Philosophy of Suffering

Philosophy of Suffering
Author: David Bain
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2019-10-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1351115448

Suffering is a central component of our lives. We suffer pain. We fall ill. We fail and are failed. Our loved ones die. It is a commonplace to think that suffering is, always and everywhere, bad. But might suffering also be good? If so, in what ways might suffering have positive, as well as negative, value? This important volume examines these questions and is the first comprehensive examination of suffering from a philosophical perspective. An outstanding roster of international contributors explore the nature of suffering, pain, and valence, as well as the value of suffering and the relationships between suffering, morality, and rationality. Philosophy of Suffering: Metaphysics, Value, and Normativity is essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, cognitive and behavioral psychology as well as those in health and medicine researching conceptual issues regarding suffering and pain.

The Catholic Gentleman

The Catholic Gentleman
Author: Sam Guzman
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2019-04-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 162164068X

What it means to be a man or a woman is questioned today like never before. While traditional gender roles have been eroding for decades, now the very categories of male and female are being discarded with reckless abandon. How does one act like a gentleman in such confusing times? The Catholic Gentleman is a solid and practical guide to virtuous manhood. It turns to the timeless wisdom of the Catholic Church to answer the important questions men are currently asking. In short, easy- to-read chapters, the author offers pithy insights on a variety of topics, including • How to know you are an authentic man • Why our bodies matter • The value of tradition • The purpose of courtesy • What real holiness is and how to achieve it • How to deal with failure in the spiritual life

Suffering and Virtue

Suffering and Virtue
Author: Michael Brady
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release:
Genre: FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS
ISBN: 9780191850592

Suffering, in one form or another, is present in all of our lives. But why do we suffer? On one reading, this is a question about the causes of physical and emotional suffering. On another, it is a question about whether suffering has a point or purpose or value. Michael Brady argues that suffering is vital for the development of virtue, and hence for us to live happy or flourishing lives. After presenting a distinctive account of suffering and a novel interpretation of its core element - unpleasantness - Brady focuses on three claims that are central to his picture. The first is that forms of suffering, like pain and remorse, can themselves constitute virtuous responses. The second is that suffering is essential for four important classes of virtue: virtues of strength, such as fortitude and courage; virtues of vulnerability, such as adaptability and humility; moral virtues, such as compassion; and the practical and epistemic excellences that make up wisdom. His third and final claim is that suffering is vital for the social virtues of justice, love, and trust, and hence for the flourishing of social groups.

Friendship and Virtue Ethics in the Book of Job

Friendship and Virtue Ethics in the Book of Job
Author: Patricia Vesely
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-03-28
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 1108476473

Examines friendship as a moral category in the Book of Job through an Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective.

On Patience

On Patience
Author: Matthew Pianalto
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 149852821X

Many of us are so busy that we might be tempted to think we don’t have time to be patient. However, that idea involves a serious underestimation of what patience is and why it matters. In On Patience, Matthew Pianalto revives a richer understanding of what patience is and why it is centrally important in both virtue theory and everyday life. Drawing from a wide range of philosophical and religious sources, Pianalto shows that our contemporary tendency to equate patience with waiting fails to do justice to other aspects of patience such as tolerance, perseverance, and the opposition of patience to anger. With this broader understanding of patience, Pianalto further shows how patience supports the development of other moral strengths, such as courage, justice, love, and hope. In these ways, On Patience sheds light on Franz Kafka’s remark that, “Patience is the master key to every situation,” and Gregory the Great’s perhaps surprising claim that, “Patience is the root and guardian of all the virtues.” This first book-length contemporary philosophical examination of patience will be of interest to students and scholars not just of virtue ethics, but also of moral philosophy more broadly.

Making Sense Out of Suffering

Making Sense Out of Suffering
Author: Peter Kreeft
Publisher: Servant Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1986
Genre: Bereavement
ISBN: 9780892832194

Peter Kreeft observes that our world is full of billions of normal lives which have touched by apparently pointless and random suffering. He then records the results of his own wrestling match with God as he struggles to make sense out of this pain.

Inner Virtue

Inner Virtue
Author: Nicolas Bommarito
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0190673389

Inner virtue and vice -- Pleasure -- Emotion -- Attention -- The relevance of inner virtue

Wandering in Darkness

Wandering in Darkness
Author: Eleonore Stump
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 688
Release: 2012-09-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191056316

Only the most naïve or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one can. Wandering in Darkness first presents the moral psychology and value theory within which one typical traditional theodicy, namely, that of Thomas Aquinas, is embedded. It explicates Aquinas's account of the good for human beings, including the nature of love and union among persons. Eleonore Stump also makes use of developments in neurobiology and developmental psychology to illuminate the nature of such union. Stump then turns to an examination of narratives. In a methodological section focused on epistemological issues, the book uses recent research involving autism spectrum disorder to argue that some philosophical problems are best considered in the context of narratives. Using the methodology argued for, the book gives detailed, innovative exegeses of the stories of Job, Samson, Abraham and Isaac, and Mary of Bethany. In the context of these stories and against the backdrop of Aquinas's other views, Stump presents Aquinas's own theodicy, and shows that Aquinas's theodicy gives a powerful explanation for God's allowing suffering. She concludes by arguing that this explanation constitutes a consistent and cogent defense for the problem of suffering.

Suffering and Sentiment

Suffering and Sentiment
Author: Jason Throop
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2010-02-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 052094593X

Suffering and Sentiment examines the cultural and personal experiences of chronic and acute pain sufferers in a richly described account of everyday beliefs, values, and practices on the island of Yap (Waqab), Federated States of Micronesia. C. Jason Throop provides a vivid sense of Yapese life as he explores the local systems of knowledge, morality, and practice that pertain to experiencing and expressing pain. In so doing, Throop investigates the ways in which sensory experiences like pain can be given meaningful coherence in the context of an individual’s culturally constituted existence. In addition to examining the extent to which local understandings of pain’s characteristics are personalized by individual sufferers, the book sheds important new light on how pain is implicated in the fashioning of particular Yapese understandings of ethical subjectivity and right action.

Kierkegaard and Religion

Kierkegaard and Religion
Author: Sylvia Walsh
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2018-03-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107180589

Focusing on the concepts of personality, character, and virtue, this work examines what it means to exist religiously for Kierkegaard.