First published in 1973, Reason and Compassion showcases a collection of lectures by Professor Richard S. Peters concerned primarily with the moral position, based on compassion and on the use of reason, which is critical to code-encased moralities. He reacts to the idea that whilst many people are sympathetic towards protests against an established moral code, they are reluctant to align themselves with modern forms of nihilism, subjectivism and romantic revolt. The work studies the implications for moral education and takes account of modern work ethics, development psychology and philosophy of religion. It presents its findings in a way which can be appreciated by specialists and non-specialists alike. By making a distinction between the form of the moral consciousness and the content of particular moralities, Peters reconciles the development approach of Piaget with the approaches of other schools of thought, including the Freudians and social learning theorists.

First published in 1967, this book looks at what the role of a headteacher should be, challenging the traditional views of the head and the authoritarian structure of schools. Contributors explore new concepts of the head’s role in school and authors include both theorists and headteachers coming from various backgrounds including those that are historical, philosophical, sociological, and practical. The book also benefits from some more down-to-earth musings by heads on the job. The collection as a whole offers a stimulating variety of views on a subject which is of importance to all teachers, as well as those concerned with management and decision making. Although first published some time ago, it explores issues that are ever present today.

First published in 1971, the five essays in this book were written by young philosophers at Cambridge at that time. They focus on two major questions of ethical theory: ‘What is it to judge morally?’ and ‘What makes a reason a moral reason?’. The book explores the relation of moral judgements to attitudes, emotions and beliefs as well as the notions of expression, agency, and moral responsibility.

First published in 1983, this book focuses on the twentieth-century writer as both a product, and an interpreter, of his or her society. It explores the social basis of our conceptions of literature and the ways in which writing is affected by the media, institutional and technical, through which it reaches readers. The text looks at experiences of the period in terms of domestic and world affairs, sexuality, and philosophical and religious attitudes. It discusses the social and economic structures which specifically affect the act of writing, and considers the dominant developments of the period in three genres: novels, poetry and writing for theatre.

Friendship, Altruism, and Morality, originally published in 1980, gives an account of "altruistic emotions" (compassion, sympathy, concern) and friendship that brings out their moral value. Blum argues that moral theories centered on rationality, universal principle, obligation, and impersonality cannot capture this moral importance. This was one of the first books in contemporary moral philosophy to emphasize the moral significance of emotions, to deal with friendship as a moral phenomenon, and to challenge the rationalism of standard interpretations of Kant, although Blum’s "sentimentalism" owes more to Schopenhauer than to Hume. It was a forerunner to care ethics, and feminist ethics more generally; to virtue ethics; and to subsequent influential interpretations of Kant that attempted to room for altruistic emotion and friendship, and other forms of particularism and partialism. In addition, the work has been widely influential in religious studies, political theory, bioethics, and feminist ethics.

Max Byrd’s lucidly written and compelling volume aims to provide a scholarly introduction to one of the most puzzling pieces of eighteenth-century literature, and a stimulus to critical thought and discussion. Laurence Sterne – an eccentric and largely unsuccessful clergyman - was forty-six when he sat down in January of 1759 to being his literary masterpiece. Aside from his sermons, only two of which had ever been published, Sterne had little more to do with the literary life than any other respectable provincial clergyman. His explosion into the history of English literature occurred not only without preparation, but also without apparent aptitude. Tristram Shandy, first published in 1985, sketches Sterne’s life and literary antecedents, closely analysing key passages of his great satire and concluding with the critical history and bibliography. It will thus be of use to all students of eighteenth-century English literature.

First published in 1992, this is the first study of the work of Alice Munro to focus on her obsession with mothering, and to relate it to the hallucinatory quality of her magic realism. A bizarre collection of clowning mothers parade across the pages of Munro’s fiction, playing practical jokes, performing stunts, and dressing in disguises that recycle vintage literary images. Magdalene Redekop studies this with the aim of gaining increased understanding of Munro’s evolving comic vision.