reflection on morality learned by a people who endured and survived magyarization commonly referred to in our own time as ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide, and/or forced ethnic assimilation. It may even give pause for reflection to readers who see themselves as personally untouched by this misery but are active promoters of nothing but the virtues of pluralism to wonder whether pluralism is a contemporary way of eliminating unwanted ethnic groups by homogenization of all to pluralism. This book is not a collection of lessons from history but a chorus of voices that offer an honest, serious, yet refreshing and insightful understanding ourselves, society and culture. There are uncommon paradigms to consider in these articles that can enhance anyone s sense of living in reality. Vasil Gluchman s article on the important personality of Martin Razus, A Philosopher and Ethicist, is a case in point. Razus explains that the most important lesson to learn is to accept blows to build oneself as being above all images of the world that would render one unhappy and harmed. Pain belongs to life as a shadow belongs to an object in the sun. There are powers of ruination in life but the motto of a person must become: Do not give in to life [ruination]. Rather, learn to orient your life on the development of creativity and productive powers that lie within and offer you possibility of self-cultivation and self-development. This collection covers a wide academic range of subject material, from meta-ethical and theological reflections, to problems of alcoholism, family, and work to moral aspects in literature that put morality at center stage in the human experience, all of which are united by the furnace that was the Slovak experience of ethnic cleansing. Howard M. Ducharme, D.Phil. Professor & Chair, Philosophy Department University of Akron USA

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