A major work in moral philosophy by the Puritan who was the most modern man of his age. Edwards at his very greatest . . . he speaks with an insight into science and psychology so much ahead of his time that our own can hardly be said to have caught up with him. Perry Miller, 'Jonathan Edwards' Like the great speculators Augustine, Aquinas, and Pascal, Jonathan Edwards treated religious ideas as problems not of dogma, but of life. His exploration of self-love disguised as true virtue is grounded in the hard facts of human behavior. More than a hellfire preacher, more than a theologian, Edwards was a bold and independent philosopher. Nowhere is his force of mind more evident than in this book. He speaks as powerfully to us today as he did to the keenest minds of the eighteenth century.

In Virtue Ethics for the Real World: Improving Character without Idealization, Howard J. Curzer argues that character ideals seduce virtue ethicists into counterintuitive claims, mislead and psychologically harm people seeking to improve their characters, and sometimes become tools for exploitation. Curzer offers a theory of Aristotelian virtue ethics that eschews idealization and that harmonizes with common sense. To explain the many dilemmas of ordinary life, he allows that different virtues sometimes enjoin incompatible actions and even enjoin actions that conflict with duty. Curzer defends the doctrine of the mean, arguing that idealized traits such as unilateral forgiveness, universal civility, unconditional commitments, and unlimited generosity are not virtues. He shows that the reciprocity of virtues doctrine depends upon idealization and rejects it. When undergirding his theory, Curzer wears several hats. He is a eudaimonist when grounding virtue, a constructivist when grounding value, and a perspectivist (a la Nietzsche) when grounding virtuous action. How can people improve without aiming at an ideal? Curzer offers an individualized approach to character improvement modeled on contemporary medicine. First, diagnose each person’s character flaws. Then tailor treatment plans to each flaw. An important tool is a fine-grained table of the components of character, their failure modes, and corresponding therapies. Curzer provides the beginnings of such a table.

This study details the compatibility of ideas between Jonathan Edwards and Emanuel Swedenborg that helped forge the theological socialism of Henry James Sr. Duban demonstrates how a forgotten newspaper exchange between the elder James and Unitarian minister Henry Whitney Bellows clarified the Puritan foundations of the elder James's philosophy. Henry James Jr., in turn, transformed the phenomenalistic and Edwardsian foundations of his father's philosophy into the psychological dramas of major novels, although deeming the father's political radicalism destructive of aesthetic valuation.

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK “Meet Tomi Adeyemi—the new J.K. Rowling. (Yep, she’s that good).” —Entertainment Weekly After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too. Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath. With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart. Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times-bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy. Praise for Children of Blood and Bone: “Poses thought-provoking questions about race, class and authority that hold up a warning mirror to our sharply divided society.” –The New York Times

In search of true virtue is written in the spirit of engagement, and not indoctrination. It is intended to engage the reader, rather than dictating to the reader what ought to be. As life is full of mysteries and speculations, followers and conformers are bound to get the short end of the stick. This book is a culmination of multiple and diverse schools of thought, ranging from music, gymnastics, mass-media, philosophy, politics, religion, social sciences, mathematics, relationships to love, and many more related subjects of human interest. All these above-mentioned disciplines have inspired this noble crusade to seek true virtue, for without it - there is no hope for humanity at salvation. The book's key argument and submission is that, if something is upright, it is upright, and if something is tilted, it is tilted, it does not matter the amount of noise one can nake in contestation of that premise. The book is more a social and spiritual movement aimed at conscience, and sparking the nerve to re-examine our loyalties and allegiances in life. This book is not just a semi-literary work intending to pass some few good comments, and leave things at that. The idea is for people to get into the habit of observation, analysis, reflection and examination. In all we do, we ought to return to ourselves and ask this question - is this the best I have to offer, or was that the best I could do? The book intends to facilitate discourse with regard to spiritual engineering from a social and partly philosophical perspective, and not from the traditional-religious perspective. Enjoy.

A major work in moral philosophy by the Puritan who was the most modern man of his age. "Edwards at his very greatest . . . he speaks with an insight into science and psychology so much ahead of his time that our own can hardly be said to have caught up with him." Perry Miller, 'Jonathan Edwards' Like the great speculators Augustine, Aquinas, and Pascal, Jonathan Edwards treated religious ideas as problems not of dogma, but of life. His exploration of self-love disguised as "true virtue" is grounded in the hard facts of human behavior. More than a hellfire preacher, more than a theologian, Edwards was a bold and independent philosopher. Nowhere is his force of mind more evident than in this book. He speaks as powerfully to us today as he did to the keenest minds of the eighteenth century.