Annette Baier delivers an appeal for our fundamental moral notions to be governed not by rules and codes but by trust: a moral prejudice. Along the way, she gives us the best feminist philosophy there is. Baier's topics range from violence to love, from cruelty to justice, and are linked by a preoccupation with vulnerability and inequality of vulnerability, with trust and distrust of equals, with cooperation and isolation. Throughout, she is concerned with the theme of women's roles. In this provocative exploration of the implications of trusting to trust rather than proscription, Baier interweaves anecdote and autobiography with readings of Hume and Kant to produce an entertaining, challenging, and highly readable book.

A new edition of this important work of Nietzsche's 'mature' philosophy.

A great moralist and social thinker illuminates the most vexing issues of our time--war, old age, racism, abortion, boredom, crime and punishment, sociobiology--in a book which is by turns hilarious and somber but always vigorous and stimulating.

This book offers a critical synthesis of social psychology’s contribution to the study of contemporary racism, and proposes a critical reframing of our understanding of prejudice in European society today. Chapters place a special emphasis on the diversity and intensity of prejudices against Romani people in a liberal, progressive, decent, enlarged Europe. Chapters ask how we can reconcile the European creed of law, justice and freedom for all, with social and political practices that exclude and degrade Romani people. This volume addresses the need for a deeper recognition of societal foundations of ideologies of moral exclusion, and calls for a closer and more thorough investigation of prejudices that stem from the societal transformation, diminution or denial of moral worth of human beings (and the various conditions and contexts that create and promote it). By opening new intellectual dialogues, the book reinvigorates a renewed social psychology of racism, and creates a broader foundation for the exploration of the various, active paradoxes at the heart of the social expression of prejudice in liberal democracies. The Nature of Prejudice is essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students interested in both the quantitative and qualitative study of discrimination, inequality and social exclusion.

In Beyond Prejudice, Evelyn B. Pluhar defends the view that any sentient conative being--one capable of caring about what happens to him or herself--is morally significant, a view that supports the moral status and rights of many nonhuman animals. Confronting traditional and contemporary philosophical arguments, she offers in clear and accessible fashion a thorough examination of theories of moral significance while decisively demonstrating the flaws in the arguments of those who would avoid attributing moral rights to nonhumans. Exposing the traditional view--which restricts the moral realm to autonomous, fully fledged "persons"--as having horrific implications for the treatment of many humans, Pluhar goes on to argue positively that sentient individuals of any species are no less morally significant than the most automomous human. Her position provides the ultimate justification that is missing from previous defenses of the moral status of nonhuman animals. In the process of advancing her position, Pluhar discusses the implications of determining moral significance for children and "abnormal" humans as well as its relevance to population policies, the raising of animals for food or product testing, decisions on hunting and euthanasia, and the treatment of companion animals. In addition, the author scrutinizes recent assertions by environmental ethicists that all living things or that natural objects and ecosystems be considered highly morally significant. This powerful book of moral theory challenges all defenders of the moral status quo--which decrees that animals decidedly do not count--to reevaluate their convictions.

Positive Prejudice as Interpersonal Ethics examines prejudice not merely as a negative attitude toward others but as a general orientation that enables perception and understanding. Prejudicial attitudes appear in all daily human interactions; these interactions have a moral character and thus have an effect on the self-concepts and self-esteem of the participants. By examining this concept at the intersection of three fields—social psychological studies of the nature of prejudice, phenomenological examination of a person’s interpersonal experiences, and ethical consideration of the character of constructive interactions—this book places the idea of prejudice in its larger context. Presenting prejudice as situational understanding that impacts all perception and interpretation, Sara Kärkkäinen Terian offers a way to shape it from negative to positive. She considers recognition of one’s value as a person an integral part of positive prejudice and respect as its necessary basis.

Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals has become a prominent text of recent Western philosophy. An influence on psychoanalysis, antihistoricism, and poststructuralism and an abiding challenge to ethical theory, the philosopher's book addressed many of the major philosophical problems and possibilities of modernity. In this collection of essays focusing on Nietzsche's book, twenty-five philosophers offer discussions of the book's central themes and concepts. They explore such notions as ressentiment, asceticism, "slave" and "master" moralities, and what Nietzsche calls "genealogy" and its relation to other forms of inquiry in his work.

We associate prejudice with ignorance and bigotry and consider it a source of injustice. Can prejudice have a legitimate place in moral and political judgment? Adam Sandel shows that prejudice, properly understood, is not an obstacle to clear thinking but an essential aspect of it. The aspiration to reason without preconceptions is misguided.