The Making of the Good Person

The Making of the Good Person
Author: Nora Hämäläinen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2023-04-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000863220

This book provides a philosophical assessment of the idea of personhood advanced in popular self-help literature. It also traces, within academic philosophy and philosophical scholarship, a self-help culture where the self is brought forth as an object of improvement and a key to meaning, progress, and profundity. Unlike other academic treatments of the topic of self-help, this book is not primarily concerned with providing a critique of popular self-help and self-transformative practices. Rather, it is concerned with how they work to shape contemporary forms and ideals of moral personhood and are conducive to moral renegotiation and change. The book consists of two parts with somewhat different argumentative strategies. Part 1 consists of an overview and reassessment of popular self-help literature and its sociological and journalistic critics, written from a moral philosophical perspective. Part 2 opens with discussion of the current attraction, among a range of philosophers, to self-transformative themes. The chapters assess the strand of self-transformative philosophy found in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, Stanley Cavell, and Iris Murdoch. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the theme of social change and moral renegotiation in contemporary societies, which is a central but underestimated undercurrent in discussions on contemporary self-transformative practices. The book’s dual perspective—on both popular self-help and self-transformative currents in philosophy—enables a cultural and moral philosophical analysis of contemporary ethical ideals of personhood, as well as reflection on the literatures available for its development. The Making of the Good Person will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in moral philosophy, history of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literary studies.

Faith Breaks: Thoughts on Making It a Good Day

Faith Breaks: Thoughts on Making It a Good Day
Author: J. Howard Olds
Publisher: eBooks2go, Inc.
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 193575811X

New ebook edition! Pause, take a break, and focus on what really matters: faith, hope, love, God, and family! This volume of Faith Breaks includes 150 insightful reflections of Dr. J. Howard Olds, heard over the radio in Lexington, Louisville, and Nashville for over two decades prior to his death in 2008. This revised edition of Faith Breaks includes a new foreword by Sandy Olds.

The Good Person

The Good Person
Author: Stephen Gislason
Publisher: Persona Digital Books
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2018-06-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1894787439

The Good Person - Ethics and Morality Ethics is about the interface between selfish interests and actions and the common good. Both the good and the bad tendencies of mindbodybrain are innate properties that have useful functions, were not invented by modern society and are not going to change until the construction of brain changes. The dialogue between good and bad in human affairs is constant, predictable and universal. When a baby is born, the family and local community begin to teach the emerging being what is going on here and now. They provide the local language, costumes, customs beliefs and the local science and technology. All adult humans have a n ethical standard and a technology to teach. While the local culture has an obvious impact on the appearance and behavior of emerging adults, the constant innate features of the human mind are pervasive and persistent. The variance in mental abilities within a local group will often be greater than inter-group variance. Ethics are about standards and rules of conduct or, more precisely, modern ethicists attempt to decide what good and reasonable behavior is. All humans make decisions and evaluate the behavior of others. A scale of evaluations from right to wrong is typical of ethical judgments. Each group develops norms to guide actions and judgments about behavior. The presence of ethical standards requires individuals who can anticipate the consequences of actions; evaluate consequences in terms of selfish and of group interests; and who have the ability to choose between alternative courses of action In practice, professional ethicists are employed by governments, universities, hospitals and other organizations; they do best by examining specific situations and engaging the people involved in conversations about specific interactions. When behavior and/or decisions are questionable but laws have not been broken, Ethics committees substitute for judges or juries and deliver advice or judgments. The value of ethics decreases as issues become of more general importance or are issues of law. Professional ethics can be appreciated as an abstract exercise in description and reasoning that may fail to appreciate the deep determinants of human feelings, beliefs and conduct. This inquiry is about human nature, complete with descriptions of imbedded social regulation and morality. An understanding of all these discussions is required for meaningful ethical discourse.

The Good Person Of Szechwan

The Good Person Of Szechwan
Author: Bertolt Brecht
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2016-11-17
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1472538188

'Brecht's dark, dazzling world-view...makes an absolutely devastating impact. The play is fuelled by the brilliant perception that everyone requires such a dual or split personality to survive.' Evening Standard Three gods come to earth hoping to discover one really good person. No one can be found until they meet Shen Te, a prostitute with a heart of gold. Rewarded by the gods, she gives up her profession and buys a tabacco shop but finds it is impossible to survive as a good person in a corrupt world without the support of her ruthless alter ego Shui Ta. Brecht's parable of good and evil was first performed in 1943 and remains one of his most popular and frequently produced plays worldwide. This Student Edition features an extensive introduction and commentary that includes a plot summary, discussion of the context, themes, characters, style and language as well as questions for further study and notes on words and phrases in the text. It is the perfect edition for students of theatre and literature.

The Making of the Self

The Making of the Self
Author: Richard Valantasis
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2008-09-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0227903277

A leading scholar of ascetical studies, Richard Valantasis explores a variety of ascetical traditions ranging from the Greco-Roman philosophy of Musonius Rufus, the asceticism found in the Nag Hammadi Library and in certain Gnostic texts, the Gospelof Thomas, and other early Christian texts. This collection gathers historical and theoretical essays develop a theory of asceticism that informs the analysis of historical texts and opens the way for postmodern ascetical studies. Wide-ranging in historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address asceticism for scholar and student alike. The theory will be of particular interest to those interested in cultural theory and analysis, while the historical essays provide the researcher with easy access to a significant corpus of academic writing on asceticism.

Making Good

Making Good
Author: Billy Parish
Publisher: Rodale
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1605290785

A handbook for navigating the emerging economy shares practical advice for identifying opportunities and building a fulfilling career, sharing real-life success stories and step-by-step exercises that explain how to achieve financial autonomy and capitalize on global changes. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Religion and Charity

Religion and Charity
Author: Robert P. Weller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2018
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1108418678

This book challenges our assumptions about morality by explaining how industrialized philanthropy and universalized goodness came to dominate Chinese religious engagement.

Most Evil Is Done by Good People Who Do Not Know That They Are Not Good

Most Evil Is Done by Good People Who Do Not Know That They Are Not Good
Author: Ferd L. Wagner
Publisher: Xulon Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2010-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1609571010

This book takes the view that Christian truth is the basis for all answers to social issues and that there are not two opposing but equal answers within Christian truth that are equally valid and equally acceptable to God. Any so called truth or "right" that circumvents or undercuts the required sacrifices, disciplines and self denial demanded by God in any given social or moral issue ceases to be truth, ceases to be right the moment it becomes a force unto itself, outside of or independent of the Scripturally required obedience. Human history has shown over the millennia that when the letter and spirit of God's laws are not obeyed, the truth is abused, nations become confused and people are used. Many of our political and social issues are rooted in our misplaced belief that tolerance, inclusion, equal respect for unequal truth and live and let live is the way to greater peace and prosperity. They are all wrong. Each individual, government and nation is judged by their response to Christ. The Christian nation or one which ascribes to being one, is tasked to set the Christian standard as every nation's point of reference. It is the Christian's duty to show that the valid rule of God's law, the letter of God's law and the spirit of God's law are superior to any other alternative standard. The biggest obstacle to Christianity today is the undisciplined, misinformed and unfaithful lifestyles of professing Christians. The Church has become so indoctrinated in its aversion to any form of discrimination that it has placed a higher priority on keeping the peace by compromising than by keeping the truth by discriminating. By accepting a false peace and rejecting a hard truth that resists compromise, it begets neither peace nor truth.

The Law of Good People

The Law of Good People
Author: Yuval Feldman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2018-06-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 110865634X

Currently, the dominant enforcement paradigm is based on the idea that states deal with 'bad people' - or those pursuing their own self-interests - with laws that exact a price for misbehavior through sanctions and punishment. At the same time, by contrast, behavioral ethics posits that 'good people' are guided by cognitive processes and biases that enable them to bend the laws within the confines of their conscience. In this illuminating book, Yuval Feldman analyzes these paradigms and provides a broad theoretical and empirical comparison of traditional and non-traditional enforcement mechanisms to advance our understanding of how states can better deal with misdeeds committed by normative citizens blinded by cognitive biases regarding their own ethicality. By bridging the gap between new findings of behavioral ethics and traditional methods used to modify behavior, Feldman proposes a 'law of good people' that should be read by scholars and policymakers around the world.

The Good People

The Good People
Author: Peter Narv‡ez
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 548
Release: 1997-11-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780813109398

" Whether called "the good people," "the little people," or simply "them," fairies are familiar from their appearances in Shakespeare's plays, Disney's films, and points in between. In many cultures, however, fairies are not just the stuff of distant legend or literature: they are real creatures with supernatural powers. The Good People presents nineteen essays that focus on the actual fairies of folklore -- fairies of past and living traditions who affected, and still affect, people's lives in myriad ways.