If being powerless makes you jumpy, then being poor makes you envious. You notice when other people are happy and you become keenly aware of those things that they have, that make them happy, that you do not have. Sometimes, you know better than they do about what brings them joy. Andrew Sneddon has made a name for himself in Australia and internationally as a successful archaeologist and heritage consultant. But his success belies his childhood: at the age of eleven, Sneddon finds himself...

Atheists may be among the fastest growing "religious" demographics in the world, but they are also perhaps the most misunderstood. To begin, atheists have no identifying marks, no defining habits, no obvious symbols, for all that unites them, essentially, is an absence of belief. As a result, many religious believers may not even realize they know atheists, whether as neighbors, friends, or coworkers. In addition, most major religions warn against the faithless and preach distrust of nonbe...

This book develops a plausible and novel account of methodology for moral philosophy. It focuses on the structural features of moral theories, specifically what is taken as input and the process of theorising itself.Philosophers have long neglected the difficulties of identifying and using good input for moral theorising. The first part of the book argues that we should use “contrastively successful” judgements as input. A moral judgement about a case must be shown to be interperso...

This Element argues that Ireland did not experience a disenchanted modernity, nor a decline in magic. It suggests that beliefs, practices and traditions concerning witchcraft and magic developed and adapted to modernity to retain cultural currency until the end of the twentieth century. This analysis provides the backdrop for the first systematic exploration of how historic Irish trials of witches and cunning-folk were represented by historians, antiquarians, journalists, dramatists, poets...

This is the first academic overview of witchcraft and popular magic in Ireland and spans the medieval to the modern period. Based on a wide range of un-used and under-used primary source material, and taking account of denominational difference between Catholic and Protestant, it provides a detailed account of witchcraft trials and accusation.

This book offers a comprehensive study of the nature and significance of offense and offensiveness. It incorporates insights from moral philosophy and moral psychology to rationally reconstruct our ordinary ideas and assumptions about these notions.When someone claims that something is offensive, others are supposed to listen. Why? What is it for something to be offensive? Likewise, it’s supposed to matter if someone claims to have been offended. Is this correct? In this book, Andr...

Fukuoka relates the experiences of two Australian brothers, Alf and Wally, in a prisoner-of-war camp in Japan during the Second World War, expressed in poetry in the voice of the surviving brother Alf.Based on the lives of his own great-uncles, Andrew Sneddon’s poetry captures the intimacy that exists between brothers, while reflecting on the psychology of the human condition in ways that transcend the particular.Sneddon’s verse contemplates life and death,...

The Wait-a-While Vine is a poetic imagining of the doomed Cape York expedition of Edmund Kennedy and Jacky Jacky in 1848. The verses merge landscape and dreamscape, history and legend. Beginning with the young Kennedy’s life in England and ending with Jacky Jacky’s death, the poems traverse topics as diverse as the terrain covered by the explorers.The Wait-a-While Vine presents playful vignettes of society in colonial New South Wales, meditates on ...

Atheists are a growing demographic, yet often misunderstood. A Is for Atheist offers a clear, concise, and accessible introduction to atheism, dispelling misconceptions and fostering understanding. Organized like an encyclopedia, this guide covers a wide range of topics, from the philosophical underpinnings of atheism to practical advice for living a secular life. Discover answers to essential questions: Why might someone become an atheist? How do atheists create meaning and purpose? What ...

Ghost Armies presents Andrew Sneddon’s poetic works Fukuoka and The Wait-a-While Vine in one volume. Sneddon’s connected verses explore two defining episodes in Australia’s history and provide emotional and cultural insights of both personal and universal import.Fukuoka relates the experiences of two Australian brothers, Alf and Wally, in a prisoner-of-war camp in Japan during the Second World War. The work contemplates life and death, br...

County Antrim, Ireland, 1711: Eight women were put on trial accused of bewitching and demonically possessing young Mary Dunbar, amid an attack by evil spirits on the local community and after the supernatural murder of a clergyman's wife. Mary Dunbar was the star witness in this trial, and the women were, by the standards of the time, believable witches – they dabbled in magic, they smoked, they drank, they had disabilities. A second trial targeted a final male 'witch' and...

Philosophers have various reasons to be interested in individual autonomy. Individual self-rule is widely recognized to be important. But what, exactly, is autonomy? In what ways is it important? And just how important is it? This book introduces contemporary philosophical thought about the nature and significance of individual self-rule.Andrew Sneddon divides self-rule into autonomy of choice and autonomy of persons. Unlike most philosophical treatments of autonomy, Sneddon addres...