Blind Obedience and Denial

Blind Obedience and Denial
Author: Andrew Sangster
Publisher: Casemate
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2022-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1636241794

"...offers a unique and valuable insight into the psychology of human beings who violate the laws of war. Anyone interested in war crimes generally and the IMT in particular should read this interesting book." — Journal of Military History A revealing yet accessible examination of the Nuremberg trial, and most crucially all 23 men who stood accused, not just the most infamous—Speer, Hess, and Göring. This account sets the scene by explaining the procedures, the legal context, and the moments of hypocrisy in the Allies’ prosecution—ignoring the fact that the Katyn massacre was a Soviet crime and overlooking carpet bombing. Author Andrew Sangster discusses how the word “Holocaust” was not used until long after the trial, probably due to Russian objection as they had lost many more people, and because the Allies generally were not innocent of anti-Semitism themselves, especially Russia and Vichy France. However, the defendants to a person immediately recognized that this was the singular issue which placed them on the steps of the gallows, and their various defenses on this charge are therefore crucial to understanding the trial. Sangster also explores how the prisoners related to one another in their approach to defending themselves on the charge of genocide and extermination camps, especially in facing the bully-boy Göring. This new study utilizes not only the trial manuscripts, but the pre-trial interrogations, the views of the psychiatrists and psychologists, and the often-overheard conversations between prisoners—who did not know their guards spoke German—to give the fullest exploration of the defendants, their state of mind, and their attitudes towards the Third Reich, Hitler and each other as they faced judgement by the victors of the war.

Blind Obedience

Blind Obedience
Author: Meredith Williams
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2009-12-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135203229

There is considerable debate amongst philosophers as to the basic philosophical problem Wittgenstein is attempting to solve in Philosophical Investigations. In this bold and original work, Meredith Williams argues that it is the problem of "normative similarity". In Blind Obedience Williams demonstrates how Wittgenstein criticizes traditional, representationalist theories of language by employing the ‘master/novice’ distinction of the learner, arguing that this distinction is often overlooked but fundamental to understanding philosophical problems about mind and language. The book not only provides revealing discussions of Wittgenstein’s corpus but also intricate analyses of the work of Brandom, Dummett, Frege, Sellars, Davidson, Cavell and others. These are usefully compared in a bid to better situate Wittgenstein’s non-intellectualist, non-theoretical approach and to highlight is unique features.

The Destruction of the Christian Tradition

The Destruction of the Christian Tradition
Author: Rama P. Coomaraswamy
Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2006
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0941532984

Concentrating on the post-Vatican II revisions of its teachings, this book tells the story of the destruction of the Roman Catholic tradition, a defining event of the twentieth century.

Mary Astell

Mary Astell
Author: William Kolbrener
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2016-05-13
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317100093

Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith includes essays from diverse disciplinary perspectives to consider the full range of Astell's political, theological, philosophical, and poetic writings. The volume does not eschew the more traditional scholarly interest in Astell's concerns about gender; rather, it reveals how Astell's works require attention not only for their role in the development of early modern feminism, but also for their interventions on subjects ranging from political authority to educational theory, from individual agency to divine service, and from Cartesian ethics to Lockean epistemology. Given the vast breadth of her writings, her active role within early modern political and theological debates, and the sophisticated complexity of her prose, Astell has few parallels among her contemporaries. Mary Astell: Reason, Gender, Faith bestows upon Astell the attention which she deserves not merely as a proto-feminist, but as a major figure of the early modern period.

Son of the Revolution

Son of the Revolution
Author: Liang Heng
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1984-02-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

An account of growing up during China's Great Cultural Revolution.

Early Modern Jesuits between Obedience and Conscience during the Generalate of Claudio Acquaviva (1581-1615)

Early Modern Jesuits between Obedience and Conscience during the Generalate of Claudio Acquaviva (1581-1615)
Author: Silvia Mostaccio
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2016-05-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317146891

The Society of Jesus was founded by Ignatius Loyola on a principal of strict obedience to papal and superiors’ authorities, yet the nature of the Jesuits's work and the turbulent political circumstances in which they operated, inevitably brought them into conflict with the Catholic hierarchy. In order to better understand and contextualise the debates concerning obedience, this book examines the Jesuits of south-western Europe during the generalate of Claudio Acquaviva. Acquaviva’s thirty year generalate (1581-1615) marked a challenging time for the Jesuits, during which their very system of government was called into doubt. The need for obedience and the limits of that obedience posed a question of fundamental importance both to debates taking place within the Society, and to the definition of a collective Jesuit identity. At the same time, struggles for jurisdiction between political states and the papacy, as well as the difficulties raised by the Protestant Reformation, all called for matters to be rethought. Divided into four chapters, the book begins with an analysis of the texts and contexts in which Jesuits reflected on obedience at the turn of the seventeenth century. The three following chapters then explore the various Ignatian sources that discussed obedience, placing them within their specific contexts. In so doing the book provides fascinating insights into how the Jesuits under Acquaviva approached the concept of obedience from theological and practical standpoints.

Our New Human Consciousness

Our New Human Consciousness
Author: Terry Sands
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 537
Release: 2011-05-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1456844466

Every few thousand years, our human culture experiences a massive evolutionary transformation. In the next few years, our consciousness will change very rapidly and move us beyond anything we can presently imagine. This change of consciousness is happening naturally to each of us now, and it will affect every aspect of how we think, how we live, and how we love. We are a culture in search of its spirit, and this change of consciousness is evolutionarily next for humankind on this planet. When the awareness opens, one may search many avenues and attractions for truth and enlightenment and find the search lacking in result. The next step may be the path of Self-discovery. But the direction on this path will not be given to us by a great teacher who comes down from the mountaintop with answers cast in stone, but rather by lots of little great teachers who could be called pathfinders. And to move into this new consciousness, we will transform the mind and the way it works with new mental skills and mental technology. Our success is inevitable. The ease or difficulty with which we achieve this success is still in formation. We will survive the transition physically. The question is whether we will survive psychologically. Psychological survival in this transition depends on only one thing: Developing the ability and inner discipline to completely, instantaneously, unquestioningly and continuously adapt to change.

Sin in the Sixties

Sin in the Sixties
Author: Maria C. Morrow
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2016-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813228980

Confession reached its peak attendance in the early 1950s, but by the end of the Second Vatican Council, the popularity of the sacrament plummeted. While this decline is often noted by historians, theologians, priests, and laity alike - all eager to provide possible explanations - little attention has been paid to another dramatic shift. Coincident with the decreasing popularity of the sacrament of penance in the United States were changes to non-sacramental penitential practices, including Lenten fasting, Ember Days, and the year-round Friday meat abstinence. American Catholics - sometimes derisively called Fisheaters - had assiduously observed Friday abstinence, regardless of ethnicity or geographic location.