In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:An Ethical Life: A Practical Guide to Ethical Reasoning by Richard KyteChristine FletcherAn Ethical Life: A Practical Guide to Ethical Reasoning Richard Kyte WINONA, NM: ANSELM ACADEMIC, 2012. 254 PP. $25.95Richard Kyte's introductory guide to ethics is designed to meet three concerns about current ethics textbooks: they tend to decrease students' confidence in their ability to think, they inculcate a distrust of deliberative processes, and they create an (...) appearance of moral relativism. Kyte succeeds in creating a text that overcomes these deficiencies. He uses common language and examples while remaining rigorous and fully explaining the common ethical theories.He opens with a chapter debunking thirteen misconceptions about ethics, such as "Ethics Is 'Nothing but Words,'" "Ethics Is Just a Matter of Opinion," and "Ethics Is Separate from Religion." This chapter should set the tone for a class that doesn't allow sloppy thinking or the reduction of ethics to feelings. The chapter concludes by defining ethics as common sense, meaning "the ability to find shared meaning in the words we use together to make sense of our lives" (51).The second chapter examines four ways of ethical thinking: truth, thinking in terms of the facts of the situation; consequences, thinking in terms of the results of an action; fairness, thinking in terms of equality and consistency; and character, thinking in terms of people's motivations, character traits, or both. He then uses practical problems to illustrate how, by using these four ways of ethical thinking, a conversation working toward an agreed-on action can take place. Ethics is no longer a shouting match but a way of appreciating different points of view and coming to a reasoned conclusion.The following chapters explore these four ways of ethical thinking. Chapter 3, "Truth," on its own would be an excellent text for any course that has "critical thinking" as a learning outcome. He covers moral responsibility, bias, self-deception, and power with succinct but powerful illustrations from life. He then moves on to discernment, which includes a discussion of good reading, evaluating sources of information, and evaluating arguments, including examples of the most common fallacies. His examples are from diverse sources such as Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, the Bible, Francis Bacon, and situations in ordinary life. This gives richness to the text and presents these concepts in an accessible and interesting way.The next three chapters, "Consequences," "Fairness," and "Character," cover the main features of utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics [End Page 191] in good detail, with summaries about major figures associated with these theories: Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Epictetus, Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas. These give the students biographical information as well as the significance of each thinker's work, explaining the key features, strengths, and weaknesses of their theories. The chapter on character has a very helpful discussion of the cardinal and theological virtues. Each chapter has suggestions for further reading.The appendix covers how to use this four-way method in group decision-making and in writing case studies or issues analyses, helpfully including an example of each. This book is written by a gifted teacher who draws students into his subject, shows them its relevance, and helps them develop the confidence and skills they need to take their part in the ethical conversations that will occur throughout their lives. It is an excellent text on its own or as a supplement to a standard textbook in professional ethics.Christine FletcherBenedictine UniversityCopyright © 2017 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

Recent calls to address racism in bioethics reflect a sense of urgency to mitigate the lethal effects of a lack of action. While the field was catalyzed largely in response to pivotal events deeply rooted in racism and other structures of oppression embedded in research and health care, it has failed to center racial justice in its scholarship, pedagogy, advocacy, and practice, and neglected to integrate anti-racism as a central consideration. Academic bioethics programs play a key role in determining the (...) field’s norms and practices, including methodologies, funding priorities, and professional networks that bear on equity, inclusion, and epistemic justice. This article describes recommendations from the Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Task Force commissioned by the Association of Bioethics Program Directors to prioritize and strengthen anti-racist practices in bioethics programmatic endeavors and to evaluate and develop specific goals to advance REDI. (shrink)

Receiving a diagnosis of autism in adulthood can be a life changing event, impacting identity, relationships, and mental health. A lack of post-diagnostic support has been highlighted by autistic adults, their allies, clinicians, and service providers. It can be a source of distress for autistic adults, reinforcing feelings of social isolation and rejection. Peer support could be a cost-effective, flexible, and sustainable model to provide community-based support for autistic adults. However, there is little research on the value of peer support, (...) despite calls from the autistic community. This qualitative study explored autistic experiences and needs post-diagnosis, identifying specific ways that peer support may benefit them, and exploring the limitations of peer support. Twelve autistic adults who had all received an autism diagnosis in adulthood completed a semi-structured interview focussing on the diagnostic experience, post-diagnostic support needed and provided, engagement with the autistic community, and post-diagnostic peer support. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts resulted in four themes: Mismatch in support needed and provided; Community connection; Flexible and personalised support; and Sustainability. Participants indicated that peer support may be a useful mechanism to support autistic adults’ post-diagnosis and offers unique opportunities not available through other support channels. Though informal peer support exists, it could be more sustainable and effective if well-supported and funded. (shrink)

Ce livre se consacre à la création d’une nouvelle figure rhétorique dans les œuvres des auteurs « politiques » sous Charles VI et Charles VII : celle de « la France », imaginée allégoriquement comme une femme noble. D. Delogu explore le développement de cette figure d’Eustache Deschamps et Christine de Pisan à Alain Chartier et Jean Juvénal des Ursins. Elle présente des lectures très fines d’un corpus de textes souvent négligés. Dès le début, elle démonte l’avis fréquemment répété (...) selon leque... (shrink)

Despite its apparent ubiquity, philosophers have not talked much about sentimental value. One exception is Anthony Hatzimoysis (The Philosophical Quarterly 53:373–379, 2003). Those who wish to take sentimental value seriously are likely to make use of Christine Korsgaard’s ideas on two distinctions in value. In this paper I show that Hatzimoysis has misrendered Korsgaard’s insight in his discussion of sentimental value. I begin by briefly summarising Korsgaard’s idea before showing how Hatzimoysis’ treatment of it is mistaken.

The enforcement of the alkali acts by the chief inspectors Robert Angus Smith and Alfred Evans Fletcher indicates how scientific ideals of neutrality and impartiality were placed under strain by their state‐sanctioned role as arbitrators between environmental and industrial interests. Previously unused or unexploited sources reveal the precise ways in which they sought to resolve the conflicts between ‘muck and brass' intrinsic to environmental regulation and illustrate the value‐laden and discretionary implementation of scientific public policy. Through an analysis of (...) the ethical considerations and decision‐making strategies of the first chief alkali inspectors this study highlights the social negotiation of regulatory science and shows the extent to which the cultural values of actors can shape the implementation of technical policy. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Artist and the Trinity: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Theology of Work by Christine M. FletcherElise M. EdwardsThe Artist and the Trinity: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Theology of Work Christine M. Fletcher eugene, or: pickwick publications, 2013. 162 pp. $19.00.The Artist and the Trinity provides a comprehensive yet concise presentation of Dorothy L. Sayers’s contribution to social ethics and theology, advancing it into a thoughtful, compelling theology (...) of work and vocation. Sayers, a twentieth-century British novelist, playwright, and essayist, highlighted within her writings a consistent set of ideas about work, grounded in deep commitments to the Trinitarian orthodoxy of the Athanasian Creed and the author’s lived experiences as an artist. Christine Fletcher integrates Sayers’s insights into a cohesive theology addressing contemporary problems about work: separation of roles by gendered norms, differentiation of Christian vocation and secular work, and dehumanizing work. [End Page 220]Fletcher skillfully demonstrates that although Sayers was not a professional theologian, apologist, or ethicist, her understanding of the nature of human work and vocation offered a meaningful contribution to Christian social ethics. Early chapters of The Artist and the Trinity feature a well-researched review of Sayers’s works and the ethical themes presented in them. These chapters might capably introduce Sayers to a reader unfamiliar with her work, but the scope and specificity of Fletcher’s discussion of the authors’ characters and plots suggest that this book would best accompany a study of the primary texts. Despite including some literary jargon, Fletcher’s analysis of Sayers’s work is engaging and informative. It exposes the elements of social criticism in Sayers’s fiction and the experiences that informed her analogy for the Trinity. Fletcher offers a thorough description of Sayers’s understanding of the Trinity through an analogy of the artistic process and adeptly explains how it informs Sayers’s conception of good work. Later chapters of the book not only explain “Sayers’ idea that human beings bear the image of God in their ability to create” (xx) but also incorporate this assertion into a compelling human ethic of work that values creativity, initiative, and the individual person’s unique set of skills and interests.The book convincingly argues that good work is an integral part of a fulfilling life for all persons, regardless of gender, because of the universal human capacity to create in the image of God. However, the book lacks any comparison between Sayers’s views on vocation and that of others in the Christian tradition, such as Martin Luther or John Calvin. The omission is striking because Sayers’s belief that the laity’s “secular work is their divine vocation” (120) figures so centrally to her argument about humanity’s desire and ability to make things. But Fletcher effectively contextualizes Sayers’s fiction and wartime speeches, placing her within the tradition of Anglican social ethics, and also skillfully connects her work to contemporary scholarship in theological anthropology, Trinitarian theology, and virtue ethics.The Artist and the Trinity complements other books about Sayers’s theology by Laura Simmons (Creed without Chaos: Exploring Theology in the Writings of Dorothy L. Sayers, Baker Academic, 2005) and Ann Loades (Dorothy L. Sayers: Spiritual Writings, SPCK, 1993). While those works explicate her theological contributions, this study focuses more on the ethical implications of Sayers’s theology. Fletcher’s theology of good work expertly addresses limitations in Sayers’s theology with elements from Alasdair MacIntyre’s philosophical accounts of practices, internal and external goods, and institutions, resulting in an original proposal of work and care. This book is nuanced yet accessible for advanced undergraduates and nonspecialists interested in topics as varied as Trinitarian theology, feminist studies in religion, labor and economics, and Christianity and the arts. While Sayers’s narratives and essays are already valued by religion scholars engaged in the arts and [End Page 221] literature, this study persuasively illuminates the relevance of her work for ethicists pursuing questions about human relationality, gender roles, and the meaning of work.Elise M. EdwardsBaylor UniversityCopyright © 2016 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

"The patriarch of medical ethics explains why some accepted ethical values need to catch up with the science of human reproduction and why newer reproductive methods can be more "natural" and humane than those they replace." -- from Publisher's site.

This is a new edition of Joseph Fletcher's 1966 work that ignited a firestorm of controversy at the time of its publication.

Purpose/methods: This study investigated the relationship between ethics education and training, and the use and usefulness of ethics resources, confidence in moral decisions, and moral action/activism through a survey of practicing nurses and social workers from four United States (US) census regions. Findings: The sample (n = 1215) was primarily Caucasian (83%), female (85%), well educated (57% with a master's degree). no ethics education at all was reported by 14% of study participants (8% of social workers had no ethics education, (...) versus 23% of nurses), and only 57% of participants had ethics education in their professional educational program. Those with both professional ethics education and in-service or continuing education were more confident in their moral judgments and more likely to use ethics resources and to take moral action. Social workers had more overall education, more ethics education, and higher confidence and moral action scores, and were more likely to use ethics resources than nurses. Conclusion: Ethics education has a significant positive influence on moral confidence, moral action, and use of ethics resources by nurses and social workers. (shrink)

Mixed inferences are a problem for those who want to combine truth-assessability and antirealism with respect to allegedly nondescriptive sentences: the classical account of validity has apparently to be given up. J.C. Beall's response is that validity can be defined as the conservation of designated valued (Beall 2000). I argue that since it presupposes a truth predicate that can be applied to all sentences, this suggestion is not helpful. I also consider problems arising from mixed conjunctions and discuss the deeper (...) worry that the distinction between truth which does and truth which does not entail realism is inferentially irrelevant. (shrink)

The Grammar of Criminal Law is a 3-volume work that addresses the field of international and comparative criminal law, with its primary focus on the issues of international concern, ranging from genocide, to domestic efforts to combat terrorism, to torture, and to other international crimes. The first volume is devoted to foundational issues. The Grammar of Criminal Law is unique in its systematic emphasis on the relationship between language and legal theory; there is no comparable comparative study of legal language. (...) Written in the spirit of Fletcher's classic Rethinking Criminal Law, this work is essential reading in the field of international and comparative law. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Principles and Theory in BioethicsPat Milmoe McCarrick (bio)The following citations were selected from BIOETHICSLINE, the online database prepared at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics for the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS system. Searching the keywords autonomy, beneficence, casuistry, justice, and virtues, as well as the text word principlism produced more than 400 citations. Only the citations concerned with theory and principle in the practice of bioethics are included here—e.g., (...) works about justice in resource allocation have been deleted.Arkes, Hadley V. When Bungling Practice Is Joined to Absurd Theory: Doctors, Philosophers, and the Right to Die. In Set No Limits: A Rebuttal to Daniel Callahan's Proposal to Limit Health Care for the Elderly, ed. Robert L. Barry and Gerard V. Bradley, pp. 31-44. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.Arnason, Vilhjalmur. Towards Authentic Conversations: Authenticity in the Patient-Professional Relationship. Theoretical Medicine 15 (3): 227-42, September 1994.Arras, John D. Getting Down to Cases: The Revival of Casuistry in Bioethics. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (1): 29-51, February 1991.Arras, John D. Principles and Particularity: The Role of Cases in Bioethics. Indiana Law Journal 69 (4): 983-1014, Fall 1994.Beauchamp, Tom L. Principles and Other Emerging Paradigms in Bioethics. Indiana Law Journal 69 (4): 955-71, Fall 1994.Beauchamp, Tom L. The Principles Approach. Hastings Center Report 23 (6): S9, November-December 1993.Beauchamp, Tom L., and Childress, [End Page 279] James F. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. 752 p.Beauchamp, Tom L., and Walters, LeRoy. Ethical Theory and Bioethics. In their Contemporary Issues in Bioethics. 4th ed., pp. 1-38. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1994.Beldecos, Athena, and Arnold, Robert M. Gathering Information and Casuistic Analysis. [Commentary]. Journal of Clinical Ethics 4 (3): 241-45, Fall 1993.Bole, Thomas J. The Rhetoric of Rights and Justice in Health Care. In Rights to Health Care, ed. Thomas J. Bole and William B. Bondeson, pp. 1-19. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1991.Broome, John. Fairness Versus Doing the Most Good. [Commentary]. Hastings Center Report 24 (4): 36-39, July-August 1994.Campbell, Courtney S. Gifts and Caring Duties in Medicine. In Duties to Others, ed. Courtney S. Campbell and B. Andrew Lustig, pp. 181-97. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1994.Carson, Ronald A.; Callahan, Sidney; Ross, Judith Wilson; and May, William F. Spirit, Emotion, and Meaning: The Many Voices of Bioethics. Hastings Center Report 24 (3): 26-27, May-June 1994.Charlesworth, Max. Bioethics in a Liberal Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 172 p.Cherbas, Peter. Paradigms and Our Shrinking Bioethics. Indiana Law Journal 69 (4): 1105-13, Fall 1994.Childress, James F. Ethical Theories, Principles, and Casuistry in Bioethics: An Interpretation and Defense of Principlism. In Religious Methods and Resources in Bioethics, ed. Paul F. Camenisch, pp. 181-201. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 1994.Childress, James F., and Fletcher, John C. Individualism and Community: The Contested Terrain of Respect for Autonomy. Hastings Center Report 24 (3): 34-35, May-June 1994.Clouser, K. Danner, and Gert, Bernard. A Critique of Principlism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 15 (2): 219-36, April 1990.Devettere, Raymond J. Clinical Ethics and Happiness. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (1): 71-89, February 1993.DeGrazia, David. Moving Forward in Bioethical Theory: Theories, Cases, and Specified Principlism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 17 (5): 511-39, October 1992.Donnelly, William J. From Principles to Principals: The New Direction in Medical Ethics. [Commentary]. Theoretical Medicine 15 (2): 141-48, June 1994.Downie, Robin. Health Care Ethics and Casuistry. [Editorial]. Journal of Medical Ethics 18 (2): 61-62, 66, June 1992. [End Page 280]DuBose, Edwin R.; Hamel, Ronald P.; and O'Connell, Laurence J., eds. A Matter of Principles? Ferment in U.S. Bioethics. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1994. 381 p.Fox, Renée C. The Entry of U.S. Bioethics into the 1990s: A Sociological Analysis, pp. 21-71.Gudorf, Christine E. A Feminist Critique of Biomedical Principlism, pp.164-81.Campbell, Courtney S. Principlism and Religion: The Law and the Prophets, pp. 182-208.Charon, Rita. Narrative Contributions to Medical Ethics: Recognition, Formulation, Interpretation, and Validation... (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, EarlyView.

Despite rich theoretical development, empirical research on stakeholder management is scant, save its relationship with financial performance. Recent research shows significant intrafirm variability in stakeholder management across time. This study seeks to explain why firms would experience significant changes in stakeholder management. Adapting Wood’s framework to discuss three principles of stakeholder management, the authors identify antecedents of change at the institutional, organizational, and executive levels. Pressures for legitimacy at the institutional level suggest that firm age and size, along with industry (...) shifts in stakeholder management, will increase the likelihood of changes in stakeholder management for the focal firm. The authors posit that organizational risk and performance will also affect the likelihood of change, as will managerial discretion, ownership, and succession. The authors test their predictions using a longitudinal sample of stakeholder management data and discuss the implications of the findings for research and practice. (shrink)

America is at war with terrorism. Terrorists must be brought to justice.We hear these phrases together so often that we rarely pause to reflect on the dramatic differences between the demands of war and the demands of justice, differences so deep that the pursuit of one often comes at the expense of the other. In this book, one of the country's most important legal thinkers brings much-needed clarity to the still unfolding debates about how to pursue war and justice in (...) the age of terrorism. George Fletcher also draws on his rare ability to combine insights from history, philosophy, literature, and law to place these debates in a rich cultural context. He seeks to explain why Americans--for so many years cynical about war--have recently found war so appealing. He finds the answer in a revival of Romanticism, a growing desire in the post-Vietnam era to identify with grand causes and to put nations at the center of ideas about glory and guilt.Fletcher opens with unsettling questions about the nature of terrorism, war, and justice, showing how dangerously slippery the concepts can be. He argues that those sympathetic to war are heirs to the ideals of Byron, Fichte, and other Romantics in their belief that nations--not just individuals--must uphold honor and be held accountable for crimes. Fletcher writes that ideas about collective glory and guilt are far more plausible and widespread than liberal individualists typically recognize. But as he traces the implications of the Romantic mindset for debates about war crimes, treason, military tribunals, and genocide, he also shows that losing oneself in a grand cause can all too easily lead to moral catastrophe.A work of extraordinary intellectual power and relevance, the book will change how we think not only about world events, but about the conflicting individualist and collective impulses that tear at all of us. (shrink)

In this paper, I develop an expressive account of disrespect according to which an action becomes disrespectful in virtue of making an explicitly or implicitly demeaning statement about its target’s moral standing. On my reading, we act disrespectfully whenever we (in word or deed) spread the falsehood that some people can be treated worse than they in fact can be given the correct account of what we owe to each other. After elaborating on the content that renders an action disrespectful (...) and explaining how disrespectful actions come to acquire their distinctive content in the first place, I go on to defend my account against rival approaches and stress its usefulness in detecting a previously disregarded moral phenomenon, namely, the risk of causing moral confusion. I do so by arguing that, given our nature as social cognisers, disrespectful actions are particularly well-suited to pollute our beliefs about what we owe to each other and what is owed to us. (shrink)

In this one-of-a-kind text, George P. Fletcher, a renowned legal theorist, offers a provocative yet accessible overview of the basics of legal thought. The first section of the book is designed to introduce the reader to fundamental concepts such as the rule of law and deciding cases under the law. It continues with an analysis of the values of justice, desert, consent, and equality, as they figure into our judgment of legal cultures in terms of soundness and legitimacy. The (...) final chapters address the problems of morality and consistency in the law. In each case the author not only introduces the basic ideas but considers important arguments in the contemporary literature and raises original claims of his own. Ideally suited for courses in the philosophy of law, legal issues, and jurisprudence, Basic Concepts of Legal Thought fills a void in the literature, as there is no other volume that both eases law students into the mysteries of legal philosophy and provides an introduction to the legal mind for non-lawyers. (shrink)

This article argues that the condition of women in Third World societies cannot be separated from the colonial experience since the power relationships that were established during the colonial era between Europe and its territories, and between women and men, have not varied significantly and are still recreated through contemporary mechanisms. For example, development projects promoted by Western countries to modernize the Third World have, in the long run, better served their own interests than those of their intended beneficiaries. As (...) a result and contrary to expectations, growth and prosperity still elude the Third World. We also show that during the current international economic crisis, women's unpaid or underpaid labor has become the basis of new development programs and policies and is crucial to the recent phase of capitalist development. We discuss how the structural position and status of women and colonies closely resemble each other and have served as the foundations of the capital accumulation process and the development of industrial nations. The concept of women as a last colony thus becomes a compelling metaphor of liberation and leads us to stress the need for a worldwide process of gender decolonization, entailing the reformulation of power relations between women and men. (shrink)

Samantha Brennan notes in her survey article, “Recent Works in Feminist Ethics,” that “the reshaping of moral concepts in light of feminist critiques of individualism and feminist development of relational alternatives represents significant progress in feminist ethics, indeed in ethics at large.” Two suggestions in this claim serve as a starting point for my application of a relational approach to inequalities in a global context. First, equality is a moral concept that has been and continues to be central to Western (...) liberal theory. The global context reveals liberalism's dominance on the world scene as well as increases in inequalities of wealth both within and across borders. I claim that this context calls for renewed vigilance in the “reshaping of moral concepts” that are central to liberal theory. To clarify, I do not argue that feminists must work with these concepts. Rather I hold that some concepts, one of them being equality, have enduring moral value and this makes continued feminist analyses of them important, particularly in the contemporary global context. (shrink)

Controversy persists over the ethics of compensating research participants and providing posttrial benefits to communities in developing countries. Little is known about residents' views on these subjects. In this study, interviews about compensation and posttrial benefits from a hypothetical HIV vaccine trial were conducted in Uganda’s Rakai District. Most respondents said researchers owed the community posttrial benefits and research compensation, but opinions differed as to what these should be. Debates about posttrial benefits and compensation rarely include residents' views like these, (...) but future ones should. (shrink)

The technoscientific consequences of both the human drives for glory on the one hand and a comfortable life on the other potentially threaten human existence. R.U.R., a science fiction play by Karel Čapek, bridges ancient writers and contemporary technoscientific endeavors, encouraging us to consider these issues in light of persistent human nature.

This article explores the meanings of social class for American women who have experienced downward mobility after divorce. These women experienced social class as a process of negotiation, and subjective elements often predominated over objective criteria. However, serious changes in their material reality subsequently forced redefinition of class identity. While divorced women sometimes identify with other women in the same situation, this identification is often mitigated by the effects of stigma and cognitive processes of differentiation, inhibiting the development of a (...) collective group identity. Theoretically, the study showed that social class identity needs to be seen as changing over time, at times existing in a state of conflict between subjective identification and objective economic status, rather than as a neatly resolved or static social identity. (shrink)

This article explores the reasons some pregnant women enter maternity homes with the plan to place their babies for adoption. The authors discuss changes in maternity homes over the twentieth century and report on findings from a survey of currently licensed homes in Texas. Next, the authors discuss the findings from fieldwork and in-depth interviews with residents of two maternity homes. They identify three major reasons why birth mothers enter maternity homes: the desire to escape abusive or stressful family lives, (...) the desire to avoid the stigma of placing a child for adoption, and the desire to provide their children, and in some cases themselves, with a stable and loving family life. The authors contend that entering a maternity home with the intention of placing their babies for adoption represents an effort on the part of birth mothers to reconfigure their own, often impoverished family lives. (shrink)

This is a precious companion for all those who want to achieve a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics of innovation."--Roberto Verganti, author of "Design-Driven Innovation".

This book provides a concise, clear summary of the history of the "free will" vs. determinism controversy and offers a discussion of the basic differences of view.

This chapter contains sections titled: Notes.

This collection explores the phenomenon of the messianic in contemporary philosophy, religion and culture. From the later Derrida’s work on Marx and Benjamin to Agamben and Badiou’s recent texts on St Paul, it is becoming possible to detect a marked ‘messianic turn’ in contemporary continental thought. However, despite the plethora of work in the field there has not been any sustained attempt to think through the larger philosophical, theological and cultural implications of this phenomenon. What, then, characterises our contemporary messianic (...) moment? Where does it come from? And why speak of the messianic now? In _The Messianic Now: Philosophy, Religion, Culture_, a group of internationally-known figures and rising stars within the fields of continental philosophy, religious studies and cultural studies come together to consider what the messianic might mean at the beginning of the 21 st century. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of _Cultural Research._. (shrink)