Friendship, Altruism and Morality (Routledge Revivals)
Friendship, Altruism and Morality (Routledge Revivals)

Author: Laurence A. Blum

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 1135156220

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Friendship, Altruism, and Morality, originally published in 1980, gives an account of "altruistic emotions" (compassion, sympathy, concern) and friendship that brings out their moral value. Blum argues that moral theories centered on rationality, universal principle, obligation, and impersonality cannot capture this moral importance. This was one of the first books in contemporary moral philosophy to emphasize the moral significance of emotions, to deal with friendship as a moral phenomenon, and to challenge the rationalism of standard interpretations of Kant, although Blum’s "sentimentalism" owes more to Schopenhauer than to Hume. It was a forerunner to care ethics, and feminist ethics more generally; to virtue ethics; and to subsequent influential interpretations of Kant that attempted to room for altruistic emotion and friendship, and other forms of particularism and partialism. In addition, the work has been widely influential in religious studies, political theory, bioethics, and feminist ethics.

Friendship, Altruism and Morality (Routledge Revivals)
Friendship, Altruism and Morality (Routledge Revivals)

Author: Laurence A. Blum

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1135156212

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Friendship, Altruism, and Morality, originally published in 1980, gives an account of "altruistic emotions" (compassion, sympathy, concern) and friendship that brings out their moral value. Blum argues that moral theories centered on rationality, universal principle, obligation, and impersonality cannot capture this moral importance. This was one of the first books in contemporary moral philosophy to emphasize the moral significance of emotions, to deal with friendship as a moral phenomenon, and to challenge the rationalism of standard interpretations of Kant, although Blum’s "sentimentalism" owes more to Schopenhauer than to Hume. It was a forerunner to care ethics, and feminist ethics more generally; to virtue ethics; and to subsequent influential interpretations of Kant that attempted to room for altruistic emotion and friendship, and other forms of particularism and partialism. In addition, the work has been widely influential in religious studies, political theory, bioethics, and feminist ethics.

Kant, Respect and Injustice (Routledge Revivals)
Kant, Respect and Injustice (Routledge Revivals)

Author: Victor Seidler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1135156085

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In this work, originally published in 1986, Victor Seidler explores the different notions of respect, equality and dependency in Kant’s moral writings. He illuminates central tensions and contradictions not only within Kant’s moral philosophy, but within the thinking and feeling about human dignity and social inequality which we take very much for granted within a liberal moral culture. In challenging our assumption of the autonomy of morality, Seidler also questions our understanding of what it means for someone to live as a person in his or her own right. The autonomy of individuals cannot be assumed but has to be reasserted against relationships of subordination. This involves a break with a rationalist morality, so that respect for others involves respect for emotions, feelings, desires and needs, and establishes a fuller autonomy as a basis for freedom and justice.

Kant, Respect and Injustice (Routledge Revivals)
Kant, Respect and Injustice (Routledge Revivals)

Author: Victor Seidler

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-12-15

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1135156077

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In this work, originally published in 1986, Victor Seidler explores the different notions of respect, equality and dependency in Kant’s moral writings. He illuminates central tensions and contradictions not only within Kant’s moral philosophy, but within the thinking and feeling about human dignity and social inequality which we take very much for granted within a liberal moral culture. In challenging our assumption of the autonomy of morality, Seidler also questions our understanding of what it means for someone to live as a person in his or her own right. The autonomy of individuals cannot be assumed but has to be reasserted against relationships of subordination. This involves a break with a rationalist morality, so that respect for others involves respect for emotions, feelings, desires and needs, and establishes a fuller autonomy as a basis for freedom and justice.

The Moral Psychology of Gratitude
The Moral Psychology of Gratitude

Author: Robert Roberts

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-01-17

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 1786606038

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Expressions of gratitude abound. Hardly a book is published that does not include in its preface or acknowledgments some variation on, “I am grateful to…for…” Indeed, most achievements come to be only through the help of others. We value the benevolence of others, and when we—or our loved ones—are the recipients of benevolence, our emotional response is often one of gratitude. But, are we bound to the requirement of ‘repaying’ our benefactors in some way? If we are, and there are—as ordinary language suggests—debts of gratitude, what kind of debts are these? Does the appropriateness of my gratitude require that my benefactor in fact intended to benefit me (in just the way she did)? Is there a difference between feeling grateful and being grateful? Is a precondition of my being grateful to another that I respect her? Do we owe a special sort of gratitude to those who have shaped us into the persons we are? What are the psychological and normative relations between gratitude the emotion, and gratitude the virtue? These are among the questions carefully addressed in The Moral Psychology of Gratitude. This volume provides readers with the state-of-the-art in research on gratitude. It does so in the form of sixteen never-before published articles on the emotion by leading voices in philosophy and the sciences of the mind.

Organ Transplantation in Times of Donor Shortage
Organ Transplantation in Times of Donor Shortage

Author: Ralf J. Jox

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-08-06

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 3319164414

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This book analyzes the reasons for organ shortage and ventures innovative ideas for approaching this problem. It presents 29 contributions from a highly interdisciplinary group of world experts and upcoming professionals in the field. Every year thousands of patients die while waiting for organ transplantation. Health authorities, medical professionals and bioethicists worldwide point to the urgent and yet unsolved problem of organ shortage, which will be even intensified due to the increasing life expectancy. Even though the practical problem seems to be well known, the search for suitable solutions continues and often restricts itself by being limited through disciplinary and national borders. Combining philosophical reflection with empirical results, this volume enables a unique insight in the ethics of organ transplantation and offers fresh ideas for policymakers, health care professionals, academics and the general public.

Virtuous and Vicious Expressions of Partiality
Virtuous and Vicious Expressions of Partiality

Author: Eric J. Silverman

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-01

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1003812570

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This volume gathers essays from leading scholars to discuss partiality in ethics. The chapters examine the virtuous and vicious ways in which we relate to those close to us. There has long been a puzzle in ethics concerning the balance between our general moral obligations to everyone and our specific moral obligations to a smaller subset of people: our family, our nation, and our friends. There has been longstanding tension between the moral intuition that equality entails that we have the same moral duties to everyone and the moral intuition that special obligations entail that we have much greater duties to those close to us. The chapters in this volume discuss varying perspectives on partiality within a wide range of relationships. Section 1 offers overarching visions of partiality. Section 2 examines how roles and relationships might shape partiality. Section 3 focuses on the potential moral dangers and pitfalls of partiality. Finally, Section 4 looks at specific applications of partiality expressed as our loyalty to country, religion, sports teams, and employers. Virtuous and Vicious Expressions of Partiality will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in ethics, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion.

The Heart and its Attitudes
The Heart and its Attitudes

Author: Stephen Darwall

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-05-15

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 019887958X

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Philosophers don't often write about the heart. At least, analytical philosophers don't. Why is this? Philosophers are said to live life ?in their heads? rather than ?from their hearts.? But even if that is so, why don't they think and write about the heart? Moreover, it can hardly have escaped philosophers' attention that matters of the heart are central to what we human beings value most about our lives, including our lives with animals. Philosophers write a lot about friendship and love, but they tend to do so in terms that leave out heartfelt connection. They speak rather of commitment to one another and each other's well-being, or taking each other as ends, or sharing deliberative standpoints or living life together, or a whole host of other topics, and much less about mutual emotional vulnerability and sharing and being in one another's hearts. Surely one explanation of philosophers' reticence is that talk of ?the heart? seems unavoidably metaphorical. It turns out to be easy enough, however, to cash the metaphor in if we simply take ?heart? refers to a cluster of emotional susceptibilities that have an essentially reciprocating structure. The heart aims at heartfelt connection-at shared experience of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, and other personal emotions. We seek naturally to share these feelings with others and must suppress our natural tendencies if we wish to avoid doing so. Our heart's wish is to be open to other hearts in the hope that they will be open to ours, and thereby us, in return. This book is a systematic treatment-perhaps the first-of ?attitudes of the heart?-remorse (versus guilt), love, trust, gratitude, personal anger (versus righteous anger), jealousy, and others-and their role in mediating personal relationship, attachment, and connection. This is obviously interesting in its own right, but it also shows how heartfelt attitudes mirror more extensively studied ?reactive attitudes? of guilt, resentment, and blame (?attitudes of the will?). Whereas the latter mediate moral relations of mutual respect and accountability, attitudes of the heart are the currency of heartfelt connection and personal relationship.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory
The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory

Author: David Copp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-12-22

Total Pages: 680

ISBN-13: 0190208201

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The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory is a major new reference work in ethical theory consisting of commissioned essays by leading moral philosophers. Ethical theories have always been of central importance to philosophy, and remain so; ethical theory is one of the most active areas of philosophical research and teaching today. Courses in ethics are taught in colleges and universities at all levels, and ethical theory is the organizing principle for all of them. The Handbook is divided into two parts, mirroring the field. The first part treats meta-ethical theory, which deals with theoretical questions about morality and moral judgment, including questions about moral language, the epistemology of moral belief, the truth aptness of moral claims, and so forth. The second part addresses normative theory, which deals with general moral issues, including the plausibility of various ethical theories and abstract principles of behavior. Examples of such theories are consequentialism and virtue theory. As with other Oxford Handbooks, the twenty-five contributors cover the field in a comprehensive and highly accessible way, while achieving three goals: exposition of central ideas, criticism of other approaches, and putting forth a distinct viewpoint.