Being Good

Author: Simon Blackburn
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191647314
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Book Description
It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity, or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or be paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. Simon Blackburn, author of the best-selling Think, structures this short introduction around these and other threats to ethics. Confronting seven different objections to our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures, he charts a course through the philosophical quicksands that often engulf us. Then, turning to problems of life and death, he shows how we should think about the meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the sound-bite sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. Finally he offers a critical tour of the ways the philosophical tradition has tried to provide foundations for ethics, from Plato and Aristotle through to contemporary debates.

Being Good

Author: Michael W. Austin
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802865658
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
This volume offers a fresh, timely, practical look at eleven key Christian virtues: faith, open-mindedness, wisdom, zeal, hope, contentment, courage, love, compassion, forgiveness, and humility. Writing from a distinctively Christian perspective, the authors thoughtfully explore and explain these select virtues, seeking to nurture readers in lifelong character growth and to promote the centrality of the virtues to the Christian faith. Grouped under the headings Faith, Hope, and Love, the chapters each conclude with questions for further reflection. Contributors: Michael W. Austin Jason Baehr Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung R. Douglas Geivett David A. Horner William C. Mattison III Paul K. Moser Andrew Pinsent Steve L. Porter James S. Spiegel Charles Taliaferro David R. Turner.

Be Good

Author: Randy Cohen
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 1452107904
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Collects the author's favorite questions and answers from his tenure as the author of the New York Times' "The Ethicist," presenting evidence that sensible people disagree on the definition of ethical behavior.

India Unbound

Author: Gurcharan Das
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385720742
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Book Description
India today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.

Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

Author: Dacher Keltner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393073351
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
“A landmark book in the science of emotions and its implications for ethics and human universals.”—Library Journal, starred review In this startling study of human emotion, Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short,” why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Illustrated with more than fifty photographs of human emotions, Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy. Positive emotions, Keltner finds, lie at the core of human nature and shape our everyday behavior—and they just may be the key to understanding how we can live our lives better. Some images in this ebook are not displayed owing to permissions issues.

[Bad Boy's Guide to...] Being Not Good

Author: Elizabeth Stevens
Publisher: Sleeping Dragon Books
ISBN: 064843818X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
If you don’t like a smattering of serious on a bed of parody, clichéd characters, and over the top situations that know exactly what they are, then this book is definitely not for you. What do you get when you introduce Deadpool’s personality to Disney's Giselle’s? If you answered a love story for the ages, you wouldn’t be totally wrong… But, you wouldn’t be totally right, either. With a heroine who won’t let a stupid little thing like being too good get in the way of showing her stupid ex what’s what and a hero who wants no part of being the male lead in a romance novel, these two opposites find themselves in an unconventional partnership. When peppy-go-lucky Avery eventually wears down bad-to-the-bone Davin’s defences, he agrees to help her trash her reputation. And, if Davin can help her pass math while he’s at it, all the better. So, it’s goodbye to Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, and hello to a whole new Avery. Davin was only supposed to be Avery’s mistake – the guy that everyone would eventually call her ‘little phase’ – and he figured it would be good for a laugh when he looked back on it. But, the more they’re together, the less either of them feel it’s a mistake. Now, if only one of them could mention that to the other and ease all that angst-ridden tension… A laugh-out-loud modern-day fairy-tale in dual POV for those who know life never quite goes according to plan. The first book in a new standalone series: Bad Boy's Guide to... Please be aware that this story is set in Australia and therefore uses Australian English spelling and syntax.

Being Good

Author: Xingyun
Publisher: Weatherhill, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
The aim of this book is simple: to invite readers to consider what it means to lead a good life, and to offer practical advice, based on the Buddhist teachings, as to how this can be accomplished. In each of more than thirty brief essays, Master Hsing Yun treats a specific moral or ethical issue, using quotations from the rich treasury of the Buddhist scriptures as a point of departure for his discussion. Among the topics he considers are control of the body and of speech, overcoming greed, ending anger, patience under insult, how to manage wealth, how to get along with others, what it means to practice Buddhism, and the blessings and joys of that practice. The Buddhist precepts are introduced as guideposts along this path of liberation, and friendship, gratitude, and service to others are presented as essential elements of a common quest to discover and to embody our innate goodness and humanity.

The Difficulty of Being Good

Author: Gurcharan Das
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199779600
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 487

Book Description
Why should we be good? How should we be good? And how might we more deeply understand the moral and ethical failings--splashed across today's headlines--that have not only destroyed individual lives but caused widespread calamity as well, bringing communities, nations, and indeed the global economy to the brink of collapse? In The Difficulty of Being Good, Gurcharan Das seeks answers to these questions in an unlikely source: the 2,000 year-old Sanskrit epic, Mahabharata. A sprawling, witty, ironic, and delightful poem, the Mahabharata is obsessed with the elusive notion of dharma--in essence, doing the right thing. When a hero does something wrong in a Greek epic, he wastes little time on self-reflection; when a hero falters in the Mahabharata, the action stops and everyone weighs in with a different and often contradictory take on dharma. Each major character in the epic embodies a significant moral failing or virtue, and their struggles mirror with uncanny precision our own familiar emotions of anxiety, courage, despair, remorse, envy, compassion, vengefulness, and duty. Das explores the Mahabharata from many perspectives and compares the successes and failures of the poem's characters to those of contemporary individuals, many of them highly visible players in the world of economics, business, and politics. In every case, he finds striking parallels that carry lessons for everyone faced with ethical and moral dilemmas in today's complex world. Written with the flair and seemingly effortless erudition that have made Gurcharan Das a bestselling author around the world--and enlivened by Das's forthright discussion of his own personal search for a more meaningful life--The Difficulty of Being Good shines the light of an ancient poem on the most challenging moral ambiguities of modern life.

How to be Good

Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141925280
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
How to be Good is Nick Hornby's hilarious bestselling novel on life, love and charity 'I am in a car park in Leeds when I tell my husband I don't want to be married to him any more. . . ' London GP Katie Carr always thought she was a good person. With her husband David making a living as 'The Angriest Man in Holloway', she figured she could put up with anything. Until, that is, David meets DJ Goodnews and becomes a good person too. A far-too-good person who starts committing crimes of charity like taking in the homeless and giving their kids' toys away. Suddenly Katie's feeling very bad about herself, and thinking that if charity begins at home, then maybe its time to move. . . This laugh-out-loud novel, from the bestselling author of About a Boy and High Fidelity, will have you gripped from start to finish and will appeal to fans of David Nicholls and Jonathan Coe, as well as readers in need of a moral compass everywhere. 'Pins you in your armchair ad won't let go . . . How to be Good? How to be bloody marvellous, more like' Mail on Sunday 'It does exactly what it says on the cover. Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut' Independent 'The writing is so funny, and the set-pieces so brilliant...Hornby's best book since Fever Pitch' Lynn Truss, The Times

Think Good and It Will Be Good

Author: Daniel Schonbuch (Rabbi)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692858790
Category : Self-actualization (Psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Amidst the horrors of Auschwitz, a daring Jewish psychiatrist revealed one of the two secrets to overcoming depression and anxiety. Viktor Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy (the therapy of meaning) found that "those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most apt to survive the concentration camps."Frankl was not just referring to those interned in the camps or held captive as prisoners of war. He was offering a path forward for all people facing challenges -- whether physical or emotional -- to look beyond the limits of self and into the world of meaning and spirituality.Over 150 years earlier, the Tzemach Tzemach, the venerable leader of the Chabad Hasidic movement, shared the other secret for achieving happiness and emotional well being when he said, "Think Good and It Will Be Good.' This spiritual and psychological principle has the power to transform feelings of sadness or worry, freeing your mind to focus on the goodness inherent in people and situations In Think Good It Will Be Good you'll learn how the insights of Frankl and Jewish Wisdom form the basis of Torah Psychology, a spiritually-focused therapy that can help you find meaning, think positively, and inspire optimism in your life.'