Author: Travis Smith
Publisher: Templeton Foundation Press
ISBN: 1599475529
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
Whether in comic books or on movie screens, superhero stories are where many people first encounter questions about how they should conduct their lives. Although these outlandish figures—in their capes, masks, and tights, with their unbelievable origins and preternatural powers—are often dismissed as juvenile amusements, they really are profound metaphors for different approaches to shaping one’s character and facing the challenges of life. But, given the choice, which superhero should we follow today? Who is most worthy of our admiration? Whose goals are most noble? Whose ethics should we strive to emulate? To decide, Travis Smith takes ten top superheroes and pits them one against another, chapter by chapter. The hero who better exemplifies how we ought to live advances to the final round. By the end of the book, a single superhero emerges victorious and is crowned most exemplary for our times. How, then, shall we live? How can we overcome our beastly nature and preserve our humanity? (The Hulk vs. Wolverine) How far can we rely on our willpower and imagination to improve the human condition? (Iron Man vs. Green Lantern) What limits must we observe when protecting our neighborhood from crime and corruption? (Batman vs. Spider-Man) Will the pursuit of an active life or a contemplative life bring us true fulfillment? (Captain America vs. Mr. Fantastic) Should we put our faith in proven tradition or in modern progress to achieve a harmonious society? (Thor vs. Superman) Using superheroes to bring into focus these timeless themes of the human condition, Smith takes us on an adventure as fantastic as any you’ll find on a splash page or the silver screen—an intellectual adventure filled with surprising insights, unexpected twists and turns, and a daring climax you’ll be thinking about long after it’s over.
Author: Andrew Michael Flescher
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 9781589013414
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 360
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Book Description
Most of us are content to see ourselves as ordinary people—unique in ways, talented in others, but still among the ranks of ordinary mortals. Andrew Flescher probes our contented state by asking important questions: How should "ordinary" people respond when others need our help, whether the situation is a crisis, or something less? Do we have a responsibility, an obligation, to go that extra mile, to act above and beyond the call of duty? Or should we leave the braver responses to those who are somehow different than we are: better somehow, "heroes," or "saints?" Traditional approaches to ethics have suggested there is a sharp distinction between ordinary people and those called heroes and saints; between duties and acts of supererogation (going beyond the expected). Flescher seeks to undo these standard dichotomies by looking at the lives and actions of certain historical figures—Holocaust rescuers, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, among others—who appear to be extraordinary but were, in fact, ordinary people. Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality shifts the way we regard ourselves in relationship to those we admire from afar—it asks us not only to admire, but to emulate as well—further, it challenges us to actively seek the acquisition of virtue as seen in the lives of heroes and saints, to learn from them, a dynamic aspect of ethical behavior that goes beyond the mere avoidance of wrongdoing. Andrew Flescher sets a stage where we need to think and act, calling us to lead lives of self-examination—even if that should sometimes provoke discomfort. He asks that we strive to emulate those we admire and therefore allow ourselves to grow morally, and spiritually. It is then that the individual develops a deeper altruistic sense of self—a state that allows us to respond as the heroes of our own lives, and therefore in the lives of others, when times and circumstance demand that of us.
Author: Anne Colby
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439118809
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 372
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Book Description
A look at the lives of twenty-three American moral leaders shows how these hometown heroes acquired their moral goals and sustained them in the face of grave risk and sacrifice, working for everything from civil rights to the poor.
Author: Michael J. DeValve
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000261255
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
Personal Ethics and Ordinary Heroes: The Social Context of Morality examines what it means to be an authentic hero and provides real-life narratives that underscore the ethical principles guiding decision-making in the justice system and beyond. This engaging work revolves around a collection of excerpts from students studying ethics and social justice. The essays were responses to an invitation to write about and discuss a hero in their lives who motivated them to be more just, compassionate and morally responsible persons. These essays, collected over several years, portray shared meanings of heroism rooted in themes like sacrifice, perseverance and wisdom. The authors set student narratives in dialogues related to ethics and leadership that are both entertaining and useful for contemporary students and practitioners. This book illustrates the lessons of ethics in criminal and social justice practice and makes them tangible to students. Fostering the benefits of experiential learning, it brings real meaning to students of criminal justice as well as professionals in the criminal justice field and other areas of human and social service practice. It is an essential accompaniment to primary texts used in ethics courses and training seminars. This book is intended for use in undergraduate classes in applied human sciences and services like criminal justice, criminology, social work and political science. It is particularly well-suited for classes in the areas of ethics, organizations and administration, and leadership. It is also worthwhile reading for the active justice practitioner.
Author: Heidi M. Giebel
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
ISBN: 081323333X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 409
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Book Description
Why do some people achieve ethical excellence while others fail? For example, how did Gloria Lewis overcome a lifetime of difficulty and go on to found a non-profit focused on feeding the homeless while Danny Starrett, despite a seemingly ideal childhood, became a rapist and murderer? Why did some Germans rescue their Jewish neighbors while others stood by? One recent study found that four personal variables, taken together, differentiated Nazi-era bystanders from rescuers with startling 96.1% accuracy: social responsibility, altruistic moral reasoning, empathic concern, and risk-taking—traits related to ethical excellences (virtues) like justice, benevolence, and courage. Drawing from the combined wisdom of classical Socratic and Confucian philosophy, recent work in psychology, and the lived experience of recognized moral heroes, the book focuses on how each of us can work toward ethical excellence, becoming more like Lewis and neighbor-rescuers than like Starrett and Nazi-era bystanders. The ancient Socratic and Confucian philosophical traditions offer surprisingly sophisticated advice regarding moral education. Because research in psychology helps us assess the feasibility of cultivating virtue in ourselves and those we influence, Ethical Excellence focuses on combining sound philosophical analysis of ethical virtue and related concepts with relevant empirical research on how these concepts are manifested and developed in everyday practice. Willpower, for example, contributes to development of temperance or moderation, grit relates to perseverance, and empathy is connected to benevolence. Finally, the study of ethically exceptional people—moral heroes or exemplars—serves as living proof that ethical excellence is possible, and exemplars can provide inspiration to attempt it ourselves and guidance regarding how to do so successfully. Relevant stories and excerpts from the author’s own interviews with award-winning ethical exemplars complement the use of philosophical virtue theory and psychological research on virtue-relevant practice. Together, these three approaches—philosophy, psychology, and biography—help to triangulate” ethical excellence and its achievement, presenting a much clearer and more complete picture than we can get from any one of these methods alone.
Author: Joseph L. Price
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 9780865546943
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
In From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion, nine scholars of religion and theology explore the relationship between religion and sports in American popular culture and the role of sports as religion.
Author: David B. Edwards
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520200632
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326
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Book Description
Edwards contends that Afghanistan's troubles derive less from foreign forces and the ideological divisions between groups than they do from the moral incoherence of Afghanistan itself.
Author: Lydia R. Cooper
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807139793
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 262
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Book Description
Critics often trace the prevailing mood of despair and purported nihilism in the works of Cormac McCarthy to the striking absence of interior thought in his seemingly amoral characters. In No More Heroes, however, Lydia Cooper reveals that though McCarthy limits inner revelations, he never eliminates them entirely. In certain crucial cases, he endows his characters with ethical decisions and attitudes, revealing a strain of heroism exists in his otherwise violent and apocalyptic world. Cooper evaluates all of McCarthy's work to date, carefully exploring the range of his narrative techniques. The writer's overwhelmingly distant, omniscient third-person narrative rarely shifts to a more limited voice. When it does deviate, however, revelations of his characters' consciousness unmistakably exhibit moral awareness and ethical behavior. The quiet, internal struggles of moral men such as John Grady Cole in the Border Trilogy and the father in The Road demonstrate an imperfect but very human heroism. Even when the writing moves into the minds of immoral characters, McCarthy draws attention to the characters' humanity, forcing the perceptive reader to identify with even the most despicable representatives of the human race. Cooper shows that this rare yet powerful recognition of commonality and the internal yearnings for community and a commitment to justice or compassion undeniably exist in McCarthy's work. No More Heroes directly addresses the essential question about McCarthy's brutal and morally ambiguous universe and reveals poignant new answers.
Author: Sai Shruthi Chivukula
Publisher:
ISBN: 0760393087
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 231
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Book Description
Universal Methods of Ethical Design is a collection of 100 ethics-focused design methods to help design practitioners and students make a positive social impact.
Author: Tom L. Beauchamp
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195143310
Category : Bioethics
Languages : en
Pages : 470
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Book Description
For many years this has been a leading textbook of bioethics. It established the framework of principles within the field. This is a very thorough revision with a new chapter on methods and moral justification.
