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The Scope and Limits of Partiality takes as its starting point the fact that we demonstrate partiality toward those to whom we stand in intimate relationships, a fact which presents both theoretical and practical challenges. At the theoretical level, Diane Jeske argues that we have fundamental reasons to care for our intimates, but that that fact alone does not justify our practices of partiality because we also have fundamental reasons to care for persons in need, be they intimates or strangers. At the normative level, she argues that our intimate relationships, be they to other persons or to non-human animals, add great value to our lives, and that public policy should acknowledge the great diversity of intimate relationships rather than emphasizing romance and marriage in the way that it does.

"The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Friendship is a superb compilation of chapters that explore the history, major topics, and controversies in philosophical work on friendship. It gives both the advanced scholar and the novice in the field an overview and also an in-depth exploration of the connections between friendship and the history of philosophy, morality, practical rationality, value theory, and interpersonal relationships more generally. The Handbook consists of 31 newly commissioned chapters by an international slate of contributors, and is divided into six sections: I. Historical Perspectives II. Who Can Be Our Friends? III. Friendship and Other Relationships IV. The Value and Rationality of Friendship V. Friendship, Morality, and Virtue VI. New Issues in Philosophy of Friendship This volume is essential reading not only for anyone interested in the philosophical questions involving friendship, but also for anyone interested in related topics such as love, sex, moral duties, the good life, the nature of rationality, interpersonal and interspecies relationships, and the nature of the person"--

Thomas Jefferson and Edward Coles were men of similar background, but the former remained a slaveholder while the latter emancipated his slaves. Examining the ways in which people such as Jefferson, who perform wrong and even evil actions, attempt to justify those actions both to others and to themselves illuminates the mistakes that we ourselves make in moral reasoning. The study of moral philosophy can help us to identify and correct for such mistakes. In applying the tools of moral philosophy to case studies of Nazi death camp commandants, American slaveholders, and a psychopathic serial killer, the author demonstrates how we can become better moral deliberators, thereby fulfilling our duties of due care in moral deliberation, moral self-scrutiny, and the development of moral virtue

Situating the project -- How not to understand reasons of intimacy -- Friends and other relations -- Intimacy, fidelity, and commitments -- Friendship and particularism -- Deontological constraints and dispute resolution -- The scope of the objective agent-relative -- Reasons and relationships.