The book demonstrated how pesticides were not only harmful, but ultimately self-defeating, since pests soon developed resistance while beneficial insects and animals that helped keep them in check were killed. Focusing on chlorinated hydrocarbons and DDT in particular, it described their physiological effects, their impact on human health and wildlife, and the inadequacy of existing pesticide regulation. Brought out by a major trade press, this book charted the tremendous increase in the production and use of these chemicals since World War II, and documented their failings. Scattered reports of problems with pesticides had appeared in the technical literature from the fifties onwards, but it was only in 1962 that a wide-ranging critique of pesticides was published for a popular audience. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Yaakov Garb ▪ Fall 1995
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Critique of Modern MoralityĪmong his targets are those who sought to show that rationality could supply morality with foundations, such as Rawls. To convince us of this view, he surveys the main moral philosophies of the past couple of centuries. To understand why he sees this as an attractive idea, we must first engage with his critique of modern morality - which he sees as a kind of cargo cult where people are using moral terms despite moral discourse long having entered a state of incoherence. His book aims to chart a way out of our moral dark age by reintroducing the idea of a telos into morality: the idea that things have a given end or purpose, and something is “good” if it helps the object or entity attain that end. But can the solution to our malaise really lie in the resurrection of a form of ethics first outlined by Aristotle and later integrated into Christianity by Thomas Aquinas?įor MacIntyre, the answer is yes. In making such claims the book has proved to be prescient: the faltering hegemony of liberalism and recurrent surges of anti-elite sentiment across the West testify to that. That is a crude albeit faithful summary of Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, first published in 1981. And navigating a way out of our current societal malaise requires us to resurrect an older form of morality. The limited expertise of our governing elites cannot justify the vast power they claim. The Enlightenment project for morality has failed. As psychic and detective team up to solve a murder, the commitment-phobic Nick discovers that there just might be one woman he’d consider more with – because she certainly keeps things interesting. Nick, neither one has any idea what they’re in store for. That hasn’t been in the cards for her, and now that her psychic abilities have started to go into overdrive, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon either. The story follows Riley, a woman who has always wanted to be normal. It’s light, it’s funny, it’s action-packed, and while the romance is a lot tamer than the author’s usual, I was completely invested in the relationship. Riley and Nick are both such great characters that they pulled me into this crazy adventure. Once I wrapped my head around what I was reading, I really started to get into it. And while romance is central to the story, this is very much a psychic mystery/adventure, with (entertaining) chaos throughout. Unlike anything I’ve read by this author, it’s a crazy, unpredictable journey from start to finish. What a wild ride! I don’t know what I was expecting from this book, but it definitely wasn’t this.
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