Political Philosophy and Ethics discussion

This is a place for members of the "Political Philosophy and Ethics" group to identify/discuss/link their own publications relevant to the subject matter (political philosophy or ethics) of this group. Publications can include books, book reviews, essays, website publications (including blogs), or any other form of publication that is accessible to all or some of the public. Unlike some other Goodreads group sites, members of this group may also reference their own publications in other folders and topics of this group. It is the view of this Moderator that readers can benefit not only from a member's particular Goodreads posts but also to more extended discussions that members may have published elsewhere. Past, present, or future publications may be discussed.

Note: Authors should not create separate topics for their publications. A particular publication relevant to the subject matter of this group can be discussed in this topic and, if appropriate, in one of the substantive topics of the group. If you wish to create a new substantive topic, please consult with me (the moderator) before doing so.

(revised November 30, 2018)

I published First Philosophy and Human Ethics: A Rational Inquiry in 2000. Among other things, this book and its update explore the basis of ethics, including the question of reason versus revelation and other questions of first philosophy (philosophical metaphysics). Future updates of this book and perhaps a future second edition will address questions regarding the evolutionary basis of ethics and the relationship between ethics and politics.

I have also published papers and book reviews relevant to political philosophy and ethics. The more recent of these publications can be accessed at my academia.edu site and my Philosophia Publications site.

I am currently writing a book entitled The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience. I have published an excerpt ("Was Massachusetts Bay a Theocracy?") in The Independent Scholar Quarterly, and that excerpt can be accessed here.

Amazon Kindle (e-book format) has a new program called Kindle Unlimited, available to customers in the U.S. It will hopefully be available to customers outside the U.S. before too long. There is a 30-day free trial. Thereafter, a monthly charge of $9.99 is assessed on your credit card. But, starting immediately, you can download all participating books (over 600,000 so far with the number likely to increase substantially in the future) for free! This is a very good deal for people who buy a lot of books. See here for additional information and to enroll in the 30-day free trial.

Note: If you don't have a Kindle reading device, you can read Kindle books in the Amazon Cloud or download the Kindle app for free to your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

I have enrolled my first book, First Philosophy and Human Ethics: A Rational Inquiry, in this new Kindle Unlimited program. Once you enroll in the 30-day free trial, you can download this book for free here. For those not enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, the Amazon Kindle price is $9.99. Free updates to this book are available here.

Happy reading!

Alan wrote: "Amazon Kindle (e-book format) has a new program called Kindle Unlimited, available to customers in the U.S. It will hopefully be available to customers outside the U.S. before too long. There is ..."

After one day's experience with Kindle Unlimited, I find that it is not as "unlimited" as Amazon advertises. It will let you download only ten books, after which the following message appears: "You can have up to 10 books at a time and you currently have 10. To read another Kindle Unlimited book please return one that you currently have." I'm not sure what "at a time" means. Today I read a few pages of one of the books I downloaded yesterday and then tried to download another, whereupon I received the same message. I will experiment with this during the 30-day free trial period. If I am limited to 10 books, I will definitely not continue with it. I cannot find anywhere on the Amazon site an explanation of this.

Alan wrote: "Alan wrote: "After one day's experience with Kindle Unlimited, I find that it is not as "unlimited" as Amazon advertises."

Kindle Unlimited: It appears that one is merely "borrowing" "10 books at a time." If one wants more than ten Kindle Unlimited books, one has to return one of the first ten. One cannot keep more than ten Kindle Unlimited books on one's device. The Amazon "explanation" (such as it is) is here. This would work for readers who only read a book once and don't need to keep it for future reference. It does not work for me, and I have now canceled my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

As the saying goes, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Alan,

Thanks for the warning, but I wasn't tempted as a result of bad experience with Amazon in the past. I was extremely disappointed when I saw that they had purchased Goodreads. Anyway, I bought your book on Abebooks and look forward to discussion on that in future.

Regards,

Randal

Randal wrote: "Alan,

Thanks for the warning, but I wasn't tempted as a result of bad experience with Amazon in the past. I was extremely disappointed when I saw that they had purchased Goodreads. Anyway, I bough..."

Thanks, Randal. I look forward to your comments about my book. Be sure to read also the free updates on my website. My metaphysical position has changed slightly and my views on political and economic theory have changed substantially since I published the book in 2000. I should have avoided any questions about politics and economics in the book (which was essentially about metaphysics and ethics), and my updates modify, to an extent, some of my earlier comments about these subjects. My only excuse is that I was working long hours as an attorney in those days and did not then have time to examine political philosophy and economics in depth. In contrast, my views on first philosophy and ethics had been fairly well developed for a number of decades by that time, and my updates on those questions are accordingly minimal (with the possible exception of my relatively (pun intended) uninformed views on Einstein). My wife tells me that I also need to account for recent research and findings in the field of biological evolution.

Per invitation by Alan, I'm sharing a link here to my book Tending the Epicurean Garden, which is an interdisciplinary introduction to Epicurean philosophy, informed by research in the fields of diet, neuroscience, and research by social scientists on the science of happiness.

It is one of the few books written by an Epicurean which presents the tradition on its own terms.

A shorter intro to Epicurean ethical doctrine (beginning from the Four Remedies) can be found at thenewhumanism.org.

Hello everyone,

I'm writing to announce the publication of my novel, The Alpha and the Omega: An absurd philosophical tale about God, the end of the world, and what’s on the other planets. It features a heavy dose of political and moral philosophy, (in addition to religious and other philosophies), so I thought it appropriate for this group! For a full description, check out my website: www.aothebook.com

I have free paperbacks and Kindle copies available for review and would be happy to send them to anyone in this group. Please message me if interested!

-Charley

H.M. wrote: "Hello everyone,

I'm writing to announce the publication of my novel, The Alpha and the Omega: An absurd philosophical tale about God, the end of the world, and what’s on the other planets. It f..."

Thanks, Charley. I've put it on my Kindle WishList and will read it next year after I finish my current book project. It looks quite interesting--your disclaimer on your website is especially witty!

Thanks so much! Given how much you have written in these fields, I will be really curious to see what you think!

BOOK PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT

The paperback edition of my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience was published on July 7, 2015. This book is 662 pages from cover to cover, including about 380 pages of text and 190 pages of endnotes. It is available for US and international customers at my Amazon CreateSpace eStore. The list price is $23.99 in the US and comparable prices in other currencies plus shipping and any applicable sales or VAT tax. If, however, you purchase the paperback through my eStore, you can obtain a 10% discount from the list price by entering the discount code B4HJWA53 at checkout. Please note that when you purchase through this site, you may have to create a new CreateSpace account even if you already have an Amazon account.

This book is also available in paperback and Kindle e-book editions at Amazon.com and other Amazon websites throughout the world, including Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, and Amazon.es. However, the 10% discount is available only at my eStore and only for the paperback edition. Although the Kindle edition is not available at my eStore and is not eligible for the 10% discount, it is affordably priced at $9.99 at Amazon.com and comparable prices in other currencies at other Amazon websites.

Alan E. Johnson
(updated 10/31/2015)

After my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience was in the publication process (too late to incorporate additional changes), I prepared "Errata and Supplemental Comments" that can be accessed here.

Alan E. Johnson

Goodreads now lists The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience here.

I would like to invite you to read my book "The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm to a fairer society" (www.sorgindex.com)

Here a review I received:

This book explores a crucial theme through an unprecedented approach that inspires reflection and action.

Contextualized by unbiased facts and references, the authors stimulate the reader to move into a journey of reflection about how organisations may play a crucial role in human development.

The simplicity of the proposed model, illustrated by inspiring quotes from universal thinkers, offers a unique framework to thought development.

Centred on organizations as the key drivers for social development this book takes the reader into a journey of understanding the world we live in and where we may go.

Going into more detail, the book firstly contextualizes the reader with observations about the economic context we live in, fundamented by well referenced facts and illustrated by quotes, paradoxes, myths and ideas that will surely stimulate readers' reflection. The observations are about ..... and form a diagnosis of the reality today. Its a question provocative section that will probably surprise most readers and instil mobilization...


Then the authors bring the readers through a positive and constructive journey, listing inspiring examples of organisations that already have a sustainable attitude at their core strategy.

In the second part of the book, the authors propose and explain in a simple but detailed manner, a model that characterizes their view of a sustainable organisation. They do so by listing key drivers that can change any organisation through a sustainable model. This model is summarized by an ingenious, simple and transparent algorithm that measures any type of organization through sustainability criteria. The beauty of this algorithm is that it allows anyone to compare any type of organization anywhere, using only public data already available about organisations.

Undoubtedly, this is an outstanding book using an unorthodox style to inspire the reader reflection and instil action.... a must read!

Miguel wrote: "I would like to invite you to read my book "The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm to a fairer society" (www.sorgindex.com)

Here a review I received:

This book explores a crucial theme throug..."

Miguel - Thank you for the information about your book, and welcome to the group. Alan

Thank you Alan. Lets see if we can start a discussion over this fundamental theme.

Miguel wrote: "Thank you Alan. Lets see if we can start a discussion over this fundamental theme."

I have now downloaded your book on Kindle and will read it when I get a chance. Although this is not within my current primary areas of research, I am interested in the topic and look forward to reading your analyses of the issues. Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to summarize your principal arguments in the Government and the Economy; Property Rights or Environmental Justice topics of this group. Alternatively, if you think it more appropriate, you could create a new topic, perhaps on "Corporate Governance." After posting your summary, people could comment, as appropriate. I may not immediately comment myself, as this is an area outside of my present expertise. But I think there are others in the group who may have knowledgeable contributions to make.

Although your book appears to address matters of microeconomics, which are perhaps beyond the scope of the present group (compare the "Economics" group), I see that you also address issues relating to governmental regulation. I have been recently criticized by Goodreads management for "self-promotion" in communicating information about my recent book on Roger Williams. The present group has a somewhat different concept than many other Goodreads groups in that posts relating to one's own writings that are relevant to the group subject ("Political Philosophy and Ethics") are welcome. I think that readers may want to be aware of new, as well as old, books on these subjects, including books and articles by the person who is commenting. I draw the line at books and articles (for example, escapist and nonpolitical fiction) that are directed to topics outside of the subject matter of the group, but I think that your book falls within that subject matter. Nevertheless, all posters should be aware that Goodreads apparently frowns on unpaid advertising of one's own writings. There appears to be a method of paid advertising that they prefer, but I have not yet explored this possibility on Goodreads.

So far, this group has, I believe, kept the discussions above board and civil, and I congratulate all participants for their maturity in that respect. I think that your recent book may add to the group's rational discourse regarding political philosophy and ethics.

Many thanks for your suggestions Alan. I will do it. The book has both a macro and micro perspective. But essentially macro. The idea was to demystify some concepts since this is a theme that affects all us. Both the model and the index are concepts that anyone, regardless of their background or interests, can understand. In my perspective we can only achieve a global change is people realise that this subjects are accessible to all. Thanks for downloading it and I would appreciate your feedback and help bringing all this to light.

Miguel wrote: "Many thanks for your suggestions Alan. I will do it. The book has both a macro and micro perspective. But essentially macro. The idea was to demystify some concepts since this is a theme that affec..."

Another possibility would be to create a topic "Business Ethics" under the "Ethics" folder. However, since I have not yet read the book, I defer to you as to which topic would be most appropriate.

Well, all are appropriate. To reach sustainability you need a balance between the organisation's owners, team and community. Ethics, plays an essential role in creating trust and trust is a pillar in a meritocratic organisation. Ethics grows from inside each individual alone during his education. Seldom can be learn in adulthood. And Ethics is at the core of a trustful relationships. So its all connected...

Miguel wrote: "Well, all are appropriate. To reach sustainability you need a balance between the organisation's owners, team and community. Ethics, plays an essential role in creating trust and trust is a pillar..."

OK, go ahead and create/use the topic thread that you think is most appropriate.

The Kindle e-book edition of The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience is now available here and at other Amazon locations throughout the world. Additional and updated Errata and Supplemental Comments regarding this book (including references to both Kindle location numbers and paperback page numbers) are posted here.

I have posted here a PDF of the title page, copyright page, epigraphs, table of contents, and map list of the paperback edition of my book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience.

I have posted here an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the paperback under the title "The Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts Bay (1635-36)." The endnotes for this excerpt appear after the text.

The book is also available in a Kindle e-book edition.

I have created a reading list entitled Roger Williams (ca. 1603-83) on Goodreads' Listopia. I consulted the primary and secondary sources on this list in researching and writing my recently published book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience. I also consulted some other sources (for example, scholarly essays and substantially dated books) that I did not include on the list. Inclusion of a particular book on this list does not indicate my agreement with all of its contents. In fact, I disagree with at least some of the factual or interpretative statements made in probably all of the secondary sources published before my book on Roger Williams. My account of Roger Williams was based mostly on the primary sources included in this list, though I also consulted the original editions of many seventeenth-century publications cited in my book that are now available on Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Alan E. Johnson

Hi, everybody.
I have acquired permission from Mr. Johnson to post my book here.
The name of the book is Genesis and you can check the the book's goodreads page here.

"I'm not against the concept of Creators/God, I'm against the antiquated beliefs that there are evil things, which are merely axioms we concocted out of our inadequacy as mortal beings, primitive brain, and underdeveloped technology.” – Andreas Laurencius, Genesis.

The book is also currently on sale, $0.99 on Kindle Store.
You can also send me a private message and I'll provide you with a free copy with no obligations to review it.

Free Genesis. Get your copy for free (today and tomorrow):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013CFGQBG

Read reviews on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Got some bullets from one of the readers:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/259443...


•••••


“If we can conquer death and dearth, evil will be no more.

We see that matters are able to evolve and redefining the concept of good and evil shows that we are, and the holy scriptures are no words of God, they are outdated references.

We observe order and patterns within the universe because some parts of the chaos that is the universe are something we love while actually order is not self-existent and the universe doesn't care for us, thus the concept of free will that is vital to its constituents. The universe lets its constituents write what they know, believe what they believe, do what they do, regardless of whether they are true or not.” – Andreas Laurencius, Genesis.

Read Genesis and help the government determine right and wrong.

I just wanna say, if you want a prove that devil doesn't exist, I am the prove. Because I have no connection whatsoever with the devil and I have never seen one make contact with me let alone say 'good job'. Yes you may say that 'the devil's greatest trick is making us believe that he doesn't exist'. I don't have the energy to argue with this, let alone to argue with the statement in the bible which conveniently accuses 'the devil' of being the mother of all liars and says that 'eating' knowledge is the mother of all sins. Let's be stupid and kill one another in the name of religion's teachings, shall we?

And here I stand and I'd want to accuse religion as the mother of all foolishness, and therefore, stupid stubborn f***. I have to say 'I'd want' to prevent a lawsuit but again they can't sue me because this is my opinion and I have the rights to do far worse things than accusing them. Why? Because I have prove and my prove is justice backed up by science and what do they have? They have billions of bloods on their hands.

Final question: why do you think I named the virus that ended the world Shy-9999?

Not the answer (or is it?): maybe religion and its afterlife concept is a set of rationale our selfish selves made to justify the dying of other people and prevent population boost, while physics has told us that no particle cares about good or evil, only us humans and God has never talked to us directly (it's always 'through' different persons and these persons spoke different things).

I also want to say that I'm a very fearful man. The first time the book was published I didn't write down the beginning part of the blurb which says "there is no good or evil…". You can ask #### because he's among the first ones to review it. Why? First: I'm very considerate of our community. And you can see that I'm quite a good man. I do social works. I have a hard time asking for compensations for my medical service, I can present a lot of people who will testify to this. Second: I fear for my life. There are a lot of people who won't like the book (1. the stupid riches, because according to my book, wasting resources is wrong, and 2. the religious). They can kill me if they don't find what's inside my head to be valuable.

I WON'T PROMOTE MY BOOK ANY FURTHER. November 28, 2015 is the last time it'll be free to download. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013CFGQBG I've done my part changing the world with my writings. It's up to community, they want it, keep it, they don't want it, burn it. Now it's time I do the science part. And you have to know that my judgment is very well-pondered and I will cooperate as long as the government doesn't kill anybody anymore. I know that population boost isn't something we look forward to so we can keep the memories in certain 'files' until we are ready with a new earth.

Pls support the research for the sake of justice on earth and our survival as a whole, as intelligent beings and not stupid f***ing dinosaurs:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

I'm sorry for my tone. I see people die, and nothing prevents them from experiencing every consequences that are due to the law of physics and biology and chemistry except medicine and of course love.

Science does a better job than the old scriptures do. Look at our world. It's full of corruption and people's killing each other. Religion doesn't work. This is because old literatures are just that: old. And it fails us, except for the extremely few miracles, which physics can explain why it happens: there's a non-zero albeit infinitesimal chance a speeding asteroid can miss its trajectory from hitting an object, or cancer cells can disappear. Einstein hated this side of quantum physics. There is no law in it. He couldn't predict it to a point of certainty. It is so random. There's no formula that can predict to a point of certainty the properties of any particle. Einstein hated it, he said "God doesn't play dice with the world". And sound influences reality so prayers work.

There is no pattern. We see pattern and we tend to make up one when we don't see any (e.g. the concept of purposeful design) because we love something and hate the other thing. The truth is: it's all chaos and there is no divine intervention. We see a beautiful landscape and say that it was created by God, it's because we love it. What we don't see is the fact that we are surrounded by water that kills us if we drink it. We see that there is the sun and the moon and the earth is placed in the perfect distance from them so that an atmosphere and water could form. What we don't see is that this configuration of planet and solar system is only one in billions of possibilities and there is no other earth as far as the eyes can see. And this is consistent with the law of quantum physics: there is a possibility that life can form, and that possibility is infinitesimal.

Physics did it. God didn't do anything. If God had done it, he would have made two earths at least, or an alien, thus confirming that He is there and there is a divine intervention that defies the law of physics.

Physics can explain everything including abiogenesis (this is discussed in the Life on The Edge book where quantum physics is proposed to be the breath behind biomolecular activities). Don't we agree that the cell in the lab which is the result of culturing is the same cell from the "original" cell (e.g. the HeLa cells that have been used extensively, are the same cells as their mother cells which were taken from a cancer victim named Henrietta Lacks). They are the same, otherwise we won't be able to use them for research, and furthermore, this cell replication also happens inside the body, otherwise we won't grow, so the child-cell is just as alive as the parent-cell.
But then we take it to the next level: we say that the cells that are part of a whole (our body) have a soul that will go to either heaven or hell, but a cell individually doesn't have a soul (a woman's egg cell got killed every month). Who are we to say that God has the shape and characteristics of a human and loves human? Where is the fairness in that? Why isn't God the shape of an alien who hates us? To make things up is stupidity, isn't it?

Aren't humanbeings so proud of themselves that they call their small existence the only thing that matters in the entire universe? And that this universe was created for them? It wouldn't be fair to the dolphins at least.

And shouldn't we laugh at the fact that God has never spoken to us. If he's an intelligent being, why didn't he ever tell the truth to all of us directly. It's always through different persons and these persons spoke different things.

Human is alone. There's no divine intervention. Tell me one act of God that shows that he exists. In the old days, we say that lightning is God's wrath, now we know that it is electricity. I beg the world to please evolve, and make this world a better place. Science is the answer, as it has answered our lightning question. Did god answer our lightning question? No. Did god change anything by dying on the cross? No. Science does. Science will give us food, shelters, even the true forgiveness, e.g.: when my patient suffers a stroke from high blood pressure, science forgives her by not letting her get worse, or is it god?

My grandparents are devoted Catholics and my mother is a christian pastor, still. I was raised in a christian family and I used to serve the church and I almost never skipped church.

What we know in the past has failed us. The holy scriptures are also science somehow, because it shows us what we know in the past. But it doesn't work. People don't understand what matters. They mystify the concept of soul, they say that gayness is against the will of god. Are we to say that gay people should be cast to hell? My book certainly disagrees, but the holy scriptures say so. The definition of right and wrong I give is beautiful, it's simple, it's scientific, and it's helpful. And it's certainly better than what the old scriptures give. And it works in building a better world.

I'd like to post something from my blog, if I may.

This may sound philosophical but being a medical doctor, I'm more of a scientist than a philosopher.


I have to say that I'd like to take us one step further. And with this step, I say there is no god or satan.

I'd like to convey why this is important.


So far, we know nothing of God except from religions.
One concept speaks of God's being the good one.
Another concept speaks of God's being The Creator. (This has trouble if we see it through the eye of science. You may read my answers here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)


Both concepts present us with a problem:
"Proclaiming the presence of divine intervention"
1. In the past and present, in the form of stating that the forces in existence are good and evil, which will result in our:
A. not bearing the responsibilities for our deeds (blaming God and Satan even blaming Adam for our mishaps).
B. justification to end anything we condemn as evil including those who take our limited resources (time and matters), without knowing that good and evil only exist in the mind of the condemners.
2. In the future, where we create the possibility of an afterlife and the concept of a greater good (saying it is OK to kill).


If we get rid of the concept of good and evil, and instead adhere to a new scientific, absolute definition of right and wrong, which is "Wrong is when it causes death or dearth":
1. We can achieve the highest possible form of morality.
2. People including the government can make decisions easily.
3. People will stop smoking.
4. Scientific researches will have clear purposes. Genetic researches will be expanded to create better humans, who will never be a threat to any existence.
5. Corruption and rich people who are not productive will be no more.
6. Death penalty will stop.
7. Future intergalactic war will never happen. And current wars will end. Finally, the Middle East can be in peace.
8. Rich people will care about poverty and stop using sports cars.
9. Capitalism and socialism will halt and people will work together as what I propose in the book.
10. Socio economic gap will be reduced to minimum and criminality will go down to 0.


And many more.


It will be all peace, forever.

I decided I'd just write a blog post and let the discussion take place there.
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

So people who aren't willing to dig further won't be exposed to it.

A nonfiction explanation about Genesis
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Hello. I'm the publisher/editor of a series of anthologies by a group called the "Wicked Problems Collaborative. Our first book, "
What do we do about inequality?" looks at inequality in a wide variety of forms (race, class, wealth, access, income, access, etc.) was released in January. The book features 37 essays from a diverse group of contributors which includes: academics, activists, artists, business and NGO leaders, and economists. If you're interested in (or concerned about), the topic of inequality, our book will give you plenty to chew on.
We're just getting started on Book 2, which will focus on the rapidly evolving technological environment with the goal of helping the reader think through the potential impacts to our lives, especially impacts to cornerstones like employment. If you have any questions about either book, I'd be happy to answer them.

If you are interested in sex-related ethics, you might like to read this book: 'Secrets of Genius: The Sex Files'

It is free today, tommorrow and all weekend (23-26th March 2017) from Amazon.

http://imos.org.uk/Sex-Files.html



Warning: Only for people who like to be challenged with controversial, politically-incorrect ideas!

I'd just like to say how much Alan's forum and all its participants has helped me with my current-work-in-progress.

I can't promise that it will ever see publication; it's a screenplay (that's what I write, though sales prospects are dim).

But this is one I've always wanted to embark on. Its a send-up of imperialism and colonialism and bureaucracy.

Old-school, political 'black comedy' in the style of 'Scoop', 'Dr Strangelove', 'Being There', & 'Colonel Blimp'. No really deep ethical issues but more like Marx Bros silliness.

Being able to come here to ask arcane political questions has been an enormous benefit. Instrumental in helping me refine my plot.

Thank ye! Huge help!

Feliks wrote: "I'd just like to say how much Alan's forum and all its participants has helped me with my current-work-in-progress.

I can't promise that it will ever see publication; it's a screenplay (that's wh..."

If your screenplay is published someday, please let us know.

Hi everyone. My name is Robert and I'm an avid reader of philosophy books in particular Stoicism and Ancient Greek Philosophy. I have a BA from Clemson University and a Masters of Library & Information Science (MLIS) from the University of South Carolina. Needless to say I love to read and have worked at libraries and institutions that require information organization and retrieval needs (e.g local government institutions, HR departments) throughout my life.

I also have several books out on Amazon that I've written and published on Philosophy and Stoicism. Interested members can check out my books at https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Woolsto... ---- Please contact me at woolstonrobert@gmail.com if you'd like to receive a complimentary copy of any of my philosophy books to read. review and leave a star rating on Amazon.

PUBLICATION NOTICE:

The paperback edition of my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote is now available here on Amazon.com. I have confirmed that it is also on the Amazon sites for the UK and Germany. It is probably also on the other European Amazon sites, but I haven't had time yet to check all of them.

I'm also working on getting the Kindle edition published. This will probably take a few days.

Alan E. Johnson

The Goodreads entry for my recently published book, The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote, is here.

Please note a typographical error on page 114, line 2 of the paperback: "2017" should be "2016." This error will be corrected in the forthcoming Kindle edition.

Update on Kindle edition of The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote:

After weeks of frustration with Kindle's inability to produce an ebook that renumbers the endnotes at the beginning of each chapter and the appendix (without losing the hyperlinks), I have contracted with a professional ebook conversion company that promises to provide me an ebook file in correct form by March 29, 2018. Accordingly, I am hoping to have a correct Kindle ebook online by this weekend. For those waiting for the Kindle edition, thank you for your patience.

Alan E. Johnson

EBOOK PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Kindle edition of my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote is now available. The Goodreads webpage for same is here. The Amazon webpage is here.

The earlier Kindle problem with endnote formatting has now been corrected. As of this date, however, the Kindle edition that appears on Kindle devices (as distinguished from computers and mobile phones) contains Arabic page numbers as well as Amazon location numbers. These Arabic page numbers do not match the Arabic page numbers in the paperback. Amazon informs me that they cannot remove the Arabic page numbers in the Kindle devices. Accordingly, readers who contemplate citing page numbers of this book in a review or otherwise should reference the paperback edition. Under the Kindle Matchbook program, those buying the paperback edition can download the Kindle edition at no additional cost.

Alan E. Johnson
April 6, 2018

The paperback version of my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote is also available at barnesandnoble.com here. The current price listed on that site is $14.95. The price on the Amazon.com website for the book is $12.95, which is a reduction from the original $14.95 price. It is unclear whether Barnes & Noble will also reduce the price to $12.95.

Barnes and Noble does not have a Nook ebook version of this publication. The Amazon Kindle version is priced at $6.95, except that purchasers of the paperback can obtain the Kindle ebook at no additional charge through the Amazon Matchbook program.

Note: Despite my repeated requests to Amazon, the pagination mismatch (see preceding post) between the Kindle and paperback editions has not yet been corrected. Since the Arabic pagination of the Kindle edition (as it appears on Kindle reading devices) does not match the Arabic pagination of the paperback, any public citation of specific page numbers of the book should reference the paperback pagination. This is the reason I have reduced the prices of both the paperback and Kindle editions and have also made the Kindle edition available to paperback purchasers at no extra charge.

Alan E. Johnson
April 22, 2018

As of this morning, another issue has arisen with KDP (Kindle) over their incorrect notices on the Kindle webpage for the Electoral College book.

Amazon's new "Quality issues noted" drop-down on this webpage is incorrect. The typos reported are not typos but rather quotations from primary source material that spelled some words differently from modern English. Specifically, these are quotations from the famous 1787 notes of James Madison of the debates in the Constitutional Convention that he attended that year. They are all enclosed by quotation marks. I cannot change the contents of these quotations without improperly altering Madison's original writing. Please note that this is not a work of fiction. It is a work of history and political science. It is contrary to all canons of scholarship to change quoted material in the manner that KDP requests. I will not do this. The reader(s) who reported this issue apparently never learned in school that you cannot change material enclosed in quotation marks to suit modern practices and style. This is something that is taught in high school, not to mention college. The reader(s) who reported these matters have no business reading the book in the first place. My advertising for the book never represented that the book would be other than it is: a work of historical and political science scholarship.

Alan E. Johnson
April 23, 2018

Addendum to my preceding post:

Amazon has now removed its erroneous notice on the Kindle webpage that my Electoral College book had alleged typos. The reader who reported this incorrect information to Amazon may have been a professional troll who was trying to sabotage the book by depressing sales. Of course, I'll never know what prompted them to make this false and defamatory allegation. But, in response to my demands, Amazon has removed the offending notice, and so the case against Amazon is closed.

Over the past many weeks, Amazon has repeatedly "kindled" (as it were) my "lawyer's brain," which otherwise has been mostly dormant since my retirement from the practice of law more than five years ago. It is not a nice feeling, but at least the most ridiculous issue has now been put to rest. The lack of synchronization between the Arabic page numbers in the Kindle edition (which, I discovered today, affects my mobile phone application as well as the Kindle device application) and the print edition remains, but that is minor in comparison to the false "quality" allegation.

Alan E. Johnson
April 25, 2018

Alan,

I'm glad to hear you got the problem with the Kindle edition resolved. I think I have seen more than a few perfectly fine e-books removed from the Kindle store due to 'quality' complaints.

Whether it's trolling, or picayune customers, or maybe a dodge to read a book for free and then ask for a refund, I don't know.

I did remember that I planned to get the e-book when it came out, and just did. Glad to see it was affordably priced.

Christopher wrote: "Alan,

I'm glad to hear you got the problem with the Kindle edition resolved. I think I have seen more than a few perfectly fine e-books removed from the Kindle store due to 'quality' complaints.

..."

Thanks, Chris. I appreciate your information and support. Amazon caved when I threatened to unpublish my Kindle book and sue them for libel. Fortunately, neither extreme recourse will be necessary now.

I have posted "Errata and Supplemental Comment" to my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote here.

Alan E. Johnson
May 9, 2018

All Kindle issues with my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote have now been resolved. The Kindle edition contains only Kindle location numbers and not page numbers. Under the Kindle Matchbook program, those buying the paperback edition on Amazon can download the Kindle edition at no additional cost. (Note to readers who downloaded the Kindle edition before May 19, 2018: You may see Arabic page numbers on your Kindle devices. These page numbers did not correspond to the page numbers in the paperback edition and have therefore been removed. If your Kindle settings enable automatic updates, this problem as well as some typos may be automatically corrected. Alternatively, you can obtain the corrected version by deleting the book from your apps and reloading it from the cloud.)

I have posted a revised "Errata and Supplemental Comment" document here.

Alan E. Johnson, The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote

The Nook (Barnes & Noble ebook) edition of my book The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote was published on June 20, 2018. Please note that the Arabic page numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) in this Nook ebook do not match the Arabic pagination of the paperback.

This book is also available as an Amazon Kindle ebook (which contains Kindle location numbers but no page numbers). The paperback edition is available on Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and through some independent booksellers.

Today, I posted an updated "Errata and Supplemental Comment" document for the book here.

The Goodreads entries for the book can be located here.

Alan E., besides the forthcoming work on human free will and ethics, what other books do you have in mind to tackle? I read the analysis of Aristotle's NE Book I on Academia.edu; it was extraordinary in its precision and formatting.