Books by "W. Mike Martin"
5 books found
Beyond the Concept of Sport challenges tired assumptions about athletics to unveil sports' underestimated yet far-reaching social impact and philosophical significance. While governments downplay its influence, author Robert Griffiths recognizes that sports – especially cricket – deeply channels the human spirit for participants and fans alike. He eschews cliches to deliver fresh insight into sports' resonance. This is no dry academic tome, but rather a lively examination blending scholarship with accessibility. Griffiths brings iconoclastic yet sage opinions to unpacking how athletic pursuits shape culture and consciousness. He illuminates the under-appreciated role sports play in forging identity, purpose, inspiration, escapism and more for millions globally. Grappling with issues often overlooked when discussing athletics, Griffiths' unconventional analysis explores fandom, nationalism, arts, business, and the very meaning woven through sports' rituals. Written with passionate intellect, wry wit, and a distaste for the dull, Beyond the Concept of Sport cries out to be read by both die-hard fans and curious sceptics. After all, few human realms spark such fervour and unity across the world's divides like that of sports. This book captures that emotional impact while elevating sports as a subject worthy of serious yet spirited consideration.
This book brings together a sensitive understanding of love and an unusually careful, even painstaking, analysis of the enormous but often neglected role of morality and the virtues in love. Martin's discussions of such virtues as caring, courage, fidelity, and honesty are superb, the examples well-chosen, the argument personal but nevertheless rigorous, the prose accessible and enjoyable to read.
"This lavishly illustrated narrative of Walter Johnson's life is the definitive work on the subject and is likely to remain so."-Lawrence S. Ritter, Oldtyme Baseball News. "Henry Thomas's biography of Walter Johnson is carefully researched, thoroughly documented, and, best of all, a pleasure to read."-Spitball. "Does justice to Johnson's extraordinary on-field accomplishments, and it also emphasizes his decency, humility, and self-effacing humor."-Booklist. "Belongs in the very top ranks of sports biographies."-Washington Times. "One of the most comprehensive biographies ever written about an athlete. Incredibly detailed, filled with fascinating stories about arguably the greatest pitcher of all time."-Tim Kurkjian, senior writer for Sports Illustrated. "Delights the soul."-Sports Collectors Digest. Henry W. Thomas, the grandson of Walter Johnson, lives in Arlington, Virginia. He is currently editing, for audio release, the interviews taped by Lawrence Ritter for his classic The Glory of Their Times. Shirley Povich is in his seventy-fifth year as an award-winning sportswriter for the Washington Post.
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A QUIET, RELAXING, WEEKEND GETAWAY... The cabin is not deserted. It is the summer retreat of Jeremy Liden, an author who has just started to taste the fruits of success and the good life, which includes the summer cottage in Wisconsin. The same weekend Jeremy and his friends decide to get away from it all two dogs seek shelter beneath the summer house porch. Two dogs who have been trained to fight. Trained to Attack. Trained to kill. What Jeremy and his friends find at the house is sheer, snarling terror, and as things get desperate, they begin to wonder if they will ever get out alive. Nature made these dogs, but man made them VICIOUS.
This book systematically explores the moral issues surrounding self-deception. While many articles and books have been written on the concept of self-deception in recent years, Martin's gives much greater emphasis to self-deception as a significant topic for both ethical theory and applied ethics. "Self-deception is . . . perplexing from a moral point of view. It seems tailor-made to camouflage and foster immorality. . . . Does all self-deception involve some guilt, and is it among the most abhorrent evils. as some moralists and theologians have charged? Or is it only wrong sometimes, such as when it has bad consequences? Could it on occasion be permissible or even desirable to deceive ourselves, just as we are sometimes justified in deceiving other people? Are self-deceivers perhaps more like innocent victims than perpetrators of deceit, and as such deserving of compassion and help? Or, paradoxically, are they best viewed with ambivalence: culpable as deceivers and simultaneously innocent as victims of deception?" (from the introduction) Martin develops a conception of self-deception as the purposeful evasion of acknowledging to oneself truths or one's view of truth. He details a systematic framework for understanding the main moral perspectives and traditions concerning self-deception that have emerged in western philosophy. In so doing, he clarifies related concepts like sincerity, authenticity, honesty, hypocrisy, weakness of will, and self-understanding. Ranging across traditions both philosophical (Kant, Kierkegaard, and Sartre) and non-philosophical (Freud, Eugene O'Neill, and Henrik Ibsen), Martin shows why self-deception is as morally complex as any other major form of behavior. The appeal of this book is broad. The volume will challenge professional philosophers and psychologists, yet it is organized and written to be accessible to students in courses on ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of literature. Martin's numerous literary examples should also interest literary critics.