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Moral Thought Outside Moral Theory (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)
by Craig TaylorThis book argues there can be no theory of ethics and that any attempt at such a theory ends up distorting the moral phenomena that it is supposed to explain. It presents clear examples of moral thought outside moral theorising through literature and Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. The book’s precise target is moral theory understood as a theory of right action. The author begins by arguing against the assumption central to moral theory that moral judgments are universalizable; that what it is right for one agent to do in a given situation is what is right for any agent in that same situation. Rather, moral judgments are essentially first personal. The author's specific contention here is that our understanding of moral thought in literature provides grounds for rejecting the assumption that moral judgments are universalizable. The author then goes on to argue that there is some determinate and objective content to ethics connected to recognising another human being as a limit to our will. He presents several literary examples that have influenced his thinking about the nature of moral value. He combines these readings with insights from Wittgenstein’s later writings to demonstrate the ways in which moral theorising fails to capture important aspects of moral thought. Moral Thought Outside Moral Theory will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics and moral theory, literature and philosophy, and Wittgenstein.
Moral Tradition and Individuality
by John KekesIn this study, John Kekes develops the view that good lives depend on maintaining a balance between one's moral tradition and individuality. Our moral tradition provides the forms of good lives and the permissible ways of trying to achieve them. But to do so, the author argues, we must grow in self-knowledge and self-control to make our characters suitable for realizing our aspirations. In addressing general readers as well as scholars, Kekes makes these philosophical views concrete by drawing on a rich variety of literary sources, including, among others, the works of Sophocles, Henry James, Tolstoy, and Edith Wharton. The first half of the work concentrates on social morality, establishing the conditions all good lives must meet. The second discusses personal morality, the sphere of individuality. Its development enables us to discover what is important to us and how we can fit our personal aspirations into the forms of life our moral tradition provides. Kekes's argument derives its inspiration from Aristotle's objectivism, Hume's emphasis on custom and feeling, and Mill's concentration on individuals and their experiments in living. This book is a nontechnical yet closely reasoned attempt to provide a contemporary answer to the age-old question of how to live well.
Moral Tribes
by Joshua GreeneThe Boston Globe"Surprising and remarkable... Toggling between big ideas, technical details, and his personal intellectual journey, Greene writes a thesis suitable to both airplane reading and PhD seminars."Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us) and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern times have forced the world's tribes into a shared space, resulting in epic clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground.A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights the way forward. Greene compares the human brain to a dual-mode camera, with point-and-shoot automatic settings ("portrait," "landscape") as well as a manual mode. Our point-and-shoot settings are our emotions--efficient, automated programs honed by evolution, culture, and personal experience. The brain's manual mode is its capacity for deliberate reasoning, which makes our thinking flexible. Point-and-shoot emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us. But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them. Our tribal emotions make us fight--sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words--often with life-and-death stakes.An award-winning teacher and scientist, Greene directs Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab, which uses cutting-edge neuroscience and cognitive techniques to understand how people really make moral decisions. Combining insights from the lab with lessons from decades of social science and centuries of philosophy, the great question of Moral Tribes is this: How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong to Us?Ultimately, Greene offers a set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives. Moral Tribes shows us when to trust our instincts, when to reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward.A major achievement from a rising star in a new scientific field, Moral Tribes will refashion your deepest beliefs about how moral thinking works and how it can work better.
Moral Tribes
by Joshua GreeneOur brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us), and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern life has thrust the world's tribes into a shared space, creating conflicts of interest and clashes of values, along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground. . . A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, 'Moral Tribes' reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights a way forward. Our emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us. But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them. Our tribal emotions make us fight, sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words, and often with life-and-death stakes. Drawing inspiration from moral philosophy and cutting-edge science, 'Moral Tribes' shows when we should trust our instincts, when we should reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward. . . Joshua Greene is the director of Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab, a pioneering scientist, a philosopher, and an acclaimed teacher. The great challenge of 'Moral Tribes' is this: How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong? Finally, Greene offers a surprisingly simple set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives.
Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study In Ethics
by Margaret Urban WalkerThis is a revised edition of Walker's well-known book in feminist ethics first published in 1997. Walker's book proposes a view of morality and an approach to ethical theory which uses the critical insights of feminism and race theory to rethink the epistemological and moral position of the ethical theorist, and how moral theory is inescapably shaped by culture and history. The main gist of her book is that morality is embodied in "practices of responsibility" that express our identities, values, and connections to others in socially patterned ways. Thus ethical theory needs to be empirically informed and politically critical to avoid reiterating forms of socially entrenched bias. Responsible ethical theory should reveal and question the moral significance of social differences. The book engages with, and challenges, the work of contemporary analytic philosophers in ethics.
Moral Universalism and Pluralism: NOMOS XLIX (NOMOS - American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy #9)
by Melissa S. Williams Henry S. RichardsonMoral universalism, or the idea that some system of ethics applies to all people regardless of race, color, nationality, religion, or culture, must have a plurality over which to range - a plurality of diverse persons, nations, jurisdictions, or localities over which morality asserts a universal authority. The contributors to Moral Universalism and Pluralism, the latest volume in the NOMOS series, investigate the idea that, far from denying the existence of such pluralities, moral universalism presupposes it. At the same time, the search for universally valid principles of morality is deeply challenged by diversity. The fact of pluralism presses us to explore how universalist principles interact with ethical, political, and social particularisms. These important essays refuse the answer that particularisms should simply be made to conform to universal principles, as if morality were a mold into which the diverse matter of human society and culture could be pressed. Rather, the authors bring philosophical, legal and political perspectives to bear on the core questions: Which forms of pluralism are conceptually compatible with moral universalism, and which ones can be accommodated in a politically stable way? Can pluralism generate innovations in understandings of moral duty? How is convergence on the validity of legal and moral authority possible in circumstances of pluralism? As the contributors to the book demonstrate in a wide variety of ways, these normative, conceptual, and political questions deeply intertwine.Contributors: Kenneth Baynes, William A. Galston, Barbara Herman, F. M. Kamm, Benedict Kingsbury, Frank I. Michelman, William E. Scheuerman, Gopal Sreenivasan, Daniel Weinstock, and Robin West.
Moral Value and Human Diversity
by Robert AudiAre there ethical standards that deserve everyone's allegiance? Can judgments of value transcend taste and cultural preference? Moral Value and Human Diversity offers a brief but highly comprehensive introduction to ethics and value theory that argues for positive answers in a pluralistic framework.
Moral Values (Ethics Ser.)
by Nicolai HartmannNicolai Hartmann (1882-1950), along with Henri Bergson and Martin Heidegger, was instrumental in restoring metaphysics to the study of philosophy. Unlike his contemporaries, however, Hartmann was clearly influenced by Plato. His tour-de-force, Ethik, published in English in 1932 as Ethics, may be the most outstanding work on moral philosophy produced in the twentieth century.In the first part of Ethics (Moral Phenomena), Hartmann was concerned with the structure of ethical phenomena, and criticized utilitarianism, Kantianism, and relativism as misleading approaches. In the second part, Moral Values, the author describes all values as forming a complex and as yet imperfectly known system. The actualization of the non-moral and elementary moral values is a necessary condition for the actualization of the higher values. It is on this account that rudimentary values have a prior claim.Hartmann outlines the main features of the chief virtues, and shows that the moral disposition required in any exigency is always a specific synthesis of various and often conflicting values. Specifically describing fundamental moral values-such as goodness, nobility, and vitality-and special moral values-such as justice, wisdom, courage, self-control, trustworthiness, and modesty-Hartmann takes theoretical philosophy and brings it very much into the realm of the practical.A compelling and insightful volume, Moral Values remains an essential contribution to the moral and ethical literature of the twentieth century. Hartmann offers a self-contained system of ethics that yet offers a conservative outlook on social life.
Moral Values in the Ancient World (Routledge Library Editions: Ancient Philosophy)
by John FergusonThis book studies the pilgrimage of the Ancient World in its search for moral truth. After a brief examination of the values which dominated Homeric society and the subsequent aristocracies, the central portion of the book is an account and analysis of the moral ideas which illuminated the Greek, Roman and Hebrew worlds during the classical period. The volume discusses the cardinal virtues, the place of friendship, Plato’s love, philanthropia and the moral insights of the Jewish prophets and subsequently examines Christian love.
The Moral Vision of Iris Murdoch
by Heather WiddowsIris Murdoch's moral philosophy, although highly influential in 20th century moral theory, is somewhat unsystematic and inaccessible. In this work Widdows outlines the moral vision of Iris Murdoch in its entirety and draws out the implications of her thought for the contemporary ethical debate, discussing such aspects of Murdoch's work as the influence of Plato on her conception of The Good, the reality of the human moral experience, the attainment of knowledge of moral values and how art and religion inform the living of the moral life. Examining all of Murdoch's contributions to moral philosophy from her short papers to Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, Heather Widdows provides an accessible and systematised account of Murdoch's moral concepts and offers a clear and critical exposition of her thought. By clarifying Murdoch's central themes, core ideas and her picture of the moral life, this book enables her work to be more easily understood and so utilised in current debates.
Moral Writings
by H. A. Prichard Jim MacAdamThis is the definitive collection of the ethical work of the great Oxford moral philosopher H. A. Prichard (1871-1947). Prichard is famous for his ethical intuitionism: he argued that moral obligation cannot be reduced to anything else, but is perceived by direct intuition. The essays previously included in the posthumous collection Moral Obligation are now augmented by a selection of previously unpublished writings from Prichard's manuscripts, allowing for the first time a full view of his distinctive contribution to moral philosophy, at just the time when intuitionism is enjoying a revival of interest.
Moralische Kollektive: Theoretische Grundlagen und empirische Einsichten (Wissen, Kommunikation und Gesellschaft)
by Stefan Joller Marija StanisavljevicOb Terroranschläge, Flüchtlings- oder Finanzkrisen – die Herausforderungen der globalisierten Moderne legen jene Bereiche frei, die Durkheim als anomisch bezeichnete und deren Bearbeitung nach wie vor die zentrale Stellung moralischer Kommunikation verdeutlicht. Einiges spricht dafür, dass die fortschreitende funktionale Differenzierung die Moral nicht erodieren lässt, sondern durch die zunehmende kommunikative Vernetzung geradezu eine Remoralisierung der Gesellschaft befördert. Überall dort, wo Missstände zu Tage treten und nicht abzusehen ist, wie diese im modus operandi befriedigend gelöst werden könnten, gibt die Moral ein verheißungsvolles Instrument zur Hand, das in Gestalt moralischer Kollektive den Alltag zu durchdringen und die Gesellschaft zu formen vermag. Der Sammelband widmet sich in diesem Sinne einer sowohl theoretischen wie auch empirischen Analyse der Moral, die als genuin soziale Größe über moralische Kollektive Form annimmt.
Moralische Spiele auf YouTube: Die Darstellung ethischer Computerspiele im Let’s Play und ihre Diskussion in den Userkommentaren (Digitale Kultur und Kommunikation #10)
by Sebastian FischerModerne Computerspiele erschaffen komplexe Welten, in denen sich Spielende nicht selten gezwungen sehen, kontrovers zu handeln oder schwierige moralische Entscheidungen zu treffen. Aber Spiele werden heute nicht mehr nur aktiv rezipiert. Insbesondere auf YouTube schauen Millionen Menschen täglich Videos von ‚Let’s-Playern‘, die ihre eigenen Spielerlebnisse aufzeichnen und live kommentieren. Dabei erschließen die Videoproduzenten*innen das ethische Potential der gezeigten Spiele, indem sie deren Möglichkeitsräume erkunden und ihre subjektiven Empfindungen und Entscheidungsprozesse verbalisieren. Die Rezipient*innen greifen die Inhalte der Videos wiederum auf und diskutieren darüber in den Userkommentaren. Auf diese Weise vollzieht sich eine massenhafte Distribution und Diskussion von moralischen Ideen, die weit über den virtuellen Raum YouTubes hinaus wirkt. Sebastian Fischer beschreibt dieses Phänomen ‚moralischer Let’s-Plays‘, indem er die Darstellung einiger der populärsten ethischen Computerspiele der vergangenen Jahre analysiert. Die Arbeit liefert nicht nur eine erste Deskription dieses bislang unerforschten Themas, sondern leitet auch Schlussfolgerungen ab, die sich auf den allgemeinen Prozess moralischen Spielens übertragen lassen.
Moralism: A Study of a Vice
by Craig TaylorMoralism involves the distortion of moral thought, the distortion of reflection and judgement. It is a vice, and one to which many - from the philosopher to the media pundit to the politician - are highly susceptible. This book examines the nature of moralism in specific moral judgements and the ways in which moral philosophy and theories about morality can themselves become skewed by this vice. This book ranges across a wide range of topics: the problem of the demandingness of morality; the conflict between moral and other values; the contrast between the practice of moral philosophy and other modes of moral thought or reflection; moralism in the media; and, moralism in the public discussion of literature and art. This highly original and provocative book will be of interest to students of philosophy, psychology, theology and media, and to anyone who takes a serious interest in contemporary morality.
Moralistics and Psychomoralistics: A Unified Cognitive Science of Moral Intuition (Routledge Focus on Philosophy)
by Graham WoodThis book brings together three distinct research programs in moral psychology – Moral Foundations Theory, Cognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange and the Linguistic Analogy in Moral Psychology – and shows that they can be combined to create a unified cognitive science of moral intuition. The book assumes evolution has furnished the human mind with two types of judgement: intuitive and deliberative. Focusing on moral intuitions (understood as moral judgments that were not arrived at via a process of conscious deliberation), the book explores the origins of these intuitions, examines how they are produced, and explains why the moral intuitions of different humans differ. Providing a unique synthesis of three separate established fields, this book presents a new research program that will further our understanding of the various different intuitive moral judgements at the heart of some of the moral tensions within human society.
Morality: A Historical Introduction To Ethics
by William N. NelsonHow are the demands of morality related to the needs, interests, and projects of people? Are they a burden, or are they good for us? Are they nothing but arbitrary impositions, or should we expect them to be justified? And will the answers to these questions tell us why and whether we should be moral? In this short, accessible text, William Nelson poses these questions in a form appropriate for beginning students and treats them in a way that both they and their teachers will appreciate. In the company of major figures from the history of ethics, Nelson explores the key issues surrounding topics like egoism, altruism, the good life, and the requirements of morality. A special strength of his presentation is the way he demonstrates how the views of these historical figures prefigure the theories espoused by different schools of contemporary thought. Students get not only the historical positions in terms of which contemporary debates are framed but also up-to-date discussions of utilitarianism, contractualism, problems of collective action, and the relations between virtue and duty-based theories. Nelson’s own view that morality is not a single subject matter enables him to show how each of the historical traditions has a role to play in a coherent and defensible pluralistic account of morality. At the core of this pluralism is a commitment to the democratic view that morality must not merely serve practical human purposes, but it must also be justified to the people it governs. Imaginative and insightful, intelligent and informed, this is an excellent first text for students of ethics and the history of ethics.
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
by Jonathan SacksWe are living through a period of cultural climate change. We have outsourced morality to the markets on the one hand, and the state on the other. The markets have brought wealth to many, and the state has done much to contain the worst excesses of inequality, but neither is capable of bearing the moral weight of showing us how to live. This has had a profound impact on society and the way in which we interact with each other. Traditional values no longer hold, yet recent political swings show that modern ideals of tolerance have left many feeling rudderless and adrift. In this environment we see things fall apart in unexpected ways - toxic public discourse makes true societal progress almost unattainable, a more divisive society is fuelled by identity politics and extremism, and the rise of a victimhood mentality calls for 'safe spaces' but stifles debate. The influence of social media seems all-pervading and the breakdown of the family is only one result of the loss of social capital. Many fear what the future may hold.Delivering a devastatingly insightful critique of our modern condition, and assessing its roots and causes from the ancient Greeks through the Reformation and Enlightenment to the present day, Sacks argues that there is no liberty without morality, and no freedom without responsibility.If we care about the future of western civilisation, all of us must play our part in rebuilding our common moral foundation. Then we will discover afresh the life-transforming and counterintuitive truths that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, and rich when it cares for the poor.Here is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place, and face the future without fear.
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
by Jonathan SacksA distinguished religious leader's stirring case for reconstructing a shared framework of virtues and values. With liberal democracy embattled, public discourse grown toxic, family life breaking down, and drug abuse and depression on the rise, many fear what the future holds. In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today's crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self-interest over the common good. We have outsourced morality to the market and the state, but neither is capable of showing us how to live. Sacks leads readers from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment to the present day to show that there is no liberty without morality and no freedom without responsibility, arguing that we must all must play our part in rebuilding a common moral foundation. A major work of moral philosophy, Morality is an inspiring vision of a world in which we can all find our place and face the future without fear.
Morality
by James P. SterbaThis book invites philosophers and their students to consider two of the most fundamental questions in moral and political philosophy: Why be moral? And, what does morality require? Distinguished philosopher James P. Sterba presents his unique views on these topics. Sterba first argues from rationality to morality and then from morality to substantial equality. Prominent scholars Charles W. Mills, Candace A. Vogler, Anita Superson, Russ Shafer-Landau, Allan F. Gibbard, Gerald Gaus, and Tibor Machan provide thought-provoking critical responses. In the final part, Sterba addresses these critiques, inviting readers to explore the various arguments and reach their own conclusions on these fundamental questions of moral and political philosophy. Morality: The Why and What of It is an essential text for all students and scholars of ethics and political philosophy.
Morality: The Why and the What of It
by James P. SterbaThis book invites philosophers and their students to consider two of the most fundamental questions in moral and political philosophy: Why be moral? And, what does morality require? Distinguished philosopher James P. Sterba presents his unique views on these topics. Sterba first argues from rationality to morality and then from morality to substantial equality. Prominent scholars Charles W. Mills, Candace A. Vogler, Anita Superson, Russ Shafer-Landau, Allan F. Gibbard, Gerald Gaus, and Tibor Machan provide thought-provoking critical responses. In the final part, Sterba addresses these critiques, inviting readers to explore the various arguments and reach their own conclusions on these fundamental questions of moral and political philosophy. Morality: The Why and What of It is an essential text for all students and scholars of ethics and political philosophy.
Morality
by James P. SterbaThis collection of essays examines what morality requires of us and why we should even be moral. They are organized around Sterba's opening essay, which attempts to answer these questions by first of all arguing that we must be moral because we are rationally compelled, but by also advancing a number of positions from a libertarian perspective about egotism and altruism, negative liberty, welfare and equality. Each of essays not written by Sterba critiques a facet of his argument. They focus mostly on the rational underpinning of morality; moral skepticism; egotism, altruism and social cooperation; and how libertarianism does not lead to welfare and equality. Sterba responds to these critiques in a final essay. The other authors are professors of philosophy with specialties in moral thinking. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Morality
by James P. SterbaThis book invites philosophers and their students to consider two of the most fundamental questions in moral and political philosophy: Why be moral? And, what does morality require? Distinguished philosopher James P. Sterba presents his unique views on these topics. Sterba first argues from rationality to morality and then from morality to substantial equality. Prominent scholars Charles W. Mills, Candace A. Vogler, Anita Superson, Russ Shafer-Landau, Allan F. Gibbard, Gerald Gaus, and Tibor Machan provide thought-provoking critical responses. In the final part, Sterba addresses these critiques, inviting readers to explore the various arguments and reach their own conclusions on these fundamental questions of moral and political philosophy. Morality: The Why and What of It is an essential text for all students and scholars of ethics and political philosophy.
Morality: An Introduction to Ethics
by Bernard WilliamsBernard Williams's remarkable essay on morality confronts the problems of writing moral philosophy, and offers a stimulating alternative to more systematic accounts which seem nevertheless to have left all the important issues somewhere off the page. Williams explains, analyses and distinguishes a number of key positions, from the purely amoral to notions of subjective or relative morality, testing their coherence before going on to explore the nature of 'goodness' in relation to responsibilities and choice, roles, standards, and human nature. The final chapters make a fascinating enquiry into what morality is about, looking beyond happiness to other human aims and ideals. This re-issue of a classic in moral philosophy includes a new foreword by the author.
Morality and Corporate Governance: Firm Integrity and Spheres of Justice
by Giulio SapelliFirms, the most significant nucleus of modern economic activity, are very special social organisations with economic purposes and also a responsibility for pursuing the welfare of all ranks of society. This requires moral commitment at a subjective and collective level, i.e. ethics. In this book, a renowned author with long experience as a consultant to large firms explores the relationship between moral action and economic action with particular reference to the firm. Diverse aspects of corporate responsibility - social, civil, political, and environmental - within a rapidly changing world are investigated from a philosophical perspective. Prerequisites for self-regulation are considered and aspects of responsibility beyond the law, such as charters of values and codes of ethics, are discussed. Particular attention is paid to firm integrity and different spheres of justice, each of which has its own criteria for the distribution of goods.
Morality and Global Justice
by Michael BoylanIn this concise, single-authored text, renowned scholar and professor Michael Boylan examines the moral justifications underlying key global justice issues and provides students with the analytical tools to approach those issues critically. Introductory chapters establish a thorough but accessible foundation in theory and moral justification, and subsequent chapters apply those concepts to key areas of global concern: poverty; public health; race, gender, and sexual orientation; democracy and social/political dialog; globalization; the environment; war and terrorism; and immigrants and refugees. For easy reference and review, each chapter includes key terms, critical applied reasoning exercises (CARE), and problems and thought experiments perfect for class discussions or writing exercises. The appendix, "Getting Involved,” guides students in putting ethical principles to work. An anthology of original essays, The Morality and Global Justice Reader, is also available as a complementary or a standalone text.