Download or read book Reason and Morality written by Alan Gewirth and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1978 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Most modern philosophers attempt to solve the problem of morality from within the epistemological assumptions that define the dominant cultural perspective of our age. Alan Gewirth's Reason and Morality is a major work in this ongoing enterprise. Gewirth develops, with patience and skill, what he calls a 'modified naturalism' in which morality is derived by logic alone from the concept of action. . . . I think that the publication of Reason and Morality is a major event in the history of moral philosophy. It develops with great power a new and exciting position in ethical naturalism. No one, regardless of philosophical stance, can read this work without an enlargement of mind. It illuminates morality and agency for all."—E. M. Adams, The Review of Metaphysics "This is a fascinating study of an apparently intractable problem. Gewirth has provided plenty of material for further discussion, and his theory deserves serious consideration. He is always aware of possible rejoinders and argues in a rigorous manner, showing a firm grasp of the current state of moral and political philosophy."—Mind

Download or read book Reason and Morality written by Joanna Overing and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1985. What is the place of reason and conversely of the unreasonable, the contradictory, the emotional and the chaotic in social life? What is the nature of general human rationality? Are there such things as incommensurable world views? How efficacious are typologies or 'modes of thought' or cognitive styles? These are some of the controversies addressed by the contributors to this volume which draws together papers from the 1984 Malinowski Centennial Conference of the ASA.

Download or read book Morality Within the Limits of Reason written by Russell Hardin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative, lucidly written reconstruction of utilitarianism focuses on the practical constraints involved in ethical choice: information may be inadequate, and understanding of causes and effects may be limited. Good decision making may be especially constrained if other people are closely involved in determining an outcome. Hardin demonstrates that many of these structural issues can and should be distinguished from the thornier problems of utilitarian value theory, and he is able to show what kinds of moral conclusions we can reach within the limits of reason.

Download or read book Love Reason and Morality written by Katrien Schaubroeck and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together new essays that explore the connection between love and reasons. The observation that considerations of love carry significant weight in the deliberative process opens up new perspectives in the classic discussion about practical reasons, and gives rise to many interesting questions about the nature of love’s reasons, about their source and legitimacy, about their relation to moral and epistemic reasons, and about the extent to which love is sensitive to reasons. The contributors to this volume orient questions related to love within the broader context of the contemporary discussion on practical reasons, and move forward the conversation about the normative dimensions of love. Love, Reason and Morality will be of interest to philosophers working on issues of normativity, meta-ethics and moral psychology, and especially those interested in the source of practical reasons and the role of attachments in practical deliberation.

Download or read book Moral Reason written by Julia Markovits and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Develops and defends a version of a desire-based, internalist account of what normative reasons are, and counters it with an internalist defense of universal moral reason built on Kant's formula of humanity.

Download or read book Hume Reason and Morality written by Sophie Botros and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering an important theme in Humean studies, this book focuses on Hume's hugely influential account of the relation between reason and morality, found in book three of his 'Treatise of Human Nature'.

Download or read book Reason Morality and Law written by John Keown and published by . This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Finnis is a pre-eminent legal, moral and political philosopher. This volume contains over 25 essays by leading international scholars of philosophy and law who critically engage with issues at the heart of Finnis's work.

Download or read book Regard for Reason in the Moral Mind written by Joshua May and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The burgeoning science of ethics has produced a trend toward pessimism. Ordinary moral thought and action, we're told, are profoundly influenced by arbitrary factors and ultimately driven by unreasoned feelings. This book counters the current orthodoxy on its own terms by carefully engaging with the empirical literature. The resulting view, optimistic rationalism, shows the pervasive role played by reason our moral minds, and ultimately defuses sweeping debunking arguments in ethics. The science does suggest that moral knowledge and virtue don't come easily. However, despite the heavy influence of automatic and unconscious processes that have been shaped by evolutionary pressures, we needn't reject ordinary moral psychology as fundamentally flawed or in need of serious repair. Reason can be corrupted in ethics just as in other domains, but a special pessimism about morality in particular is unwarranted. Moral judgment and motivation are fundamentally rational enterprises not beholden to the passions.

Download or read book The Evolution of Morality written by Richard Joyce and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2007-08-24 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking—staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms—if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"—might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject. Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.

Download or read book Reason and Character written by Lorraine Smith Pangle and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-10-30 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to live a good life or a happy life, and what part does reason play in the quest for fulfillment? Proceeding by means of a close and thematically selective commentary on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, this book offers a novel interpretation of Aristotle’s teachings on the relation between reason and moral virtue. Pangle shows how Aristotle’s arguments for virtue as the core of happiness and for reason as the guide to virtue emerge in dialectical response to Socrates’s paradoxical claim that virtue is knowledge and vice is ignorance, and as part of a politically complex project of giving guidance to lawgivers and ordinary citizens while offering spurs to deep theoretical reflection. Against Socrates, Aristotle insists that both virtue and vice are voluntary and that individuals are responsible for their characters, a stance that lends itself to vigorous defense of moral responsibility. At the same time, Pangle shows, Aristotle elucidates the importance of unchosen concerns in shaping all that we do and the presence of some form of ignorance or subtle confusions in all moral failings. Thus the gap between his position and that of Socrates comes on close inspection to be much smaller than first appears, and his true teaching on the role of reason in shaping moral existence far more complex. The book offers fresh interpretations of Aristotle’s teaching on the relation of passions to judgments, on what it means to choose virtue for its own sake, on the way reason finds the mean, especially in justice, and on the crucial intellectual virtue of phronesis or active wisdom and its relation to theoretical wisdom. Offering answers to longstanding debates over the status of reason and the meaning of happiness in the Nicomachean Ethics, this book will kindle in readers a new appreciation for Aristotle’s lessons on how to make the most out of life, as individuals and in society.

Download or read book Moral Tribes written by Joshua Greene and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-12-30 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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.”—The Boston Globe 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. 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.

Download or read book Ethics Done Right written by Elijah Millgram and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-14 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how practical reasoning can be put into the service of ethical and moral theory.

Download or read book Reasons and Persons written by Derek Parfit and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1986-01-23 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that moral non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.

Download or read book Reason and Insight written by Timothy Shanahan and published by Cengage Learning. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of REASON AND INSIGHT is twofold: first, to provide a comprehensive, multicultural introduction to ethics that includes substantial selections from the main Western and Eastern philosophies and religious traditions, and second, to enable students to explore how these perspectives are applied to a range of contemporary moral problems. Beginning with an engaging, accessible introduction to fundamental metaethical issues, the text then delves into particular ethical theories from both the Western and Eastern traditions. Finally, the relevance of these more abstract concerns is made more concrete in the concluding section that presents current scholarship devoted to applying these theories to pressing moral concerns with which students will be familiar. With REASON AND INSIGHT, students are exposed, in a single text, to all of the most important Western and Eastern moral theories and thereby are encouraged to reexamine critically their own moral perspectives in light of many other historically and/or culturally remote standpoints.

Download or read book Reason and Value written by Joseph Raz and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reason and Value collects fifteen brand-new papers by leading contemporary philosophers on themes from the moral philosophy of Joseph Raz. The subtlety and power of Raz's reflections on ethical topics - including especially his explorations of the connections between practical reason and the theory of value - make his writings a fertile source for anyone working in this area. The volume honours Raz's accomplishments in the area of ethical theorizing, and will contribute to an enhanced appreciation of the significance of his work for the subject.

Download or read book Reclaiming Virtue written by John Bradshaw and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-selling author of Creating Love sets out to redefine what it means to live a moral life in today's world by helping readers reclaim and cultivate their inborn moral intelligence by developing one's instincts for goodness in childhood and nurturing them through one's adult life to promote good character and moral responsibility.

Download or read book Conflicts of Law and Morality written by Kent Greenawalt and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1989 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Powerful emotion and pursuit of self-interest have many times led people to break the law with the belief that they are doing so with sound moral reasons. This study is a comprehensive philosophical and legal analysis of the gray area in which the foundations of law and morality clash. In examining the extent of the obligations owed by citizens to their government, Greenawalt concentrates on the possible existence of a single source of obligation that reaches all citizens and all laws.