Ethics & Morality Books - Page 4

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche

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Total reviews: 105 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Thus Spake Zarathustra is certainly Nietzsche's most controversial and probably his most important work. The concepts that "God is Dead" and "Eternal Recurrence" with their attendant ramifications are major features of this work. Highly original and inventive, Thus Spake Zarathustra defies simple categorization. Part literature, part philosophy, it parodies both, in its stylistic resemblance to the New Testament and Pre-Socratic Greek writings.

Through a fictionalized version the character Zarathustra, the legendary founder of Zoroasterianism, Nietzsche propounds a new and different version of moral philosophy. During the course of the story presented in this loosely structured narrative, Nietzsche develops and presents a contrary view of mankind: as lying somewhere between the apes and the ultimate Superman, or Ubermensch. Ranging from unsupported assumptions to rigorous argument - from exposition to dialog to poetry - Thus Spake Zarathustra is a surprising, engaging and thought provoking look at the condition of mankind.

Nietzsche himself considered this to be his most important work. His tragic end, in a state of complete mental breakdown, precluded any possibility that it would be superseded and raised a question of the association between madness and genius.

The Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Translations differ 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

It would be helpful if Amazon didn't pool together reviews from different translations. Note to Amazon: the customer reviews can be very helpful and have motivated me to purchase many books. But reviews for widely translated books should be specific to the translation. Otherwise they become worthless.

We Reach Our Complete Perfection Through Habit 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read this book for a graduate seminar on Aristotle. Irwin's translation of Aristotle is the very best available! I think Aristotle's ethics is his most seminal work in philosophy. In the early 1960's virtue ethics came to fore. It is a retrieval of Aristotle. It has very close parallels to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Confucius and the modern philosophy espoused in the 1970's called Communitarianism.

For Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, (EN) is about human life in an embodied state. Area of inquirery for EN is "good" this is his phenomenology. What does "good" mean? He suggests good means "a desired end." Something desirable. Means towards these ends. Such as money is good, so one can buy food to eat because "eating is good." In moral philosophy distinction between "intrinsic good" vs. "instrumental good." Instrumental good towards a desire is "instrumental good" like money. Thus, money is an "instrumental good" for another purpose because it produces something beyond itself. Instrumental good means because it further produces a good, "intrinsic good" is a good for itself, "for the sake of" an object like money. "Intrinsic good" for him is "Eudemonia=happiness." This is what ethics and virtues are for the sake of the organizing principle. Eudemonia=happiness. Today we think of happiness as a feeling. It is not a feeling for Aristotle. Best translation for eudaimonia is "flourishing" or "living well." It is an active term and way of living for him thus, "excellence." Ultimate "intrinsic good" of "for the sake of." Eudaimonia is the last word for Aristotle. Can also mean fulfillment. Idea of nature was thought to be fixed in Greece convention is a variation. What he means is ethics is loose like "wealth is good but some people are ruined by wealth." EN isn't formula but a rough outline. Ethics is not precise; the nature of subject won't allow it. When you become a "good person" you don't think it out, you just do it out of habit!

You can have ethics without religion for Aristotle. Nothing in his EN is about the afterlife. He doesn't believe in the universal good for all people at all times like Plato and Socrates. The way he thought about character of agent, "thinking about the good." In addition, Aristotle talked about character traits. Good qualities of a person who would act well. Difference between benevolent acts and a benevolent person. If you have good character, you don't need to follow rules. Aretç=virtue, in Greek not religious connotation but anything across the board meaning "excellence" high level of functioning, a peak. Like a musical virtuoso. Ethical virtue is ethical excellence, which is the "good like." In Plato, ethics has to do with quality of soul defining what to do instead of body like desires and reason. For Aristotle these are not two separate entities.

To be good is how we live with other people, not just focus on one individual. Virtue can't be a separate or individual trait. Socrates said same the thing. Important concept for Aristotle, good upbringing for children is paramount if you don't have it, you are a lost cause. Being raised well is "good fortune" a child can't choose their upbringing. Happenstance is a matter of chance.

Pleasure cannot be an ultimate good. Part of the "good life" involves external goods like money, one can't attain "good life" if one is poor and always working. Socrates said material goods don't matter, then he always mooched off of his friends! Aristotle surmises that the highest form of happiness is contemplation. In Aristotle's Rhetoric, he lists several ingredients for attaining eudaimonia. Prosperity, self-sufficiency, etc., is important, thus, if you are not subject to other, competing needs. A long interesting list. It is common for the hoi polloi to say pleasure=happiness. Aristotle does not deny pleasure is good; however, it is part of a package of goods. Pleasure is a condition of the soul. In the animal world, biological beings react to pleasure and pain as usual. Humans as reasoning beings must pursue knowledge to fulfill human nature. It must be pleasurable to seek knowledge and other virtues and if it is not there is something wrong according to Aristotle. These are the higher pleasures and so you may have to put off lower pleasures for the sake of attaining "higher pleasures."

Phronçsis= "intelligence," really better to say "practical wisdom." The word practical helps here because the word Phronçsis for Aristotle is a term having to do with ethics, the choices that are made for the good. As a human being, you have to face choices about what to do and not to do. Phronçsis is going to be that capacity that power of the soul that when it is operating well will enable us to turn out well and that is why it is called practical wisdom. The practically wise person is somebody who knows how to live in such a way so that their life will turn out well, in a full package of "goods." For Aristotle, Phronçsis is not deductive or inductive knowledge like episteme; Phronçsis is not a kind of rational knowledge where you operate in either deduction or induction, you don't go thru "steps" to arrive at the conclusion. Therefore, Phronçsis is a special kind of capacity that Aristotle thinks operates in ethics. Only if you understand what Aristotle means by phronesis do you get a hold on the concept. My way of organizing it, it is Phronçsis that is a capacity that enables the virtues to manifest themselves.

What are the virtues? Phronçsis is the capacity of the soul that will enable the virtues to fulfill themselves. Virtue ethics is the characteristics of a person that will bring about a certain kind of moral living, and that is exactly what the virtues are. The virtues are capacities of a person to act well. All of the virtues can be organized by way of this basic power of the soul called Phronçsis. There are different virtues, but it is the capacity of Phronçsis that enables these virtues to become activated. Basic issue is to find the "mean" between extremes; this is how Aristotle defines virtues.

Humans are not born with the virtues; we learn them and practice them habitually. "We reach our complete perfection through habit." Aristotle says we have a natural potential to be virtuous and through learning and habit, we attain them. Learn by doing according to Aristotle and John Dewey. Then it becomes habitual like playing a harp. Learning by doing is important for Aristotle. Hexis= "state," "having possession." Theoria= "study." The idea is not to know what virtue is but to become "good." Emphasis on finding the balance of the mean. Each virtue involves four basic points.

1. Action or circumstance. Such as risk of losing one's life.
2. Relevant emotion or capacity. Such as fear and pain.
3. Vices of excess and vices of deficiency in the emotions or the capacities. Such as cowardice is the excess vice of fear, recklessness is the excess deficiency.
4. Virtue as a "mean" between the vices and deficiencies. Such as courage as the "mean."

No formal rule or "mean" it depends on the situation and is different for different people as well. For example--one should eat 3,000 calories a day. Well depends on the health and girth of the person, and what activity they are engaged in. It is relative to us individually.
All Aristotle's qualifications are based on individual situations and done with knowledge of experience. Some things are not able to have a "mean" like murder and adultery because these are not "goods."
Akrasia= "incontinence" really "weakness of the will. Socrates thought that all virtues are instances of intelligence or Phronçsis. Aristotle criticizes Socrates idea of virtue, virtue is not caused by state of knowledge it is more complicated. Aristotle does not think you have to have a reasoned principle in the mind and then do what is right, they go together.

The distinctions between continent and incontinent persons, and moderate (virtue) and immoderate (not virtuous) persons is as follows:

1. Virtue. Truly virtuous people do not struggle to be virtuous, they do it effortlessly, very few people in this category, and most are in #2 and #3.
2. Ethical strength. Continence. We know what is right thing to do but struggle with our desires.
3. Ethical weakness. This is akrasia incontinence. Happens in real life.
4. Vice. The person acts without regret of his bad actions.

What does Aristotle mean by "fully virtuous"? Ethical strength is not virtue in the full sense of the term. Ethical weakness is not a full vice either. This is the critique against Socrates idea that "Knowledge equals virtue." No one can knowingly do the wrong thing. Thus, Socrates denies appetites and desires. Aristotle understands that people do things that they know are wrong, Socrates denies this. Socrates says if you know the right thing you will do it, Aristotle disagrees. The law is the social mechanism for numbers 2, 3, 4. A truly virtuous person is their own moral compass.

I recommend Aristotle's works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.

Editorial Review:

This revised translation of Aristotle's classic treatise contains ten books based on the famous doctrine of the golden mean which advocates taking the middle course between excess and deficiency. Topics that Aristotle treats include the good for humanity, moral virtue, intellectual virtue, pleasure, friendship, and happiness.

The Science of Getting Rich

Wallace D. Wattles

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 103 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A high-end paperback at a low-end price. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This Penguin edition of the Science of Getting Rich also contains Wattles' five-chapter How to Get What You Want. If you're a bibliophile, you'll also appreciate this book's ecru stock, deckle (ragged) edge, and covers that open up to serve as bookmarks.

The best Law of Attraction book I've read! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book was great. It filled the gaps left after reading The Secret.
At first I was a bit turned off because of the some of the psycho-babble but in the end it was perfect. The author explain concepts well and reinterates points just frequently enough that they became something that I kind of sang along with and now I am putting in to practice everthing that I learned in the book. The book explains our place in the world and that our desire to get rich is ok and even expected. Please take the time to read/listen to the book yourself. It was quick and it won't take anything out of your life it you don't like it. I think it was wonderful.

Down to Earth & Practical 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace Wattles is a down to earth & practical book about developing prosperity in your life, in ways that you had never imagined as possible. Clear, concise, providing techniques that you can integrate easily into your day to day life.

A most recommended book that expands on ideas provided in the Secret.

Even better read together with:

NEXUS,by Morrison & Singh,Nexus: A Neo Novel a contemporary Fiction novel that has much wisdom for you to discover.

Editorial Review:

A simple way to create wealth and happiness in your live.

The Book of Questions

Gregory Stock

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Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A New York Times bestseller with over 1.9 million copies in print, THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS poses 265 questions that invite people to explore the most fascinating of subjects: themselves. These questions are as intriguing as our very lives because they are about our lives-our fundamental values and beliefs, our dreams and nightmares about sex, money, love, power.

Some of the questions thrust you into a value-testing hypothetical situation (Would you accept 20 years of extraordinary happiness and fulfillment if it meant you would die at the end of the period?), some ask you to delve into your past (When is the last time you stole anything?) and help you find out if you've changed (Would you now return it if you could?), and others reveal your basic nature by examining your behavior (When you are given a compliment do you usually acknowledge it or suggest that you really do not deserve it?). Whether used as an avenue for personal growth, a tool for deepening relationships, or simply as an entertainment, THE BOOK OF QUESTIONS may be the only publication that challenges-and even changes-the way readers view the world, without offering a single opinion of its own.

The Key: The Missing Secret for Attracting Anything You Want

Joe Vitale

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Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The secret key to unlocking our full potential-from Joe Vitale, high-profile contributor to The Secret

The Key reveals the ultimate secret of attracting wealth, health, success, happiness, or anything else that we want from life. From author and self-help guru Joe Vitale, The Key builds on his bestselling book The Attractor Factor, and goes beyond the mega-hit book and movie The Secret, which features Vitale.

The Key shows how a person must first rid themselves of unconscious self-limiting beliefs if they want to reach their full potential and attain the things they say they want from life. Inside every person are "counter-intentions" that actually attract the things they don't want and prevent them from getting those things they do. The Key reveals ten proven ways to remedy the situation and end self-sabotage forever. For anyone who knows they can achieve more but doesn't know why it isn't working for them, The Key reveals the psychological and unconscious limitations that are holding them back. Like all of Joe Vitale's other bestselling books, The Key offers real, practical wisdom for anyone who wants to get more out of life.

Joe Vitale (Wimberley, TX) is President of Hypnotic Marketing, Inc., a marketing consulting firm. He has been called the "The Buddha of the Internet" for his combination of spirituality and marketing acumen. His professional clients include the Red Cross, PBS, Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, and many other small and large businesses. His other books include The Attractor Factor (0-470-00980-2), There's a Customer Born Every Minute (0-471-78462-1) and Life's Missing Instruction Manual (0-471-76849-9), all from Wiley.

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul (Chicken Soup for the Soul)

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger

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Total reviews: 474 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I am a teacher in two high schools and I like to read the stories of the book to my students from time to time to inspirate them and reinforce their teenage self esteem! I suggest it to all teacher to make the same with a nice calm background music.

Just the gift for a teenager 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Once again, "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books has a hit. This is a wonderful gift for young teens with its easy read of short stories on pertinent topics and experiences teens face. Teens I have given it to as a gift have loved it and purchased the next in the teen series. Also a source of good talking points for those anxiety ridden moments or social issues teens face.

Excellent book. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I skimmed through the book before I gave it to my granddaughter who just turned 13. I thought it had some well written stories that a teenager can relate to and a lot of food for thought. She was so happy to get it, since she had the one for pre-teens also and really liked it.

Editorial Review:

This first batch of Chicken Soup for Teens consists of 101 stories every teenager can relate to and learn from -- without feeling criticized or judged. This edition contains important lessons on the nature of friendship and love, the importance of belief in the future, and the value of respect for oneself and others, and much more.

The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Newly Expanded Paperback Edition)

Simon Wiesenthal

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Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing.  But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?

In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, remind us that Wiesenthal's questions are not limited to events of the past.  Often surprising and always thought provoking, The Sunflower will challenge you to define your beliefs about justice, compassion, and human responsibility.

I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Total reviews: 120 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Amazing book, but poor printing 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is indeed a spiritual classic that I have found incredibly engaging, as well as enlightening. The patient eloquence of Sri Nisargadatta when occasionally confronted with the frustrated and confused ignorance of the interviewer's questions is quite humorous - often like a parent talking to a child.

The one thing that disappoints me is the quality of the printing - at least with my copy. On most pages it is so bad that some words are missing letters, or part of a letter and much of the printed text is so light that it appears the printing press was low on ink. It's not so bad that it's unreadable, just somewhat annoying. Perhaps this is the exception and not the rule. It's just a shame that one of my favorite books has such poor quality printing. Hence the 4 stars.

Editorial Review:

Ever since it was originally published in 1973 "I AM THAT" a modern spiritual classic has run into reprint (Paperback and Hardcover both put together) seventeen times.That is the kind of popularity the book is enjoying.

I Am That is a legacy from a unique teacher who helps the reader to a clearer understanding of himself as he comes to Maharaj,the spiritual teacher, again and again with the age-old questions,"where am I" "who am I" and "whither am I".The listeners were never turned away from the humble abode of Maharaj then and are not turned away now!

Hagakure

Yamamoto Tsunetomo

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Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A very big disappointment 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book however the problem lies with in ther traanslation. the problem is that only 300 of the 1300 phrases were translated. Although this translation gives the basic message that Master Tsunetomo was trying to get a cross you can not truly absorb thius book with out reading everything that Master Tsunetomo intended you to read. Also the entire 5th chapter is left out of this translation. I would recomend to everyone to find a better translation than this one.

A Great Book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I loved it. It's an enjoyable read, full of great stories and full of insights. When I first read this book back in 1998, it had a tremendous impact on my life. It allowed me to view things from a different perspective. I will continue to recommend it to everyone. I also highly recommend the modern day version Understanding: Train of Thought.

As much on compassion as on strength 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book was scribed by a younger samurai who sat basically at the deathbed of the samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo. For seven years, the scribe sat and had conversations with Tsunetomo. Tsunetomo had become a monk after the death of his 'Master' in 1700. By 1716 the conversations ended, the result was a large manuscript. Hagakure is a compilation or thread of the most meaningful and 'best' of the manuscript.

The book is a mix of advice, stories, Buddhist teachings and koans, and direction on how to be the best samurai possible. As is more realistic and pure samurai teachings, this focuses less on swordplay than do most of the contemporary 20th and 21st century movies. The book is very much about loyalty--so much so that it is bound to conflict with modern and especially American views of independence, bootstrapping, etc.

Because it is written in small chunks without a specific plot or flow, I found the book to be great as a 'daily reader'. The author seems very calm, sane and without anger, and while I suspect no one would call him Enlightened, it reads without malice. From a Buddhist perspective, I had good luck replacing the word 'master' with 'compassion' and it worked almost seamlessly as a Buddhist reading meditation.

Editorial Review:

Outlines the ethical code of the samurai in a time when the martial skills of the warrior became redundant and his role was subsumed into governmental service.

The Closing of the American Mind

Allan Bloom

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Total reviews: 123 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Makes his points well, but exposes some serious intellectual blind spots 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Bloom makes a compelling case for embracing, through study, Western Civilization in general, and the Great Books in particular. He also does a good job of showing how today's universities exalt the natural sciences - which address only the material aspect of existence - while neglecting, to man's and society's peril, the social sciences and humanities, which speak to the immaterial aspects of existence.

In the course of making his case Bloom refers to Moses as a myth, or if not the man Moses, then certainly the story of him securing the 10 commandments from Mt. Sinai. At the same time Bloom acknowledges the great contribution of Moses, likening it to those contributions made my Aristotle, Socrates, or Shakespere.

Now, this is interesting logic for such an exalted intellectual as Bloom. He liken Moses to Aristotle, Socrates, and Shakespere but seems untroubled by the fact that one of them - Moses - claimed to receive what he passed down to humanity directly from God, even in face to face interaction. Neither Aristotle, Socrates or Shakespere made any such claim. If they had, wouldn't that change Bloom's opinion of those men - probably for the worse? Truth and deception have nothing in common. How would it be possible for a pathological liar to also provide man with some of the greatest moral truths ever known: "Thou shalt not steal"; "Thou shalt not murder"; "Thou shalt not bear false testimony"? How could a man who could speak this last mentioned commandment, at the same time be so out of touch with reality that he would state that he got the commandments from God? Even if it were possible that such a blend of truth and lies could reside with a man, why would Bloom venerate him?

Furthermore, Bloom convieniently shies away from calling the person, Jesus of Nazareth, a myth (a much harder case to make, even for natural sciences), and Bloom makes no attempt to account for the new paradigm erected by Jesus, especially at the Sermon-on-the-Mount. If Moses' apparently invented moral laws seem noble, if not mythically quaint, to Bloom, if Bloom were alive today would he be prepared to say the same things about Jesus's utterances in the Sermon-on-the-Mount?

Which of the following are quaint mythical statements, as likely fabricated by the mind of man as by God?

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. "

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Here again, we have the problem? If Jesus did say those things, so full of truth, how could he also tell the Samaritan women at the well:

"I who speak to you am he." (John 4:26)

after she made mention of the Messiah, if it were not true?

It is sad to see how intransigence toward the God of the Bible can make a muddle out of intellectual acumen.