Personal Commitments


Book Description

Revised edition of a classic text long out of print--a moral analysis of making, keeping, and breaking personal commitments. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Farley explores how commitments, rooted in the story of God's love, are acts of free choice and love that yield a claim. Farley's reflections are also rooted in the concrete experiences of people who strive to be faithful to what they have claimed to love: "My concern is to name something that I think is, after all, common to all of our lives an experience, a reality, perhaps a problem, a challenge, something that is sometimes a source of joy, sometimes a cause of tragedy." In eight short chapters Farley explores the nature and meaning of commitment as it is played out in our lives, addressing love, fidelity, a sense of obligation, and covenant. She also reflects on whether each commitment must be kept, and what we should do if, despite our best efforts, our commitments break down. "A brilliant study, in the literal sense that it brings needed light and clarity to a great deal of our everyday experience of sorting out, changing, reaffirming, attempting to prioritize, and wrestling with the constantly varying demands of our many freely chosen commitments." Anne E. Patrick (of the original edition) Of the original edition, Paul Wadell wrote, "Personal Commitments is a superb book that cannot be recommended too highly. Though richly research and tightly argued, its style and method make it accessible to anyone wishing to explore the commitments we make and the wholeness we seek when we make them." Another reviewer wrote "Personal Commitments is far more than a book on the ethics of commitment and obligation; rather, it is a searching account of love in both the personal and social relationships that form human life.




Personal Commitments


Book Description




The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership


Book Description

You'll never see leadership the same way again after reading this book. These fifteen commitments are a distillation of decades of work with CEOs and other leaders. They are radical or provocative for many. They have been game changers for us and for our clients. We trust that they will be for you too. Our experience is that unconscious leadership is not sustainable. It won't work for you, your team or your organization in the long term. Unconscious leadership can deliver short term results, but the costs of living and leading unconsciously are great. Fear drives most leaders to make choices that are at odds with healthy relationships, vitality and balance. This fear leaves a toxic residue that won't be as easily tolerated in an increasingly complex business environment. Conscious leadership offers the antidote to fear. These pages contain a comprehensive road map to guide you to shift from fear-based to trust-based leadership. Once you learn and start practicing conscious leadership you'll get results in the form of more energy, clarity, focus and healthier relationships. You'll do more and more of what you are passionate about, and less of what you do out of obligation. You'll have more fun, be happier, experience less drama and be more on purpose. Your team will get results as well. They'll be more collaborative, creative, energized and engaged. They'll solve issues faster, and once resolved the issues won't resurface. Drama and gossip will all but disappear, and the energy and resources that fueled them will be redirected towards innovation and creativity. Any one of these commitments will change your life. All of them together are revolutionary. Leaders who practice the 15 commitments: - End blame and criticism - Speak candidly, openly and honestly, in a way that invites others to do the same - Find their unique genius - Let go of taking everything-especially themselves and their problems-so seriously - Create win for all solutions - Experience a new relationship to time and money where there is always enough What do you need to bring to the table? Be curious. Sounds so simple, and yet in our experience it's a skill few have mastered. Most of us are far more interested in being right and proving it, than we are in learning, growing and shifting out of our old patterns. By default we gravitate towards the familiar. We're asking you to take a chance and explore the unfamiliar. You'll get scared and reactive. We all do. So what? Just stay curious and let us introduce you to a whole new world of leadership.




Joint Commitment


Book Description

This new essay collection by distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert provides a richly textured argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives. Topics covered by these diverse essays range from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the unity of the European Union.




Sociality and Responsibility


Book Description

One of the most distinguished living social philosophers, Margaret Gilbert develops and extends her application of plural subject theory of human sociality, first introduced in her earlier works On Social Facts and Living Together. Sociality and Responsibility presents an extended discussion of her proposal that joint commitments inherently involve obligations and rights, proposing, in effect, a new theory of obligations and rights. In addition, it demonstrates the extensive range and fruitfulness of plural subject theory by presenting accounts of social rules, scientific change, political obligation, collective remorse, collective guilt, shared intention and an important class of rights and obligations.




Moved to Action


Book Description

The book examines how the underprivileged become motivated to participate in politics even though they lack the educational, financial, and civic resources commonly assumed to be necessary for participation.




Holy Ambition


Book Description

God is a doer of great things. Isn’t it time you joined His big plans? Human ambition is often rooted in pride. But “holy ambition”? That’s something else! When your ambitions aren’t about your own glory but God’s, you’ll find Him to be a source of empowerment that you can’t get anywhere else. Pastor and radio teacher Chip Ingram invites you into something more daring than your current life. Holy Ambition takes you to the biblical story of Nehemiah, a humble servant of the king who became a leader of his people. Nehemiah could have kept his comfortable position in the palace, but instead he chose a radical path that allowed him to do amazing things for God. You can too! But you’re going to have to take some risks. And that means you’ve got to put aside fear or pride and start acting on your holy ambitions. It’s time for the church to be what God wants: a people who will let Him do a powerful work in them and through them. No more living in the boring middle. Start living on the edge of God’s groundbreaking work, and experience the exuberance of being on mission for Him!




Perspectives on Pragmatics and Philosophy


Book Description

This book is about the pragmatics of language and it illustrates how pragmatics transcends the boundaries of linguistics. This volume covers Gricean pragmatics as well as topics including: conversation and collective belief, the norm of assertion, speech acts, what a context is, the distinction between semantics and pragmatics and implicature and explicature, pragmatics and epistemology, the pragmatics of belief, quotation, negation, implicature and argumentation theory, Habermas’ Universal Pragmatics, Dascal’s theory of the dialectical self, theories and theoretical discussions on the nature of pragmatics from a philosophical point of view. Conversational implicatures are generally meaning augmentations on top of explicatures, whilst explicatures figure prominently in what is said. Discussions in this work reveal their characteristics and tensions within current theories relating to explicatures and implicatures. Authors show that explicatures and implicatures are calculable and not (directly) tied to conventional meaning. Pragmatics has a role to play in dealing with philosophical problems and this volume presents research that defines boundaries and gives a stable picture of pragmatics and philosophy. World renowned academic experts in philosophy and pragmalinguistics ask important theoretical questions and interact in a way that can be easily grasped by those from disciplines other than philosophy, such as anthropology, literary theory and law. A second volume in this series is also available, which covers the perspective of linguists who have been influenced by philosophy.




Socializing Metaphysics


Book Description

Human life is conducted within a network of social relations, social groups, and societies. Grasping the implications of that fact starts with understanding social metaphysics. Social metaphysics provides a foundation for social theory, as well as for social epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, action theory, ethics, and political philosophy. This volume will interest anyone concerned with mind, action, or the foundations of social theory. Socializing Metaphysics supplies diverse answers, from a broad array of voices, to the basic questions of social metaphysics. What is it for human beings to stand in social relations or form social groups? Do these relations and groups bring about something above and beyond the individuals involved? Is there any sense to the notion of a human being apart from social relations? How can an individual achieve autonomy within a society? In what sense are human kinds like race and gender socially constructed? The answers are found within.




Life in Groups


Book Description

Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together develops and applies the author's perspective on topics to do with joint commitment. This kind of commitment unifies those who participate in it, guides their actions going forward, and determines their relations to one another in important ways. In particular, it grounds in each of the parties a set of rights and obligations of a particular kind. Thirteen essays are gathered in this volume, together with a substantial introduction, which serves both to explain joint commitment for those unfamiliar with it and to advance discussion in light of some questions it has prompted, and a reflective conclusion. The essays range over collective beliefs and intentions; rational choice and preference; group lies and corporate misbehavior; remorse and other emotions; rights, obligations, and freedom.