Showing results for "Better" in Philosophy

Even the most reasonable of us can be selective about when we think reasonably. We may realize that the best thing to do is to take the advice of our doctor when facing a medical issue. When shopping for a new car or appliance we might carefully assess online reviews and weigh our options calmly before making an informed decision. But when it comes to things that feel more fraught, we might throw this approach out the window, dismissing facts and patterns that form a body of evidence, and trust our gut.

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.

In these turbulent times when wars, religious strife, stifling bureaucracy, and urban decay threaten our very humanity, reducing us to social statistics, a fresh approach to the creation of a truly viable society is desperately needed. In this intellectual tour de force J. Donald Walters analyzes with deep insight the views expressed by many of the great thinkers in the West, including Plato, Copernicus, Machiavelli, Malthus, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud.

Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. Thus, if they ever do reflect on whether they should bring others into existence—rather than having children without even thinking about whether they should—they presume that they do them no harm. Better Never to Have Been challenges these assumptions. David Benatar argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm.

“There are at least two kinds of games,” states James Carse as he begins this extraordinary book. “One could be called finite; the other, infinite.” Carse explores these questions with stunning elegance, teasing out of his distinctions a universe of observation and insight, noting where and why and how we play, finitely and infinitely. He surveys our world - from the finite games of the playing field and playing board to the infinite games found in culture and religion - leaving all we think we know illuminated and transformed.

Wherever there’s a rule, there is someone with the power to apply or ignore it—or add to it, in the interest of justice. From enforcing chores to issuing life sentences, decision-makers deliver flawed and sometimes arbitrary outcomes. But is their use of discretion good or bad overall? As a society, should we seek to minimize or maximize discretion, with all its potential for bias and other kinds of human error? Reframing our understanding of justice and ethics, philosopher Barry Lam argues that while use of discretion can never be perfect, removing it has even more problematic effects.

In this recording, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lectures on the Heart of the Prajñaparamita Sutra, which is regarded as the essence of Buddhist teachings. To this day, the Heart Sutra is recited daily in Mahayana temples and practice centers throughout the world.

Yoga instructor, nutrition expert, and healthy-living blogger Elise Marie Collins has compiled a comprehensive look at what "Super Agers" are doing to live long and prosper. Learn about movement at any age, brain fitness and memory maintenance, foods, vitamin and mineral content cues and clues, and what they do to promote health, prevent disease, and decrease and reverse symptoms of illness. In this revolutionary book, Collins presents us with a bold new paradigm of aging, telling us how we can increase not only our lifespan but also our health span.

Robert Rubin, former secretary of the Treasury and co-chairman of Goldman Sachs, shares thoughts on decision-making developed over more than six decades in markets, business, government, and politics, and offers readers an astute and original guide for navigating uncertain times In 1958, as a...

Whether or not we're aware of them, we make important ethical decisions all the time - as professionals, consumers, citizens, parents, sons and daughters, and friends. These 24 thought-provoking lectures offer you the chance to reflect on some of the most powerful moral issues we face in our daily lives: Is it ever OK to lie? What are our moral obligations to others? What is the key to living the good life? From Plato to Kant to Bonhoeffer, you'll see how some of the world's greatest thinkers from across the ages have approached similar problems.

From one of America’s top meditation teachers and mindfulness experts comes a revolutionarily simple approach to everyday practice—especially if you don’t think you have the time or the patience. Imagine you’re sitting on a cushion with your legs crossed, ready to tap into unlimited joy...

Steven Pinker's 12-part guide to thinking better 'A paean to human potential' The Telegraph Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him. With the aid of his critical thinking toolkit, he hopes to help us make smarter...

Better Beliefs tells the stories of everyday people who change everything, by first changing their minds about themselves or what's possible.

Welcome to the Better Questions Podcast; the show where we dare to go deeper.Every week, we pick a topic and sit down with thinkers, doers and challengers, to hear not only what they already know, but to explore what they’re still learning.I’m Kevin Hohe…construction leader, lifelong learner, and your host.We’re opening space for more honest conversations, for slow, meaningful insights in a fast-moving world.Because maybe…the right question at the right time…can change everything.Hit follow, and join us every week on the Better Questions Podcast, produced by Pineapple Audio ...

In Being Better, Kai Whiting and Leonidas Konstantakos apply Stoic principles to contemporary issues such as social justice, climate breakdown, and the excesses of global capitalism. They show that Stoicism is not an ivory-tower philosophy or a collection of Silicon Valley life hacks, but a vital way of life that helps us live simply, improve our communities, and find peace in a turbulent world.

Weaving elements of memoir, philosophical reflection, sports writing, and humour, Fail Better is an intellectual love letter to baseball by one of North America's most engaging philosophers. Kingwell illustrates complex concepts like theoretically infinite game-space, "time out of time", and the rules of civility with accessible examples drawn from the game, its history, and his own halting efforts to hit 'em where they ain't.

Join Everett Worthington, world-leading social scientist and acclaimed clinical counselor, to learn how to live according to your values through the power of social psychology. Cultivate humility, compassion, and gratitude in your daily life.

Among all life on Earth, we alone experience rich moral emotions, follow complex rules governing how we treat one another, and engage in moral dialogue. But how did human morality evolve? And can humans become morally evolved? In A Better Ape, Victor Kumar and Richmond Campbell draw on the latest research in the biological and social sciences to explain the key role that morality has played in human evolution.

Hyper-individualism and consumerism are failing to satisfy our hunger for meaning. We face an identity crisis in which real community is increasingly hard to find. The culture wars have been painful and polarizing and have proved a poor way to agree any kind of moral standards. Is it even possible to find a vision for goodness that can bring us together? Rumors of a Better Country addresses our hunger for justice and a better way of living by awakening our moral imagination to the potential of a trusting community.

They say the only things you can be sure of are death and taxes. But there's another. At some point, we are all going to fail. But is that really bad? Failing Better talks with successful people about the times when they were less than successful, how they handled failures, how they moved on, and what part failure plays in creating their successes.