A Decent Life PDF Download

Author: Todd May
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022678634X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

View

Book Description
Can we lead a fundamentally decent life without taking such drastic steps? Todd May has answers. He's not the sort of philosopher who tells us we have to be model citizens who display perfect ethics in every decision we make. He's realistic: he understands that living up to ideals is a constant struggle. May leads readers through the traditional philosophical bases of a number of arguments about what ethics asks of us, then he develops a more reasonable and achievable way of thinking about them, one that shows us how we can use philosophical insights to participate in the complicated world around us.

Author: Todd May
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022660974X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

View

Book Description
You’re probably never going to be a saint. Even so, let’s face it: you could be a better person. We all could. But what does that mean for you? In a world full of suffering and deprivation, it’s easy to despair—and it’s also easy to judge ourselves for not doing more. Even if we gave away everything we own and devoted ourselves to good works, it wouldn’t solve all the world’s problems. It would make them better, though. So is that what we have to do? Is anything less a moral failure? Can we lead a fundamentally decent life without taking such drastic steps? Todd May has answers. He’s not the sort of philosopher who tells us we have to be model citizens who display perfect ethics in every decision we make. He’s realistic: he understands that living up to ideals is a constant struggle. In A Decent Life, May leads readers through the traditional philosophical bases of a number of arguments about what ethics asks of us, then he develops a more reasonable and achievable way of thinking about them, one that shows us how we can use philosophical insights to participate in the complicated world around us. He explores how we should approach the many relationships in our lives—with friends, family, animals, people in need—through the use of a more forgiving, if no less fundamentally serious, moral compass. With humor, insight, and a lively and accessible style, May opens a discussion about how we can, realistically, lead the good life that we aspire to. A philosophy of goodness that leaves it all but unattainable is ultimately self-defeating. Instead, Todd May stands at the forefront of a new wave of philosophy that sensibly reframes our morals and redefines what it means to live a decent life.

Author: Ben Bradlee
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501191713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 544

View

Book Description
In this witty, candid memoir, Ben Bradlee, the most important, glamorous, and famous newspaperman of modern times, traces his path from Harvard to the battles of the Pacific war to the pinnacle of success as the editor of The Washington Post--during the Watergate scandal and every other important event of the last three decades. of photos.

Author: Meghan Sullivan
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984880322
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

View

Book Description
Two Philosophers Ask and Answer the Big Questions About the Search for Faith and Happiness For seekers of all stripes, philosophy is timeless self-care. Notre Dame philosophy professors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko have reinvigorated this tradition in their wildly popular and influential undergraduate course “God and the Good Life,” in which they wrestle with the big questions about how to live and what makes life meaningful. Now they invite us into the classroom to work through issues like what justifies our beliefs, whether we should practice a religion and what sacrifices we should make for others—as well as to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Iris Murdoch, and W. E. B. Du Bois have to say about how to live well. Sullivan and Blaschko do the timeless work of philosophy using real-world case studies that explore love, finance, truth, and more. In so doing, they push us to escape our own caves, ask stronger questions, explain our deepest goals, and wrestle with suffering, the nature of death, and the existence of God. Philosophers know that our “good life plan” is one that we as individuals need to be constantly and actively writing to achieve some meaningful control and sense of purpose even if the world keeps throwing surprises our way. For at least the past 2,500 years, philosophers have taught that goal-seeking is an essential part of what it is to be human—and crucially that we could find our own good life by asking better questions of ourselves and of one another. This virtue ethics approach resonates profoundly in our own moment. The Good Life Method is a winning guide to tackling the big questions of being human with the wisdom of the ages.

Author: Robert L. Turknett
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 0891062890
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

View

Book Description
Bring character back to the workplace. Inspiring people who lead with integrity move things forward, garner commitment from others, and are willing to ask the tough questions when necessary. These are the real leaders who generate and sustain cultures of character in organizations. Decent People, Decent Company now puts the power to develop the core qualities of leadership character into the hands of anyone dedicated to bringing integrity, respect, and personal responsibility back to the workplace - regardless of their place in the organization. Drawing on more than 25 years experience working with hundreds of CEO, managers, and teams, this innovative husband and wife team provide both the inspiration and the tools to help people move from asking "Why don't they?" to asking "What can I?" With their original and dynamic Leadership Character Model, the Turknetts have captured the essence of what it takes to revitalize attitudes and behavior, unleash leadership integrity, and reinvigorate organizations. Decent People, Decent Company identifies the eight essential traits of leadership character: empathy, emotional mastery, lack of blame, humility, accountability, courage, self-confidence, and focus on the whole. In chapters that focus on each quality individually, dozens of leaders, in their own words, bring to life the struggles and triumphs of developing the behaviours of character and ethical leadership required to bring out the best in everyone.

Author: Paul Downs
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399185291
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

View

Book Description
**A Forbes Best Business Book of the Year, 2015** **Winner of the 2015 800-CEO-READ Business Book Award in Entrepreneurship** When columnist Paul Downs was approached by The New York Times to write for their “You’re the Boss” blog, he had been running his custom furniture business for twenty-four years strong. or mostly strong. Now, in his first book, Downs paints an honest portrait of a real business, with a real boss, a real set of employees, and the real challenges they face. Fresh out of college in 1986, Downs opened his first business, a small company that builds custom furniture. In 1987, he hired his first employee. That’s when things got complicated. As his enterprise began to grow, he had to learn about management, cash flow, taxes, and so much more. But despite any obstacles, Downs always remained keenly aware that every small business, no matter the product it makes or the service it provides, starts with people. He writes with tremendous insight about hiring employees, providing motivation to get the best out of them, and the difficult decisions he’s made to let some of them go. Downs also looks outward, to his dealings with vendors and to providing each client with exemplary customer service from first sales pitch to final delivery. With honesty and conviction, he tells the true story behind building and sustaining a successful company in an ever-evolving economy, often airing his own failures and shortcomings to reveal the difficulties that arise from being a boss and a businessperson. Countless employees have told the story of their experience with managers—Boss Life tells the other side of that story.

Author: Clayton M. Christensen
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
ISBN: 1633692574
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 26

View

Book Description
In the spring of 2010, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply his wisdom to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life, which led to this now-classic article. Although Christensen’s thinking is rooted in his deep religious faith, these are strategies anyone can use. Since 1922, Harvard Business Review has been a leading source of breakthrough ideas in management practice. The Harvard Business Review Classics series now offers you the opportunity to make these seminal pieces a part of your permanent management library. Each highly readable volume contains a groundbreaking idea that continues to shape best practices and inspire countless managers around the world.

Author: Elijah Anderson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393070387
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

View

Book Description
Unsparing and important. . . . An informative, clearheaded and sobering book.—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1999 Critic's Choice) Inner-city black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence, but in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. This unwritten set of rules—based largely on an individual's ability to command respect—is a powerful and pervasive form of etiquette, governing the way in which people learn to negotiate public spaces. Elijah Anderson's incisive book delineates the code and examines it as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope.

Author: Avram Alpert
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691254680
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 336

View

Book Description
How an acceptance of our limitations can lead to a more fulfilling life and a more harmonious society We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible—a good-enough life for all. Avram Alpert shows how our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives. Alpert makes no false utopian promises, however. Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around. Visionary and provocative, The Good-Enough Life demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.

Author: Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739153137
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 463

View

Book Description
Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledges for a Decent Life is an edited collection that springs from the now dormant debates known as 'The Science Wars,' which questioned the nature of scientific theories. Learning from the debates about the plurality of truths and opinions, editor Boaventura de Sousa Santos has realized an opportunity for strengthening the relations between the natural and social sciences with more epistemological affinities and for opening up new transnational dialogues between scientists and other producers of knowledge. This book analyses in detail some of the topics that amount to a set of problematic relations between science and ethics; between objectivity and neutrality; between the sociological and theoretical condition of production and the limits of scientific rigor; between public faith in science and the economic powers that determine scientific priorities; and between science and other kinds of knowledge existing in society. Maintaining that global social injustice is by and large epistemological injustice and that there can be no global social justice without global cognitive justice, Cognitive Justice in a Global World is an important collection for higher-level students and researchers in the social sciences, philosophy of science, and intellectual history.