Reasonably Vicious
By Candace Vogler
Review by Valérie Aucouturier on Tue, Feb 9th 2010. |  | How is it possible to act wrongly and rationally at the same time? It is one of the issues Reasonably Vicious addresses. To address it, Vogler chooses to follow the Aristotelian-Aquinian tradition (notably represented by Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse) and therefore focuses on practical reason on the one hand, and on the concept of the good on the other hand. She suggests an interesting way of rethinking practical reasoning within the framework of moral philosophy and reconsiders, with Aristotle, Aquinas and Anscombe, how the notion of the good could take a more cont
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The Duty to Protect
Ethical, Legal, and Professional Considerations for Mental Health Professionals
By James L. Werth Jr., Elizabeth Reynolds Welfel, G. Andrew H. Benjamin (Editors)
Review by Roger Chao on Tue, Jan 26th 2010. | For most mental health professionals today, one of the most perplexing and stressful issues encountered in their working life, is that of their legal and ethical obligations regarding situations where their client is at risk of harming others or themselves. Ever since the Tarasoff case (Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 1976) when the term "Duty to Warn" was first defined, the legal obligations of these MHPs (Mental Health Professionals) has grown increasingly confusing due to the vagueness and constant changes of the law regarding the limits of MHP/client confidentiality. W
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The Ethics of the Lie
By Jean-Michel Rabaté
Review by Corey McCall, Ph.D. on Tue, Jan 19th 2010. |  | It would seem to be a clear-cut distinction, this distinction between telling the truth and telling a lie. But just as it was with Augustine and the nature of time, this clear distinction between truth and lying becomes hazy when we think about it. Similar to Augustine confessing (among other things) that he thinks he knows what temporality is when not reflecting on it, but as soon as he begins to think about it, he becomes flummoxed, Rabaté's work threatens to leave readers baffled as well. Reflecting upon the nature of lying is what Rabaté proposes to do in th
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Relativism and Human Rights
A Theory of Pluralistic Universalism
By Claudio Corradetti
Review by Andrew Lambert, Ph.D. on Tue, Jan 19th 2010. | Claudio Corradetti's book is a thoughtful attempt to find an adequate theoretical foundation for human rights. Its approach is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on issues in analytical philosophy as well as contemporary political theorists, and the result is a densely argued text aimed at scholars already familiar with the issues covered.
The main project of the book can be understood as a response to two prominent positions in debates about the basis for human rights. The first position can be described as 'relativism': the identification of human rights is necessarily confined to the li
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The Ugly Laws
Disability in Public
By Susan M. Schweik
Review by Tom Shakespeare, Ph.D. on Tue, Jan 5th 2010. |  | Amidst the explosion of work in disability studies over the last few decades, a particularly welcome development has been the growth of historical research into the conditions which disabled people have experienced and endured in different epochs and in different cultural settings. Prominent in this new field of academic endeavor have been American scholars such as Paul Longmore, Rosemarie Garland Thomson and Lennard Davis. Now Susan Schweik adds to this impressive literature with a thoroughly satisfying exploration of what should more accurately be called "unsightly beggar ordinan
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Subjectivity and Being Somebody
Human Identity and Neuroethics
By Grant Gillett
Review by Fauve Lybaert on Tue, Dec 29th 2009. | Grant Gillett's Subjectivity and Being Somebody. Human Identity and Neuroethics belongs to the series St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs. This series, under the general editorship of John Haldane, originates in the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St Andrews. It wants to represent 'study in those areas of philosophy most relevant to topics of public importance' and hereby advance 'the contribution of philosophy in the discussion of these topics.'
The author of the book, Grant Gillett, is a neurosurgeon and professor of medical ethics at th
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Acts of Conscience
World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors
By Steven J. Taylor
Review by E. James Lieberman, M.D. on Tue, Dec 29th 2009. |  | Steven Taylor is professor of cultural foundations of education at Syracuse University and co-director of SU's Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies. The book is first in a series, "Critical Perspectives on Disability." The jacket brings high praise from Simi Linton (My Body Politic) and Daniel Berrigan, SJ, who calls this book "an urgent, eloquent summons in a dark time."
It is a large undertaking in many ways (7 x 10", 2.1 pounds). Taylor came of age in the Vietnam era, opposed the war though did not understand the CO position in the time of WW II nor did he apply for that stat
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A Very Bad Wizard
Morality Behind the Curtain
By Tamler Sommers
Review by Joshua May on Tue, Dec 29th 2009. | A Very Bad Wizard is a collection of delightful interviews or conversations conducted by philosopher Tamler Sommers. Sommers interviews an array of researchers--from psychologists to primatologists to philosophers--who all have one thing in common: their work has direct implications for the study of morality. The distinguished interviewees are Galen Strawson, Philip Zimabrdo, Franz De Waal, Michael Ruse, Joseph Henrich, Joshua Greene, Liane Young, Jonathan Haidt, Stephen Stich, and William Ian Miller. I read the book on my flights back to the West Coast after picking it up a
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