Authors: John Portmann (Editor), John Portmann
ISBN-13: 9781403961426, ISBN-10: 1403961425
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Date Published: March 2003
Edition: (Non-applicable)
John Portmann is the author of When Bad Things Happen to Other People.He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and his forthcoming book is Sex and Heaven.
Intriguing, and occasionally unsettling, In Defense of Sinis a refreshingly frank exploration of some real facts of life. Portmann gathers an on-target collection of great writers on transgressions large and small. Read about defenses for promiscuity, greed, deceit, gossip, lust, breaking the golden rule, and moreand use this unusual guide to decide for yourself if sin has a place in our contemporary, and virtually unshockable, society.
Provocative and illuminating, this book may change how you think about sin, morality, and what's right.
Contributors include Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, Anthony Ellis, Jane English, Ludwig Feuerbach, Sigmund Freud, Bernard Mandeville, Jerome Neu, Friedrich Nietzsche, David Novitz, Joyce Carol Oates, David A.J. Richards, Seneca, Jonathan Swift, Richard Wasserstrom, and Oscar Wilde.
...a book defending lust, gossip, deceit, and prostitution, and-a book that is finally more moral than The Book of Virtues.
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction: The Half-Life of Sin | 1 | |
Ch. 1 | In Defense of Idolatry: from The Essence of Christianity | 13 |
Ch. 2 | In Defense of Blasphemy: from The Anti-Christ | 25 |
Ch. 3 | In Defense of Dismissing Mother and Father: What Do Grown Children Owe Their Parents? | 35 |
Ch. 4 | In Defense of Murder: A Modest Proposal | 45 |
Ch. 5 | In Defense of Adultery: Is Adultery Immoral? | 57 |
Ch. 6 | In Defense of Deceit: The Decay of Lying | 77 |
Ch. 7 | In Defense of Greed: "The Grumbling Hive" from The Fable of the Bees | 111 |
Ch. 8 | In Defense of Breaking the Golden Rule: from Civilization and Its Discontents | 129 |
Ch. 9 | In Defense of Refusing to Forgive: Forgiveness and Self-Respect | 139 |
Ch. 10 | In Defense of Pride, the Worst of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride and identity | 163 |
Ch. 11 | In Defense of Gossip: The Vindication of Gossip | 197 |
Ch. 12 | In Defense of Lust: Chatting Is Not Cheating | 221 |
Ch. 13 | In Defense of Promiscuity: Casual Sex | 243 |
Ch. 14 | In Defense of Prostitution: from Commercial Sex and the Rights of the Person | 263 |
Ch. 15 | In Defense of Despair: Despair: The One Unforgivable Sin | 283 |
Ch. 16 | In Defense of Suicide: On the Proper Time to Slip the Cable | 291 |
Postscript | 300 | |
About the Contributors | 301 | |
Index | 305 |