Ethics Books

I've always liked Birchard's CFO articles, and his easy to read, detail intensive, style fits the material very well. A provocative business book. Great (first class) airplane reading.

This book is going to change the way people manage American corporations. As CEO of a mid-sized company I've been struggling to apply outdated financial metrics to our business. This is the right way forward.

Counting What Counts is that rarest of business books -- not the ramblings of a consultant nor the chest pounding of a CEO, but thoughtful and useable advice. Eminently readable, and filled with concrete examples, this book has given me new insights into my role and responsibilities. I'm passing it along to all my colleagues, and recommend it without reservations.

Sharif has definitely got his finger on the pulse! Not only does he go into unique detail clarfiying the issues facing our local and global society, he offers powerful solutions - both next steps and long range strategies. I cannot recommend this book enough. Everyone should read it, and read it soon!

Luckily Patch Adams listed this book from his personal library on his web page. That is how I began the search for my own copy, thank you Amazon.
America is a powerhouse, but like a star athlete in a drunken brawl, a powerhouse out of control. Sharif M. Abdullah gives us the keys for building a nourishing nation that does indeed work for all, instead of a toxic one that works barely hit and miss. He also addresses our soul-starved condition that dominates our present day culture. Americans, rich and poor are continually asking, "where's the beef?" Give yourself 48 hours to get this book into your own hands, it is amazing. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get into the transformation game, no bench warmers allowed!

Creating a World That Works For All is one of the best books I have ever read. The author brings up many good points and questions that causes the reader to actually pause and think. If you're looking for a great book to challenge your mind, this is the choice!

Published in the same year as "The Sources of Normativity", "Creating the Kingdom of Ends" is a collection of essays by Christine Korsgaard, a leading Kant scholar and insightful ethicist. I have not read the entire work, only a few of the essays (especially chapters 10 and 13 on intersubjective reasons and personal identity), but I can tell this is an excellent volume.

One suggestion, this is a work that is best read by those who are familiar with the general philosophic debates involved. It is probably most useful as supporting material and explanation of a number of points discussed in "The Sources of Normativity" - as the other work is intended as a stand alone, but is not long enough to provide a full treatment of the issues discussed in this volume.

Christine Korsgaard's _Creating the Kingdom of Ends_ is a fine exposition and elaboration of the ethics of Immanuel Kant.

Consisting of thirteen essays published over the course of a decade or so, the volume is divided into two parts: seven essays mainly dedicated to expounding (and occasionally tweezing) Kantian ethics itself, and six essays comparing/contrasting Kant's moral philosophy with those of Aristotle, Henry Sidgwick, G.E. Moore, David Hume, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, and Derek Parfit.

There's plenty of good stuff in here. First of all, Korsgaard's exposition of Kant will be of interest to anyone who has ever tried to read Kant himself and wants to know what his moral philosophy is really all about. Second, her critiques of other moral philosophers are sharp and trenchant. For example, her destined-to-be-a-classic essay, "The reasons we can share: An attack on the distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral values," is a close and critical reading of Thomas Nagel's _The Possibility of Altruism_ and _The View from Nowhere_. All in all, this is contemporary moral philosophy at its finest.

The entire volume is also, by the way, a nice cure for the misrepresentations of pseudophilosopher Ayn Rand, who tried her darnedest to give Kant a bad name in order to make room for a more-or-less-Nietzschean ethical subjectivism she called (chuckle) "Objectivism."

(I mention that because somebody is going through all my reviews and clicking "Not helpful" on any in which I say anything negative about Rand. Click away, you rational Objectivist, you!)

While I do not agree with a great deal of what Professor Korsgaard has to say in this text, I willingly admit that it is, by far, the most accessible and easily read sophisticated commentary on Kant's ethical theory.

By easily read, I want to make clear that I do not find her work here simplistic. Indeed, her study of the Groundwork of the Metatphysics of Morals is just as insightful and complex as that of Roger Sullivan or Allen Wood.

What makes Professor Korsgaard's work stand apart is that it can be not only read but actually understood by someone who is familiar with the primary texts. She uses plain, concise language to get her points across. She is to be praised for this.

I recommend this book to anyone with a desire to dig deeper into Kant's moral philosophy. The work should be especially appealing to undergraduates, who are in dire need of more intelligent and intelligible books like this.

This work is a magnificent contribution to human understanding. Though the subject matter is not particularly popular (ethics, social evolution, philosophy, collective consciousness, etc.) the content is all material that we all need to know if we are to grow and thrive as individuals and as a species.

I would like to support this book being reprinted or republished. Does anyone reading this know who currently owns the rights or the text file from which the book was printed. Since John Garcia's recent death the publishers' phone numbers printed in the book are no longer valid. ...

The statement of the right amount of facts and knowledge to understand the evolution of our existence, our presence and mission in life. What makes us humans different and how we can make the best out of our qualities to emulate the "Creator" and rescue the creativeness we were born with. This book offers the alternative of adopting the proposals of John David Garcia as a way of life and become significantly better in every aspect.

i personally know much about the author of this book through a good friend of mine who knows him very well and who brought me into reading it. i found the book incredebly good, and from it i haved jumped on reading other great books that he mentions in this particular one... he is a very creative, ethical, intelligent person who has a wonderful idea for everyone who wishes it to maximize their creativity and that of those he/she loves. i love reading and i read everything from louis carrol to fritjof capra and spinoza and it is with no doubt this book which has increased my ability to predict, control and create a new vision of every aspect, not only of my life, but of the world as a whole, the most. congratulations to the author, and do not think about it twice to read it, it is with no doubt in my top 5 books, along with the phenomen of man(teilhar de chardin) and la etica (spinoza) among others.

In some of his writings Robert W. Funk suggests that we shift our focus from an obsession with Jesus to the subject to which he has been pointing all these years. That observation struck me with such power that I have been trying to do that. And this book is one that definitely seeks to accomplish that. Robert W. Funk, founder of Westar Institute as well as the Jesus Seminar but now deceased, describes the vision of Jesus that is found in bits and pieces, embedded in his parables, aphorisms and dialogues, and assembles these fragments to give us a picture of Jesus.

You see, one of the most destructive religious teachings is rooted in a particular notion of faith or belief. Faith, to some, means giving assent to the standard doctrines of one's religious tradition. History is crammed full of the excesses of this view. Even in communions where faith, historically, has been perceived relationally, there is a substantial clamor for "believing the Bible" rather than relating to a person. According to Funk, when faith is defined in this fashion it is regarded as "a supernatural virtue that enables one to believe that God has revealed the divine will through Christ and the church." This is an utter distortion because "faith, understood as trust, involves seeing the world and other people for what they are when viewed through God's eyes." Thus, it is an avenue to the deepest dimensions of reality and to God.

I emphasize what Funk says about faith in this book as a way of "reviewing" it. It is about the fragments that Jesus Seminar fellows have assembled in the database of sayings that comprise the vision of Jesus described in this book.

Hear Funk again in light of the observation I made at the beginning about looking beyond Jesus to kingdom or his "alternative social vision." "A world like the one Jesus envisioned cannot become a universal worldview. To survive, it has to be flattened, simplified, literalized for the masses. When that happens, it is time to start over. It is time for radical transformation and the formation of a new community." "A Credible Jesus: Fragments of A Vision," like all the work of the Jesus Seminar, seeks to liberate Jesus from the mythical matrix by which he has been framed for centuries. He concludes that the Jesus of history was involved in the same conditions of life as a peasant in the first century. In fact, he was a peasant. He was determined to live by his alternative social vision. Funk claims that the challenge Jesus poses isn't so much to follow in his footsteps as it is to catch a glimpse of his vision of life ruled by God's gracious generosity as light for our pathways in the modern world. He uses "fragments" to accomplish this. Read this book for some of the authentic work of Funk and the Jesus Seminar.

Robert Funk wrote a gem of a book that attempts to tease out the ideas and approaches of Jesus, the man, seperate from the meditations and the symbolic language of biblical writers trying to convey the significance of the risen Christ. The results are thoughtful and, no doubt, controversial. He covers a lot of ground in a very few pages. I believe he also gives us a sense of what Jesus may have been like. For an attempt at de-mythological description, I find it amazingly spiritual. If you find value in trying to put a human face on the man who became a religious icon (as I do) I recomend this book highly.

After the "Five gospels ..." Robert D Funk et al tried to take the focus from what did really Jesus said as when he was referred to or just quoted etc to focus on what does his words REALLY tells us about life, future and present state of mind.

Every chapter is preceded by quotes of Jesus' red dotted words from the "Five gospels" and then comes the reflection of Jesus Seminar on these quotes. In their very handy introduction, the reader is informed about the pros and cons of the book: it tries to capture a glimpse of Jesus' message thru the layers of Christian tradition, Judean-Roman historical context, other forerunners (wise teachers before Jesus) but foremost thru our time and our understanding of Jesus.

Our understanding is unique of things past. The most conservative Christians feel this burn in the bosom when they read Jesus' word and life story according to the gospels, I as a liberal Christian, feel the same burning in sharing the bread and wine in the sign and token of unity, love and humbleness. We have people of the Jewish religion having all sorts of perspectives on Jesus - we have Muslims, worshipping him as the beloved prophet of God, but we have also atheists, trying to contact him in his humanness. Somewhere in between we all are lost in the web of the stories around Jesus - his birth, family status, apostles, did he have a wife or not, did he really die or fainted, did he walked on water ...

Thru this web we have a new prism, a new reflection where we can try to listen to the voice - how faint it is - of Jesus when scholars best can catch it. Catch it, not thru revelation, not thru X-ray signals, but thru humbleness: accepting that how much miracle a faith can contain, we have still to do in our terrestrial science with a man, a poor man, walking along Galilean countryside, taking the day as it came, eating what he got from hospitable foreigners, preaching about the MORE of today, the MORE of having a meal - preaching about an alternative life style that we can carry in our lives each hour of our days.

He looked at the nature around him, seeing birds being fed without sowing or ploughing, he saw how great was the hope for a poor woman or man to be at ease with life compared to religious folks and orthodox believers He saw more into life than codes, routines and rituals. He said once: A woman walked with a jar full of food on her head. She didn't know that it was broken, she noticed it when she arrived at home. He likened this whole story to the divine domain of life ("kingdom of god"). It was an empty jar - not filled with delicious food - it was a confident woman, confident in having food when there was not.

Jesus Seminar shows that Jesus never talked about himself as a bridge to god, he saw godhood - the ease of life and hope for tomorrow - in every one of us. It couldn't be given to us thru rituals or a specific living, it would be given only by asking, by searching, by knowing that injustice is only a symptom. Family structures, hierarchy, dividing humans in women, men, sinners, lepers etc are the root of all injustice. See individuals in the leper, in the most outcasts: SEE, UNDERSTAND and FREED yourself from this injustice. The symptom will always be there - but not if you agree on its cause.

Jesus knew that poor and hungry will always be among us - he knew that only charity would make a change - but he also hoped for us to see how captured we are of this so-called reality that we cannot see an alternative. Jesus Seminar couldn't have done it in a more fantastic than this book. Thank you:-)

I've read this 3 times so far. I will continue to read to fully absorb all that there is in this most intensely written and serious commentary on the state of Christianity today. Fr.Rutler nails it!

It is not breathless hyperbole, but rather a genuine and deeply felt sincerity that leads me to say that "A Crisis of Saints" is one of the best books it's ever been my pleasure to read. Father Rutler addresses the most important issue facing man -- the Church (and, by inevitable extension, Western Civilization) in crisis, and how to reverse this trend, which, if left unchecked, will soon result in absolute calamity. In addition to the inherent interest of his chosen topic, Father Rutler's erudition and elegance of expression are breathtaking. He's also delightfully charming and witty.

Highly, highly recommended.

Do-it-yourself Catholics will not appreciate this book. It sets the record straight regarding the Roman Catholic Church in modern times and the many specious interpretations foisted on Catholics. Using historical example, writings of intellectuals (including himself) and sound reasoning, Father Rutler skewers he post-Vatican II free-spirits with disciplined dialectic. To those who wonder how so many Catholics have lost their way in pursuit of some feel-good comaraderie, this book will provide insight. The writing is not for the beautiful people. Some passages must be read several times and checked against one's own reality. Those who make the effort will, perhaps, gain some peace of mind and even hope. Looking over the collection of what passes for leaders and thinkers of the world today, we see that the assured restoration of the Catholic Church requires a severe shock, A Crisis of Saints. It will come, but the spiritual price will be high.

Here is the dilemma addressed by Herzog: We do not want to be chumps, and we do not want to be cads (or, in his terms, fools or knaves). But is there a third option? As Herzog demonstrates, the question is harder to answer than one might unreflectively think. Offering a dazzling and difficult rumination on cunning in low and high culture, Herzog shows that making the case against cunning requires one to question numerous modern dogmas, including welfare economics and instrumental rationality. The discussion includes an analysis of Homer's and Sophocles' arch-trickster, Odyesseus, and the more prominent "high culture" defenders or chroniclers of cunning -- Machiavelli, Hobbes, David Hume, Tacitus. But Herzog also seamlessly knits in discussions of Nigerian e-mail scams; the 17th century astrologer William Lilly; Master James, a murderous and adulterous 17th century curate; Albanian ponzi schemes; and Tupperware parties. Want to know what those last five items (among others) have to do with Machiavelli's Mandragola? Read the book.

On the surface, this book seems to be in the genre of cultural history, the history of an idea (Machiavellian maneuvering). But wait a minute! Isn't Machiavellian maneuvering a timeless fact of life for us humans? Isn't the idea of a history of cunning as odd as the idea of a history of sexuality? There's the rub. It turns out that how we think about cheats and scoundrels has a history, and one can't quite view it in the same way again once this comes to light. More: not only do our assumptions about scoundrelhood reflect a history, but they don't stand up to critical scrutiny (the author's beautiful final story of the gulled murderer at the end illustrates this, but I don't want to spoil it for you by explaining it here). More: dubious assumptions about scoundrelhood are lurking in the deep background of how slews of people today think about rational choice, philosophy of social science, and the nature of morality, and though the author does not lean heavily on this point, if the reader is aware of what, say, economists think rational self-interest is, the implications of the critical history of scoundrelhood for all kinds of projects is quietly devastating. This agenda, if it is his agenda, sneaks up on you in the course of what you might think is just a really fun sequence of anecdota, revealing him as a stealth philosopher. The stealth philosopher seems also revealed in the very quiet undercurrent of insistence that we rethink our assumptions about morality, selfishness and deceit, and acknowledge them, and human life more generally, as the cussedly complex, theory-defying things that they are. Yet this touches the reader on a more intimate level--are you sure you *are* a good person? How do we draw the boundaries between dupe and knave? Can we? The author provides no answers, only lots of really uncomfortable questions. Last but not least, all of this is presented in one of the most delightfully wicked, jazzy, clever, fun prose styles I have ever encountered. There is a kind of brilliantly improvisational quality to the book which makes it a joy to read. The better to sneak up on you with its deeper concerns, sowing seeds of doubt that we know what rationality and irrationality, honesty and deceit, good and evil, really are. How very cunning.

There is a concept which describes a certain kind of character- type in Israel. The concept is ' fryerr' .A 'fryerr' is something like a sucker , a person who on every occasion simply gets the short end of the stick. As I am sort of pretty much of kind of a 'fryerr' I take great interest in what can be thought of as the opposite type of character, the 'cunning ' person, the one who knows how to cleverly get what they want.
Now in order to satisfy my interest, and perhaps teach me a few tricks which I will of course never learn Don Herzog has cunningly written a book on the subject of 'Cunning'. And this as I am suddenly reminded of one of my favorite literary characters, 'Gimpel the Fool' who is always being deceived by others, and who no matter how many times he is disappointed, continues to believe and hope in them. The saintly fool, which I suppose the sympathy of many of us is really with.
'Cunning' people we might admire, but we do not really like very much. That is unless we happen to be trapped in an elevator with them and they figure out the way out.
But 'cunning' as Herzog explains is a lot more than being smart. In an outstanding review of the book which appeared first in CanadaCom. Robert Fulford describes the history of the concept of cunning as elaborated by Herzog as follows:

The "evolution of the word "cunning" suggests that a history could be written through changing word-meanings. In the 14th century, "cunning" meant erudition, and in the 16th Sir Thomas More described virtues such as "chastity, liberality, temperance, cunning." But perhaps English speakers noticed that wisdom could be put to corrupt ends. They shifted the adjective from the Positive column to the Negative.

By the 18th century it clearly meant knavery. The sentimental 19th century added a new meaning -- appealing, sweet. Dickens in Martin Chuzzlewit tells us of tea served with "cunning teacakes." By 1887 it described a child who was "piquantly interesting." Today, a more blatant use emerges: A British ad agency called Cunning promises "guerrilla marketing," boasting British Airways and Levi's as clients.

Cunning is essential to some. A poker player lacking it would be comically inept. A politician who presented the same face to all his followers would be unique in history as well as unsuccessful. And then there's law, an industry grounded in cunning. This worried James Boswell, a lawyer, so he asked his idol, Samuel Johnson, about legal ethics. Boswell feared that simulating strong feelings or stating something you don't believe might distort the moral sense, making a lawyer immoral in his private life. Johnson replied: "Why no, Sir. Everybody knows you are paid for affecting warmth for your client; and it is, therefore, properly no dissimulation."

Cunning is connected with secrecy, with duplicity, with the ability to mimic and deceive. Cunning people often play at being simple- minded .The con-man is of course one great popular American figure of cunning.

When I think however of the supreme cunning( Herzog also analyzes novels and shows how skillful they can be in providing false clues as to what their characters really are- i.e. deceiving by appearances.) I think of one great literary master, Joyce.
It was by 'silence, exile and cunning' that he would win his way to literary greatness, forge in the smithy of his soul ' the uncreated conscience of his race'. How cunning, and perhaps how duplicitous, but the fact is that of all the hundreds of thousands of writers of the twentieth century Joyce was cunning enough ( and of course great enough in literary terms) to have his work read and reread all the years of the nights.

My sense is many of us would do well to study Herzog's work to acquire a bit of cunning of our own. But then my guess is, most of us, would out of our absurd need to come out with it all at the beginning, to be completely honest and straightforward, forget to be cunning, and not achieve what we want.
Some of us seems will be compelled to admire and perhaps resent the 'cunning' without ever being able to truly join their ranks.

I read this book with amazement at the suffering the Jewish doctors, in particular dermatologists. This book is written beautifully, almost like a poem. There is no over-dramatization of what actually happened. The story of these doctors is dramatic in and of itself. No embellisments here, just unadulterated history. An eye-opening, heart-wrenching book.

This is not another book about medical experimentation on Jews during the Holocaust. It is an account of what happened to hundreds of physicians during the Nazi era. As the Nazis "coordinated" medicine, Jewish physicians were dismissed from their clinics and teaching positions and replaced by Nazi supporters whose medical skills were mediocre at best.

Weyers focuses on dermatologists because it was traditionally a field of medicine heavily populated by Jews. Weyers is also a dermatologist and dermatopatholgist himself.

The displaced dermatologists whose stories are documented by Weyers either went into hiding, committed suicide, or fled from Germany. Their stories are poignant, and the inclusion of postage stamp size photos of them is a very effective touch.

Highly recommended for anyone--not just physicians--who is interested in Holocaust studies or medical ethics

The author begins with some background into the origins of antisemitism in germany which serves to frame the topic. He then provides a richly detailed accounting of how the effects of Nazi policies affected many of the most famous dermatologists of the era. He also reveals the apathy of the academic community in germany towards the plight of their jewish colleages.

Debates about genetic engineering often revolve around what makes human beings 'human' or 'transhuman', and DESIGNER EVOLUTION: A TRANSHUMANIST MANIFESTO is bound to be at the heart of future debates, with its focus on the emerging new philosophy of Transhumanist doctrine, which supports the attempt to change the human body to eliminate disease, death, and even expand the mind beyond current boundaries. Young calls for a rejection of superstition in favor of a renewed faith in human progress through rational scientific progress.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Manifesto: A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially of a political nature.

And this is exactly that. His theme is that genetic engineering and biotechnology offer us a future that atttempts to eliminate disease, defeat death and enhance the body and mind beyond the limitations of the ate-old human condition.

Humanist: of or pertaining to a philosophy asserting human dignity and man's capacity for fulfillment through reason and scientific method and often rejecting religion.

The author's comment is that 'Goodwill to all men' is a rational tactic for mutual survival and well-being. We no longer need God in order to be good - though a suicide bomber needs him to be bad.

If this book gets enough circulation to attract attention, it should be able to annoy nearly everyone. Yet this is certainly one of the directions in which the world is headed.

Fascinating.

This is a very good, and very thought-provoking book. One of the best reads I have had in several years.

I have just began reading this book and already, I am excited about the possible results, that can be achieved,

Fryling is a staffer for Intervarsity, and speaks from long experience. This book covers the basics of friendship building, modeling, and instruction that go into building up disciples. Her focus is more on grounding believers than on leadership development.
- Dennis McCallum, author Organic Disciplemaking: How to promote Christian leadership development through personal relationships, biblical discipleship, mentoring, and Christian community

As a young Christian, I struggled with sharing my faith with others. I always felt as though I did not have the knowledge to witness to others and let alone disciple a young Christian. As I grew in my faith I realized that God's desire is that of a willing heart through which He can work His miracles, in His timing, and for His glory.

This book has been a refreshing assurance to me that God is in control. That He has called each person who has a personal relationship with Him to be His disciple and disciple His sheep. Disciple making requires those of us who are willing to see God work through us be used by our Saviour to accomplish His kingdom purpose.

Disciple-makers Handbook is an awesome book which will challenge you to seek God and be about His Great Commission.