A scholarly edition of a work by Adam Smith. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Looks at how social customs have changed from medieval times to the present and speculates on the social needs manners fulfill.

Whose Keeper? is a profound and creative treatise on modernity and its challenge to social science. Alan Wolfe argues that modern liberal democracies, such as the United States and Scandinavia, have broken with traditional sources of mortality and instead have relied upon economic and political frameworks to define their obligations to one another. Wolfe calls for reinvigorating a sense of community and thus a sense of obligation to the larger society.

Encapsulating the recent debate on the concepts of modernity and postmodernity, this volume moves beyond speculative discussion to explore the idea of postmodernism at two levels. First, by relating the debate over postmodernity back to traditional social theory. And secondly, be demonstrating the application of postmodernity to the nature of modern societies and contemporary politics. Arguments over modernism and its aftermath are traced to their origins in art, literature, and architecture. The contributors then focus on the contribution of sociology to (...) this cultural dispute, both through the classical theories of Weber and Simmel and in more recent theories. They examine modernist rationality as put forth by Haberma's critical theory and contrast this theory with the works of Lyotard and Baudrillard. The theme of nostalgia as a response to modernization is thoroughly explored in terms of the loss of traditional values, the crisis of modern society, and the rise of sociology. A concluding discussion explores the implications of these arguments for politics, citizenship, the status of women, and social change. (shrink)

PREFACE The first three of these lectures, or rather an abbreviated version of them, were first given as the Lindsay Memorial Lectures at the University of ...

This classic and controversial book examines the roots of the idea of virtue, diagnoses the reasons for its absence in modern life, and proposes a path for its recovery.

The Metaphysics of Morals is Kant's major work in applied moral philosophy in which he deals with the basic principles of rights and of virtues. It comprises two parts: the 'Doctrine of Right', which deals with the rights which people have or can acquire, and the 'Doctrine of Virtue', which deals with the virtues they ought to acquire. Mary Gregor's translation, revised for publication in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series, is the only complete translation of the (...) whole text, and includes extensive annotation on Kant's difficult and sometimes unfamiliar vocabulary. A new introduction by Roger Sullivan sets the work in its historical and philosophical context. This volume will be of wide interest to students of ethics and of legal and political philosophy. (shrink)

Life in Fragments is a continuation of the themes and motifs explored in Zygmunt Bauman's acclaimed study, Postmodern Ethics (Blackwell, 1993).

Introduction: Morality in Modern and Postmodern Perspective Shattered beings are best represented by bits and pieces. Rainer Maria Rilke As signalled in its ...

The foundation for a system of morals, this 1749 work is a landmark of moral and political thought. Its highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment, and virtue offer a reconstruction of the Enlightenment concept of social science, embracing both political economy and theories of law and government.

This 1935 book answered some of the theological questions raised by Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) and articulated for the first time Niebuhr's theological position on many issues.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

This work examines Durkheim's concern with the sociology of morals and demonstrates the importance of this orientation of his social theory, which until now has been vastly underrated. In addition, it emphasizes the problematic relationship between sociology and philosophical ethics, which served as a motivating force in Durkheim's thought.