Download or read book Moral Progress written by Philip Kitcher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-26 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This inaugural volume in the Munich Lectures in Ethics series presents lectures by noted philosopher Philip Kitcher. In these lectures, Kitcher develops further the pragmatist approach to moral philosophy, begun in his book The Ethical Project. He uses three historical examples of moral progress--the abolition of chattel slavery, the expansion of opportunities for women, and the increasing acceptance of same-sex love--to propose methods for moral inquiry. In his recommended methodology, Kitcher sees moral progress, for individuals and for societies, through collective discussions that become more inclusive, better informed, and involve participants more inclined to engage with the perspectives of others and aim at actions tolerable by all. The volume is introduced by Jan-Christoph Heilinger and contains commentaries from distinguished scholars Amia Srinivasan, Susan Neiman, and Rahel Jaeggi, and Kitcher's response to their commentaries.
Download or read book Morality s Progress written by Dale Jamieson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The summation of nearly three decades of work by a leading figure in environmental ethics and bioethics. The 22 papers are invigoratingly diverse, but together tell a unified story about various aspects of the morality of our relationships to animals and to nature.
Download or read book The Evolution of Moral Progress written by Allen Buchanan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-08 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Evolution of Moral Progress, Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell resurrect the project of explaining moral progress. They avoid the errors of earlier attempts by drawing on a wide range of disciplines including moral and political philosophy, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and sociology. Their focus is on one especially important type of moral progress: gains in inclusivity. They develop a framework to explain progress in inclusivity to also illuminate moral regression--the return to exclusivist and "tribalistic" moral beliefs and attitudes. Buchanan and Powell argue those tribalistic moral responses are not hard-wired by evolution in human nature. Rather, human beings have an evolved "adaptively plastic" capacity for both inclusion and exclusion, depending on environmental conditions. Moral progress in the dimension of inclusivity is possible, but only to the extent that human beings can create environments conducive to extending moral standing to all human beings and even to some animals. Buchanan and Powell take biological evolution seriously, but with a critical eye, while simultaneously recognizing the crucial role of culture in creating environments in which moral progress can occur. The book avoids both biological and cultural determinism. Unlike earlier theories of moral progress, their theory provides a naturalistic account that is grounded in the best empirical work, and unlike earlier theories it does not present moral progress as inevitable or as occurring in definite stages; but rather it recognizes the highly contingent and fragile character of moral improvement.
Download or read book Our Moral Fate written by Allen Buchanan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative and probing argument showing how human beings can for the first time in history take charge of their moral fate. Is tribalism—the political and cultural divisions between Us and Them—an inherent part of our basic moral psychology? Many scientists link tribalism and morality, arguing that the evolved “moral mind” is tribalistic. Any escape from tribalism, according to this thinking, would be partial and fragile, because it goes against the grain of our nature. In this book, Allen Buchanan offers a counterargument: the moral mind is highly flexible, capable of both tribalism and deeply inclusive moralities, depending on the social environment in which the moral mind operates. We can't be morally tribalistic by nature, Buchanan explains, because quite recently there has been a remarkable shift away from tribalism and toward inclusiveness, as growing numbers of people acknowledge that all human beings have equal moral status, and that at least some nonhumans also have moral standing. These are what Buchanan terms the Two Great Expansions of moral regard. And yet, he argues, moral progress is not inevitable but depends partly on whether we have the good fortune to develop as moral agents in a society that provides the right conditions for realizing our moral potential. But morality need not depend on luck. We can take charge of our moral fate by deliberately shaping our social environment—by engaging in scientifically informed “moral institutional design.” For the first time in human history, human beings can determine what sort of morality is predominant in their societies and what kinds of moral agents they are.
Download or read book What Kind of Life written by Daniel Callahan and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 1995-02-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative call to rethink America's values in health care.
Download or read book The Expanding Circle written by Peter Singer and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Social Environment and Moral Progress written by Alfred Russel Wallace and published by London : Cassell. This book was released on 1913 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Emotional Construction of Morals written by Jesse Prinz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-11-22 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesse Prinz presents a bravura argument for highly controversial claims about morality, which go to the heart of our understanding of ourselves. He argues that moral values are based on emotional responses, and that these are inculcated by culture, not hard-wired through natural selection. These two claims support a form of moral relativism.
Download or read book The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge written by Dallas Willard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on an unfinished manuscript by the late philosopher Dallas Willard, this book makes the case that the 20th century saw a massive shift in Western beliefs and attitudes concerning the possibility of moral knowledge, such that knowledge of the moral life and of its conduct is no longer routinely available from the social institutions long thought to be responsible for it. In this sense, moral knowledge—as a publicly available resource for living—has disappeared. Via a detailed survey of main developments in ethical theory from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries, Willard explains philosophy’s role in this shift. In pointing out the shortcomings of these developments, he shows that the shift was not the result of rational argument or discovery, but largely of arational social forces—in other words, there was no good reason for moral knowledge to have disappeared. The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge is a unique contribution to the literature on the history of ethics and social morality. Its review of historical work on moral knowledge covers a wide range of thinkers including T.H Green, G.E Moore, Charles L. Stevenson, John Rawls, and Alasdair MacIntyre. But, most importantly, it concludes with a novel proposal for how we might reclaim moral knowledge that is inspired by the phenomenological approach of Knud Logstrup and Emmanuel Levinas. Edited and eventually completed by three of Willard’s former graduate students, this book marks the culmination of Willard’s project to find a secure basis in knowledge for the moral life.
Download or read book Rights in Moral Lives written by A. I. Melden and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-03-25 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rights in Moral Lives, A. I. Melden, a distinguished philosopher and moral rights theorist, examines important changes that have occurred in our thinking about rights since first mention of them was made in early modern times. His inquiry is framed by an opening question and a concluding response. The question is whether the Greeks had any conception of a moral right. Some argue that they did not, on the ground that they had no word for a right. Others claim that they did, since they employed certain locutions, the equivalents of which in our language are tied to some notion of a moral right. Melden reviews in detail some of the most important historical conceptions of rights and examines serious questions raised by the fact that there have been striking changes in our thinking about rights. His discussion elucidates the place of moral rights in the broader network of moral concepts, along with the role they should play in our moral lives. Among the fundamental issues raised and discussed are the ways in which we are to understand various sorts of rights, the relation of special moral rights to our basic human rights, the now familiar claim that there are animal rights, the nature of moral progress, and the dream of a moral science. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1988.
Download or read book Unnecessary Evil written by Sharon Anderson-Gold and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2000-11-02 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No philosopher has been more committed to the idea of the moral progress of humanity than Immanuel Kant. But is this idea of the moral advancement of the species compatible with the individualist basis of Kantian ethics? Do individuals have obligations to contribute toward the welfare of future generations? Here, Sharon Anderson-Gold affirms the compatibility of Immanuel Kant's philosophy of history and ethics by reversing the individualistic reading of the nature of virtue and vice. Arguing that Kant's definition of radical evil as a characteristic of the social condition of humanity makes virtue a collective task, she concludes that Kant's views on the moral progress of the species are essential to a proper appreciation of the collective character of moral goals and the social context of both virtue and vice. The author also expands the role of reflective judgment in the development of a cosmopolitan discourse specifying duties supporting international institutions, human rights and global economic justice. She argues that reflective judgments contain both phenomenological and normative components, making a moral evaluation of social institutions possible, thereby providing an orientation or guide for individual action.
Download or read book Community and Progress in Kant s Moral Philosophy written by Kate A. Moran and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2012-03 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The text draws on a wide range of Immanuel Kant's writings, including his texts on moral and political philosophy and his lectures on ethics, pedagogy, and anthropology. Though the book is grounded in an analysis of Kant's writing, it also puts forward the novel claim that Kant's theory is centrally concerned with the relationships we have in our day-to-day lives.
Download or read book Moral Clarity written by Susan Neiman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-06 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Neiman reclaims the vocabulary of morality--good and evil, heroism and nobility--as a lingua franca for the twenty-first century. In constructing a framework for taking responsible action on today's urgent questions, [she] reaches back to the eighteenth century, retrieving a series of values--happiness, reason, reverence, and hope--held high by Enlightenment thinkers. In this ... updated edition, Neiman reflects on how the moral language of the 2008 presidential campaign has opened up new political and cultural possibilities in America and beyond"--Back cover.
Download or read book Moral Change written by Cecilie Eriksen and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-12-14 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does moral change happen? What leads to the overthrow or gradual transformation of moral beliefs, ideals, and values? Change is one of the most striking features of morality, yet it is poorly understood. In this book, Cecilie Eriksen provides an illuminating map of the dynamics, structure, and normativity of moral change. Through eight narratives inspired by the legal domain and in dialogue with modern moral philosophy, Eriksen discusses moral bias, conflict, progress, and revolutions. She develops a context-sensitive understanding of ethics and shows how we can harvest a knowledge of the past that will enable us to build a better future.
Download or read book Debunking Arguments in Ethics written by Hanno Sauer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers the first book-length discussion of debunking arguments in ethics and the reliability of moral judgment.
Download or read book An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution written by Mary Wollstonecraft and published by . This book was released on 1794 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Thomas Jefferson s Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress written by Ari Helo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This extensive study suggests that, despite being one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia, Jefferson was consistent in his advocacy of human rights.
