Humanistisk filosofi

The forgotten story of the nineteenth-century freethinkers and twentieth-century humanists who tried to build their own secular religionIn The Church of Saint Thomas Paine, Leigh Eric Schmidt tells the surprising story of how freethinking liberals in nineteenth-century America promoted a secular religion of humanity centered on the deistic revolutionary Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and how their descendants eventually became embroiled in the culture wars of the late twentieth century.After Paine's remains were stolen from his grave in New Rochelle, New York, and shipped to England in 1819, the reverence of his American disciples took a material turn in a long search for his relics. Paine's birthday was always a red-letter day for these believers in democratic cosmopolitanism and philanthropic benevolence, but they expanded their program to include a broader array of rites and ceremonies, particularly funerals free of Christian supervision. They also worked to establish their own churches and congregations in which to practice their religion of secularism.All of these activities raised serious questions about the very definition of religion and whether it included nontheistic fellowships and humanistic associations-a dispute that erupted again in the second half of the twentieth century. As right-wing Christians came to see secular humanism as the most dangerous religion imaginable, small communities of religious humanists, the heirs of Paine's followers, were swept up in new battles about religion's public contours and secularism's moral perils.An engrossing account of an important but little-known chapter in American history, The Church of Saint Thomas Paine reveals why the lines between religion and secularism are often much blurrier than we imagine.

Should transhuman and posthuman persons ever be brought into existence? And if so, could they be generated in a good and loving way? This study explores how society may respond to the actual generation of new kinds of persons from ethical, philosophical, and theological perspectives. Contributors to this volume address a number of essential questions, including the ethical ramifications of generating new life, the relationships that generators may have with their creations, and how these creations may consider their generation. This collection's interdisciplinary approach traverses the philosophical writings of Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, alongside theological considerations from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. It invites academics, faith leaders, policy makers, and stakeholders to think through the ethical gamut of generating posthuman and transhuman persons.

Be an observer of life. Let love walk in. If love needs to go, then let love walk out. Feel the pain, the joy and the grief. My words are inspired by life, people, nature, joy, grief, love and loss. Many things can inspire the human heart. I've learned over the years of being a long-time hospice nurse that I'd rather feel pain then to not feel at all. Life can get messy, but we get through it with the help of others. When we do get through our uncomfortable season, we can experience joy and fully appreciate the extent of that emotion. We also inherit the compassion to help others through their tough seasons. I encourage you to keep your hearts open, no matter what happens. Love always wins! -Jeanene Kranyik I have worked 35 years in the healthcare field. I was a Certified Nursing Assistant working in nursing homes, homehealth, a hospital and group homes for developmentally disabled children and adults. After 9 years and working my way through college I became a Registered Nurse. I started out in the hospital as a medical surgical nurse, then worked as a hospice nurse for 18 years. I took a break from hospice and worked almost four more years with developmentally disabled adults. I was drawn back to hospice nursing where I continue to work as an On Call visit nurse.

"Business guru Peters’ book combines his thoughts—and the words of many others he quotes throughout the volume—with the design work of Nancye Green to create a motivational objet d’art that is both aesthetically pleasing and thought provoking ... A gift book approach to leadership lessons that delivers highlights elegantly." —KIRKUS REVIEWSTom Peters’ Compact Guide to Excellence (IdeaPress Publishing) is full of inspiration for anyone aged 20 to 80, from cashiers to CEOs. Legendary best-selling business author Tom Peters partnered with the iconic designer Nancye Green of Donovan/Green to create this guidebook for leaders in the workplace. Peters and Green have packed this strikingly designed little book with exhilarating quotes that will urge you to recognize what truly matters at work. Over the decades, Peters has gathered these gems of wisdom from those who have been down in the trenches creating extraordinary places to work. Green has wrought the most accessible and captivating way to absorb that wisdom.Tom Peters’ Compact Guide to Excellence argues that business leaders must start putting people really first and start helping them prepare for a rocky future. As we come to terms with the debilitating pandemic, confront extreme wealth inequality, and wrestle with destabilizing technological revolutions still in their infancy, it is clear that “Extreme Humanism”—treating one another humanely—is the best path forward.The insights you’ll find in Tom Peters’ Compact Guide to Excellence will move you to action, to vigorously and passionately support our communities, provide products and services that stun our clientele with their excellence and verve, and serve our ailing planet. It’s not just the best path forward, it’s the path that can engender purpose and pride in all of us who perform the work. Take this guidebook to work, on your travels, wherever you need to be reminded of excellence. Better yet, share this book—an exquisite gift—with anyone who needs a jolt of genius.

Uncovering the theoretical and creative interconnections between posthumanism and philosophies of immanence, this volume explores the influence of the philosophy of immanence on posthuman theory; the varied reworkings of immanence for the nonhuman turn; and the new pathways for critical thinking created by the combination of these monumental discourses. With the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari serving as a vibrant node of immanence, this volume maps a multiplicity of pathways from Deleuze, Guattari and their theoretical allies - including Spinoza and Nietzsche - to posthuman thought. As positions that insist, respectively, on the equal yet distinct powers of mind and body (immanence) and the urgent need to dismantle human privilege and exceptionality (posthumanism), each chapter reveals concepts for rethinking established notions of being, thought, experience, and life. The authors here take examples from a range of different media, including literature and contemporary cinema, featuring films such as Enthiran/The Robot (India, 2010) and CHAPPiE (USA/Mexico, 2015), and new developments in technology and theory. In doing so, they investigate Deleuzian and Guattarian posthumanism from a variety of political and ethical frameworks and perspectives, from afro-pessimism to feminist thought, disability studies, biopolitics, and social justice. Countering the dualisms of Cartesian philosophy and flattening the hierarchies imposed by Humanism, From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism launches vital interrogations of established knowledge and sparks the critical reflection necessary for life in the posthuman era.

If societies, like institutions, are built to endure, then the bond that exists between generations must be considered. Constructing a framework to establish a philosophy of future generations, Tiziana Andina explores the factors that make it possible for a society to reproduce over time.Andina's study of the diachronic structure of societies considers the never-ending passage of generations, as each new generation comes to form a part of the new social fabric and political model. Her model draws on the anthropologies offered by classical political philosophies such as Hobbes and Machiavelli and the philosophies of power as discussed by Nietzsche. She confronts the ethics and function of this fundamental relationship, examines the role of transgenerationality in the formation and endurance of Western democracies and recognizes an often overlooked problem: each new generation must form part of social and political arrangements designed for them by the generations that came before.

In showing how the great philosophers of human history lived and thought - and what they thought about - Peter Cave provides an accessible and enjoyable introduction to thinking philosophically and how it can change our everyday lives. With a lightness of touch, he addresses questions such as: Is there anything 'out there' that gives meaning to our lives? Does reality tell us how we ought to live? What indeed is reality and what is appearance - and how can we tell the difference?This book paints vivid portraits of an assortment of inspiring thinkers: from Lao Tzu to Avicenna to Iris Murdoch; from Hannah Arendt to Socrates and Plato to Karl Marx; from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Sartre to Samuel Beckett - and let us not forget Lewis Carroll for some thought-provoking fantasies and Ludwig Wittgenstein for the anguishes of a genius. As well as displaying optimists and pessimists, believers and non-believers, the book displays relevance to current affairs, from free speech to abortion to the treatment of animals to our leaders' moral character.In each brief chapter, Cave brings to life these often prescient, always compelling philosophical thinkers, showing how their ways of approaching the world grew out of their own lives and times and how we may make valuable use of their insights today. Now, more than ever, we need to understand how to live, and how to understand the world around us. This is the perfect guide.

Constructing a theory of intimacy describing processes occurring between a 'human' subject and information creations, Jan Stasienko shows in what way and in what phases that relationship is built and what its nature is. He discusses technologies and genres related to the construction of a new television message (teleprompter, interactive television forms appearing both in the analogue and digital eras), composition of the film image and specificity of cinematic technologies (peep show, hybrid animation, digital visual effects). Also new-media technologies and genres will be discussed (for example, aspects relating to computer games and Web portals making video materials available). This diversity is prompted by the desire to show that the building of intimacy protocols is not the domain of the digital era, and on the other hand, that the posthumanism of media apparatus is a wide-ranging problem, i.e. the area encompasses various vehicles findable throughout various historical periods.

Survival in the twenty-first century is a personal, interpersonal, and global challenge. The author of *Wealth of Self and Wealth of Nations* makes the remarkable claim that a change in viewpoint is needed. If something is to be done not just to survive but to make life more livable in this century, then we must bring ourselves to take thought, to take slow, radical thought, to appropriate the wealth of selves. This introductory book is something of a climber's guide for those wanting to ascend, and, as indicated by the subtitle, the axis of the ascent is you. McShane's primary aim is to "dialogue with you about you." So besides reading the various topics treated, you are invited to "read" yourself, to develop a methodological context, which is not a book but the viewpoint of a person.