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Making Choices: Practical Wisdom for Everyday Moral Decisions
by Peter Kreeft
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Servant Publications (1990-05)
ISBN: 0892836385
EAN: 9780892836383
Dewy Decimal #: 241
Paperback: 218 pages
SKU: 080910004
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: This copy is in good condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. No Dust Jacket. Soft Cover has minimum/moderate, shelf/edge wear. Very interesting copy, worth having at an affordable price. (L13-2)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"This book clears a straight road through the thorny jungles of skewed modern thinking about the way to live, and does do with the easy brilliance, impish insight, and searching simplicity that have become Peter Kreeft's special trademarks.
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Customer Reviews
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One of the better, down to earth ethics books I've read
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-02-10
Along with "Love is always Right" this book presents ethics for people, not just intellectuals. I would actually rate this book slightly higher than "Love..." because it deals with the "boxes" we all try to put conflicts into so we don't have to think about ethics. A very balanced yet Christian approach...
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Very insightful
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-08-08
As a layperson, I found this book to be well thought out and easy to follow.
Quite an interesting read.
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Moral philosophy for everyday life
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-03-23
19 out of 20 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is another of Peter Kreeft's typically illuminative books, on the largely-neglected topic of moral reasoning.
Kreeft spends the first part of the book simply establishing the basic truths that once upon a time were obvious, but not in the present day - that moral laws exist and are knowable by human reason; that they are "built into" the universe, and thus true whether we know them or not; that moral relativism is self-refuting; and that morality ultimately derives from God (in Dostoevsky's words, "If there is no God, then everything is permissible").
His discussion of the Greatest Good is also very sharp, especially in its discussion of ends and means.
Part Four, in which he engages topics of Sex, Abortion, and Truth in greater detail, is really the meat of the book, and where Kreeft most directly engages modern culture. His discussion of sex in terms of sacredness is wonderfully clear - understanding sex as sacred simultaneously avoids both errors of hedonism on the one hand, and repression on the other. "Christian morality is based on human nature, on the kind of thing we are, and the kind of thing sex is. It is not the changeable rules of a game we designed, but the unchangeable rules of the operating manual written by the Designer of our human nature."
Kreeft's bit on our society's confusion between sex and money is utterly incisive - we use sex as a mere means of exchange (of pleasure), but we erect all manner of legal protections around money, treating it as virtually sacred, even expecting it to reproduce and grow. Priceless.
Kreeft's aim here is not ethereal or theoretical - this is not pie-in-the-sky, "out there" moral philosophy. He means to give real people real tools for living real lives in the real world, and in this, he succeeds admirably
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A great help in understanding how to make moral decisions
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-06-20
6 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
Peter Kreeft is my favorite author. His books are always intelligent and thought provoking. This book discusses many issues some of them are; moral absolutes, religion & morality, values, and how to know Gods will .I like the way he sums up his thoughts, and offers helpful ideas, in one chapter he has 12 boxes that morality won't fit in, in another he writes of the most critical issues of our time, he also talks of simplicity and the loss of the sacred in our culture. The 7 principles for knowing Gods will and the 7 power aids of the Holy Spirit were very useful. This is a book I would recommend to anyone wanting to understand how to think more clearly in these times of moral relativism.
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Black and White, thank goodness!
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-04-23
31 out of 33 customers found this reveiw helpful
Peter Kreeft has written a great little book for all those who are tired of hearing 'it's not so black and white'. Kreeft does an excellent job of explaining, simply and clearly, that right and wrong are objective - regardless of whether or not it is easy or makes someone happy. Kreeft also clears up some moral misconceptions like 'if it doesn't hurt anyone else, then it's ok' and 'the end justifies the means'. Also included in this book is an excellent discussion, scientifically based, on why abortion is objectively wrong (such as the fact that science has always defined a fetus as another human life, science has never been able to come up with a concrete time limit on so-called viability, and that a fetus has a distinct human genetic code that is separate from it's mother's).While in reading this book Kreeft does spend some time talking about God and his Christian faith, his arguments are philosophically and scientifically sound across the religious spectrum. Regardless of a reader's religion/athiesm, Kreeft's logic applies. While Kreeft argues that morality comes from God, he also demonstrates that one need not know that or believe in God to understand and use objective morals. This book is highly recommended for all readers who need help with a good strategy for making choices. It would also make an excellent gift for the person in your life who constantly argues that their morality is relative.
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