Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude

Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude PDF Author: Joshua Lee Harris
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350289140
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Existential gratitude-gratitude for one's very existence or life as a whole-is pervasive across the most influential human, cultural and religious traditions. Weaving together analytic and continental, as well as non-western and historical philosophical perspectives, this volume explores the nexus of gratitude, existence and God as an inter-subjective phenomenon for the first time. A team of leading scholars introduce existential gratitude as a perennially and characteristically human phenomenon, central to the distinctive life of our species. Attention is given to the conditions under which existence itself might be construed as having a gift-like or otherwise gratitude-inducing character. Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, chapters mark out new territory in philosophical inquiry, addressing whether and in what sense we ought to be grateful for our very existence. By analysing gratitude, this collection makes a novel contribution to the discourse on moral emotions, phenomenology, anti-natalism and theology.

Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude

Philosophical Perspectives on Existential Gratitude PDF Author: Joshua Lee Harris
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350289140
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Get Book

Book Description
Existential gratitude-gratitude for one's very existence or life as a whole-is pervasive across the most influential human, cultural and religious traditions. Weaving together analytic and continental, as well as non-western and historical philosophical perspectives, this volume explores the nexus of gratitude, existence and God as an inter-subjective phenomenon for the first time. A team of leading scholars introduce existential gratitude as a perennially and characteristically human phenomenon, central to the distinctive life of our species. Attention is given to the conditions under which existence itself might be construed as having a gift-like or otherwise gratitude-inducing character. Drawing on a diversity of perspectives, chapters mark out new territory in philosophical inquiry, addressing whether and in what sense we ought to be grateful for our very existence. By analysing gratitude, this collection makes a novel contribution to the discourse on moral emotions, phenomenology, anti-natalism and theology.

Philosophies of Gratitude

Philosophies of Gratitude PDF Author: Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0197526861
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
"Philosophies of Gratitude is a study of gratitude as a philosophical concept. It explores what past philosophers from Aristotle to Kant have said about gratitude, and examines what role the idea of gratitude has played in their philosophies. It also looks at the three primary ways we think about gratitude - as an emotion we feel in response to a gift or benefit, as an act we perform to express our thankfulness, and as a virtuous disposition in which we are and feel ready to be grateful to the world we inhabit. Like love and trust, gratitude is a way we react to other people in our lives, sometimes for who they are (lovable or trustworthy) and sometimes for what they do (act benevolently towards us). It is a way we feel and act towards others. It is, in other words, a primary way we situate ourselves in relationships. Philosophies of Gratitude examines the key historical moments when gratitude was an important philosophical concept - in classical antiquity, in the early modern era, and in the Enlightenment - in order to discover what gratitude meant for those who produced our fundamental Western notions of ethics. It then examines the forms gratitude assumes - as a feeling, an act, a disposition - in order to discern what role our emotions play in our ethical responses to the world. Finally, it examines what we can say about ingratitude as a response that usually strikes us as base, in other words, as a moment when a human being fails to act morally, but also as a response that sometimes indicates a deeper kind of ethical stand against injustice"--

Perspectives on Gratitude

Perspectives on Gratitude PDF Author: David Carr
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317568435
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Psychologists, philosophers, theologians and educationalists have all lately explored various conceptual, moral, psychological and pedagogical dimensions of gratitude in a rapidly expanding academic and popular literature. However, while the distinguished contributors to this work hail from these distinct disciplines, they have been brought together in this volume precisely in recognition of the need for a more interdisciplinary perspective on the topic. While further developing such more familiar debates in the field as whether it is appropriate to feel grateful in circumstances in which there is no obvious benefactor, whether it is proper to feel grateful to those who have benefited one only from a sense of duty and whether it makes sense to be grateful if so doing colludes with injustice, the essays in this collection explore a wide variety of fresh conceptual, psychological and moral issues. For example, in addition to identifying some new moral paradoxes about gratitude and seeking a generally more morally discriminating approach to gratitude education, relations are explored between gratitude and humility, forgiveness and appreciation and the religious and spiritual dimensions of the concept are also given much overdue attention. By drawing together serious academic engagement with the study of gratitude and a serious attempt to undertake this within an interdisciplinary perspective, Perspectives on Gratitude will be of value to academics and graduate students in the fields of philosophy, psychology and theology, as well as other research-based disciplines.

Thanks!

Thanks! PDF Author: Robert A. Emmons
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547085739
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A scientifically groundbreaking, eloquent look at how we benefit -- psychologically, physically, and interpersonally -- when we practice gratitude. In Thanks!, Robert Emmons draws on the first major study of the subject of gratitude, of “wanting what we have,” and shows that a systematic cultivation of this underexamined emotion can measurably change people’s lives."--

The Solace

The Solace PDF Author: Joshua Glasgow
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190074329
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
How can we find solace when we face the death of loved ones? How can we find solace in our own death? When philosopher Joshua Glasgow's mother was diagnosed with cancer, he struggled to answer these questions for her and for himself. Though death and immortality introduce some of the most basic and existentially compelling questions in philosophy, Glasgow found that the dominant theories came up short. Recalling the last months of his mother's life, Glasgow reveals the breakthrough he finally arrived at for himself, from which readers can learn and find solace. When we are grateful for life, we value all of it, and this includes death, its natural culmination. Just as we are grateful for the value in our lives, we can affirm this value in death. This is how to face death in a way that is both rational and comforting--in a way that provides solace. Too often we think about death as nothing but a loss. But if we shift our thinking, we can focus on how the goodness of life radiates to all its parts, even to death itself. In this way, we can find solace in death without having to resort to sentimentalism, and we can do so in a way that is equally relevant for the religious and non-religious. This path to solace provides a reassuring and significant tool for those grappling with the fact that we pass away.

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment PDF Author: Robert Guay
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190464046
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The gruesome double-murder upon which the novel Crime and Punishment hinges leads its culprit, Raskolnikov, into emotional trauma and obsessive, destructive self-reflection. But Raskolnikov's famous philosophical musings are just part of the full philosophical thought manifest in one of Dostoevsky's most famous novels. This volume, uniquely, brings together prominent philosophers and literary scholars to deepen our understanding of the novel's full range of philosophical thought. The seven essays treat a diversity of topics, including: language and the representation of the human mind, emotions and the susceptibility to loss, the nature of agency, freedom and the possibility of evil, the family and the failure of utopian critique, the authority of law and morality, and the dialogical self. Further, authors provide new approaches for thinking about the relationship between literary representation and philosophy, and the way that Dostoevsky labored over intricate problems of narrative form in Crime and Punishment. Together, these essays demonstrate a seminal work's full philosophical worth--a novel rich with complex themes whose questions reverberate powerfully into the 21st century.

Second Wave Positive Psychology

Second Wave Positive Psychology PDF Author: Itai Ivtzan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317578724
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Positive psychology is currently equated with theory and research on the positive aspects of life. The reality could not be further from the truth. Positive psychology investigates and researches some of the most difficult and painful experiences. Second Wave Positive Psychology: Embracing the Dark Side of Life is an innovative and groundbreaking textbook that explores a variety of topics we consider to be part of the ‘dark’ side of life while emphasising their role in our positive functioning and transformation as human beings. This more nuanced approach to the notions of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ can be described as the ‘second wave' of Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology is one of the fastest growing and least understood branches of psychology. Exploring topics at the heart of Positive Psychology, such as meaning, resilience, human development, mortality, change, suffering, and spirituality, this book engages with so-called ‘negative’ matters from a Positive Psychology angle, showing how the path of personal development can involve experiences which, while challenging, can lead to growth, insight, healing and transformation. Containing useful resources, case studies, practical exercises and chapter summaries, Second Wave Positive Psychology is an essential guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying positive psychology, as well as clinicians wanting to know more about the subject. It will also be relevant to the layperson who is interested in positive psychology.

Human Dignity

Human Dignity PDF Author: George Kateb
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674264975
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
We often speak of the dignity owed to a person. And dignity is a word that regularly appears in political speeches. Charters are promulgated in its name, and appeals to it are made when people all over the world struggle to achieve their rights. But what exactly is dignity? When one person physically assaults another, we feel the wrong demands immediate condemnation and legal sanction. Whereas when one person humiliates or thoughtlessly makes use of another, we recognize the wrong and hope for a remedy, but the social response is less clear. The injury itself may be hard to quantify. Given our concern with human dignity, it is odd that it has received comparatively little scrutiny. Here, George Kateb asks what human dignity is and why it matters for the claim to rights. He proposes that dignity is an “existential” value that pertains to the identity of a person as a human being. To injure or even to try to efface someone’s dignity is to treat that person as not human or less than human—as a thing or instrument or subhuman creature. Kateb does not limit the notion of dignity to individuals but extends it to the human species. The dignity of the human species rests on our uniqueness among all other species. In the book’s concluding section, he argues that despite the ravages we have inflicted on it, nature would be worse off without humanity. The supremely fitting task of humanity can be seen as a “stewardship” of nature. This secular defense of human dignity—the first book-length attempt of its kind—crowns the career of a distinguished political thinker.

Why Does the World Exist

Why Does the World Exist PDF Author: Jim Holt
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404095
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.

Existential Perspectives and Victorian Literature

Existential Perspectives and Victorian Literature PDF Author: Harriet Sue Chamberlain
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 834

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Book Description