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Is all human behavior based on self-interest? Many social and biological theories would argue so, but such a perspective does not explain the many truly heroic acts committed by people willing to risk their lives to help others. Kristen Monroe boldly lays the groundwork for a social theory toward altruism by examining the experiences described by altruists themselves.
A Darkling Plain fills a scholarly void by asking how people maintain or reclaim their humanity during war.
With a list of contributors that reads like a "Who's Who" of political psychology, this comprehensive volume introduces the major concepts, debates, and themes in the field and provides an overview of its intellectual development, its disparate parts, the major controversies and some suggestions for the future direction of the field.
An examination of the movement that has turned the discipline of political science upside down This superb volume describes the events and ramifications of a revolt within the political science discipline that began in 2000 with a disgruntled e-mail message signed by one “Mr. Perestroika.” The message went to seventeen recipients who quickly forwarded it to others, and soon the Perestroika revolt became a major movement calling for change in the American political science community. What is the Perestroika movement? Why did it occur? What has it accomplished? What remains to be done? Most important, what does it tell us about the nature of political science, about methodological pluralis...
The relationship between science and ethics has been subject to much debate. This volume demonstrates the mutually beneficial relationship that can take place between ethics and science. It presents work that utilises the tools of science - broadly conceptualised - to elucidate ethical issues, showing that careful scientific analysis of ethical issues can reveal new insights. This is supplemented by conversations with the authors - some of them pre-eminent scientists addressing issues of ethics, including two Nobel laureates - to learn how they came to the study of ethics and ask how they conceptualise and think about ethical issues. Science, Ethics and Politics provides substantive insight into particular ethical issues, ranging from issues of torture during war to parents' obligations to children. This book is designed as a complement to traditional texts on ethics and should appeal to students of ethics as well as to the general public.
Through moving interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on a question at the heart of ethics: Why do people risk their lives for strangers and what drives such moral choice? Monroe's analysis points not to traditional explanations--such as religion or reason--but to identity. The rescuers' perceptions of themselves in relation to others made their extraordinary acts spontaneous and left the rescuers no choice but to act. To turn away Jews was, for them, literally unimaginable. In the words of one German Czech rescuer, "The hand of compassion was faster than the calculus of reason." At the heart of this unusual book are intervi...
Through moving interviews with five ordinary people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, Kristen Monroe casts new light on a question at the heart of ethics: Why do people risk their lives for strangers and what drives such moral choice? Monroe's analysis points not to traditional explanations--such as religion or reason--but to identity. The rescuers' perceptions of themselves in relation to others made their extraordinary acts spontaneous and left the rescuers no choice but to act. To turn away Jews was, for them, literally unimaginable. In the words of one German Czech rescuer, "The hand of compassion was faster than the calculus of reason." At the heart of this unusual book are intervi...
"How do people maintain their humanity during wars? Despite its importance, this question receives scant scholarly attention, perhaps because war is overwhelming. The generally accepted belief is that wars bring out the worst in us, pitting one against another. "War is hell," William Tecumseh Sherman famously noted, and even "just" wars are massively destructive and inhumane. Since ethics is concerned with discovering what takes us to a morally superior place, one conducive to betterment and happiness- studying what helps people survive wartime trauma thus becomes an extremely valuable enterprise. A Darkling Plain fills an important scholarly void, analyzing wartime stories that reveal much about our capacity to process trauma, heal wounds, reclaim lost spirits, and derive meaning and purpose from the most horrific of personal events"--
We live in an era of extreme claims versus weak consensus on issues critical to the public. Is climate change a hoax, or is it destroying our planet? Were the vaccines and social distancing measures of COVID-19 designed to protect us, or were they an invasion of our liberty? How do we determine the validity of these claims and others like them? Can we find a reliable middle ground leading to policies that help everyone? How Science Engages with Ethics and Why It Should makes an impassioned plea for a scientific analysis of ethics, discussing what such a method is, why we need it, and what it can offer that other methods cannot. With contributions from leading thinkers across a range of disci...
In this volume, the study of legislatures has traditionally been a central preoccupation of political scientists. Legislatures provide good laboratories for testing theories and methodologies of significance in the discipline and, more broadly, for contributing to an understanding of how representative government works.