A community of individuals / John Lachs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lachs, John.

Series:

Routledge American philosophy series

The Routledge American philosophy series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy, American.

Physical Description:

221 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2003.

Summary:

Drawing on the spirit of classical American Philosophy, "A Community of Individuals" is an original, highly engaging, and important philosophical exploration of pressing personal and social problems. With clear, compelling, spirited writing, Lachs tackles a wide range of topics from the responsibility of educators and the role of education to the problems of aging and the desire for immortality, from genetic engineering and biomedical research to genocide and moral progress. The work also includes new, significant discussion of major American thinkers. The common theme running through the book is the complex relationships between individuality and community, and how we might think through their competing demands to live better lives.

Contents:

Part I. Intellectuals and Courage

1. Intellectuals and Courage 5

2. Reflections on Philosophy 11

3. Teaching as a Calling 15

4. Education in the Twenty-First Century 23

Part II. Issues for Individuals

5. What Humans Did Not Make 37

6. Valuational Species 47

7. Improving Life 59

8. Transcendence in Philosophy and in Everyday Life 73

9. The Vague Hope of Immortality 83

Part III. Problems for Communities

10. Both Better Off and Better: Moral Progress amid Continuing Carnage 97

11. The Significance of Purposes for Bioethics 109

12. Grand Dreams of Perfect People 115

13. Researchers and Their Subjects as Neighbors 125

14. Dying Old as a Social Problem 129

Part IV. American Philosophers

15. The Insignificance of Individuals 141

16. Santayana as Pragmatist 155

17. Neoplatonic Elements in the Spiritual Life 167

18. Peirce: Inquiry as Social Life 177

19. Peirce and Santayana on Purposes 187

20. Metaphysics and the Social Construction of Human Nature 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-217) and index.

ISBN:

0415941725

0415941733

OCLC:

51442548