Philosophy   Tags: aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics, phil  

The emotions are at the centre of our lives and, for better or worse, imbue them with much of their significance. The philosophical problems stirred up by the existence of the emotions, over which many great philosophers of the past have laboured, revolve around attempts to understand what this significance amounts to. Are emotions feelings, thoughts, or experiences? If they are experiences, what are they experiences of? Are emotions rational? In what sense do emotions give meaning to what surrounds us?

The Emotions: A Philosophical Introduction introduces and explores these questions in a clear and accessible way. The authors discuss the following key topics:

* the diversity and unity of the emotions
* the relations between emotion, belief and desire
* the nature of values
* the relations between emotions and perceptions
* emotions viewed as evaluative attitudes
* the link between emotions and evaluative knowledge
* the nature of moods, sentiments, and character traits.

An illuminating introduction to fundamental questions in ethics.

How—and to what—we assign value, whether it is to events or experiences or objects or people, is central to ethics. Something is intrinsically valuable only if it would be valued for its own sake by all fully informed, properly functioning persons. Davison defends the controversial view that everything that exists is intrinsically valuable to some degree.

If only some things are intrinsically valuable, what about other things? Where and how do we draw the cutoff point? If only living creatures are intrinsically valuable, what does this imply for how we value the environment? If everything has intrinsic value, what practical implications does this have for how we live our lives? How does this view fit with the traditional theistic idea that God is the source of goodness and truth?

Both critics and proponents of the concept of intrinsic value will find something of interest in this careful investigation of the basic value structure of the world.

This title explores challenges to religious belief raised by evil and suffering in the world as well as responses to them from both theistic and non-theistic perspectives.

One of the most perplexing problems facing believers in God is the problem of evil. The words of Epicurus put the point concisely: 'Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world'?

This is a difficult problem to unpick and it remains an issue that continues to concern people and inspire debate. The problem has taken a variety of forms over the centuries; in fact, there are numerous 'problems' of evil - problems for theists but, perhaps surprisingly, problems for non-theists as well.