UNO Philosophy Faculty Books and Monographs | Department of Philosophy

Philosophy Faculty Books and Monographs

Books and monographs by Philosophy Department faculty members are collected here.

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Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics

William Schweiker Ed. and Bharat Ranganathan

A comprehensive, innovative, and authoritative view of moral inquiry engaged with the resources of the world’s religions

Encompassing three comprehensive volumes, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics introduces fundamental issues in moral inquiry, explores the world’s major moral traditions, and surveys specific moral issues across a wide range of human experiences. This landmark work defines the meaning, task, and various forms of religious ethics to guide readers through critical inquiry of religious and moral life across historical periods, geography, and cultural traditions. The Encyclopedia features contributions by an extraordinary panel of ethicists, historians, theologians, philosophers, political theorists, and other experts that draw from and revise religious sources to explore basic themes in moral theory and address contemporary ethical and political problems.

Each volume is devoted to a particular element of religious ethics. Volume I - Moral Inquiry helps readers understand diverse religious and moral traditions, the social practices and institutions used for their transmission, and the methods and approaches used for their comparison. Volume II – Moral Tradition describes the established historical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Indian religions, Chinese religions, African religions, and religions of the Americas. Volume III – Moral Issues provides the conceptual resources for understanding the structures, conditions, and challenges of a wide range of moral issues that religious ethicists have engaged, and for appreciating the contributions of different scholars in the field. Unique in its topical depth and scope, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics:
- Provides diverse historical, contemporary, theoretical, and cultural perspectives on numerous religious and moral traditions
- Represents the richness of thought of a vast range of renowned scholars from various disciplines, traditions, and cultures
- Examines some of the most significant theories, approaches, and concepts that have been used to compare traditions of religious ethics
- Discusses recent developments in religious and moral life and new approaches to the study of religious ethics
- Introduces practices in current religious communities that address the various dimensions of the moral life
Dedicated to understanding and addressing moral challenges and possibilities in our global times, the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the relation between religion and ethics in the modern world, including those involved in general and comparative religious studies, religious and comparative ethics, and moral theory.
Artistic Representations of Suffering: Rights, Resistance, and Remembrance

Mark Celinscak and Curtis Hutt

Artistic expression frequently engages with the question of suffering. In so doing, it confronts the gravity and complexity of the human condition. This volume investigates the relationship between art and suffering. In short, the contributors to this volume collectively demonstrate that suffering is an undisputed and shareable motivating experience.

This collection features original essays that focus on the subject of art and suffering, including topics such as the representation of violence and the intersections of art and human rights. Some of the key questions explored are as follows:
- How has suffering motivated artists around the world?
- How have artists used their platforms to call attention to human rights abuses?
- How can suffering be incorporated responsibly and ethically in works of art?
- What role does art play in the struggle against violations of human dignity and the promotion of building a more equitable world?
Each essay is complemented by full-color reproductions of artistic works that illustrate the concepts being discussed, including a graphic essay on the topic of “comfort women.”
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason in Christian Ethics

Bharat Ranganathan and Derek Alan Woodard-Lehman

How should we understand the relationship between Christian ethics and religious ethics? Among comparative, ethnographic, and normative methodologies? Between confessional and non-confessional orientations, or between theology and philosophy? This volume brings together emerging religious ethicists to engage the normative dimensions of Christian ethics. Focusing on scripture, tradition, and reason, the contributors to this volume argue for a vision of Christian ethics as religious ethics. Toward this end, they engage with scripture, interpretation, and religious practice; examine the putative divide between reason and tradition, autonomy and heteronomy; and offer proposals about the normative characterization of conceptual and practical issues in contemporary religious ethics. Collectively, the volume engages Christian thought to make an argument for the continuing relevance of normative methodologies in contemporary religious and theological ethics.
The Sorrows of Mattidia: A New Translation and Commentary

Curtis Hutt

This volume offers a new translation of the Pseudo-Clementine family narrative here known as The Sorrows of Mattidia. It contains a full introduction which explores the obscured origins of the text, the plot, and main characters, and engages in a comparison of the portrayal of pagan, Jewish, and Christian women in this text with what we encounter in other literature. It also discusses a general strategy for how historians can utilize fictional narratives like this when examining the lives of women in the ancient world. This translation makes this fascinating source for late antique women available in this form for the first time.
The Meaning of My Neighbor's Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration

Alexander Y. Hwang and Laura E. Alexander

Chapter 15: The Global Refugee Crisis and Religious Ethics: Questions to Ask authored by Laura E. Alexander of the University of Nebraska at Omaha

The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith addresses two of the most critical challenges of our time: immigration and religious diversity. The diverse group of contributors, representing a variety of religious traditions, disciplines, and methodologies, explore “the meaning of my neighbor’s faith” in the age of migration. Each author reflects on the meaning of religious traditions in the context of the unprecedented migrations of people who look and believe differently than their hosts. The volume is the work of scholars dedicated to advancing religious understanding of the debate and discussions on immigration in the light of religious diversity in America and other places in the world.
Critical Reasoning: Understanding and Criticizing Arguments and Theories

J B. Cederblom and David Paulsen

Co-authored by J.B. Cederblom, UNO faculty member.

In this era of increased polarization of opinion and contentious disagreement, Critical Reasoning presents a cooperative approach to critical thinking and formation of beliefs. Critical Reasoning emphasizes the importance of developing and applying analytical skills in real life contexts. This book is unique in providing multiple, diverse examples of everyday arguments, both textual and visual, including hard to find long argument passages from real-life sources. The book provides clear, step-by-step procedures to help you decide for yourself what to believe--to be a consumer of information in our contemporary "world of experts."
The Correspondence Theory of Truth, an Essay on the Metaphysics of Predication

Andrew Newman

This work presents a version of the correspondence theory of truth based on Wittgenstein's Tractatus and Russell's theory of truth and discusses related metaphysical issues such as predication, facts, and propositions. Like Russell and one prominent interpretation of the Tractatus it assumes a realist view of universals. It argues that facts as real entities are not needed. It will interest teachers and advanced students of philosophy who are interested in the realistic conception of truth and in issues in metaphysics related to the correspondence theory of truth.
Blurred Visions: Philosophy, Science, and Ideology in a Troubled World

Rory J. Conces

Blurred Visions fills an important gap in the literature on applied philosophy. It explores the relationship between ideological disputes and evidence and attempts to establish the ways in which the intractability of some ideological disputes is a function of the disputants adopting the notion of brute evidence, and the extent to which a change of epistemological venue might affect the resolution and prevention of ideological disputes. It declares that scientific theory and ideology are conceptual frameworks that allow us to make sense of the world that we live in, and contends that recognizing the ideology-ladenness of facts and observations will facilitate the resolution of these disputes by depolarizing their argumentation, thereby making it less likely that they will incite acts of armed aggression.
In the Socratic Tradition: Essays on Teaching Philosophy

Rory J. Conces

Chapter 16: A Participatory Approach to Teaching Critical Reasoning, authored by Rory J. Conces, UNO faculty member.

This practical guide for teaching philosophy brings together essays by two dozen distinguished philosophers committed to pedagogy. Addressing primarily practical issues, such as how to motivate students, construct particular courses, and give educational exams, the essays also touch on theoretical issues such as whether moral edification is a proper goal of teaching ethics. An excellent sourcebook for graduate students just learning to teach as well as for professors searching for new strategies and inspiration or called upon to teach courses outside of their specialties.
The Physical Basis of Predication

Andrew Newman

This is a book about some of the basic concepts of metaphysics: universals, particulars, causality, and possibility. Its aim is to give an account of the real constituents of the world.

The author defends a realistic view of universals, characterizing the notion of universal by considering language and logic, possibility, hierarchies of universals, and causation. On the other hand, he argues that logic and language are not reliable guides to the nature of reality. All assertions and predications about the natural world are ultimately founded on "basic universals," which are the fundamental type of universal and central to causation. A distinction is drawn between unified particulars (which have a natural principle of unity) and arbitrary particulars (which lack such a principle); unified particulars are the terms of causal relations and thus real constituents of the world. Arbitrary particulars such as events, states of affairs, and sets have no ontological significance.
Ethics at Work

J B. Cederblom and Charles J. Dougherty

This book makes ethics accessible to business studies students. The chapters on ethical theory are clearly written, using non-technical language and many examples. This theory is then applied to twenty-seven cases, covering a wide range of problems people encounter in their work.