The fragility of goodness

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Marian Eide

"Marian Eide argues that the central concern of James Joyce's writing was the creation of a literary ethics. Eide examines Joyce's ethical preoccupations throughout his work, particularly the tension between his commitment as an artist and his social obligations as a father and citizen during a tumultuous period of European history. Eide argues that his narrative suggests ethics, which etymologically signifies both "character" and "habitat," might be understood as an interaction between immediate and intimate processes (character) and more external enduring structures (habitat). Drawing on feminist theory, Eide focuses on the ideas of alterity and difference. The literary ethics developed in this book proceed from a textual focus in order to examine how our assumptions about what it means to read and interpret produce within each reader an implicit ethical practice. This is the first study devoted to Joyce's ethical philosophy as it emerges in his writing."--Jacket.

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Gregg Camfield

In Sentimental Twain, Gregg Camfield examines the major and minor works of Mark Twain to redraw the boundaries between sentimentalism and realism in the second half of the nineteenth century. Beginning by taking the reactions to the question of race in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a test case, Camfield reveals that sentimental ethics persist, though buried, in American culture, and he argues that Americans' ambivalent responses to sentimentalism explain some of the continuing controversy surrounding Mark Twain's work. Specifically, he contends, insofar as the liberal agenda remains substantially sentimental - especially when dealing with issues of race - today's readers of Twain participate in the same dialectic between sentimental compassion and realistic cynicism that Twain himself confronted. Camfield then traces the cultural development of this ethical dialectic and follows Mark Twain's reactions to it, showing that Twain was a closet sentimentalist whose public attacks on sentimentalism veiled a deep longing for a more compassionate world. Throughout, Sentimental Twain is grounded in a discussion of philosophical contexts of nineteenth-century American sentimental literature, paying particular attention to the Scottish Common Sense philosophers, but looking forward to the Pragmatism of William James.

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Loretta M. Kopelman

K. Danner Clouser is one of the most important figures in establishing and shaping the fields of medical ethics, bioethics, and the philosophy of education in the second half of the twentieth century. Clouser challenged many established approaches to moral theory and offered innovative strategies for integrating the humanities into professional education, especially that of physicians and nurses. The contributions published in Building Bioethics: Conversations with Clouser and Friends on Medical Ethics are unique both in their devotion to a critical review of his contributions, and in bringing together internationally known figures in bioethics, medical ethics, and philosophy of medicine to comment upon Clouser's work. These leaders of the field include Tom Beauchamp, Daniel Callahan, James Childress, Nancy Dubler, H. Tristram Engelhardt, Al Jonsen, Loretta Kopelman, Larry McCullough, John Moskop, and Robert Veatch. This book merits special attention from those interested in bioethics, philosophy of medicine, medical ethics, philosophy, medical education, religious studies, and nursing education.

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Oskari Kuusela

Offers an introduction to a central topic in philosophy. This book offers an overview of the key terms, concepts, thinkers and major works in the history of this key area of philosophical thought. It provides detailed summaries of the key concepts in the study of moral philosophy. It is useful to undergraduate students of moral philosophy.