The most recent installment of the Reappraisals series, which examines the range of meanings associated with animals in the Canadian literary imagination.

English summary: Taking into account the relevant and mostly contemporary ango-american debates concering collective intentionality, the author eximanes what it means to share reasons and other intentional states such as thoughts and emotions. The guiding question of the dissertation is in what way and to what extent morality and therefore self-consciousness can be understood as conditions of possibility for the sharing of mental states, especially reasons. The dissertation is a contribution mainly to fields of research in practical philosophy (normative ethics and moral psychology) and in social philosophy (collective intentionality analysis) and rational choice theory. German description: Juliette Gloors Monographie fragt aus hauptsachlich analytischer Perspektive und unter spezieller Berucksichtigung der einschlagigen anglo-amerikanischen Debatten, was es bedeutet, Grunde und andere intentionale Einstellungen zu teilen. Die Leitfrage der Untersuchung lautet, inwiefern Moral und damit Selbstbewusstsein als Bedingungen der Moglichkeit solchen Teilens begriffen werden konnen. Die Dissertation ist ein Beitrag zur Forschung innerhalb des Gebiets der Praktischen Philosophie (insbesondere der normativen Ethik) und der Sozialphilosophie (speziell im Bereich der Kollektiven Intentionalitat).

This is the first book-length treatment of the metaphysical foundations of ecological ethics. The author seeks to provide a metaphysical illumination of the fundamental ecological intuitions that we are in some sense `one with' nature and that everything is connected with everything else. Drawing on contemporary cosmology, systems theory and the history of philosophy, Freya Mathews elaborates a new metaphysics of `interconnectedness'. She offers an inspiring vision of the spiritual implications of ecology, which leads to a deepening of our conception of conservation.

You are a conscious intelligent living being, yet you are more than an individual being, since you are an entire living compound made of distinct living beings, all forming you, all contributing to your unique life and existence. Because you are your trillions of living cells, composing your body one after another. And with each cell, you are a zillion subcellular components forming you one molecule at a time and one cell near another, designing or creating your life one fulfilment at a time and one moment of existence after another, animating you from within in this manner, from the smallest subcellular level. Since this is who you are only at the physical, objective level, while all living beings generate, sustain, and coordinate continuously a multitude of intelligent modulations throughout the physical brain and entire body, forming your entire cognition, living intelligent impulses associated to your mind, consciousness, awareness, and intelligence. From the physical perspective of your body, these are simple encoded impulses within your neurons and therefore within your entire mind, and everybody has them, capable to sustain entire inner cognitive instances forming together your cognitive system, your entire mind, in all its thoughts, awareness, feelings, and reactions. But then, from an inner, cognitive perspective, all these physical impulses become alive, making everything possible throughout your mind, organism, life, and entire world, in a living intelligent manner, since these are your intelligences. All your intelligences are aware, conscious, and certainly intelligent, and through their own consciousness and intelligence, they give you your entire mind in all its cognitive abilities, becoming everything that you truly are. More precisely, your intelligences form your mind altogether, since the human mind is their living world, while your intelligences perform the entire cognitive activity within, just for you and for the entire organism. And now, their continuous existence is your life, while their purpose becomes your meaning, achievement, learning, and subsistence. Since among all your intelligences, you are the conscious intelligence yourself, specialized in the coordination of the entire organism in the outside world while fulfilling its needs, or while fulfilling your needs, since it is the same. Because your intelligences have their own specialized tasks and needs, together forming not only your mind, but your entire life, in its entire existence. Yet these are only your own intelligences, the human intelligences, while throughout this book, we focus on all intelligences of the wider world, including these. This book studies all intelligences, from living, cognitive, interconnective, and existential perspectives, throughout a comprehensive classification of everything alive and intelligent, helping you understand yourself, life, intelligence, consciousness, the world, and your conscious place, meaning, and fulfillment in life and in the world.

The principles found in the material presented in this book, delivered to me by Dr. Lucas, made so much sense to me at a critical juncture in my career. My plight was having achieved in my career, but not having believed in the self, though strongly believing in God as I was taught. Understanding the balance, the partnership described in this book, took me to another level. I believe it can do the same for any reader! ~Dr. Wally R. Smith Professor of Medicine Virginia Commonwealth University In God and the Self, author D. Pulane Lucas explores the dynamic and complex notions of God and the self from a number of philosophical perspectives, highlighting the evolving nature of discourse about the self. Opening with an examination of freedom, guilt and the moral law, this three-part volume examines the work of Kant, Coleridge, and Nietzsche before analyzing the views and influences of Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Schleiermacher on conceptions of God and the self. A final section on self-awareness investigates the self from the pragmatic perspective and draws upon the works of William James and George Herbert Mead, with each essay in the volume examining a fundamental way of conceptualizing and understanding the self with a historical and theoretical perspective. Human beings are endowed with the abilities to self-reflect, imagine, and create. These capabilities have contributed to ancient and modern thinkers desires for deeper understandings of humanity, universal laws, and omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient beings. Exploring complex notions of God and the self can enhance cognitive flexibility and promote a more in-depth understanding of the self. With self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-empowerment, and self-appreciation, we can value our self-worth and reawaken the genius in each of us so that we can gain greater control of our thoughts, actions, and lives.

A recurring issues in American political life is the role that religion plays in public lawmaking. In this book, Lucinda Peach sheds new light on this discussion by proposing a fresh and pragmatic alternative.