Blackwell Public Philosophy

This timely and passionate book is the first to address itself to Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's controversial arguments for the limited use of interrogational torture and its legalisation. • Argues that the respectability Dershowitz's arguments confer on the view that torture is a legitimate weapon in the war on terror needs urgently to be countered • Takes on the advocates of torture on their own utilitarian grounds • Timely and passionately written, in an accessible, jargon-free style • Forms part of the provocative and timely Blackwell Public Philosophy series.

Religion is one of the most powerful forces running through human history, and although often presented as a force for good, its impact is frequently violent and divisive. This provocative work brings together cutting-edge research from both evolutionary and cognitive psychology to help readers understand the psychological structure of religious morality and the origins of religious violence. • Introduces a fundamentally new approach to the analysis of religion in a style accessible to the general reader • Applies insights from evolutionary and cognitive psychology to both Judaism and Christianity, and their texts, to help understand the origins of religious violence • Argues that religious violence is grounded in the moral psychology of religion • Illustrates its controversial argument with reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the response to the attacks from both the terrorists and the President. Suggests strategies for beginning to counter the divisive aspects of religion • Discusses the role of religion and religious criticism in the contemporary world. Argues for a position skeptical of the moral authority of religion, while also critiquing the excesses of the "new atheists" for failing to appreciate the moral contributions of religion

Grafting the Marxian idea that private property is coercive onto the liberal imperative of individual liberty, this new thesis from one of America's foremost intellectuals conceives a revised definition of justice that recognizes the harm inflicted by capitalism's hidden coercive structures. • Maps a new frontier in moral philosophy and political theory • Distills a new concept of justice that recognizes the iniquities of capitalism • Synthesis of elements of Marxism and Liberalism will interest readers in both camps • Direct and jargon-free style opens these complex ideas to a wide readership

Exploring the relationship between religion and the state Focusing on the intersection of religion, law, and politics in contemporary liberal democracies, Blackford considers the concept of the secular state, revising and updating enlightenment views for the present day. “Freedom of Religion and the Secular State” offers a comprehensive analysis, with a global focus, of the subject of religious freedom from a legal as well as historical and philosophical viewpoint. It makes an original contribution to current debates about freedom of religion and addresses a whole range of hot-button issues that involve the relationship between religion and the state, including the teaching of evolution in schools, what to do about the burqa, and so on.

Happy-People-Pills for All explores current theories of happiness while demonstrating the need to develop advanced pharmacological agents for the enhancement of our capacity for happiness and wellbeing. • Presents the first detailed exploration of the enhancement of happiness • A controversial yet rigorous argument that demonstrates the moral imperative for the development and mass distribution of 'happy-pills', to promote the wellbeing of the individual and society • Brings together the philosophy, psychology and biology of happiness • Maps the development of the next generation of positive mood pharmacology • Offers a corrective to contemporary accounts of happiness

The rapid and ongoing evolution of digital technologies has transformed the way the world communicates and digests information. Fueled by a 24-hour news cycle and post-truth politics, media consumption and the technologies that drive it have become more influential in shaping public opinion, and it has become more imperative than ever to examine their social and ethical consequences. “Ethics for a Digital Era” provides a penetrating analysis of the ethical issues that have emerged as the digital revolution progresses, including journalistic practices that impact on the truth, reliability, and trustworthiness of communicating information. The volume explores new methods and models for ethical inquiry in a digital world and maps out guidelines for web-based news producers and users to conceptualize ethical issues and analyze ethically questionable acts. In each of three thematic sections, Deni Elliott and Edward H. Spence reflect upon shifts in media ethics as contemporary mass communication combines traditional analog practices with new forms like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and social media posts, and evolves into an interactive medium with users who both produce and consume the news. Later chapters apply a process of normative decision-making to some of the most important issues which arise in these interactions and encourage users to bridge their own thinking between the virtual and physical worlds of information and its communication. Timely and thought-provoking, Ethics for a Digital Era is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students in media and mass communication, applied ethics, and journalism, as well as general readers interested in the ethical impact of their media consumption.

“The Secular Outlook: In Defense of Moral and Political Secularism” shows how people can live together and overcome the challenge of religious terrorism by adopting a "secular outlook" on life and politics. • Shows how secularism can answer the problem of religious terrorism • Provides new perspectives on how religious minorities can be integrated into liberal democracies • Reveals how secularism has gained a new political and moral significance. • Also examines such topics as atheism, religious criticism and free speech

We now live in an era defined by the ubiquity of the internet. From our everyday engagement with social media to trolls on forums and the emergence of the dark web, the internet is a space characterized by unreality, isolation, anonymity, objectification, and rampant self-obsession-the perfect breeding ground for new, unprecedented manifestations of evil. Evil Online is the first comprehensive analysis of evil and moral character in relation to our increasingly online lives. Chapters consider traditional ideas around the phenomenon of evil in moral philosophy and explore how the dawn of the internet has presented unprecedented challenges to older theoretical approaches. Cocking and Van den Hoven propose that a growing sense of moral confusion-moral fog-pushes otherwise ordinary, normal people toward evildoing, and that values basic to moral life such as autonomy, intimacy, trust, and privacy are put at risk by online platforms and new technologies. This new theory of evildoing offers fresh insight into the moral character of the individual and opens the way for a burgeoning new area of social thought. A comprehensive analysis of an emerging and disturbing social phenomenon, Evil Online examines the morally troubling aspects of the internet in our society. Written not only for academics in the fields of philosophy, psychology, information science, and social science, “Evil Online” is accessible and compelling reading for anyone interested in understanding the emergence of evil in our digitally-dominated world.

This highly original work introduces the ideas and arguments of the ancient Chinese philosophies of Confucianism and Daoism to some of the most intractable social issues of modern American life, including abortion, gay marriage, and assisted suicide. • Introduces the precepts of ancient Chinese philosophers to issues they could not have anticipated • Relates Daoist and Confucian ideas to problems across the arc of modern human life, from birth to death • Provides general readers with a fascinating introduction to Chinese philosophy, and its continued relevance • Offers a fresh perspective on highly controversial American debates, including abortion, stem cell research, and assisted suicide

The 2nd Edition of Who Owns You, David Koepsell's widely acclaimed exploration of the philosophical and legal problems of patenting human genes, is updated to reflect the most recent changes to the cultural and legal climate relating to the practice of gene patenting. • Lays bare the theoretical assumptions that underpin the injustice of patents on unmodified genes • Makes a unique argument for a commons-by-necessity, explaining how parts of the universe are simply not susceptible to monopoly claims • Represents the only work that attempts to first define the nature of the genetic objects involved before any ethical conclusions are reached • Provides the most comprehensive accounting of the various lawsuits, legislative changes, and the public debate surrounding AMP v. Myriad, the most significant case regarding gene patents