Social Philosophy Books

The 48 Laws of Power

Robert Greene

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 125 new & used starting at $8.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Success

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 509 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspective," writes Robert Greene. Mastery of one's emotions and the arts of deception and indirection are, he goes on to assert, essential. The 48 laws outlined in this book "have a simple premise: certain actions always increase one's power ... while others decrease it and even ruin us."

The laws cull their principles from many great schemers--and scheming instructors--throughout history, from Sun-Tzu to Talleyrand, from Casanova to con man Yellow Kid Weil. They are straightforward in their amoral simplicity: "Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit," or "Discover each man's thumbscrew." Each chapter provides examples of the consequences of observance or transgression of the law, along with "keys to power," potential "reversals" (where the converse of the law might also be useful), and a single paragraph cleverly laid out to suggest an image (such as the aforementioned thumbscrew); the margins are filled with illustrative quotations. Practitioners of one-upmanship have been given a new, comprehensive training manual, as up-to-date as it is timeless.

A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles

Thomas Sowell

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $7.85

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Social Philosophy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Finding Forrester....... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I love Thomas Sowell for his clear mindset and philosohy. I read almost nothing else but philosophy, and Sowell is at the top of my list for clarity, understanding and delivery. He does not receive, in my opinion, the recognition for his genius he is due. A must read.... as is all of Thomas Sowells books

Editorial Review:

In this classic work, Thomas Sowell analyzes the two competing visions that shape our debates about the nature of reason, justice, equality, and power: the “constrained” vision, which sees human nature as unchanging and selfish, and the “unconstrained” vision, in which human nature is malleable and perfectible. He describes how these two radically opposed views have manifested themselves in the political controversies of the past two centuries, including such contemporary issues as welfare reform, social justice, and crime. Updated to include sweeping political changes since its first publication in 1987, this revised edition of A Conflict of Visions offers a convincing case that ethical and policy disputes circle around the disparity between both outlooks.

First Things

Hadley Arkes

Amazon Price: $33.95 List Price: $33.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Princeton University Press Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $3.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Political

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

Thoughtful arguments 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 28 people found this review helpful.

Throughout the years, Professor Arkes has established himself as one of the nation's finest natural law thinkers, and this book presents a thorough overview of his philosophy. In short, he attempts to show that moral principles can be discovered through human reason and not just based on emotion or tradition. This represents the foundation of natural rights, which includes the right to all aspects of freedom except those which can be shown to contradict the logic of morals (such as slavery). Since moral principles are universal and can be discovered by reason, freedom cannot be infringed simply based on majoritarian beliefs (the "might makes right" argument), but neither is freedom simply following one's conscience, since this will sometimes lead one to act in contradiction to moral laws. The argument is of course much more richly elaborated in the book and only by reading it in Arkes's own words can you appreciate it fully. The book is more than theory, however, and Arkes applies his principles to such controversial issues as religious exemptions, the obligation to rescue, and abortion. Even one who does not agree with all of the Professor's thoughts will still find this an enjoyable book written in an engaging yet witty manner.

The Principles of Morals and Legislation (Great Books in Philosophy)

Jeremy Bentham

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prometheus Books Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $1.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Law -> General
Subjects -> Law -> Perspectives on Law -> Natural Law
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Interrogation of the Principles Behind Moralsand Legislation 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Jeremy Bentham's ideology on human pursuit of pleasure contains many strengths and weaknesses. Bentham's essay, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, separates the two root drives of human essence into categories of pleasure and pain. Bentham stresses the duality of the human mind's pursuit of pleasure, continuing from subjugation of others for ultimate attainment. He states that humans should not be grouped, due to personal conviction and perspective. Although the individual is part of a community, the individual's own pursuance of pleasure categorizes them as a utility; resulting in the term `utilitarianism.'
Several principles are listed by Bentham to support his argument that humanity has a distinct set of motives to create happiness or malcontent amongst the masses. Bentham relates these principles with empowered political bodies and why they continue to rule. One of Bentham's principles, the principle of sympathy and antipathy, praises the human ability to generally accept certain actions as an impersonal blow. Thus, if a utility does not feel threatened or in err, why relate consequences of actions to personal welfare? In turn, should that individual measure out the consequences of others' actions fearing for their own external welfare?
Bentham's perspective on human methodology as a strict functioning environment of social cues has many flaws. Determination of values as `right' or `wrong' does not review the complexities of human social environment. Empowerment was not an anti-puritanical event that occurred in society; but a constitution of human need for order. Bentham suggests that "principle is something that points out some external consideration, as a means of warranting and guiding the internal sentiments of approbation and disapprobation"(75). Assertion of principle as influence on human external action suggests a strong moral power present in an individual's everyday life. Perhaps the rebellion of moral principle has an antipathic effect on moral judgement. The pleasure produced by rebellion of principle dictates a return to instinctual roots; excluding the `civilizing' factor.
Bentham's open acknowledgement that asceticism violates the nature laws of human government, and cannot be fully pursued, illustrates the ties between the Catholicism and enlightened despotism. The origin of Catholicism and despotism, according to Bentham, stems from an unrealistic aim to impose a standard of morality on the masses. His criticizing of saints best illustrates an open reaction to the weakness of asceticism. Bentham states that, "though many persons of this class have wielded the reins (sic) of empire, we read of none who have set themselves to work, and made laws of purpose"(73). Unfortunately, his touting of utilitarianism above the principle of asceticism, as a proper way to establish a governing body, is only comparative with traditional social classification in the eighteenth century.
Bentham proposed a new way to establish morality and just governmental action from traditional monarchical rule. The imposed Rule of Right, whereas kings justified rule as eternal over his people and empowered by God, was a shifting environment that came into question in Bentham's lifetime. Utilitarianism provided an answer to strategic social problems that came with new leadership apart from a monarchy. Moral advocating by reformers as something an individual instinctually knows is right, was a key concept in utilitarianism. Therefore, pursuance of pleasure above pain would produce just results in a newly formed government.
Pleasure, in the strictest sense, took a prominent place in executive rule over a government. Bentham also writes that good tendency sometimes counteracts pursuance of pleasure in legislative and judicial matters. He best expresses this by writing, "It is not to be expected that this process should be strictly pursued previously to every moral judgement"(88). Considering the objective process of judicial decision as a moral and just environment was revolutionary. Morality, without the ties of asceticism, could and did exist in a ruling environment, ultimately usurping previous ideas that Rule of Right contained eternal, prophetic principle. Bentham's ideas set a cornerstone for other studies of social morality, thus contributing to the new field of sociology.
Bentham's idea of human pleasure and pain being either simple or complex seems very generalistic in approach. He suggests that pleasure and pain are bound into simple and complex categories, therefore never transpiring into different classifications. The elementary view on pursuance of pleasure and pain seems vague for a study of the human condition. Bentham writes that, "the simple ones are those which cannot any one of them be resolved into more," creating a moral quandary (90). For example, Bentham's idea that "the end of the law is to augment happiness" is a just principle of government (97). Unfortunately, law must sometimes contain happiness to produce security. Duality of principle is discussed in his writings, but for every dark and light area there is a gray area.
Jeremy Bentham pioneered root elements of human motivation and morality. He conceptualized a government that founded itself on pursuance of pleasure as just rule. Character of individuals is attained through positive motivation, but for every individual of good character lies the possibility of bad character. Corruption was possible, and presented itself in many forms throughout human history. Efforts to catalogue unpleasant and pleasant dispositions find that government that is founded on positive principle is always corrupted by human condition. Jeremy Bentham's approach in rediscovery of individual strains, through principles, shed a new light on morality.

I hope you enjoy this work as much as I did.

Philosophical Perspectives on Sex and Love

Robert M. Stewart

Amazon Price: $27.96 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Oxford University Press, USA Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $22.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Sex -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Sexuality -> Human
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought

Editorial Review:

Despite the centrality of sexuality and love to human life, western history's great philosophers have not produced anything like a detailed and systematic approach to these matters. From Plato's emphasis upon the importance of eros, to the insistence by today's feminists on gender equality, philosophy's interpretation of eroticism and love has been as diverse and explosive as the subject itself. It is this imposing variety of approach and interpretation that makes a lucid, comprehensive anthology on the subject essential.
Reflecting the trend over the last twenty years to examine more thoroughly the nature of love and sexuality within a philosophical context, this eclectic anthology presents numerous perspectives on sexual roles and norms, eroticism, pornography, feminism, prostitution, perversion, friendship, and familial love. Philosophical Perspectives on Sex and Love is the most up-to-date appraisal of these central human experiences, featuring the work of thinkers from antiquity to the modern era. On the subject of erotic love, the text offers insight from Plato's Symposium, as well as the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Robert Nozick, and Robert C. Solomon. There are also reflections on sexual perversion from Thomas Nagel, Jerome Neu, and Michael Ruse. The views of Aristotle and contemporary authors on the morality of friendship and family are presented in a section wholly devoted to those issues, while David Hume and Immanuel Kant investigate the ethics of sexuality in selections from their writings. Care has been taken to present different positions on the most controversial issues, and most selections are offered in their entirety. Invaluable for courses in social philosophy, sexuality, social ethics, and feminism, no other volume can give students a more comprehensive discussion of love's countless dimensions.

Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays (Hoover Institution Press Publication)

Thomas Sowell

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hoover Institution Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $4.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Economic Policy & Development
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Quotes from the book "Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area—crime, education, housing, race relations—the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them." "Some things must be done on faith, but the most dangerous kind of faith is that which masquerades as 'science.' As the pretense of science has replaced commonsense experience, we have abandoned many old-fashioned practices that worked in favor of high-sounding innovations that have led to disaster." "The assumption that spending more of the taxpayers' money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse. The black family—which survived slavery, discrimination, poverty, wars, and depressions—began to come apart as the federal government moved in with its well-financed programs to 'help.'" "Worst of all, guilt has so furtively stolen into many hearts and minds that people feel apologetic about being civilized, educated, and productive when others are barbaric, uneducated, and parasitic. When civilization apologizes to barbarism, something has gone very wrong at a very fundamental level."

Waking the Global Heart: Humanity's Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love

Anodea Judith

Amazon Price: $12.21 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Elite Books Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Popular Culture
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Social Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A roadmap for what humanity needs to JUST DO! 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

WAKING THE GLOBAL HEART, will be kept were I can refer to it often. Anodea Judith has touched all the right nerves to awaken humanity's sleeping giant. As J. Krishnamurti put it, to produce "A radical mutation of the mind." She describes the human condition as an adolescent emerging with the crushing awareness of adult choices. Like a teen age girl staring in disbelief at the drug store pregnancy test that signals a personal Tsunami, a 9/11 and a New Orleans, humanity stands in the postmodern era with no MAPS and no consensus. Like a deer frozen in the headlights, we trouble in disbelief at the chaos we see rushing at us with hurricane speed. Anodea's book is a welcome new MAP, and her words ring true as I recognize the truth of her message: "Humanity's Rite of Passage from THE LOVE OF POWER to the POWER OF LOVE." At first glance her three-part index seems to over simplify the world problematique, but the depth of this luminary volume soon changes everything. One realizes, even in the preface, when she describes her love of untangling strings in her mother's kitchen drawer, that Anodea manifested early the tenacity and the patience needed to create this master work. Thank God she had the perseverance and the chutzpah to write this book! It is a handbook for navigating the transformations urgently needed to heal a world in crisis. Anodea draws frequently from some of my favorite visionaries, Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Dr. Fritjof Capra, and Ken Wilber. Her depth of understanding spans the ancient wisdom, years of experience as a therapist soothing pains of the soul, and the history of humanity's rise to walk on the moon where we saw island earth as the only home we have. Read it once, read it twice, and then take my advice and simplify your Christmas shopping. Keep it close at hand as you struggle to come of age in the generation needed to save the world from ourselves. Anodea's book reminds me of the famous line from Walt Kelly's cartoon character POGO, "we have met the enemy and he is us." She makes it clear in her passionate hope, "Someday we will be the ancestors that I pray will be remembered with gratitude rather than resentment." and "...the current crisis will call forth global cooperation like nothing ever has before." I pray she is right! If she is it will be because she and thousands like her with compassion, love, and a noble spirit inspired us all to create the world our children's children can love in peace and joy.

Everyday Life in the Modern World (Classics in Communication and Mass Culture)

Henri Lefebvre

Amazon Price: $24.95 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Transaction Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $19.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> World -> 20th Century
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> Historical Study -> Civilization & Culture

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World

David Abram

List Price: $25.00 By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $5.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Logic & Language

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 41 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A New Appreciation of Nature 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

"A butterfly glides by, golden wings navigating delicate air currents with a few momentary flutters before they settle on a white flower...Fragrant whiffs from the new blossoms in the overgrown orchard by the creek stir...My sensing body now vividly awake to the world." ~ pg. 223

"The Spell of the Sensuous" is a fairly complex read that takes you on a journey through a myriad of experiences as related to the natural world. Through this journey we gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be human in a sensuous world. Language, lore and cultural heritage is also a focus.

David Abram subtly draws a stark contrast between how tribal cultures have viewed the earth and how modern man seems far removed from nature's protective beauty. Whether he is speaking about Native Americans or the Ancient Greeks he explores their culture from the viewpoint of how they relate to the land and air.

"The emergence or adoption of a formal writing system significantly solidifies the ephemeral perceptual boundary already established by a common tongue; now the spoken language has a visible counterpart that floats, fixed and immobile, between the human body and the sensuous world." ~ pg. 256

While at first this may seem like a casual discussion of how cultures pass along their traditions, you may soon realize that this is much more a serious investigation into how people either preserve or destroy the living breathing environment. A discussion of how cultures moved from oral traditions to the written word is fascinating. You can see how even today some cultures show a remarkable respect for their environments while others seem to have lost their connection to the earth.

At times highly intellectual and at other times pure, spiritual and poetic, David Abram's writing weaves through your soul to bring you to a higher awareness of the land in which you live and the importance of preserving your natural heritage.

~The Rebecca Review

Editorial Review:

A stunningly original work of ecological philosophy documenting the historical and current effects of language on our perception of and interaction with nature. Utne Magazine recently voted Abram one of "The 100 People Who Will Change the World." And if this book is read as widely as it deserves, that prediction may come to pass. Very Highly Recommended.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Great Books in Philosophy)

Adam Smith

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Prometheus Books Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $6.35

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Theory
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Incomplete 1 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I guess it says so somewhere in the fine print, perhaps even in the medium sized print. But I just wanted a copy of TMS and this one seemed reasonably cheap. So I bought it. It's a pamphlet consisting of the first 'book' or chapter. In other words, sold as TMS it's a hoax - probably about a third to a fifth of the actual book.

And I'm in Australia so I doubt there's any mileage in returning it.

TMS is a great book. This is not.

4.5 stars-A masterpiece but only after Part VI was added in 1790 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The other reviewers have covered Smith's theoretical concern of basing our moral judgements on a foundation of sympathy or sentiment when our impartial mental spectator requires us to walk a few miles, hypothetically, in the other person's shoes before rendering judgement.

The most important part of the book is Part VI, added in the year Smith died-1790.It is here that he provides the theoretical foundation for his recommendations in WN that the government is the only institution that can neutralize the severe negative impacts emanating from the Invisible Hand process of self interest and the division of labor.Smith's recommendation is that all working class members receive ,free if necessary,an education combined with religious instruction in order to deal with the dark side of the Invisible Hand process that negatively impacts the moral,political,social,martial,and intellectual development of all members of the working class(See pp.734-741 of the Modern Library(Cannan)edition of the Wealth of Nations).Part VI of the 6th and final edition of TMS establishes the need to promote morality as a necessary public good.The importance of virtue in societal interactions takes center stage.This can only be implemented by the provision,on a massive scale,of education and religious instruction for all members of the working class.Otherwise,society will be unable to prevent the "...entire corruption and degeneracy of the great body of the people".(See Smith,p.734;see also the 5 additional repetitions of this conclusion that appear on pp. 734-741).

I deduct a half star because Smith failed to fully alert the reader of the importance of Part VI.

Editorial Review:

What can he added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience? To one in this situation, all accessions of fortune may properly be said to be superfluous; and if he is much elevated upon account of them, it must be the effect of the most frivolous levity. This situation, however, may very well be called the natural and ordinary state of mankind.