"Individualism and the Western Liberal Tradition argues that ethnic influences are important for understanding the West. The prehistoric invasion of the Indo-Europeans had a transformative influence on Western Europe, inaugurating a prolonged period of what is labeled "aristocratic individualism" resulting from variants of Indo-European genetic and cultural influence. However, beginning in the seventeenth century and gradually becoming dominant was a new culture labeled "egalitarian individualism" which was influenced by preexisting egalitarian tendencies of northwest Europeans. Egalitarian individualism ushered in the modern world but may well carry the seeds of its own destruction."--Back cover.

This book examines the “ethics in relation to city and urbanism” by evaluating the strengths and limitations of rights as a conceptual tool from the comparative East–West perspective in resolving urban controversies (involving conflicts of rights between different classes, different groups within the present generation, present vs future generations, human vs animals, human vs plants and nature), thereby facilitating urban policy-making and good urban governance. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach integrating political theory, ethics, urban studies, public policy, making applications of ethics and political philosophy to social sciences to examine controversial urban issues in the Hong Kong context. It challenges the general conception that philosophy and ethics are detached from everyday life, with the philosophers engaging mainly in abstract intellectual pursuit and some of them even disdaining “pedestrian” applications of abstract thinking. This book makes applications of ethics and political philosophy to real-life urban contexts in Hong Kong, thereby trying to highlight the normative in order to throw new light to the general approach and strategy to deal with practical urban issues, facilitating “out-of-the-box” thinking in the field of housing and urban studies, stimulating scholars, researchers, and students in the fields, urban planners, urban managers, and other professionals as well as urban policy-makers.

In Kevin MacDonald’s Metaphysical Failure, Jonas E. Alexis offers a thoroughly researched, nuanced and lucid analysis of Kevin MacDonald’s thought, in particular MacDonald’s belief in biological and philosophical Darwinism. It is an important book that fills a critical gap in the literature on the history of revolutionary movements and Darwinism both in the West and in Asia. It is also a study that adds many significant strands to the densely interwoven history of ideas such as Malthusianism and Eugenics. Alexis’s book engages debates in the history of ideas—going back to Madison Grant and beyond—and the history of Darwinism. It challenges many of the life-long prevailing assumptions about identity politics and produces a powerful critique of how “scientific” theories have been misused to uphold misguided and faulty categorizations. Powerfully reasoned, and backed with a startling array of documented studies, Kevin MacDonald’s Metaphysical Failure presents an in-depth look at key beliefs behind many mistaken and consequently destructive actions taken by numerous writers and thinkers, particularly Darwin’s ardent enthusiasts and devoted disciples. The book presents eye-opening insights into the historical development of Darwin’s ideological project and how that project ended up crippling Darwin’s intellectual children—from Richard Dawkins, Francis Crick, James Watson, Daniel Dennett, Ernst Mayr, and E. O. Wilson to Kevin MacDonald, Richard Spencer, David Duke, and Jared Taylor.

Selected as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine in 2014! This book aims to deepen the student’s understanding of the complex ethical challenges that businesses face in an increasingly globalized world. As the world moves towards greater interdependence, it has been demonstrated that globalization is linked to economic growth. This raises a critical question: as a key player in fostering economic growth, how does the multinational corporation function as a moral agent? Global Capitalism, Culture, and Ethics offers a sophisticated analysis of theoretical ethical issues such as universalism versus pluralism; the connection between law and morality; the validity of a corporate social agenda; and the general parameters of moral responsibilities for multinational corporations. With these foundational issues addressed, the book proceeds to analyze a number of specific controversies such as the proper scope of political activism, disinvestment, environmental sustainability, and responsible sourcing from low wage countries. The analysis of globalization is not confined to a treatment of the moral obligations of multinational corporations, but also reviews the history of global capitalism, the interdependence between governments and multinational corporations, and the beneficial and harmful effects of globalization on social welfare. Weaving together themes from economics, history, philosophy, and law, this book allows the reader to appreciate globalization from multiple perspectives. Its theoretical cogency and uncompromising clarity make it a rewarding read for students interested in issues of ethics and globalization.

This book focuses on informed consent in African Traditional Medicine (ATM). ATM forms a large portion of the healthcare systems in Africa. WHO statistics show that as much as 80% of the population in Africa uses traditional medicine for primary health care. With such a large constituency, it follows that ATM and its practices should receive more attention in bioethics. By comparing the ethics of care approach with the ATM approach to Relational Autonomy In Consent (RAIC), the authors argue that the ATM focus on consent based on consensus constitutes a legitimate informed consent. This book is distinctive insofar as it employs the ethics of care as a hermeneutic to interpret ATM. The analysis examines the ethics of care movement in Western bioethics to explore its relational approach to informed consent. Additionally, this is the first known study that discusses healthcare ethics committees in ATM.

This title was first published in 2003. Theories of human rights are important, as they can be a means to challenging entrenched and oppressive power. These key essays take a philosophical approach to human rights, questioning dominant theories and offering different perspectives on their application.

This book argues that the liberal concept of rights presupposes and is grounded in an individualistic culture or shared way of relating, and that this particular shared way of relating emerged only in the wake of the Reformation in the modern West.

This textbook introduces students to the key changes in current global politics in order to help them make sense of major trends that are shaping our world. The emphasis on change in global politics helps students to recognize that genuinely new developments require citizens to change their beliefs and that new problems may appear even as old ones disappear. It is designed to encourage students to think ahead in new, open-minded ways, even as they come to understand the historical roots of the present. Key features: explains global politics using an historical approach assesses several types of theory so that students become aware of what theory is and why it is necessary for understanding global politics presents key aspects of global politics including the development of the nation-state, power, international law, war, foreign policy, security, terrorism, international organization, international political economy, the global south, the environment and globalization extensive pedagogy to reinforce learning - student activities, visual materials, definitions of key terms and names, learning boxes, cultural materials, key documents, annotated bibliography and website addresses (support website with lecturers' materials, datasets and updates). Introduction to Global Politics will be essential reading for students of political science, global politics and international relations.

This book analyses South Asian Islam’s engagement with the West, and Britain in particular. It traces the roots of British multiculturalism to South Asia and the Deobandi school of Islam. The work shows how the pattern of interaction that initially emerged between the Deobandi Muslims and the colonial British state in late-19th century replicated itself in the British society in the second half of 20th century. The monograph reflects upon Islam’s ‘compatibility’ with liberal democracy as well as explores how it contributed to its origins in the Enlightenment ethos. A nuanced, sensitive and topical study, this book will be essential to understanding the world in the light of contemporary world events—Paris 13/11 and Charlie Hebdo attacks, the Danish cartoon controversy, and the Trojan Horse incident in certain British schools as well as the much earlier Rushdie affair. It will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of political science, religion, political Islam, British and South Asian Studies, and history.

Ethical Thought in Increasingly Complex Societies: Social Structure and Moral Development combines insights of developmental psychology and cultural anthropology to examine the development of moral thinking. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of small-scale communities of hunter-gatherers and farmers in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea, C.R. Hallpike studies the means by which individual thinking interacts with complex social factors to produce moral ideas and the effects of worldview on ethical systems. This book is recommended for scholars of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy.