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A TREATISE OF MORALITY

Name: A TREATISE OF MORALITY
Author: Amir Joy
ISBN: 978-1-73565-080-7

by Amir Joy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 16, 2020

An ambitious but rambling discussion of moral philosophy.

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A writer offers a sweeping tour of the history of moral philosophy in this treatise.

Joy repeatedly reminds readers that questions of moral philosophy are notoriously difficult, or, as he puts it, “one hell of a matter to discuss.” In order to gain firmer ground, the author delves into the history of philosophical thought on moral topics, a wide-ranging consideration that refreshingly doesn’t limit itself to Western sources. Joy includes a discussion of Indian and Chinese thought; he also furnishes an intriguing analysis of unjustly neglected figures like the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Along the way, the author delivers some rich details about the history of moral philosophy. He looks at the unfolding of this history as an evolution—he refers to it as “Morality’s Ladder”—that proceeds from societal deference to authoritative morality to rigorous empirical inquiry. But while Joy makes it clear that he advocates the substitution of philosophy (as traditionally conceived) for modern science as a means to understanding the character of moral life, he provides no searching reasons for this. He seems to believe the technological progress of science settles the issue. Moreover, the author’s contentions are rife with contradictions—he asserts, without evidence, that philosophy is based on “cooperation, mutual aid, and self-interest,” seemingly unaware of the tension among these. Joy concedes he is neither an expert nor even a student of philosophy, and this often shows—his very brief sketches of the great moral thinkers lack both depth and basic accuracy. (Hobbes does not reduce morality to “man’s taste.”) The author digresses to describe the basic elements of the brain, presumably to argue that moral philosophy requires neuroscience, but he never makes that case: “The moral of the story is, what the hell is really occurring when one makes a decision or makes a judgment?” In addition, Joy’s prose is often as circuitous as his analysis is uneven.

An ambitious but rambling discussion of moral philosophy.

Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-73565-080-7

Page Count: 310

Publisher: Self

Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2020

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

EDUCATION | HISTORY | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | MODERN

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THINK YOU'LL BE HAPPY

MOVING THROUGH GRIEF WITH GRIT, GRACE, AND GRATITUDE

by Nicole Avant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 2023

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

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Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.

“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”

Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023

ISBN: 9780063304413

Page Count: 288

Publisher: HarperOne

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.