Ethics Books

This is a solid introduction to the different major ethical theories. While no means a page-turner, it is clearly written, well-organized, and rigorous without being overly technical. Highly recommended for those looking for an introductory text.

Moral Theory which is an excellent text for students of ethics was written by Mark Timmons, a philosophy professor at the University of Memphis. Nine moral theories are clearly presented (Chs. 2-10) as well as a chapter showing the value of using a moral theory when making a decision (Ch. 1) and a conclusion showing the author's preference for Ross' moral theory (Ch. 11).

The examples used to illustrate each moral theory are accurate and helpful, the bibliography at the end of each chapter is valuable, and Timmons' discussions of the confusing parts in each moral theory are greatly appreciated. If a student of philosophy wishes to understand and appreciate the various moral theories and "decision procedures" (p. 3), then he or she would greatly benefit from Timmons' Moral Theory.

This is really an excellent book in every way that an ethics text can be good. It would be perfect for any mid-level course in ethical theory or the history of ethics.

Students and ideally, general readers, who just want to learn what some of the best thinkers have thought about right & wrong and good & bad will learn a lot from this book. They will also also (and more importantly), learn careful philosophical methodology--that is, learn how to think about and critically evaluate ethical theories. The book is clear and concise, careful and precise but not overly technical to a fault, and enjoyable to read.

Also, the price simply cannot be beat, especially for a text. Poor students will be grateful and they might even hold onto it after class is over.

With More Than Chains and Toil, Joan Martin joins Dorothee Soelle and other venerable feminist theologians with a brilliant exploration of work and its relation to Christian discipleship. Her specific focus is to elaborate a Christian work ethic from the lives and experiences of enslaved black women in the United States arising "from the chains, but unchained from slavery's meaning." She succeeds, and the achievement has tremendous implications for how American Christians must view our past and fashion our present theological discourse.

One of the most important contributions Martin makes is her exploration of enslaved black women as theologians. She rightly points out that the discourse and activism of these women was often more radical and was established earlier than similar white movements -- for instance, that enslaved black women were working systematically for the liberation of women long before the suffragette movement came together. She is sharply critical of those who dismiss black theologians because they don't quote the right white theologians -- they are frequently drawing on early and rich black discourses that have developed separately.

Joan Martin's work has stimulated my own thoughts about work and Christian faith, and she stands in a long, long tradition of black theologians who criticize the very way academic (typically white and middle-class) theologians do theology. This is a deeply-embodied work that looks at work and Christianity through a very specific lens -- but the results impact a wide range of Christian practices and beliefs. I highly recommend this book.

Joan Martin's More Than Chains And Toil provides a study of Christian work ethic and enslaved black women, analyzing work in the experience of black women and analyzing the meanings women attributed to their work. A fine guide examines notions of work, 'calling', and social conditions and issues of the times.

The Reverend Dr. Joan M. Martin has produced a fantastic volume on the roles,lives, and philosophies of life of the Africa-American slave woman during the period of slavery in the United States and later. Dr. Martin, a Presbyterian Minister, describes and dissects how the Christian Religion of the slaveowner was used (and abused) by him to control his slaves, but also demonstrates how the slave women (and men) found in the same Christianity the key to their survival. The book's many Notes enables the interested reader to follow paths suggested by the text. Dr. Martin also supplies a very fine Bibliography. This book is not only of great interest to the individual reader, but should be considered as a text by Anthropology, Sociology, and Black Studies Dpartments as well.

Denise Breton and Stephen Lehman have put together a brilliant philosophical essay on restorative justice is a fruit of wisdom, courage, and moderation based on ancient principles of aboriginal spirituality as well as Socratic dialogues.
For Canadians the best part is their commendation of relationship restoration coming out of the Canadian Restorative Justice case studies such as Satisfying Justice, from Ottawa.
This book along with Breton and Largent's Paradigm Conspiracy form a basis for finding peace in a broken and violent world. Highly recommended.

This excellent book compares our current system of Retributive Justice, which focuses on retribution and punishment, with the nascent Restorative Justice movement, which focuses on restoring balance and finding healing. Throughout the book, major flaws of the current system are highlighted. These flaws demonstrate how we all suffer from the 'power over' and 'might makes right' paradigms of retribution. The benefits of seeking balance and healing from the effects of crime, rather than vengeance, assists individuals and our whole society toward greater security and peace. Key to the whole idea of "mystic Justice" is that "outer Justice" is impossible to attain unless individuals hold a true vision of living a just life, "inner Justice", within their hearts. This books shows the path toward this achievement. An excellent, prophetic vision.

Mystic Heart Of Justice covers the field of restorative justice, considering its importance as an alternative to the traditional reward-punishment model and applying this new system to the current justice system and the cultural forces which dehumanizes the individual. Blending philosophy and spirituality with a treatise on social change, Mystic Heart Of Justice provides an excellent and different - albeit scholarly - view on restoring a damaged world.

Simone Weil's "The Need For Roots" demonstrates the purest understanding of Christ's teaching that I have ever come across. One need not be religious to grasp or identify with this brilliant work.

This book is held together by Christ's beatitudes, parables and prayers as a way of emphasizing the need for spirituality, not organized religion, in our lives. Weil insists on vital obligations of the soul (all of which are explained in brief detail) and the importance of spirituality and self-respect in all things.

According to Weil, everything we do is to be approached with the same intense religiosity that pervaded ancient Greek culture. Love of money and glory have buried spirituality in modern societies world-wide. One of Weil's many solutions was to completely reexamine the uses of education in order to instill this spiritual understanding of human existence.

As with all great thinkers, there are countless facets of Weil's thought. The Need For Roots, therefore, is not an easy read. I found myself reading over sentences and paragraphs several times-not out of frustration, but out of an imense craving to fully understand the saintly beauty of her words.

Those who make the effort to read this book attentively will come away with a powerful, fresh perspective of life, including an understanding of the necessity of both joy and pain. Anyone with a soul should read this book.

Two major contributions to the analysis of the modern society can be found in Weil's works. In his "Essay on the causes of freedom and oppression" of the early 1930s she had given a vision of why we are left unsatisfied by progress, substituting social oppression for natural one. Here, while in London just before dying, she gets to such a deep understanding of contemporary social and spiritual problems that has very few comparisons in this century. We needs roots, she assumes, and we find them belonging to alive communities feeding our souls. An entire programme of reform of modernity is developed from this assumption, and it is applied in detail to postwar perspectives in France. According to some of us, this is still a guidebook for understanding what can be done now, a source of inspiration for rethinking how modern societies could be eventually reconverted to serve human needs, instead of representing Plato's image (dear to Simone) of the apocalyptic Great Beast.

In "The Need For Roots," Simone Weil cultivates perhaps the purest, most spiritual definition of Christianity ever put into words. She despises group thought, i.e., organized religion, while constantly referencing the words of Jesus Christ as being the essence of Christianity and a crucial model for living a "well-rooted" life.

One need not be religious at all to identify with the type of religiosity expressed in this book. Simone Weil is no preacher. Going to church every Sunday does not impress her. Dropping money in the priest's basket does not impress her. Love, on the other hand, does. And not just love of God or of religion, but love of eveything we do in life. She stresses the need for love of truth, learning, physical labor and love for what she defines as "the good."

Religion, for Simone Weil, should not just be limited to the church. Simone Weil believes that every aspect of life, everything we do, such as the pursuit of science or knowledge, should be as religious an experience as it was for the ancient Greeks; a civilization she draws reference to many times throughout the book.

Her deep spirituality is strewn throughout these pages, and wakes up the mind to the hypocrissy, spiritual crisis, and moral "uprootedness" of human nature in the modern world. In the midst of stressing this deeply spiritual message, Simone Weil attempts to open the reader's eyes to newer, less narrow-minded definitions of patriotism and greatness, as well as noting the various fundamental uses of education. For Simone Weil, education is not just a kid going to school and trying to get a good grade. Education is for those who have a love of truth, a love of knowledge and an understanding of the importance those virtues carry. It is up to a well-rooted, healthy society to instill those virtues in each individual.

Like the works of most complicated thinkers, this is no easy read. There are many different ideas spiraling around the core of spiritualism emphasized in "The Need For Roots." Simone Weil is extremely intellectual. It is unthinkable that she attained this level of brilliance by the time of her premature death at the age of 33. Most people will find themselves reading over paragraphs several times before fully understanding them. In the introduction, T.S. Elliot suggests that one reading of the book is insufficient, and he may be correct. Anyone who thinks they have grasped this book fully after reading over it once is either lazy, or, if they are correct, a freak of nature. However, the hard work required to tap into Simone Weil's stream of thought is well worth it. This is truly one of the most inspiring and provocative books I have read. While it was written in 1943 and adressed specifically to the state of France under the Vichy government, much of this book still remains crucially relevant today, perhaps even more so.

If this book is read with discernment, rather than in the casual mode in which we often read, I guarantee that a permanent tatoo of Weil's deep passion for humanity will be left on the soul.

I had the fortune of reading this book (in manuscript form) in one of Dr. Kane's classes. He is an excellent professor and an excellent writer. Several years later, many of my views of social discourse and community involvement were shaped by Dr. Kane. Perhaps the most vital lesson from this book is the way in which speech, in its most poignant form, is action and action, in its purest form, constitutes speech. I heartily encourage people to read this book!

I had the fortune of reading this book (in manuscript form) in one of Dr. Kane's classes. He is an excellent professor and an excellent writer. Several years later, many of my views of social discourse and community involvement were shaped by Dr. Kane. Perhaps the most vital lesson from this book is the way in which speech, in its most poignant form, is action and action, in its purest form, constitutes speech. I heartily encourage people to read this book!

must read -anonymous

It should seem obvious by now to any who care about truth that Zionists see America as not just the savior, supplier and sugar-daddy to Israel. Indeed, Zionists see America as the servant of Israel and in their tunnel vision they see no price too high for America to pay. That is what our controlling elites have allowed America to be reduced to. The masses have a choice: a life driven by fear or by honesty.

The only defensible war is a war of defense.
- G. K. Chesterton.

_Neo-Conned! Again: Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq_, published in 2007 by Light in the Darkness Publications an imprint of IHS Press, is a sequel to the book _Neo-Conned!_ which condemns the War in Iraq from the perspective of Catholic just-war theory. This book is subtitled "The illegality and the injustice of the second Gulf War" and consists of various essays and interviews from a wide variety of perspectives. These two books are edited by D. L. O'Huallachain and J. Forrest Sharpe. The writers, thinkers, and soldiers whose essays appear in this book range from conservative and traditionalist Catholics to paleo-conservatives to left wing intellectuals. As such, the war is condemned from a wide variety of viewpoints and positions across the political spectrum. The second Gulf War has not met the criteria for a just-war according to Catholic tradition and thus is to be condemned. The reasons why this war was fought in the first place, in a country which should be of no direct concern to the United States, are varied. Obvious reasons include the presence of oil, the role of monetary policy in maintaining a strong dollar against the Euro, and political power. Another reason involves the take-over of United States foreign policy by a clique of intellectuals known as neoconservatives. Two fundamental characteristics of the neoconservative agenda (particularly as spelled out in excellent essays by Stephen Sniegoski and Claes Ryn) include a near messianic zeal for establishing global democracy (certainly not a classically conservative agenda!) and complete allegiance to the state of Israel above all things. For example, as Sniegosky shows, following the tragedy of 9/11, Bush came to be influenced by the foreign policy of the neoconservatives (allowing his original more restrained foreign policy to be superseded) and coupled with his own apocalyptic Christian beliefs came to regard the War against Iraq as necessary. In many ways then, the War against Iraq can be understood as being fought for Zionist interests. Similarly Claes Ryn concludes that the neoconservatives are the New Jacobins, and just as their ancestors unleashed a reign of terror following the French Revolution, so they have unleashed the full power of the American military. Another interesting essay by E. Michael Jones, argues (echoing the original claims of Murray Rothbard) that the so-called _National Review_ branch of "conservativism" is actually nothing more than a CIA black operation. Jones shows how though neoconservatives often appeal to ethnics and Catholics in particular, that their understanding of things is fundamentally opposed to the teachings of the Catholic church. A final essay that deserves some mention is that of David Lutz which focuses on Christian Zionism. This essay shows how Christian Zionists have abandoned the traditional just-war theory of the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, Lutz explains how Christian Zionism infiltrated Protestantism through the teachings of Darby, Scofield, and others (and that Scofield may even have been employed by the Rothschilds in their quest for global domination). Lutz shows how Christian Zionism is fundamentally opposed to the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church, and refutes the claims regarding the so-called Rapture made by some. These essays offer fascinating material which effectively shows how the "right wing" in America has been overtaken by usurpers whose policies of global democracy are anything but conservative.

The book begins with a foreword by Joseph Circincione and an introduction by Scott Ritter.

The book includes the following sections with essays by the following:

"An Exercise in Critical Thinking: Today's Sharpest Minds Tackle the War and its Context" - Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Alexander Cockburn, Robert Fisk, Maurizio Blondet, and Noam Chomsky.

"Driving the Runaway Train: Neocons, 9/11, and Pretexts for War" - Claes G. Ryn, Stephen Sniegoski, Justin Raimondo, David W. Lutz, E. Michael Jones, Kirkpatrick Sale, Naomi Klein, and William O'Rourke.

"The Professionals Speak: Military Reactions to Operation Iraqi Freedom" - Karen Kwiatkowski, Robert Hickson, Jack Dalton, a roundtable discussion with several officers, Pablo Paredes, Karen Kwiatkowski, and Al Lorentz.

"The Professionals Speak II: The Intelligence Community and the Intelligence Debacle" - Patrick Lang and Ray McGovern.

"The Professionals Speak III: War College Professors Apply Their Expertise" - Jeffrey Record and Stephen C. Pelletiere.

"The Professionals Speak IV: A Scientist and a Diplomat" - Gordon Prather and Roger Morris.

"Defying World Order: Reactions from the Vatican and UN Perspectives" - Mark and Louise Zwick, John Burroughs and Nicole Deller, and Francis Boyle.

"Propping Up a Dying Giant: American Economic and Military Survival Tactics" - Immanuel Wallerstein and F. William Engdahl.

"One Good Scandal Deserves Another: The Snowballing of American Lawlessness" - Gabor Rona, Joseph Margulies, Amnesty International, Joseph Margulies, Jeffrey Steinberg, Jacob Weisberg, Dan Smith, and John Hutson.

"So Much for the Fourth Estate: Our Imperial Press" - Tom Engelhardt, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, and Sam Gardiner.

"The Other Side of the Story: Honest Men Consider the Situation of Iraq" - Ayan S. Al-Qazazz, Fr. Jean-Marie Benjamin, and Milton Viorst.

"Enduring Injustice: Iraq and the Current Political Landscape" - Donn de Grand Pre, Mark Gery, and Curtis Doebbler.

"Appendices: Perspectives on Gulf War I" - Michael Ratner and John Stauber and Shelton Rampton.

These essays and interviews include excellent material to be found nowhere else. Together with the first book _Neo-Conned!_, these two books make an important contribution to the debate over the War in Iraq from the perspective of Catholic just-war theory and a condemnation of the role of the United States in that war.

This extraordinary book and its predecessor provide tremendous intellectual, moral, and spiritual ammunition for those of us who oppose this monstrous war in Iraq that has taken the lives of in excess of 650,000 Iraqis and thousands of Americans and others. Maurizio Blondet's essay is particularly poignant and revealing. If Edward Luttwak's words to Blondet are any indication many of the Neo-cons were seeking to have Iraq bombed "back into the Stone Age" as early as the First Gulf War. One thing most open-minded people will come away with from reading this book is that the Neo-cons are a far, far greater danger to America than any of their designated enemies.

All good people who can afford it should buy this book. They should also pick up a copy of THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT: OMISSIONS AND DISTORTIONS by David Ray Griffin. The two books complement each other quite well.

Harvard Business School professor John Kotter has followed the career paths of the members of the Harvard Business School Class of 1974 -- and what he has found will astonish you if you are like me -- an MBA hopeful working for a large corporation. Kotter observes that the Harvard MBA's have succeeded financially and personally because they have followed volatile and nontraditional career paths outside of large firms. He argues that the world economy is so globalized and the boundaries of corporations are so blurred that the best career opportunities abide in the virtual corporation. In this new career marketplace, great rewards accrue to competitive risk-takers who continually renew their skills. Read this, but be warned: You may decide to quit your job and never work for a large corporation again. -- Dan Green, Harvard Business School Class of 1999.

Similar to the advice offered by Darden finance professor Bob Bruner, himself a member of the HBS class profiled in this book, Kotter demonstrates that those who shunned the corporate world in favor of more impactful jobs with smaller companies have succeeded beyond the levels of their corporate ladder classmates.

Go to small companies and make a difference in the world. Push yourself. Don't accept a slow climb up a bureaucratic corporate ladder.

The book has numerous student profiles to demonstrate the benefits of the road less traveled. Kotter fleshes out the backgrounds and experiences of the students as effectively as character development in a Stephen King novel. The characters come to life and you really feel the urge to break out and go with the start-up company of your own or others. Considering today's dot-com world this advice from the mid-90's appears ahead of its time.

Relative to his other books this one is average, but what's average for Kotter would be exceptional for most.

Also by Kotter: "Leading Change" and "What Leaders Really Do" are also outstanding works by Kotter. HBR article Managing Your Boss (incorporated into "WLRD") is a great reading for MBAs, managers, and workers of all levels.

Dr. John Kotter of Harvard Business School is one of the few scholarly business writers who consistently blends leading edge, visionary concepts with the tough-mindedness that most successful executives admire. I bought this book while looking for something else entirely, but it was well worth it.

I certainly discovered a real gem. Kotter gives us straight talk about the hard realities of today's executive business world. He disabuses us of the notion, if any of us still hold it, that there will be any safety or security in a career based on steady upward mobility in a traditional corporation. He wraps his stoic "new rules" around a twenty-year longitudinal study of the careers of Harvard Business School graduates of the Class of 1974. Showing the actual career paths of a plethora of genuine American success stories is not only fascinating reading, but highly educational.

Kotter bluntly states what it will take to be successful at work in the 21st century: "Settling for good, much less mediocrity is dangerous..Large numbers of people have been taught by big business, big labor and big government that fair-to-good is adequate...ten years from now fair-to-good will probably NEVER lead to success."

In order to get beyond the "fair-to good" range of performance, Professor Kotter makes a strong case for executive assessment, maintaining that a careful, realistic and candid self-examination is imperative, and he places special emphasis on the need for self-awareness regarding gaps in one's development. He couples this with counsel on the need for constant learning.

What does Kotter's study imply for our concept of Executive Community? He says that for those who aim to lead large organizations, their role should be that of the revolutionary, breaking down hierarchies and replacing then with a "flexible network organization" with many more people taking up the responsibilities for leadership. There is a need, he says, to create "self-confidence in competitive situations" through education in both schools and business organizations.

Kotter calls the new business environment "Phase III", marked by globalization of markets and competition. He urges readers who feel that they are working in a business environment "that is not helping prepare him or her for an even tougher Phase III future should move out of that environment as fast as possible. AS FAST AS POSSIBLE."

I love Kotter's sense of urgency. And he is right about so many things, that, if you have not done already, get this book AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. It may be the best business book you have read in a very long time, and one of the few that may stir you to self-improvement.

Section 312 of this book is called "my dog" (on a combination of being faithful, obtrusive and shameless, "just as entertaining, just as clever as every other dog" (p. 177), but it is about Nietzsche's relationship to his pain. There is another book by Nietzsche, THE WANDERER AND HIS SHADOW, in which section 38 mentions "The bite of conscience" as a stupidity, like the bite of a dog into a stone. (Portable Nietzsche, p. 68). There is also a section in THE GAY SCIENCE about beggars using a stone to knock where there is no bell. This translation has an entry in the index for "beggars, and courtesy." The Walter Kaufmann translation listed section titles on pages ix-xviii, but Kaufmann didn't have an entry in the index for beggars or for bell, and though I may have rung Walter Kaufmann's bell a number of times, before and since I started writing reviews, my mental efforts to knock the war against the United Stoners of America has reached such a modern point of indifference in its approach to everything that what Walter Kaufmann thought about anything is of hardly any concern to those who would like an understanding of what is going on. I expect this book, which allows a comparison of minor differences on major matters, to be quite useful to me. I find it extremely comical when this translation makes something funny that in Walter Kaufmann's translation was only puzzling, but even the index of this book skips from women to words with no entry for wooden iron. There is no entry for iron between interruption, intuition, Islam, and Italian opera. But in the text itself, just before section 357 "On the old problem: `What is German?' " the end of section 356 raises the primary question any modern philosopher can face:

Free society? Well, well! But surely you know, gentlemen, what one needs to build that? Wooden iron! The famous wooden iron! And it need not even be wooden. (p. 217)

Nietzsche's announcement of God's death first appeared here, in The Gay Science. Also, this is the first book in which he mentions the Eternal Reccurence (see the second to the last aphorism of the fourth "book"). Zarathustra's prologue is also here (that's the last aphorism of the fourth book). Book 5 of the Gay Science was added in 1885, and covers Nietzsche's mature philosophy (post-Zarathustra period). Overall a good read.

"The best way to read Nietzsche is slowly," my professor said when we began studying this book. And I could not agree more. This book contains some of Nietzsche's central ideas, including the death of God, origin of morality, perspectivism, as well as the difference between the noble and common type. I love this translation because the translator seems to focus on what Nietzsche was trying to say in German, rather than some of the other translations where they only provide a basic and rough translation.

I would recommend this book if you're trying to understand the basics of Nietzsche's theories, since THE GAY SCIENCE was written during the height of his career (1882). However, do keep in mind that it will be difficult if this will be your first exposure to Nietzsche. You might also look at BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Hollingdale translation, since that one contains much of the same ideas, but the language is more understandable.

If you have teenagers in your house, or will someday, buy this book for them and youself. Somehow Mimi Doe has managed to combine practical advice on how to cope with the challenges of raising adolescents with this amazing understanding about how to connect with them on another level. I have three teenagers, two boys and a girl, and lots of typical ups and downs raising them. This book will help. Already has. Buy it!

Just got this book the other day and already I feel more relaxed and hopeful about raising up these teenagers of mine (I have 2). The writing isn't judgemental or preachy and seems to be without religious overtones. I will go back and use it again I'm sure because I'm reading it with my highlight pen. The best part, so far, for me are the author's real stories and the Parents Check in Questions. The stories show me there are other parents like me...with teens who make mistakes. The questions really get me thinking about what I can do to make things better.

AS the mother of twin teen boys, I struggle just to keep up with them let alone think about what's going on inside their hearts, minds. I have long been an admirer of Mimi Doe as an author and this book is going to be the book that will carry my boys through their teenage years...There is a warm, compassionate feel here that reassures me...with all the insanity going on during these years this book gives me ways to keep connected...

Thirty years after sharing classrooms, movie theaters and drinks around Austin, TX -- Charles Guignon again proves to be an incredibly engaging intellectual companion.

His easy style makes difficult material accessible as he refuses to pass off obfuscation as profundity. By presenting important ideas culled from philosophy, psychology and modern culture (in an admittedly simplified fashion), the author challenges his reader to think seriously about what authenticity might entail within a society and a world such as ours. As with most good books, we are left with the feeling that a realm of thought has been opened up rather than neatly encapsulated and summarized. Guignon clearly adopts a Socratic humility, which encourages the reader to search for the truth rather than to expect to be spoon fed.

The body of this work provides a framework within which the reader can more fully see what passes for authenticity today -- as well as what it has meant historically. These positions are not constructed merely to be straw men who will be easily vanquished by our author. In fact, I found myself wanting to take up Nietzsche's position (as elaborated in the book), and carry it forward in a continuing dialogue we initiated in the late 70's.

As the book closes there is a call to "open and free conversation." In this scenario, one does not defend to the death a pre-determined conclusion as a matter of pride. Instead each person engages in the "to-and-fro of the discussion." Rather than becoming an advocate for a single point of view, one suspends prejudices (or at least recognizes them as such) while allowing the dialogue to be animated by the subject matter. This "dialogical situation" becomes "an unfolding event" through which there is a merging of differing visions to arrive at agreement about what will count as truth. Here I could hardly avoid thinking of what all too often passes for "serious conversation" in the media; that is, a largely empty sound-bite kind of sniping that poses as meaningful debate. How different our society would look if this were replaced by what Guignon calls "open and free conversation."

Hey, maybe I'm not perfect in my interpretation, perhaps you should read it yourself -- as it is well worth the effort. As one of Charlie's past students, I just want to thank him once again for reminding me that philosophy is a process and not an end product to be bestowed.

Guignon's little book on authenticity is an excellent overview of the topic. He provides a summarized history of the various interpretations of what it means to be an authentic self along with an analysis of the problems that each of these conceptions have faced. On the critical side, I was surprised to find that Kierkegaard is almost completely ignored, but this doesn't take away from the value of this book. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the concept of authenticity or what it means to be a human being.

One important division of contemporary ethical philosophy is Applied Ethics. Speaking generally, this is the attempt to take the more abstract results from ethics and moral philosophy and apply it to concrete problems that arise in business, our interactions with the environment, new problems that are arising with developing medical technology, and a wide array of familiar and hotly debated issues such as abortion. That is not what one finds in Guignon's book, though what he does is not too far a field. There is no widely acknowledged discipline called Applied Philosophy, but that is what we find here. Guignon is determined to look at the oddity of the claims made by many of today's self-help writers, at the underlying assumption about the way that human lives are made up, and at the ways that thinking about the human self have developed in the modern world. He finally wants to suggest a different understanding of what it means to be authentic that does not fall victim to the easy criticisms that the self-help understanding of authenticity does.

Guignon's initial target is Dr. Phil, who has become one of the highest profile self-help gurus in recent decades and therefore one of the most dangerous. Dr. Phil is not dangerous because he will cause any active harm to either society or to his readers, but because he writes from a poorly thought out position that ignores most of the achievements of thought about human subjectivity over the past couple of centuries. Dr. Phil advocates a position that asserts that authenticity is achieves by sloughing off as much of the external world as possible. If you simply start ridding yourself of all the external chaff that he assumes is keeping you from the wheat at the core of your being that represents the real you, you will discover yourself. What Guignon does by delving deeply into the history of Western thinking about the self and subjectivity and authenticity is show that there is far more to the picture than this. We don't, in fact, discover ourselves by stripping off all externals, but by realizing that authentic existence is only possible not removed from our social existence, but embedded in it. This does not mean merely absorbing and uncritically accepting those social influences immediately impacting us. Our authenticity might well mean challenging and refusing those influences, but it also means acknowledging that we can't merely eject the world around us as if it plays no role in making us who we are. We do not achieve authenticity by heroically stripping ourselves of all the social and cultural influences that provide the raw material for us becoming who we are, but by realizing that we start off embedded in a social group, involved with other lives, even given the fundamental vocabulary for our moral existence by the culture around us. Dr. Phil's project, which subjected to our historical context, seems astonishingly quixotic and irrelevant.

I would like to see the vast panoply of self-help books simply vanish and be replaced by something more substantive like Guignon's book. The catch is that making real progress on self-understanding is hard work. One of the lies of the self-help books is that becoming authentic is hard work. The self-help gurus would have us think otherwise. As a result they invariably offer more than they can possibly achieve.

It won't happen, but I would love to see Guignon's excellent book offered as a twofer along with something by Dr. Phil. But truth be told, skip the Dr. Phil and just get this instead.

One last word, while Guignon focuses his book as the general educated reader, this will be of great help to philosophers as well. Guignon is a perceptive reading of the history of philosophy and positions himself roughly around ideas found in Heidegger, McIntyre, and Charles Taylor. His book makes an interesting contrast with Taylor's somewhat better known books SOURCES OF THE SELF and THE ETHICS OF AUTHENTICITY.