Broadview Press Ltd

Good Reasoning Matters! teaches students how to decipher, evaluate, analyze, construct, and engage in argument. This sixth edition incorporates many timely topics, including the impact of artificial intelligence and social media on how we propose and respond to arguments. The instruction in the book is rooted in traditional philosophical understandings of argument, but is expanded to account for the complexities that characterize real-life arguments. This includes an examination of the role that images, sounds, and other non-verbal components play in attempts to convince us of some point of view—in advertising, television, YouTube, film, interpersonal exchange, and elsewhere. Numerous and varied exercises—formative within the chapters and summative at their end—help students improve their reading, reasoning, and writing skills. Instructors will find the text is informed by research in digital pedagogy and works well in a variety of course formats: in-person, remote, hybrid, and synchronous or asynchronous delivery. The authors’ expertise in argumentation theory and decades of teaching experience ensure that this book prepares students for the complexities of arguing in the 21st century.

This book is a friendly and engaging introduction to the philosophy of leisure. Jason Holt frames the text around a novel definition of leisure as intrinsically motivated elective activities, which he defends throughout the text in comparison to other accounts of leisure. Beginning with Aristotle’s influential theory and following its monumental legacy in Western culture, this book also includes Asian, African, and Indigenous philosophies and traditions. Topics discussed include leisure in relation to concepts of time, consumerist vs. reflective leisure, play and games, the place of freedom in leisure, active vs. idle leisure, and what makes for authentic leisure. Along with coordinating philosophies from many different times and places on the same conceptual map, this book proposes a pluralist theory of how leisure fits into a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Written for an interdisciplinary audience, this book provides strikingly clear explanations of the many difficult technical and moral concepts central to discussions of ethics and AI. In particular, it serves as an introduction to the value alignment problem: that of ensuring that AI systems are aligned with the values of humanity. LaCroix redefines the problem as a structural one, showing students how many topics in AI ethics, from bias and fairness to transparency and opacity, can be understood as instances of the key problem of value alignment. Numerous case studies are presented throughout the book to highlight the significance of the issues at stake and to clarify the central role of the value alignment problem in the many ethical challenges facing the development and implementation of AI.

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is a book of enduring relevance that aims to answer the question of how human beings should live. Much, however, has changed since the time of ancient Greece, and the meanings of words aren’t static. The goal of Christopher Byrne’s new translation is thus to make Aristotle accessible to modern readers who may share in the common humanity of Aristotle’s world but don’t share his vocabulary or his culture. This goal is also served through a brisk introduction, chronologies of Aristotle’s life and of his philosophical impacts, and extensive clarifying footnotes. Also included in this edition are appendices outlining the book’s main argument and the many virtues under discussion, as well as illuminating passages from Plato, Thomas Aquinas, and Aristotle’s other writings.