This book develops a conception of good and evil as absolute. However its emphasis is not on whether some things are absolutely forbidden but on our need of an adequate conception of the preciousness of each individual being, which was once expressed in the belief that all human beings are sacred. It argues that this is possible only with a serious conception of remorse - that an adequate conception of remorse, of absolute value and of human preciousness are interdependent. It develops a conception of good and evil as different in kind from all other values while emphasizing its dependence on certain natural human reactions, affections and attachments, and while also emphasizing the connection between questions about the nature of good and evil and questions about the meaning of our lives. At another level, there is continuous reflection on the nature of ethical thinking, of what it is for such thinking to deepen, on the nature of philosophical reflection and its relation to the understanding of good and evil which exists outside philosophy, and on the place of reason and truth.

Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception

Gaita, Raimond

Religion & Spirituality

St.Martin's Press

The voices in this volume, those of philosophers from Britain, Europe, America and Australia, speak in different tones of sumpathy and criticism of Winch and his conception of human conditioning.

Value and Understanding: Essays for Peter Winch

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Routledge

A Common Humanity

The Holocaust and attempts to deny it, racism, murder, the case of Mary Bell. How can we include these and countless other examples of evil within our vision of a common humanity? These painful human incongruities are precisely what Raimond Gaita boldly harmonizes in his powerful new book, A Common Humanity. Hatred with forgiveness, evil with love, suffering with compassion, and the mundane with the precious. Gaita asserts that our conception of humanity cannot be based upon the empty language of individual rights when it is our shared feelings of grief, hope, love, guilt, shame and remorse that offer a more potent foundation for common understanding. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt, Simon Weil, Primo Levi, George Orwell, Iris Murdoch and Sigmund Freud, Gaita creates a beautifully written and provocative new picture of our common humanity.

A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice

In this lyrical and beautifully written book, Raimond Gaita tells inspirational, poignant, sometimes funny but never sentimental stories of the dogs, cats and cockatoos that lived and died within his own family. The Philosopher's Dog is above all a book about our creatureliness and its place in the understanding of our humanity.

The Philosopher's Dog

Raimond Gaita's Good and Evil is one of the most important, original and provocative books on the nature of morality to have been published in recent years. It is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to talk about good and evil. Gaita argues that questions about morality are inseparable from the preciousness of each human being, an issue we can only address if we place the idea of remorse at the centre of moral life. Drawing on an astonishing range of thinkers and writers, including Plato, Wittgenstein, George Orwell and Primo Levi, Gaita also reflects on the place of reason and truth in morality and ultimately how questions about good and evil are connected to the meaning of our lives.This revised edition of Good and Evil includes a substantial new preface and afterword by the author.

Raimond Gaita's Good and Evil is one of the most important, original and provocative books on the nature of morality to have been published in recent years. It is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to talk about good and evil. Gaita argues that questions about morality are inseparable from the preciousness of each human being, an issue we can only address if we place the idea of remorse at the centre of moral life. Drawing on an astonishing range of thinkers and writers, including Plato, Wittgenstein, George Orwell and Primo Levi, Gaita also reflects on the place of reason and truth in morality and ultimately how questions about good and evil are connected to the meaning of our lives. This revised edition of Good and Evil includes a substantial new preface and afterword by the author.

Justice and Hope: Essays, Lectures and Other Writings

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Melbourne University Press

This is the story of how Romulus Gaita fled his native Yugoslavia at the age of 13, and came to Australia with his young wife Christine and their four-year-old son soon after the end of World War II. The book describes the disintegration of post-war Europe and the experience of exile.

Romulus, My Father

Headline

The philosopher Raimond Gaita has always been fascinated by animals– their obvious intelligence and disturbing brutality, their uncanny responsiveness to our moods and needs, the deep feelings they elicit from us and seem to return. In this marvelous, luminous book, Gaita trains the lens of philosophy on the mystery and beauty of the animals he has known and loved best. The Philosopher’s Dog is one of those rare works that engage the heart from the very first paragraph and haunt the mind long after one has finished reading. What does Gaita’s dog, Gypsy, think about while she sits on her mat gazing out to sea for hours on end? Why did the irascible cockatoo Jack greet Gaita’s father with kisses each morning but bite everyone else? How can we acknowledge that animals are sentient and yet deny that they have consciousness? Is it possible to love animals and still eat meat? In contemplating questions like these, Gaita weaves together personal stories–inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking accounts about the animals he and his family members have sheltered–with the reflections and analysis of a professional philosopher. A graceful, engaging stylist, Gaita is perfectly lucid as he grapples with great thinkers through the ages–from Socrates to Wittgenstein, Descartes to Hannah Arendt. And yet, as important as formal philosophy has been to him, Gaita frankly acknowledges that he has learned much about the nature of life from Gypsy and Jack and his courageously arrogant cat Tosca. In the end, he argues that love should be the essence of our bond with animals, the critical factor that guides how we treat them and think about their place in our world. In pondering the meaning and morality of his relationships with animals, and with the natural world more generally, Raimond Gaita has created a surprising masterpiece, a book of startling insights, spellbinding stories, meticulous observations, and wise reflection. At once engrossing and thought-provoking, The Philosopher’s Dog is a supremely enjoyable book.

The Philosopher's Dog: Friendships with Animals

Self-Help

Happiness

Random House Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gaita, Raimond. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gaita, Raimond

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gaita, Raimond. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception

Value and Understanding: Essays for Peter Winch

A Common Humanity: Thinking about Love and Truth and Justice

A Common Humanity

The Philosopher's Dog

Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception

Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception

Justice and Hope: Essays, Lectures and Other Writings

Romulus, My Father

The Philosopher's Dog: Friendships with Animals