeless standards imposed on humans from above. Natural law, Jonathan Crowe argues, is objective and normative, but nonetheless historically extended, socially embodied and dependent on contingent facts about human nature. It reflects the ongoing human quest to work out how best to live flourishing lives, given the natures we have and the social environments we inhabit. The nature and purpose of law can only be adequately understood within this wider context of value. Timely, wide-ranging and clearly written, this volume will appeal to those working in law, philosophy and religious studies.
We live in an era that often described as 'therapeutic.' Our culture is suffused with unconscious fantasies and psychoanalytic ways of thinking about self, other, and society. Aspects of the Freudian cultural universe have also had an impact on how we think about religion. In this volume, William Parsons explores the relationship between religion and psychoanalysis through multiple, linked investigations. Why did Freud write about religion and what did he say? What were the multiple critiques levelled at his work? What were the post-Freudian psychoanalytic advances? How can we still apply psychoanalytic ideas going forward? In answering these and related questions, Parsons distinguishes between classic-reductive, adaptive, and transformational psychoanalytic models. He also argues that the psychoanalytic theory of religion needs to integrate reflexive, dialogical, and inclusive elements as part of its toolkit. Offering illustrations and applications of such revisions, Parsons creates
In this book, Paul Clarke argues that in order to live sustainably we need to learn how to live and flourish in our environment in a manner that uses finite resources with ecologically informed discre
In this book, Paul Clarke argues that in order to live sustainably we need to learn how to live and flourish in our environment in a manner that uses finite resources with ecologically informed discre
We live in an era of depression, a condition that causes extensive suffering for individuals and families and saps our collective productivity. Yet there remains considerable confusion about how to un
We live in an era of depression, a condition that causes extensive suffering for individuals and families and saps our collective productivity. Yet there remains considerable confusion about how to un
In Performing Endurance, Lara Shalson offers a new way of understanding acts of endurance in art and political contexts. Examining a range of performances from the 1960s to the present, including influential performance art works by Marina Abramović, Chris Burden, Tehching Hsieh, Linda Montano, Yoko Ono, and others, as well as protest actions from the lunch counter sit-ins of the US civil rights movement to protest camps in the twenty-first century, this book provides a formal account of endurance and illuminates its ethical and political significance. Endurance, Shalson argues, raises vital questions about what it means to exist as a body that both acts and is acted upon, from ethical questions about how we respond to the bodies of others to political questions about how we live in relation to institutions that shape life in fundamental ways. In addition, Performing Endurance rethinks how performance itself endures over time.
How do people cope with having "caused" a terrible accident? How do they cope when they survive and have to live with the consequences ever after? We tend to blame and forget professionals who cause i
Now in paperback: An LGBTQ memoir with insights on raising a family-from a gay transgender man who shares his experience with both pregnancy and adoption"Trystan Reese writes with great tenderness and compassion. . . . [This book] limns the exact quality of joy that can inhere in inventing not only yourself, but also the world you live in."-Andrew Solomon, National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the TreeAn inspiring memoir with universal lessons that will help all parents through the trials of raising childrenTrystan Reese is a gay transgender man married to Biff, a gay man who is not transgender. The young couple had been together a little over a year when they learned that Biff's one-year-old niece, Hailey, and three-year-old nephew, Riley, were about to be removed from their home by Child Protective Services because of abuse and neglect. Trystan and Biff made an immediate decision to take them in. Overnight, they became parents to two tiny, scared kids a
How science is opening up the mysteries of the heart, revealing the poetry in motion within the machine.Your heart is a miracle in motion, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any human-made creation. It beats 100,000 times every day―if you were to live to 100, that would be more than 3 billion beats across your lifespan. Despite decades of effort in labs all over the world, we have not yet been able to replicate the heart’s perfect engineering. But, as Sian Harding shows us in The Exquisite Machine, new scientific developments are opening up the mysteries of the heart. And this explosion of new science―ultrafast imaging, gene editing, stem cells, artificial intelligence, and advanced sub-light microscopy―has crucial, real-world consequences for health and well-being. Harding―a world leader in cardiac research―explores the relation between the emotions and heart function, reporting that the heart not only responds to our emotions, it creates them as well. The condition known as Brok
Twelve visions of living in a climate-changed world.We are living in the Anthropocene―an era of dramatic and violent climate change featuring warming oceans, melting icecaps, extreme weather events, habitat loss, species extinction, and more. What will life be like in a climate-changed world? In Tomorrow’s Parties, science fiction authors speculate how we might be able to live and even thrive through the advancing Anthropocene. In ten original stories by writers from around the world, an interview with celebrated writer Kim Stanley Robinson, and a series of intricate and elegant artworks by Sean Bodley, Tomorrow’s Parties takes rational optimism as a moral imperative, or at least a pragmatic alternative to despair. In these stories―by writers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Nigeria, China, Bangladesh, and Australia―a young man steals from delivery drones; a political community lives on an island made of ocean-borne plastic waste; and a climate change denier tries to unmask
This fresh, inspiring call to community and connection from an entrepreneur and leader is perfect for anyone feeling alone and ready to set off on a journey to true belonging.Many of us feel more alone than ever despite living in the most connected society in human history. We need to belong in the same way that we need oxygen–our physical bodies require it. We perform better and have greater successes as individuals when we are connected to the collective.Join author Natalie Franke as she shares her story of longing for connection in the chaos and lessons learned on her journey to true belonging. Together we’ll uncover how to:Kick scroll-induced jealousy to the curb and transform the way that social media makes you feel about yourself and othersOvercome loneliness by finding your people and cultivating true community in your personal and professional worldStrike the balance between camaraderie and competition so that you can live a deeply fulfilled and joyful lifeHuman beings are not
You can’t be everything to everyone. But you can do what matters, so you can live more. Today we are all stretching ourselves more than ever to live up to life’s seemingly endless demands, so why do we still feel we are less than enough? Mattie James― mother, influencer, and CEO―believes that living a beautiful life amidst the chaos and pressures is possible. All it takes is a little everyday MAGIC. In this book, Mattie shows you how, helping you to evaluate the tasks and decisions you face in your daily life to make sure everything in your life is MAGIC: MeaningfulAesthetically pleasingGoal-orientedIntentionalConsistentThis honest and practical guide offers tools, insights, and encouragement to help you center yourself within the minutiae of everyday life and evaluate tasks to become intentional about everything you do. Mattie shows readers how to be more efficient by making big decisions in the morning, batching household chores for maximum effectiveness, and deciding which tasks to
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature―and their idea that elves live among us―Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it.Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown, in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art―from ancient times to today―Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline defines what an Icelander might call an elf.Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld―in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback―Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we
From “one of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time” (Brain Pickings): a journey through competing ideas of paradise to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world.“Nothing less than a guided tour of the human soul…A masterpiece.” ― #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst―or just across the ocean―if only we can find eyes to see it. Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so man