The search for a moral standard of right and wrong which is external to any particular evaluator, thus escaping subjectivity, has a long history. Jeremy Bentham, attempting to find such a standard, opted for utilitarianism, which at least provided an inter-subjective standard of right and wrong - everything else collapses into the purely subjective principle of sympathy and antipathy. The author of this book shares Bentham's views about sympathy and antipathy and shows that the principle is alive and well in legal philosophy today

This volume offers a historical overview of some of the most significant attempts to come to grips with sympathy in Western thought from Plato to experimental economics. The contributors are leading scholars in philosophy, classics, history, economics, comparative literature, and political science.

10 lectures, Basel, September 15-24, 1912 (CW 139) Steiner tells us that Mark was especially able to reveal Christ as a cosmic being of his greatness and power, because, after having been a pupil of Peter, he moved to Alexandria during a time when Jewish philosophy and theology was at it's peak. There he absorbed the best aspects and views of pagan gnosis. Mark was able to learn how humankind came arose from the spiritual world and how the luciferic and ahrimanic forces are taken into the human soul. Mark was able to accept everything that was told to him by pagan gnosis concerning our human origin out of the cosmos when our planet came into being. But he could also see, especially from his perspective in Egypt, the strong contrast between our original human destiny and what humankind had become during his time. This lecture cycle, like the Gospel itself, is a work of art in its own right. This book is a translation of the German edition Das Markus-Evangelium (GA 139).

A seer "sees' more than meets the eye, using the eyes of the soul along with the physical eyes. As all seeing is a form of cognition, higher seeing is the key to higher cognition or knowing. For human beings the spiritual world is hidden deep within the disguise of the world available to the senses and deep within the human psyche, and human consciousness, enmeshed as it usually is in the physical senses, cannot easily be aware of both worlds. The human soul is the link between the physical sense-imbued body and direct experience of the spirit, because it has the latent ability to focus consciousness into any number of levels. The ability to determine the focus of awareness is our great gift and our great challenge. In this practical and accessible guidebook, Dennis Klocek, building on the alchemical tradition and the Western path of initiation developed by Rudolf Steiner, shows how the soul's latent ability can be awakened by conscious acts of will and rhythmical practices. The practices begin wherever we are in our everyday lives and take the seeker through the levels of concentration--the ability to create and hold an inner image; contemplation--the ability to transform the image and make it dynamic; and meditation--the ability to reverse the image, or think it backward into inner silence. After presenting the practical exercises, along with commentary, that identify and lay out the steps, Klocek shows us how the path can be followed through to an understanding of a seemingly impenetrable alchemical image of the soul's journey as he guides us up the Alchemical Mountain to heartfelt thinking. Through such a journey, it becomes possible for human beings to live as spiritual beings among other spiritual beings. For those who are serious about developing faculties of higher knowing and seeing, The Seer's Handbook is a unique, practical, and friendly handbook of exercises, meditations, and insightful commentary that will guide both beginners and more advanced students along the path to higher worlds.