Author: A. W. Moore File Type: epub Is it possible for ethical thinking to be grounded in pure reason? In this bold and innovative new work, Adrian Moore provides a refreshingand challenging look at Kants moral and religious philosophy and uses it to arrive at a distinctive way of understanding and answering this question. Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty identifies three Kantain Themes - morality, freedom and religion - and presents variations on each of these themes in turn. Moore concedes that there are difficulties with the Kantian view that morality can be governed by pure reason, but defends a closely related view involving a notion of reason as socially and culturally conditioned. In the course of doing this, Moore considers in detail ideas at the heart of Kants thought, such as the categorical imperative, free will, evil, hope, eternal life, and God. He also makes creative use of ideas in contemporary philosophy, both within the analytic tradition and outside it, such as thick ethical concepts, forms of life, and becoming those that we are. Throughout the book, a guiding precept is that to be rational is to make sense, and that nothing is of greater value to us than making sense.Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty is essential reading for all those interested in Kant, ethics, and philosophy of religion.ReviewIn Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty, A.W. Moore mines Kant for ethical insight with a sensibility informed by a wide range of recent and contemporary philosophers, from Ludwig Wittgenstein through Bernard Williams and Gilles Deleuze a particularly helpful account of Kants philosophy of religion Paul Guyer, in Times Literary Supplement it is refreshing to encounter a book dealing with Kants practical philosophy that does not wear its readers down with quandaries about universalizability, autonomy, and the moral law It is time to try something different, and Moore has certainly done that. Robert B. Louden, in Mind an original contribution to the ethical discussion of our time Manfred Kuehn deeply engages some of the most important pieces of Kants moral and religious thinking Philip Rossiclearly written numerous provocative insights readers will benefit from the way in which familiar themes have been deployed and reconfigured for the sake of a fairly audacious result. Moore derives something like a substitute for postmodernitys lost sense of a grounding metanarrative from the human capacity for sense making [His] project might be viewed as the effort to infuse our very tendency towards sense making with renewed dignity. Gordon E. Michalson, in Kantian Review a continuing, deep and detailed collaborative discussion with the Kant who makes best sense to [Moore] of matters of the utmost importance to them both and to the rest of us as well an exceptionally thought-provoking and serious book by one of our most technically proficient, but at the same time most imaginativein short, one of our very bestcontemporary philosophers [Though this closely-argued, rich and engaging book] is, certainly and in many ways, a book for philosophers, it is equally one that may be read with much serious pleasure by anyone with a taste for reflection about the proper status of moral and religious thinking. Alan Montefiore, in Balliol College RecordAbout the AuthorSt. Hughs College, Oxford

Author: Camille Nurka File Type: pdf Examining the fascinating history of female genital cosmetic surgery, Camille Nurka traces the origins of contemporary ideas of genital normality. Over the past twenty years, Western women have become increasingly worried about the aesthetic appearance of their labia minora and are turning to cosmetic surgery to achieve the ideal vulva a clean slit with no visible protrusion of the inner lips. Long labia minora are described by medical experts as hypertrophied, a term that implies deformity and the atypical. But how far back does the diagnosis of labial hypertrophy go, and where did it originate? Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery tells the story of the female genitalia fromthe alien world of ancient Greek gynaecology to the colonial period of exploration and exploitation up to the present day. Bringing together historical, medical, and theoretical documentation and commentary, Nurka uncovers a long tradition of pathologizing female anatomy, a history sure to be of interest to any reader who wishes to know more about how medicine shapes our commonly held ideals. **Review In this deeply engaging and much-needed book Camille Nurka shows that labiaplastysurgery designed to fix hypertrophy of the labia minorais not a medical necessity but rather a cultural invention. Nurka skilfully deploys psychoanalytic, feminist, and philosophical theories along with medical, surgical, and scientific discourse as she examines the history of this much-debated surgical procedure. The book shows clearly how labiaplasty shares a continuum with other genital procedures such as intersex surgery and ritual female genital cutting. It explains a vital racegender connection in situating labiaplastys history partly in colonial-anthropological studies of black womens genitals. Finally, this excellent book powerfully demonstrates how labiaplasty is part of a continuing fantasy of heterosexual normality. (Meredith Jones, author of Skintight An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery) Camille Nurka has written a richly researched, beautifully located account of what I would call the ongoing ontological project of the vulva. She identifies and explores deep historical roots including in sex(ist) and race(ist) science that provide the foundation and basis for contemporary ideas of gendered genital normality and desirability, freakishness and pathology. These roots underpin the contemporary truths and experiential realities, the logics, that produce contemporary desires for, and practice of, labiaplasty (and other genital cosmetic procedures on the vulva and vagina) as a solution to genital distress. Richly researched and diversely located in terms of scholarship, this book is, above all else, a fascinating and engaging read! (Virginia Braun, Professor of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand) From the Back Cover Examining the fascinating history of female genital cosmetic surgery, Camille Nurka traces the origins of contemporary ideas of genital normality. Over the past twenty years, Western women have become increasingly worried about the aesthetic appearance of their labia minora and are turning to cosmetic surgery to achieve the ideal vulva a clean slit with no visible protrusion of the inner lips. Long labia minora are described by medical experts as hypertrophied, a term that implies deformity and the atypical. But how far back does the diagnosis of labial hypertrophy go, and where did it originate? Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery tells the story of the female genitalia fromthe alien world of ancient Greek gynaecology to the colonial period of exploration and exploitation up to the present day. Bringing together historical, medical, and theoretical documentation and commentary, Nurka uncovers a long tradition of pathologizing female anatomy, a history sure to be of interest to any reader who wishes to know more about how medicine shapes our commonly held ideals.