An examination of the crises in values in the modern world in the light of ancient Greek and Chinese concepts of wisdom and of what makes life worth living

Part of a series that aims to collectively produce the most comprehensive statement on the psychotheraputic treatment of adolescents. This volume dicusses every aspect of the evaluation of youngsters and their families who are present for treatment.

Secularism is usually thought to contain the project of self-deification, in which humans attack God’s authority in order to take his place, freed from all constraints. Julie E. Cooper overturns this conception through an incisive analysis of the early modern justifications for secular politics. While she agrees that secularism is a means of empowerment, she argues that we have misunderstood the sources of secular empowerment and the kinds of strength to which it aspires. Contemporary understandings of secularism, Cooper contends, have been shaped by a limited understanding of it as a shift from vulnerability to power. But the works of the foundational thinkers of secularism tell a different story. Analyzing the writings of Hobbes, Spinoza, and Rousseau at the moment of secularity’s inception, she shows that all three understood that acknowledging one’s limitations was a condition of successful self-rule. And while all three invited humans to collectively build and sustain a political world, their invitations did not amount to self-deification. Cooper establishes that secular politics as originally conceived does not require a choice between power and vulnerability. Rather, it challenges us—today as then—to reconcile them both as essential components of our humanity.

Why are men so afraid of showing their feelings? What scares men about commitment? In Understanding the Tin Man, bestselling author William July II tackles these age-old questions, revealing what every woman wants to know about her man, and what every man needs to know about himself. Boys, conditioned to become emotionally closed off, all too often end up like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz–hollow on the inside, and unable to cultivate honest, loving, mutually satisfying relationships. Understanding the Tin Man presents a simple, step-by-step program for men who want to change, and for women who want to help their men overcome the Tin Man syndrome. You will learn to recognize a Tin Man, understand why men really fear intimacy, see through the tactics men use to avoid commitment and relationships, identify the five situations in which even the most emotionally numb man will share his feelings, and, most important, learn how to help a Tin Man change his life. With thought-provoking questions and self-improvement exercises for both men and women at the end of each chapter, Understanding the Tin Man is a powerful tonic for relationships and a much-needed voice of reason on the battlefield of the sexes.

At the level of developing a progressive and critical theoretical understanding of unsustainability, it argues for the importance of integrating vulnerability, which has been largely neglected by both mainstream western political theory and analyses of the current global ecological crisis. It suggests that valuable insights into the causes of and alternatives to unsustainability can be found in a critical embracing of human vulnerability and dependency as both constitutive and ineliminable aspects of what it means to be human. Rather than seeing invulnerability as the appropriate response, the book defends resilience, and the ability to 'cope with' rather than 'solve' vulnerability, as more productive.

“A wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful meditation on the psychological sources of the danger to humanity created by the advent of weapons of mass destruction. It draws on a vast range of sources including psychology, anthropology, literature, philosophy, and religion, and is expressed with eloquence and grace.”—Dr. Jerome Frank, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins Medical School, author of Sanity and Survival “A remarkably thorough analysis of the proposition that is our beliefs, conscious and unconscious, which have made war inevitable–and that a change in those assumptions (including the unconscious ones) can free us from the scourge…This is a very hopeful book about a subject that leads many to despair…I believe it will be a most useful contribution to the dialogue about our national security dilemma.”—Willis Harman, President, Institute of Noetic Sciences, author ofAn Incomplete Guide to the Future

In an original approach to Foucault's philosophy, Christopher Falzon argues for a reading of Foucault as a philosopher of finite transcendence, and explores its implications for ethics. In order to distinguish Foucault's position, Falzon charts the historical trajectory of transcendence as a philosophical concept, starting with the radical notion of transcendence that was introduced by Plato, and which reappears in various forms in subsequent thinkers from the Stoics to Descartes, and from Kant to Sartre. He argues that Foucault's critique of the transcendent subject of humanism is a rejection not of transcendence per se but of radical transcendence in its distinctively modern form. As such, he shows how Foucault's conceptualisation of transcendence as finite enables a picture of the human being as neither fully determined nor a creature of infinite possibilities, but as both subject and object, affected by but also able to affect the world. With the notion of finite transcendence Falzon captures the essence of Foucault's unique philosophy and provides a new insight into his contribution to ethics. Demonstrating its contemporary relevance, Foucault and the History of Philosophical Transcendence further explores the potential application of Foucault's approach to the current ecological crisis.

[Furrow's] proposals are fresh - he urges liberals to develop 'a more substantial moral identity' and win a few battles in the values war by building upon their 'inherent culture of caring,' repackaging the conservative movement's successful tactics for the Left.- Publishers WeeklyIn this fresh assessment of the liberal perspective on politics, philosopher Dwight Furrow explains how liberalism lost its moral credentials in the face of challenges from conservatives. He articulates a new way of understanding the moral foundations of liberalism that will restore its political fortunes along with America's shattered moral authority. A work of popular philosophy, Reviving the Left is written in a serious but lively, engaging, and often polemical style.Furrow begins by noting that political ideologies have the power to motivate people because they embody conceptions of how to live. Conservatives have understood this more clearly than liberals, who for too long have relied on bureaucratic solutions and interest-group politics, which have lacked moral credibility and passion. Now more than ever, says Furrow, progressive politics, if it is to move people hungry for change, needs a new vision that will give birth to a more substantial liberal moral identity.Furrow takes conservatism to task for promoting what he labels a culture of cynical, violent narcissism. But rather than praising the liberalism of the past, he argues that liberals must radically revise their conception of moral value in order to reverse the damage left behind by many years of conservative rule. Reviving the Left argues that liberals must build a culture of caring from the ground up by giving social institutions incentives to encourage a more prominent role in public life for empathy, compassion, and responsibility. Only in such a culture will liberal political initiatives have a chance to succeed in the long run.Unlike many books on reviving liberalism, which emphasize economics, policy debates, or political strategies, Furrow's Reviving the Left uniquely focuses on moral values and their philosophical underpinnings. Furrow's extensive use of references to popular culture, especially well-known films, and also topics of current political discourse makes for an exciting, contemporary rethinking of the liberal perspective with widespread appeal.Dwight Furrow (San Diego, CA), professor of philosophy at San Diego Mesa College, is the author of Ethics: Key Concepts in Philosophy and Against Theory: Continental and Analytic Challenges in Moral Philosophy. He is also the editor of Moral Soundings: Readings on the Crisis of Values in Contemporary Life.

Part of a series of textbooks which have been written to support A levels in psychology. The books use real life applications to help teach students what they need to know. Readers are encouraged to use aims, methods, results and conclusions of the key studies to support their own arguments.

How were the aims of philosophy and the responsibilities of philosophers conceived in ancient Greece and China? How were the learned elite recruited and controlled; how were their speculations and advice influenced by the different types of audiences they faced and the institutions in which they worked? How was a yearning for invulnerability reconciled with a sense of human frailty? In each chapter of this fascinating analysis ancient Greek and Chinese ideas and practices are used as a basis for critical reflections on the predicaments we continue to face today, with a particular focus on the key Greek ideas of the equal participation of all citizens in the political process, and on the key Chinese one of a dedication to the ideal of the welfare of all under heaven