Ethics Society

Peter Singer is often described as the world's most influential philosopher. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words. In this book of brief essays, he applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness.

Artificial intelligence powers Google's search engine, enables Facebook to target advertising, and allows Alexa and Siri to do their jobs. AI is also behind self-driving cars, predictive policing, and autonomous weapons that can kill without human intervention. These and other AI applications raise complex ethical issues that are the subject of ongoing debate. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers an accessible synthesis of these issues.

The book is one of the most influential ethical treatises of all time. Written in 350 BC, it identifies happiness as life's goal. How do we achieve this goal? Not through the satisfactions that come from pleasure, wealth, or fame. According to Aristotle, the true path to happiness lies in contemplation of philosophic truth. This is the only action through which humans can exercise their distinctively unique trait: the ability to reason.

Power, Belief, and Society: Understanding the Enduring Ideas of Max Weber offers an in-depth exploration of one of the most influential thinkers in sociology, politics, and economics. Max Weber’s work continues to shape how we understand authority, religion, bureaucracy, and the rational structures of the modern world. This book brings Weber’s complex ideas to life in clear, accessible language, connecting his theories to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Inside, readers will discover Weber’s analysis of the Protestant ethic and its connection to capitalism, his famous ...

Justice, Power, and Society: Exploring the Foundations of Moral and Political Theory is a clear and engaging guide to the ideas that have shaped human thought for centuries. From Plato’s vision of the just republic to Aristotle’s ethics of civic virtue, from social contract theory to Enlightenment ideals of liberty and rights, from utilitarianism to Marxist critiques of inequality, this book explores how great thinkers have answered the timeless questions: What is justice? Why should we obey laws? How can power be made legitimate? Moving beyond the classics, this book also examines the ...

"AI Ethics" offers a comprehensive exploration of the moral principles that should guide the development and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies. The book addresses the urgent need to ensure these technologies are aligned with ethical standards in an era where AI systems are becoming increasingly integrated into various aspects of society. This book provides a roadmap for understanding how AI can be innovative and ethical by examining the foundational ethical frameworks.

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in...

Contains the complete text of Albert Pikes never-before-published esoteric study of the symbols of Blue Lodge Degrees. Subjects include "The Compasses and the Square", "The Weapons and Blows of the Assassins", "The Three Grips", "The Substitute for the Masters Word", "The 47th Problem of Euclid", "The Truth", "Is the Cable-tow a Symbol?", "Corner Stones", "The Ladder of Jacob", "Tubal Cain", "Shibboleth", and "Solomon and Hiram".

Merchants of Doubt has been praised—and attacked—around the world, for reasons easy to understand. This book tells, with “brutal clarity” (Huffington Post), the disquieting story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER * ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE SUMMER * An NPR and Time Best Book of the Year * Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (Canada) * Finalist for CALIBA’s Golden Poppy Awards A successful art dealer confesses the story of his meteoric rise in this...

Noam Chomsky is widely known and deeply admired for being the founder of modern linguistics, one of the founders of the field of cognitive science, and perhaps the most avidly read political theorist and commentator of our time. In these lectures, he presents a lifetime of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas of research to which he has contributed for over half a century.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE of the TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR by THE NEW YORK TIMES * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * SLATE* THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER * Also named one of the BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Vanity Fair, Time, NPR, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, Self, Vogue, The New Yorker, BBC, Vulture, and many...

What makes us moral beings? How do we decide what is good and what is evil? And has it always been that way? Hanno Sauer's sweeping new history of humanity, covering five million years of our universal moral values, comes at a crucial moment of crisis for those values, and helps to explain how they arose—and why we need them. Modern societies are in crisis: a shared universal morality seems to be a thing of the past. Hanno Sauer explains why this appearance is deceptive: in fact, there are universal values that all people share.

The Wisdom of Confucius: Exploring the Teachings that Shaped Chinese Philosophy and Culture takes readers on a journey into the timeless insights of one of history’s greatest thinkers. More than two thousand years after his death, the teachings of Confucius continue to influence how people think about ethics, leadership, education, and social harmony. This book offers a clear and engaging introduction to his most important ideas, making them accessible to modern readers while preserving their depth and significance. Inside, you will discover: The life and historical context of Confucius, ...

The Craftsman explores the relation between the hand and the head. Richard Sennett argues that working with physical things stimulates people to think. Craftsmanship, says Sennett, names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. The computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen all engage in a craftsman's work. In this thought-provoking book, Sennett explores the work of craftsmen past and present.

The dominant cultural worldview is based upon extraction and exploitation practices that have brought us to the precipice of social, environmental, and climate collapse. Braiding poetic storytelling, climate justice analyses, and collective knowledge of Earth-centered cultures, The Story Is in Our Bones opens a portal to restoration and justice beyond the end of a world in crisis.

In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant–better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future...

Step into the Future with Confidence—Master AI Without the Jargon. Navigating the AI Frontier is your accessible, engaging, and essential guide to understanding how artificial intelligence is shaping our world—and how you can harness it. Whether you're a tech-curious beginner, a business leader, or an educator, this book walks you through AI’s evolution, its real-world applications, and what the future holds. From ChatGPT and self-driving cars to AI agents and ethical dilemmas, author Jonathan R. Whitestone unpacks the most important concepts in plain English—with analogies, real-...

This book presents a timely and significant addition to the ongoing discourse around the ethical implications of AI in general, as well as the new and disruptive AI technologies, such as generative AI platforms like ChatGPT.

Discover one of the most influential moral frameworks in history with Utilitarianism Explained: Understanding the Philosophy of the Greatest Good and How It Shapes Morality, Society, and Decision-Making. This clear, engaging guide takes you from the ancient roots of utilitarian thought to its refinement by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and shows how the greatest happiness principle continues to shape modern ethics, politics, economics, and personal choices. Whether you are a student of philosophy, a policymaker, or simply someone curious about moral reasoning, this book offers a ...