Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants
An Introduction to Ethics
Ruwen Ogien author Martin Thom translator
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Columbia University Press
Published:2nd Jun '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Savoring the philosophical richness of everyday Experience.
Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants makes philosophy fun, tactile, and popular. Moral thinking is simple, Ruwen Ogien argues, and as inherent as the senses. In our daily experiences, in the situations we confront and in the scenes we witness, we develop an understanding of right and wrong as sophisticated as the moral outlook of the world's most gifted philosophers. By drawing on this knowledge to navigate life's most perplexing problems, ethics becomes second nature. Ogien explores, through experimental philosophy and other methods, the responses nineteen real-world conundrums provoke. Is a short, mediocre life better than no life at all? Is it acceptable to kill a healthy person so his organs can save five others? Would you swap a "natural" life filled with frustration, disappointment, and partial success for a world in which all of your needs are met, but through artificial and mechanical means? Ogien doesn't seek to show how difficult it is to determine right from wrong or how easy it is for humans to become monsters or react like saints. Helping us tap into the wisdom and feeling we already possess in our ethical "toolboxes," Ogien instead encourages readers to question moral presuppositions and rules; embrace an intuitive sense of dignity, virtue, and justice; and pursue a pluralist ethics suited to the principles of human kindness.
Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants is Ruwen Ogien at his very best. The book's richness lies in Ogien's endeavor to do philosophy from the reality of lived experience rather than the kind of imaginary reflection that is characteristic of so much of philosophy. -- Laurence Thomas, Syracuse University A lucid translation of a wide-ranging intellectual foray. Booklist (starred review)
ISBN: 9780231169226
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
256 pages