William Desmond sees religion, art, philosophy, and politics as essential and distinctive modes of human practice, manifestations of an intimate universality that illuminates individual and social being. They are also surprisingly permeable phenomena, and by observing their relations, Desmond captures notes of a clandestine conversation that transforms ontology.

Moral universalism, or the idea that some system of ethics applies to all people regardless of race, color, nationality, religion, or culture, must have a plurality over which to range — a plurality of diverse persons, nations, jurisdictions, or localities over which morality asserts a universal authority. The contributors to Moral Universalism and Pluralism, the latest volume in the NOMOS series, investigate the idea that, far from denying the existence of such pluralities, moral universalism presupposes it. At the same time, the search for universally valid principles of morality is deeply challenged by diversity. The fact of pluralism presses us to explore how universalist principles interact with ethical, political, and social particularisms. These important essays refuse the answer that particularisms should simply be made to conform to universal principles, as if morality were a mold into which the diverse matter of human society and culture could be pressed. Rather, the authors bring philosophical, legal and political perspectives to bear on the core questions: Which forms of pluralism are conceptually compatible with moral universalism, and which ones can be accommodated in a politically stable way? Can pluralism generate innovations in understandings of moral duty? How is convergence on the validity of legal and moral authority possible in circumstances of pluralism? As the contributors to the book demonstrate in a wide variety of ways, these normative, conceptual, and political questions deeply intertwine. Contributors: Kenneth Baynes, William A. Galston, Barbara Herman, F. M. Kamm, Benedict Kingsbury, Frank I. Michelman, William E. Scheuerman, Gopal Sreenivasan, Daniel Weinstock, and Robin West.

Rather than assume that the terms "philosophy" and "Judaism" simply belong together, Aaron W. Hughes explores the juxtaposition and the creative tension that ensues from their cohabitation. He examines the historical, cultural, intellectual, and religious filiations between Judaism and philosophy.

Humans are natural philosophizers who are constantly forming interpretations and expectations based upon their perceptions and prior experiences, including their familiarity with particular people and activities, and the social contexts within which these are situated. As human individuals, we all have an innate sense of philosophy in common. As individuals, the majority of us may be described as natural philosophers in that we are naturally philosophical about our lifeworld experiences and our need to interpret these as a basis for informing our understanding. This book introduces a novel theory which encompasses the Philosophy of Confidence-Informed Social Motivation (PCISM) and Philopsychlical Hermeneutics. The theory asserts that human individuals and groups function at optimum philosophical and psychological levels when their confidence, motivation, familiarity and expectation levels are at their peak. Confidence and motivation influence each other and work together as a dynamic combination of philosophical interpretations and psychological reactions which result in reciprocal interpretive feedback. Within the term philopsychlical, confidence, motivation, familiarity and expectation are presented as universal informants and influences upon human behaviour within all social contexts. PCISM is in the early stages of its evolution: however, the key tenets are discussed and presented here in such a way that they may be applied across all domains of human knowledge, behaviour and endeavour as a means of enhancing our further understanding of the universal economics of human behaviour.

Explores fundamental philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of life, particularly in relation to the search for extraterrestrial life.

Publisher Description

Scholars commonly take the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, written during the French Revolution, as the starting point for the modern conception of human rights. According to the Declaration, the rights of man are held to be universal, at all times and all places. But as recent crises around migrants and refugees have made obvious, this idea, sacred as it might be among human rights advocates, is exhausted. This book suggests that we need to think of a different idea of universality that exceeds the juridical universialism of the Declaration. Insurgent Universality investigates alternative trajectories of modernity that have been repressed, hindered, and forgotten. Investigating radical upheavals, Tomba excavates an alternative idea of universality that is based on popular political practices that disrupt and reject the existing political and economic order. The book shows how this tradition builds bridges between European and non-European political and social experiments.