The Nature Of Morality

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The Moral Meaning of Nature

Author : Peter J. Woodford
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022653992X
Total Pages : 195 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

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Book Synopsis The Moral Meaning of Nature by : Peter J. Woodford

Download or read book The Moral Meaning of Nature written by Peter J. Woodford and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-03-28 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlier—and unjustly neglected—discussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany. We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or “life-philosophy,” that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, including Franz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche’s appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Nietzsche’s unique question concerning the meaning of biological evolution “for life.” At the heart of the discussion were debates about the relation of facts and values, the place of divine purpose in the understanding of nonhuman and human agency, the concept of life, and the question of whether the sciences could offer resources to satisfy the human urge to discover sources of value in biological processes. The Moral Meaning of Nature focuses on the historical background of these questions, exposing the complex ways in which they recur in contemporary philosophical debate.

Moral Minds

Author : Marc D. Hauser
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061864781
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (618 download)

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Book Synopsis Moral Minds by : Marc D. Hauser

Download or read book Moral Minds written by Marc D. Hauser and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Harvard scientist illuminates the biological basis for human morality in this groundbreaking book. With the diversity of moral attitudes found across cultures around the globe, it is easy to assume that moral perspectives are socially developed—a matter of nurture rather than nature. But in Moral Minds, Marc Hauser presents compelling evidence to the contrary, and offers a revolutionary new theory: that humans have evolved a universal moral instinct. Hauser argues that certain biologically innate moral principles propel us toward judgments of right and wrong independent of gender, education, and religion. Combining his cutting-edge research with the latest findings in cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, economics, and anthropology, Hauser explores the startling implications of his provocative theory vis-à-vis contemporary bioethics, religion, the law, and our everyday lives.

The Birth of Ethics

Author : Philip Pettit
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190904933
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

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Book Synopsis The Birth of Ethics by : Philip Pettit

Download or read book The Birth of Ethics written by Philip Pettit and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a human society, perhaps in pre-history, in which people were generally of a psychological kind with us, had the use of natural language to communicate with one another, but did not have any properly moral concepts in which to exhort one another to meet certain standards and to lodge related claims and complaints. According to The Birth of Ethics, the members of that society would have faced a set of pressures, and made a series of adjustments in response, sufficient to put them within reach of ethical concepts. Without any planning, they would have more or less inevitably evolved a way of using such concepts to articulate desirable patterns of behavior and to hold themselves and one another responsible to those standards. Sooner or later, they would have entered ethical space. While this central claim is developed as a thesis in conjectural history or genealogy, the aim of the exercise is philosophical. Assuming that it explains the emergence of concepts and practices that are more or less equivalent to ours, the story offers us an account of the nature and role of morality. It directs us to the function that ethics plays in human life and alerts us to the character in virtue of which it can serve that function. The emerging view of morality has implications for the standard range of questions in meta-ethics and moral psychology, and enables us to understand why there are divisions in normative ethics like that between consequentialist and Kantian approaches.

Aristotle's Ethics

Author : Hope May
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1441182748
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Aristotle's Ethics by : Hope May

Download or read book Aristotle's Ethics written by Hope May and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is devoted to the topic of human happiness. Yet, although Aristotle's conception of happiness is central to his whole philosophical project, there is much controversy surrounding it. Hope May offers a new interpretation of Aristotle's account of happiness - one which incorporates Aristotle's views about the biological development of human beings. May argues that the relationship amongst the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues, and happiness, is best understood through the lens of developmentalism. On this view, happiness emerges from the cultivation of a number of virtues that are developmentally related. May goes on to show how contemporary scholarship in psychology, ethical theory and legal philosophy signals a return to Aristotelian ethics. Specifically, May shows how a theory of motivation known as Self-Determination Theory and recent research on goal attainment have deep affinities to Aristotle's ethical theory. May argues that this recent work can ground a contemporary virtue theory that acknowledges the centrality of autonomy in a way that captures the fundamental tenets of Aristotle's ethics.

Morality

Author : Bernard Gert
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0195122569
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (951 download)

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Book Synopsis Morality by : Bernard Gert

Download or read book Morality written by Bernard Gert and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1998 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this final revision of the classic work, the author has produced the fullest and most sophisticated account of this influential theoretical model. Here, he makes clear that morality is an informal system that does not provide unique answers to every moral question but does always limit the range of morally acceptable options, and so explains why some moral disagreements cannot be resolved. The importance placed on the moral ideals also makes clear that the moral rules are only one part of the moral system. A chapter that is devoted to justifying violations of the rules illustrates how the moral rules are embedded in the system and cannot be adequately understood independently of it. The chapter on reasons includes a new account of what makes one reason better than another and elucidates the complex hybrid nature of rationality.

The Nature of Morality

Author : Gilbert Harman
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Nature of Morality by : Gilbert Harman

Download or read book The Nature of Morality written by Gilbert Harman and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1977 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a philosophical introduction to ethics. It differs from existing texts by focusing on a basic philosophical problem about morality, its apparent immunity from observational testing. Other texts either ignore this issue altogether, in order to concentrate on interesting but largely nonphilosophical discussions of moral problems, or treat the issue as only one of several highly technical questions in something called 'meta-ethics.'

Yuck!

Author : Daniel Kelly
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262294842
Total Pages : 205 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Yuck! by : Daniel Kelly

Download or read book Yuck! written by Daniel Kelly and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-06-10 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the character and evolution of disgust and the role this emotion plays in our social and moral lives. People can be disgusted by the concrete and by the abstract—by an object they find physically repellent or by an ideology or value system they find morally abhorrent. Different things will disgust different people, depending on individual sensibilities or cultural backgrounds. In Yuck!, Daniel Kelly investigates the character and evolution of disgust, with an emphasis on understanding the role this emotion has come to play in our social and moral lives. Disgust has recently been riding a swell of scholarly attention, especially from those in the cognitive sciences and those in the humanities in the midst of the "affective turn." Kelly proposes a cognitive model that can accommodate what we now know about disgust. He offers a new account of the evolution of disgust that builds on the model and argues that expressions of disgust are part of a sophisticated but largely automatic signaling system that humans use to transmit information about what to avoid in the local environment. He shows that many of the puzzling features of moral repugnance tinged with disgust are by-products of the imperfect fit between a cognitive system that evolved to protect against poisons and parasites and the social and moral issues on which it has been brought to bear. Kelly's account of this emotion provides a powerful argument against invoking disgust in the service of moral justification.

Moral Virtue and Nature

Author : Stephen R. Brown
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1441146474
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

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Book Synopsis Moral Virtue and Nature by : Stephen R. Brown

Download or read book Moral Virtue and Nature written by Stephen R. Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-04-10 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What make someone a good human being? Is there an objective answer to this question, an answer that can be given in naturalistic terms? For ages philosophers have attempted to develop some sort of naturalistic ethics. Against ethical naturalism, however, notable philosophers have contended that such projects are impossible, due to the existence of some sort of 'gap' between facts and values. Others have suggested that teleology, upon which many forms of ethical naturalism depend, is an outdated metaphysical concept. This book argues that a good human being is one who has those traits the possession of which enables someone to achieve those ends natural to beings like us. Thus, the answer to the question of what makes a good human being is given in terms both objective and naturalistic. The author shows that neither 'is-ought' gaps, nor objections concerning teleology pose insurmountable problems for naturalistic virtue ethics. This work is a much needed contribution to the ongoing debate about ethical theory and ethical virtue.

Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes

Author : S. A. Lloyd
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521861675
Total Pages : 437 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (218 download)

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Book Synopsis Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes by : S. A. Lloyd

Download or read book Morality in the Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes written by S. A. Lloyd and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-20 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, S. A. Lloyd offers a radically new interpretation of Hobbes's laws of nature, revealing them to be not egoistic precepts of personal prudence but rather moral instructions for obtaining the common good. This account of Hobbes's moral philosophy stands in contrast to both divine command and rational choice interpretations. Drawing from the core notion of reciprocity, Lloyd explains Hobbes's system of "cases in the law of nature" and situates Hobbes's moral philosophy in the broader context of his political philosophy and views on religion. Offering ingenious new arguments, Lloyd defends a reciprocity interpretation of the laws of nature through which humanity's common good is secured.

Morality and Human Nature

Author : Robert Mcshea
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 1439904391
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (399 download)

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Book Synopsis Morality and Human Nature by : Robert Mcshea

Download or read book Morality and Human Nature written by Robert Mcshea and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-18 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial inquiry into the origins of human values.

The Nature of Moral Thinking

Author : Francis Snare
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134946503
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nature of Moral Thinking by : Francis Snare

Download or read book The Nature of Moral Thinking written by Francis Snare and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nature of Moral Thinking is an introductory text to the questions of ethics, offering a solid philosophical and historical basis for understanding the central issues. Francis Snare discusses in detail the classical philosophical arguments of Plato and Butler in relation to relativism and subjectivism and treats Marx and Nietzsche in regard to the origins and explanation of morality.

The Nature of Morality

Author : F. E. Trainer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 118 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nature of Morality by : F. E. Trainer

Download or read book The Nature of Morality written by F. E. Trainer and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book gives an account of the subjectivist view of morality. Most thinking about morality assumes that moral laws exist in addition to or irrespective of what humans prefer or what consequences result. This objectivist view holds that whether or not an action is morally right is as much a fact of nature as whether or not a thing is metallic. It either is in fact metallic or it is not regardless of what humans might think or prefer.

The Ethics of Nature and the Nature of Ethics

Author : Gary Keogh
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498544355
Total Pages : 170 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ethics of Nature and the Nature of Ethics by : Gary Keogh

Download or read book The Ethics of Nature and the Nature of Ethics written by Gary Keogh and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-10-18 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores questions which emerge from considering the relationship between nature and ethics through philosophical, theological, ethical and environmental lenses. It will examine the nature (understood as essence or character) of ethics itself and whether nature (understood as natural world) has embedded in it a moral code, as well as examining how particular ethical/theological worldviews influence our treatment of nature. Is there an abstract, objective moral code in nature? If so, how do we gain access to this code of ethics? Is it only accessible through revelation, as in some religious traditions, or is this code of ethics more generally accessible to humanity? Indeed, does such an objective notion of ethics exist; could it be that ethics are a natural and subjective development? Is ethics a feature of nature, or have we invented it? There is, this volume might suggest, no consensus on these questions, as they at times divide and at times unite both the contributors to this volume and the bodies of scholarly work with which they engage. As time moves forward, investigations into ethics in the context of the relationship between humanity and nature have become more complex, taking account of advances in the natural sciences and a growing appreciation of nature. How are we to understand our relationship with nature, and how does this have implications for our understandings of ethics? Are we now realising the repercussions of our failure to take seriously our experience of climate change? This volume offers the reader a unique and underrepresented interdisciplinary perspective, from philosophers, theologians and environmentalists on the dynamic relationship between nature and ethics. It offers breadth in terms of the range of theoretical, cultural, philosophical and theological frameworks, but balances this with chapters providing an in-depth treatment of particular lenses, e.g. the work of Hegel, or the work of Gordon Kauffman. Through philosophical and theological investigation, these collected essays deepen and problematize the scientific and pragmatic discourses on nature, offering scholars solid resources to engage with some of the most pressing issues of our time in light of ongoing debates at many levels on dealing with climate change.

Braintrust

Author : Patricia S. Churchland
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691180970
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Braintrust by : Patricia S. Churchland

Download or read book Braintrust written by Patricia S. Churchland and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules, and pure reason in accounting for the basis of morality. Moral values, Churchland argues, are rooted in a behavior common to all mammals--the caring for offspring. The evolved structure, processes, and chemistry of the brain incline humans to strive not only for self-preservation but for the well-being of allied selves--first offspring, then mates, kin, and so on, in wider and wider "caring" circles. Separation and exclusion cause pain, and the company of loved ones causes pleasure; responding to feelings of social pain and pleasure, brains adjust their circuitry to local customs. In this way, caring is apportioned, conscience molded, and moral intuitions instilled. A key part of the story is oxytocin, an ancient body-and-brain molecule that, by decreasing the stress response, allows humans to develop the trust in one another necessary for the development of close-knit ties, social institutions, and morality. A major new account of what really makes us moral, Braintrust challenges us to reconsider the origins of some of our most cherished values.

The Moral Authority of Nature

Author : Lorraine Daston
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226136825
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis The Moral Authority of Nature by : Lorraine Daston

Download or read book The Moral Authority of Nature written by Lorraine Daston and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-08-15 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify. The Moral Authority of Nature offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen essays cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as "against nature," race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. The essays also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America. Scholars from a wide variety of fields will welcome The Moral Authority of Nature, which provides the first sustained historical survey of its topic. Contributors: Danielle Allen, Joan Cadden, Lorraine Daston, Fa-ti Fan, Eckhardt Fuchs, Valentin Groebner, Abigail J. Lustig, Gregg Mitman, Michelle Murphy, Katharine Park, Matt Price, Robert N. Proctor, Helmut Puff, Robert J. Richards, Londa Schiebinger, Laura Slatkin, Julia Adeney Thomas, Fernando Vidal

God and Morality

Author : R. Keith Loftin
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830863451
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis God and Morality by : R. Keith Loftin

Download or read book God and Morality written by R. Keith Loftin and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is morality dependent upon belief in God? Is there more than one way for Christians to understand the nature of morality? Is there any agreement between Christians and atheists or agnostics on this heated issue? In God and Morality: Four Views four distinguished voices in moral philosophy ariticulate and defend their place in the current debate between naturalism and theism. Christian philosophers, Keith Yandell and Mark Linville and two self-identified atheist/agnostics, Evan Fales and Michael Ruse clearly and honestly represent their differing views on the nature of morality. Important differences as well as areas of overlap emerge as each contributor states their case, receives criticism from the others and responds. Of particular value for use as an academic text, these four essays and responses, covering the naturalist moral non-realist, naturalist moral realist, moral essentialist and moral particularist views, will foster critical thinking and contribute to the development of a well-informed position on this very important issue.

The Foundations of Natural Morality

Author : S. Adam Seagrave
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022612357X
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis The Foundations of Natural Morality by : S. Adam Seagrave

Download or read book The Foundations of Natural Morality written by S. Adam Seagrave and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in the relationship between natural law and natural rights. During this time, the concept of natural rights has served as a conceptual lightning rod, either strengthening or severing the bond between traditional natural law and contemporary human rights. Does the concept of natural rights have the natural law as its foundation or are the two ideas, as Leo Strauss argued, profoundly incompatible? With The Foundations of Natural Morality, S. Adam Seagrave addresses this controversy, offering an entirely new account of natural morality that compellingly unites the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Seagrave agrees with Strauss that the idea of natural rights is distinctly modern and does not derive from traditional natural law. Despite their historical distinctness, however, he argues that the two ideas are profoundly compatible and that the thought of John Locke and Thomas Aquinas provides the key to reconciling the two sides of this long-standing debate. In doing so, he lays out a coherent concept of natural morality that brings together thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes and Locke, revealing the insights contained within these disparate accounts as well as their incompleteness when considered in isolation. Finally, he turns to an examination of contemporary issues, including health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty, showing how this new account of morality can open up a more fruitful debate.