James Franklin is een auteur wiens werken zich verdiepen in thema's als de relatie tussen mens en natuur, de rol van religie in de moderne samenleving en de maatschappelijke impact van technologische vooruitgang. Zijn schrijven staat bekend om zijn diepgaande verkenning van de menselijke natuur, terwijl het tegelijkertijd gevestigde sociale normen stoutmoedig uitdaagt. Franklin beoogt lezers aan te zetten tot het overpeinzen van fundamentele existentiële vragen en de wereld om hen heen kritisch te beoordelen door zijn inzichtelijke analyse en provocerende stijl. Zijn bijdragen bieden tijdloze inzichten die resoneren met hedendaagse lezers.
The 1959 Cuban Revolution remains one of the signal events of modern political history. A tiny island, once a de facto colony of the United States, declared its independence, not just from the imperial behemoth ninety miles to the north, but also from global capitalism itself.
Known as the 'father' of electrical engineering, Michael Faraday is one of the best known scientific figures of all time. In this Very Short Introduction, Frank A.J.L James looks at Faraday's life and works, examining the institutional context in which he lived and worked, his scientific research, and his continuing legacy in science today.
"The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere rework. The moral difference is grounded in the nature of humans: humans have intrinsic worth, a worth that makes their fate really matter. This is the worth that the Australian philosopher James Franklin proposes as the foundation of ethics. In 'The Worth of Persons' he explains that ethics in the usual sense of right and wrong actions, rights and virtues, and how to live a good life, is founded on something more basic that is not itself about actions, namely the worth of persons. Human moral worth arises from certain properties that distinguish humans from the rest of creation (though some animals share a lesser degree of those properties): rationality, consciousness, the ability to act for reasons, emotional structure and love, individuality. This complex package makes humans the "piece of work" of which Hamlet says "How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty." In clear prose and deeply-informed philosophical argument, 'The Worth of Persons' establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective, and immune to relativist attacks because based on the metaphysical truth about humans. 'The Worth of Persons' will appeal to all those who feel that endless debate about ethical dilemmas, rules and principles fails to connect with what is really important ethically, that is, what makes humans matter"-- Provided by publisher