My name is Arthur D. Schwartz and I am the author of Ethical Empowerment: Virtue Beyond the Paradigms. It was published in 2013 in eBook format and my plans are to have it published it in print in 2014. The eBook is currently available on amazon.com and most major eBook retailers.

This book is a culmination of thinking concerning the basis of morality and its varied expression in ethical thinking and theory. After the first part of the book, which presents my theory of ethics, it then proceeds examine social controversies including some economic and political proposals that I advance.

The essence of the book is my contention that love is the basis of morality, and that there needs to be a philosophical analysis of love that is aimed at developing conceptual notions and an ethical mentality that can escape the tendency for forming ideologies, dogmatic preconceptions and preconditioned or "hypnotic" thinking. I argue that while ethical rules are helpful and, indeed, necessary, they do not comprise the essence of morality, and yet we must ultimately address difficult issues and conundrums in terms of elemental concepts of morality that are often lost in ideology and preconditioned thinking. In this light, my book is both "progressive" and "conservative" because all side of the political spectrum fall into knee-jerk patterns of thinking. The institution of the political party is a prime example of this.

Among the many issues addressed in the book involve critiques of the political party, the current monetary system and the currency market, the system of real estate, conspiracy theories and the possibility of suppressed inventions that may have been stymied for financial or political reasons. There are no absolutes, and certainly no absolute truth. Lord Acton said that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," and the the wisdom of this maxim is applicable not only to politics but to all walks of life. It is vital that ideological or dogmatic strongholds both in our minds and in our institutions are freed from the corrupting power wielded by the enforcement of singular views of the world. My book is, in part, a plea for a more dynamic pluralism or what I call a "plural perspectivism" to aggressively open minds to challenging points of view and the possibility of what can be, in particular contexts, higher truths and a greater good.

For more information, you may visit my professional page at:

http://ArthurDschwartz.com

or find the book on Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/kwcn7ux