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PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY-MORALITY-FAITH-IDEOLOGY-RELIGION-ETHICS

Freethinkers: A History Of American Secularism

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By Susan Jacoby

FROM THE JACKET: At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers celebrates the noble and essential secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason. In impassioned, elegant prose, Susan Jacoby offers a powerful defense of more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution. Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth-century's civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected accomplishments of secularists who, allied with tolerant and liberal religious believers, have stood at the forefront of the battle for social reforms opposed by reactionaries in the past and today. Rich with such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrow--as well as once-famous secularists such as Robert Green Ingersoll, "the Great Agnostic"-Freethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated humanist champions. It is they, Jacoby shows, who have led the struggle to uphold the unique combination of secular government and religious liberty that is and always has been the glory of the American system.

NY. Henry Holt and Company. 2004. 441p.

Who Moved the Stone?

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By Frank Morison

FROM THE COVER: “I wanted to take this last phase of the life of Jesus, with all its quick and pulsating drama, its sharp, clear-cut background of antiquity, and its tremendous psychological and human intersEt - -to strip it of its overgrowth of primitive beliefs, dogmatic suppositions, and to see this supremely great Person as He really was.”

Such was English journalist Frank Morison's drive to learn of Christ. The strangeness of the Resurrection story had captured his attention, and, influenced by skeptic thinkers at the turn of the century, he set out to prove that the story of Christ's Resurrection was only a myth. His probings, however, led him to discover the validity of the biblical record in a moving, personal way. Who Moved the Stone? is considered by many to be a classic apologetic on the subject of the Resurrection. Morison includes a vivid and poignant account of Christ's betrayal, trial, and death as a backdrop to his retelling of the climactic Resurrection itself.”

Grand Rapids. Michigan. Lamplighters Books. 1958 (1930) 192p.

Martin Luther's 95 Theses

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By Martin Luther

“Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred & Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following state- ments and to dispute on them in that place. There fore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”

Dr. Spock on Vietnam

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By Dr. Benjamin Spock and Michael Zimmerman

FROM THE COVER: “The Untold Story of Vietnam- WHAT IS THE TRUTH? What would happen if the U.S. stopped the bombing? Or pulled out her troops? Or else went after total military victory? Are we in Vietnam because of a request from the Vietnamese people? Or because of treaty obligations? Or because of past pledges? Do the Viet Cong hold the people in check through terror? Is the war in the South an invasion from the North? What was the significance of the recent South Vietnamese elections? How valid is the "domino theory? What is the danger from China? Is the United States being threatened? Can we believe what our own government tells us? You may think you have the answers to these ques tions. You may not be quite as sure when you finish this book by a famous American who could no longer remain silent.

NY. Dell. 1968. 96p.

The Saint and the Boy: And Twenty Other Stories For Children

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By John Leale

“'Saint,' said a boy as they were having a walk together. 'If you went home andfound that a bad man was in your house, what would you do about it?'

'I would try to make friends with him,' replied the saint.

'Yes, but supposing that he didn't want to make friends with you, what would you do then?” asked the boy.

'I would go on trying to make friends with him,' said the saint.

'Yes, but supposing he stamped his foot and thumped the table with his fist, and said: "Saint, I won't be friends with you." What would you do then?*

'I would ask the Good Lord what I ought to do.'

…..

London. The Epworth Press. 1957. 104p.

Making Moral Judgments: Psychological Perspectives on Morality, Ethics, and Decision-Making

By Donelson R. Forsyth

This fascinating new book examines diversity in moral judgements, drawing on recent work in social, personality, and evolutionary psychology, reviewing the factors that influence the moral judgments people make. Why do reasonable people so often disagree when drawing distinctions between what is morally right and wrong? Even when individuals agree in their moral pronouncements, they may employ different standards, different comparative processes, or entirely disparate criteria in their judgments. Examining the sources of this variety, the author expertly explores morality using ethics position theory, alongside other theoretical perspectives in moral psychology, and shows how it can relate to contemporary social issues from abortion to premarital sex to human rights. Also featuring a chapter on applied contexts, using the theory of ethics positions to gain insights into the moral choices and actions of individuals, groups, and organizations in educational, research, political, medical, and business settings, the book offers answers that apply across individuals, communities, and cultures. Investigating the relationship between people’s personal moral philosophies and their ethical thoughts, emotions, and actions, this is fascinating reading for students and academics from psychology and philosophy and anyone interested in morality and ethics.

New York: Routledge, 2010. 211p.

The Church and the Age of Reason 1648-1789

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By Gerald R. Cragg

FROM THE PREFACE: “This span in the history of the Christian church stretches from the age of religious and civil strife which existed before the middle of the seventeenth century to the age of industrialism and republicanism which followed the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic wars. The church in general, reacting strongly against the turbulences of the Civil War and the Thirty Years' War, placed a premium on order, moderation, and stability. Movements suspected of enthusiasm, such as Puritanism, Quietism, and Jansenism, fell into disrepute, and the authority exercised by the state in religious affairs became more pronounced. It was an age dominated by Reason, which, until it provoked a reaction in such movements as Pietism and Evangelicism, posed a formidable challenge to Christianity.”

London. Penguin. 1960. 297p.

Documents Of The Christian Church

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Selected and Edited by Henry Bettenson

FROM THE COVER FLAP: This book presents a selection from the most important records of the history of the Christian Church from its beginning. It goes in all cases to official documents and other sources, and provides the general reader with many extracts, about most of which he may have heard, though he will have seen very few and will certainly not have them conveniently to his hand in one volume. The book opens with references to Christianity in the Classical authors, and continues with, among other subjects, the Relation of Church and State in the Roman Empire, the Formation of the Creeds, the Development of Doctrine, the Breach between East and West, the Empire and the Papacy, the Relations between Church and State….”

London. Oxford University Press. 1959. 479p.

Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews

By James Carroll

FROM THE COVER: In this "rare book that combines searing passion ... with a subject that has affected all of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the Church's battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture. A courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every reader, Constantines Sword is truly a book for our times.

A Mariner Boo.k Houghton Mifelin Company. 2002. 757p. USED BOOK. CONTAINS MARK-UP.

China 1945: Mao's Revolution, America's Fateful Choice

By Richard Berstein

From the cover: “At the beginning of 1945, relations between Anerica and the Chinese Communists couldn't have been closer. Chinese lead ers talked of America helping to lift China out of poverty; Mao Zedong himself held friendly meetings with U.S. emissaries. By year's end, Chinese Communist soldiers were setting ambushes for American marines; official cordiality had been replaced bychilly hostility and distrust, a pattern which would continue for a quarter century, with the devastating wars in Korea and Vietnam among the consequences.

NY. Vintage. 2015. 473p. USED BOOK. CONTAINS MARK-UP

Altruism, Morality, and Economic Theory

Edited by Edmund S. Phelps

From the Preface: “The self-interest model has had sweeping success over recent decades in the study of both economics and politics. Yet the inner ambiguities and limitations of that model could not indefinitely escape notice and examination. Self interest in some interpretation is some of the story some of the time, never the whole story. On March 3 and 4, 1972, a number o fsocial scientists met at Russell Sage Foundation to speculate and theorize on the roles that altruism and morality in a society may play in shaping human behaviorand institutions within it. The nine papers presented at the conference are by economists. The commentaries on them were drawn from representatives of other disciplines, primarily philosophy and law. This volume is a rough. approximation to the proceedings of the conference. An introduction by the editor has been added to announce some of the main themes and to bring out some of the interrelations among the papers.”

NY. Russell Sage Foundation. 1975. 225p. CONTAINS MARK-UP

Evolutionary Ethics

By A. G. N. Flew

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The obvious and the right place from which to begin a study of evolutionary ethics is the work of Charles Darwin. For, primarily, it is his ideas - or what have been thought to be his ideas which advocates of evolutionary ethics or evolutionary politics have tried to apply more widely. This is not, of course, to say that Darwin hadn ointellectual ancestors; any more than it is to suggest that biological theory has since his death stood still. To say or to suggest either thing would be absurdly wrong…”

NY. St. Martinn’s Press. 1967. 78p. CONTAINS MARK-UP

Science, Faith And Society

By Michael Polanyi

From Chapter 1: “What is the nature of science? Given any amount of experience, can scientific propositions be derived from it by the application of some explicit rules of procedure? Let us limit ourselves for the sake of simplicity to the exact sciences and conveniently assume that all relevant experience is given us in the form of numerical measurements; so that we are presented with a list of figures representing positions, masses, times, velocities, wavelengths, etc., from which we have t oderive some mathematical law of nature. Could we do that by the applicationo f definite operations? Certainly not….”

Chicago And London. The University Of Chicago Press. 1946. 95p. CONTAINS MARK-UP

The Enforcement of Morals

By Patrick Devlin

From the cover: The limits of individual freedom within society-the boundaries of the public and the private in the realm of morals, and the point at which the law may e n t e ra r e the core concern of these seven essays by a prominent British jurist. Linked by their interest in the con- nection between morality and the law, they consider in detail the relation of moral law to various branches of criminal law, the quasi- criminal law, the law of tort, the laws of contract and of marriage.

For the force of its commands and prohibitions morality still depends heavily on religion, but in our secular society law may no longer be justified by religious belief. The law, Lord Devlin argues, must be concerned solely with the facts of common morality, rather than with any philosophical or religious conception of how it ought to be; what the law-maker has to ascertain is not the "true" belief. but the common belief; those who serve the law have a duty to defend "the law as it is, morality as it is. freedom as it is--none of them perfect, but the things that their society has got, and must not let go."

Lord Devlin disputes the contention in the Wolfenden report on homosexuality that there is a realm of private morality which lies outside the law. In either case, he asserts. the argument depends upon the definition of the private and the public realm. In this regard he considers the doctrine of John Stuart Mill contained in On Liberty, from which many arguments on public and private freedom derive.

London. Oxford University Press. 1965. 149p. CONTAINS MARK-UP.

The Calendar of Saints

Compiled By Vincent Cronin

From the introduction: “…With the portrayal of saints, on the other hand, artists have felt no nced to transcend the limitations of time and place. Such portraits accurately reflect the ciilization which gave them birth, without, however, being merely local or national. Hagio-iconography has scldom been tainted by chauvinism. St George, a martyr in Palestine, is patron saint of England, while St Nicholas is honoured no less in Italy than in Russia. I can remember my surprise and delight in finding a stained- glass window of St Thomas à Becket in a church in Sicily, and a picture of St Theresa of Lisieux in a peasant cottage in the depths of Yugoslavia. The portrayal of saints, though some may regard it as merely a side-line in the history of Western civilization, can actually claim to be one of its most central and distinctive features…”

Westminster. Newman Press. 1963. 381p.

The Language of Morals

Hare has written a clear, brief, and readable introduction to ethics which looks at all the fundamental problems of the subject.

Hare describes his book as "an introduction to ethics" for beginners (p. v), but it is more ambitious than that. Prospective readers should not take the author's modest claim too seriously, for the book is not an "introduction." It is a perceptive contribution toward the solution of many fundamental problems of ethics.

The book is very compact (Hare informs that the original material was reduced to half its length), and it deals with so many specific issues that the contents do not lend themselves to brief summary. This is especially true of Part II, called "Good," and Part III, called "Ought," where a wealth of illuminating material is laid out before the reader like so many pearls, with not a string on which they may be strung. But in the light of what Hare regards as "one of the chief purposes of ethical inquiry" (p. I97), which is to show how moral decisions are justified, this material, however valuable in its own right, may be regarded, for the purposes of a review, as serving a tactical purpose.


By R. M Hare

London. Clarendon Press. 1952.204p.

justiceRead-Me.OrgMorals
Lights to Walk By

Unknown Author

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections
such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

London. Black and Son. ca. 1880. 54p.

Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the psychology of ethics

By Erich Fromm

From the broad, interdisciplinary perspective that marks Fromm's distinguished oeuvre, he shows that psychology cannot divorce itself from the problems of philosophy and ethics, and that human nature cannot be understood without understanding the values and moral conflicts that confront us all. He shows that an ethical system can be based on human nature rather than on revelations or traditions. As Fromm asserts, "If man is to have confidence in values, he must know himself and the capacity of his nature for goodness and productiveness."

Greenwich, Conn. Fawcett. 1947. 257p.