The angst of modernity is that of powerlessness, disenfranchisement, and alienation. People everywhere are experiencing helplessness in a world where the few rule, and leaders and legislators run roughshod over the masses with a deluge of laws, and where technology encroaches upon their daily lives and privacy, and an economic inequality never before seen in history. The concepts of self-determination; destroying superstition; government by the people; questioning all authority; and the power of knowledge, reason, and the authority of the individual is on the verge of dying. However, as Thomas Paine said, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Today’s world cries out for a new breed of thinker—rational, brave, bold, innovative, intuitive, and artistic. We all need to re-evaluate—to become questioners, explorers, and seekers. Knowledge, Consent, and Liberty is about the power of knowledge; the supremacy of the consent of the governed; the legal and Constitutional right of the people of the globe to form their definitions of liberty, freedom, and government; and their obligation to create their collective destiny. Its lofty goal is to challenge, empower, and enlighten the reader. In a logical progression from premises to conclusions, it lays out a philosophical, historical, and scientific argument that humans create their world for good or bad. It expounds on current social, political, and cultural issues that deserve consideration for reform or change. And it maps out a constitutional strategy and method for “the people” to create America, and the world, in their own image rather than that of a few oligarchs.

A scientific study of the political and economic factors influencing democratic decision making

Collecting several key documents and policy statements, this supplement to the ninth edition of the Intellectual Freedom Manual traces a history of ALA’s commitment to fighting censorship. An introductory essay by Judith Krug and Candace Morgan, updated by OIF Director Barbara Jones, sketches out an overview of ALA policy on intellectual freedom. An important resource, this volume includes documents which discuss such foundational issues as The Library Bill of RightsProtecting the freedom to readALA’s Code of EthicsHow to respond to challenges and concerns about library resourcesMinors and internet activityMeeting rooms, bulletin boards, and exhibitsCopyrightPrivacy, including the retention of library usage records

Medicine is a complex social institution which includes biomedical research, clinical practice, and the administration and organization of health care delivery. As such, it is amenable to analysis from a number of disciplines and directions. The present volume is composed of revised papers on the theme of "Responsibility in Health Care" presented at the Eleventh Trans Disciplinary Symposium on Philosophy and Medicine, which was held in Springfield, illinois on March 16-18, 1981. The collective focus of these essays is the clinical practice of medicine and the themes and issues related to questions of responsibility in that setting. Responsibility has three related dimensions which make it a suitable theme for an inquiry into clinical medicine: (a) an external dimension in legal and political analysis in which the State imposes penalties on individuals and groups and in which officials and governments are held accountable for policies; (b) an internal dimension in moral and ethical analysis in which individuals take into account the consequences of their actions and the criteria which bear upon their choices; and (c) a comprehensive dimension in social and cultural analysis in which values are ordered in the structure of a civilization ([8], p. 5). The title "Responsibility in Health Care" thus signifies a broad inquiry not only into the ethics of individual character and actions, but the moral foundations of the cultural, legal, political, and social context of health care generally.

Originally published in 1870, this essay by the American anarchist and political philosopher Lysander Spooner is here reproduced. Described by Murray Rothbard as “the greatest case for anarchist political philosophy ever written”, Spooner’s lengthy essay is still referenced by anarchists and philosophers today. In it, he argues that the American Civil War violated the US Constitution, thus rendering it null and void. An indispensable read for political historians both amateur and professional alike. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.