Composed more than 2,000 years ago during a turbulent period of Chinese history, the Dao de jing set forth an alternative vision of reality in a world torn apart by violence and betrayal. Daoism, as this subtle but enduring philosophy came to be known, offers a comprehensive view of experience grounded in a full understanding of the wonders hidden in the ordinary. Now in this luminous new translation, based on the recently discovered ancient bamboo scrolls, China scholars Roger T. Ames (...) and David L. Hall bring the timeless wisdom of the Dao de jing into our contemporary world. Though attributed to Laozi, “the Old Master,” the Dao de jing is, in fact, of unknown authorship and may well have originated in an oral tradition four hundred years before the time of Christ. Eschewing philosophical dogma, the Dao de jing set forth a series of maxims that outlined a new perspective on reality and invited readers to embark on a regimen of self-cultivation. In the Daoist world view, each particular element in our experience sends out an endless series of ripples throughout the cosmos. The unstated goal of the Dao de jing is self-transformation–the attainment of personal excellence that flows from the world and back into it. Responding to the teachings of Confucius, the Dao de jing revitalizes moral behavior by recommending a spontaneity made possible by the cultivated “habits” of the individual. In this elegant volume, Ames and Hall feature the original Chinese texts of the Dao de jing and translate them into crisp, chiseled English that reads like poetry. Each of the eighty-one brief chapters is followed by clear, thought-provoking commentary exploring the layers of meaning in the text. The book’s extensive introduction is a model of accessible scholarship in which Ames and Hall consider the origin of the text, place the emergence of Daoist philosophy in its historical and political context, and outline its central tenets. The Dao de jing is a work of timeless wisdom and beauty, as vital today as it was in ancient China. This new version will stand as both a compelling introduction to the complexities of Daoist thought and as the classic modern English translation. (shrink)

This book broadens the inquiry into emotion to comprehend a comparative cultural outlook. It begins with an overview of recent work in the West, and then proceeds to the main business of scrutinizing various relevant issues from both Asian and comparative perspectives. Original essays by experts in the field. Finally, Robert Solomon comments and summarizes.

Philosophers on Education offers us the most comprehensive available history of philosopher's views and impacts on the directions of education. As Amelie Rorty explains, in describing a history of education, we are essentially describing and gaining the clearest understanding of the issues that presently concern and divide us. The essays in this stellar collection are written by some of the finest comtemporary philosophers. Those interested in history of philosophy, epistemology, moral psychology and education, and political theory will find Philosophers on (...) Education to be both an engaging and fascinating read. (shrink)

Distinguished scholars discuss the problem of self-deception, or rather, self and deception.

Alterity is in danger. It is a masterpiece in peril, an object lost or missing from our system, from the system of artificial intelligence and the system of communication in general.--from Radical AlterityWhere is the Other today? Can Otherness challenge our arrogant, insular cultural narcissism? From artificial intelligence to the streets of Venice, from early explorers to contemporary photographers, Jean Baudrillard and Marc Guillaume discuss the traces of radical alterity in our world. These provocative seminars, held in 1990 and 1991, (...) follow the multiple, intertwined trajectories first projected in Baudrillard's work and his reading of the "radical exoticism" posited by Victor Segalen--ideas Baudrillard extends into the realms of mass media, pseudonyms, technology, and that illusorily close yet radically foreign "primitive society of the future," America. In a world where no corner is unexplored, the Other remains a challenge to thought, a crack in the shell of universal understanding, impossible to communicate but potentially the linchpin of communication itself. Together, Baudrillard and Guillaume explore the threatened and fatal figures of radical alterity. This collection is no longer available in French, and this English edition includes an additional essay by Baudrillard, "Because Illusion and Reality Are Not Opposed."Jean Baudrillard will be remembered as one of the most provocative and renowned social theorists of the twentieth century. Economist and professor at the Université de Paris-Dauphine, Marc Guillaume has published several works in French rethinking contemporary socioeconomics and has collaborated with such thinkers as Jacques Derrida and Jacques Attali. (shrink)

History that repeats itself turns to farce. But a farce that repeats itself ends up making a history.--from The Agony of PowerIn these previously unpublished manuscripts written just before his death in 2007, Jean Baudrillard takes a last crack at the bewildering situation currently facing us as we exit the system of "domination" and enter a world of generalized "hegemony" in which everyone becomes both hostage and accomplice of the global market. But in the free-form market of political and sexual (...) liberation, as the possibility of revolution dissipates, Baudrillard sees the hegemonic process as only beginning. Once expelled, negativity returns from within ourselves as an antagonistic force--most vividly in the phenomenon of terrorism, but also as irony, mockery, and the symbolic liquidation of all human values. This is the dimension of hegemony marked by an unbridled circulation--of capital, goods, information, or manufactured history--that is bringing the very concept of exchange to an end and pushing capital beyond its limits: to the point at which it destroys the conditions of its own existence. In the system of hegemony, the alienated, the oppressed, and the colonized find themselves on the side of the system that holds them hostage. In this paradoxical moment in which history has turned to farce, domination itself may appear to have been a lesser evil.This book gathers together two essays--"The Agony of Power" and "From Domination to Hegemony"--and a related interview with Baudrillard from 2005, "The Roots of Evil." Semiotext launched Baudrillard into English back in the early 1980s; now, as our media and information infested "ultra-reality" finally catches up with his theory, Semiotext offers The Agony of Power, Baudrillard's unsettling coda. (shrink)

In The Empire of Disorder, Alain Joxe offers the first truly comprehensive analysis of the new world disorder of the twenty-first century. The contemporary world, claims Joxe, is dominated by the American empire but not ordered by it. This "leadership through chaos," based on maintaining a "creeping peace," is at the root of the present organization of violence and barbary on a global scale. At the same time, national governments--including that of the United States--are declining in influence as the imperial (...) system fosters transnational mafias, corporations, and markets. (shrink)

Argues that the only way to understand the Confucian vision of the consummate moral life is to take the tradition on its own terms.

Los vertebrados usados en protocolos experimentales son reconocidos como sintientes, lo cual favorece su consideración desde la zooética, su protección en la legislación nacional e internacional, así como la salva- guarda de su bienestar. En consecuencia, se ha recurrido a otros modelos in vivo como los animales invertebrados para realizar investigación. Salvo casos particulares, los invertebrados no cuentan con la protección legal ni existe preocupación por su bienestar, en tanto que se les consideraba no sintientes. Por lo tanto, se realizó (...) una revisión de artículos científicos (de 1997 a 2022) para examinar la sintiencia entre los grupos Mollusca, Arthropoda y Nematoda, phyla ampliamente utilizados como modelos experimentales. Se encontraron dieciocho artículos que constataron un cierto grado de sintiencia en estos phyla, por lo que se propone su inclu- sión en la reflexión zooética. Este texto constituye un primer esfuerzo para procurar el bienestar de estos individuos utilizados en procedimien- tos experimentales. (shrink)

The earliest Analects yet discovered, this work provides us with a new perspective on the central canonical text that has defined Chinese culture--and clearly illuminates the spirit and values of Confucius.

This is the first anthology to present the full range of the many forms evil. Amelie Rorty has assembled a collection of readings that include not only the most common forms of evil, such as vice, sin, cruelty and crime, but also some which are less well known, such disobedience and willfulness. The readings are drawn from a rich array of historical, philosophical, theological, literary, dramatic, psychological and legal perspectives. Amelie Rorty's introductions to the readings sets each one in context (...) and makes the anthology essential reading for anyone interested in the philosophy of evil. (shrink)

Informed consent is a vital part of ethical research. In emergency health care research environments such as ambulance services and emergency departments, it is sometimes necessary to conduct trial interventions or observations without patient consent. At times where treatment is time critical, it may be impossible or inappropriate to seek consent from next of kin. Emergency medicine is one of the few areas where the process of informed consent can be waived to allow research to proceed without patient consent. This (...) article will explore the ethics of informed consent in the prehospital emergency research context. This will include an overview of current Australian guidelines for ethical research, and recent changes in law internationally which have affected the conduct of international emergency health research. An overview of the ethical reasoning behind the waiver of informed consent in emergency research is presented, also addressing issues relating to emergency health research such as proxy consent, unconscious patients, and patient decision making capacity. The unusual circumstances encountered in the prehospital ambulance environment will also be discussed, including the dependent and coercive relationship between patients and ambulance professionals, and a lack of alternatives for care and transport for patients who refuse consent. The conflict arising from differences in medical culture and values between patients and health care professionals will also briefly be discussed. It will be argued that, while emergency care research should not require informed consent due to the restrictions of time and dependent nature of the relationship between patient and health professional, emergency health researchers still have a responsibility to consider the patients’ perspective when considering the ethical issues of an emergency research project, particularly in the prehospital environment. (shrink)

In reply to Gullv g (Inquiry , Vol. 18 [1975]) it is conceded that there are limitations to a pluralistic metaphilosophy. The limits are not, however, specifiable. By increasing a philosophical system's comprehensiveness one decreases its refutability, because the system then begins to incorporate its own rules of refutation and other concepts required for assessing validity, but there are no definite limits to comprehensiveness. By increasing a system's comprehensiveness one also diminishes the possibility of comparing that system with others. There (...) is a fairly neutral but vague and imprecise way of expressing oneself metaphilosophically, but such expressions can never attain absolute neutrality. Nevertheless it might be useful to retain as a regulative idea the notion that all comprehensive systems try to embrace the same single reality. (shrink)