An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

Author: David Hume

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780199266333

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An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, first published in 1751, was the third of David Hume's major philosophical treatises. Hume's aim in this elegant and lucid work was to present in an accessible way his theory of the foundation of morality in human nature, a theory which had developed significantly since he first addressed the subject in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40). He considered this Enquiry to be 'of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best'.

The Body Unbound
The Body Unbound

Author: Marius Timmann Mjaaland

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2010-02-19

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1443820563

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A philosophical inquiry into politics, embodiment and religion takes us straight to some of contemporary culture’s most notorious issues: suicide bombing, the veiled and the exposed body, and present-day biopolitics. Interpretations of the body have always been contested, both in the history of philosophy and in the history of religions. On the one hand, the body has been perceived as a prison, binding the soul to transience, darkness, and confusion. Yet on the other hand, it has itself been controlled and disciplined by reason and will, law and culture. The ten contributors to The Body Unbound suggest that inquiries into the nature of human embodiment must take into account both context and history in order to scrutinize them and to uncover resources for unbinding a body which has been doubly bound.

Ethical Rationalism and Secularisation in the British Enlightenment
Ethical Rationalism and Secularisation in the British Enlightenment

Author: Dafydd Mills Daniel

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-10-22

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 3030522032

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This book reassesses the ethics of reason in the Age of the Reason, making use of the neglected category of conscience. Arguing that conscience was a central feature of British Enlightenment ethical rationalism, the book explores the links between Enlightenment philosophy and modern secularisation, while responding to longstanding criticisms of rational intuitionism and the analogy between mathematics and morals, derived from David Hume and Immanuel Kant. Questioning in what sense British Enlightenment ethical rationalism can be associated with a secularising ‘Enlightenment project’, Daniel investigates the extent to which contemporary, and secular liberal, invocations of reason and conscience rely on the early modern Christian metaphysics they have otherwise disregarded. The chapters cover a rich collection of subjects, ranging from the Enlightenment’s secular legacy, reason and conscience in the history of ethics, and controversies in the Scottish Enlightenment, to the role of British moralists such as John Locke, Joseph Butler and Adam Smith in the secularisation of reason and conscience. Each chapter expertly refines Enlightenment ethical rationalism by reinterpreting its most influential proponents in eighteenth-century Britain – the followers of ‘Isaac Newton’s bulldog’ Samuel Clarke – including Richard Price (Edmund Burke’s opponent over the French Revolution) and John Witherspoon (the only clergyman to sign the US declaration of Independence).

Bentham's an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Bentham's an Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

Author: Steven Sverdlik

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-02-14

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0190089903

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Bentham's Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a foundational work of the utilitarian tradition in moral and political philosophy. In this comprehensive guide for philosophy students, Steven Sverdlik discusses the entire Introduction, highlighting its central claims and their relations to contemporary debates in areas such as moral and legal philosophy. The Guide emphasizes Bentham's original goal of introducing a utilitarian penal code. Sverdlik considers the chapters of Bentham's text sequentially, explaining and connecting the work's main themes. These are Bentham's fundamental moral assumptions--the principle of utility and his hedonistic theory of intrinsic value--on the one hand, and, on the other, his psychological theories about pleasure and pain, human motivation, decision-making, and action. Sverdlik explains the abstract psychological framework Bentham develops and how he applies it in the context of penal or criminal law. Bentham's psychological and moral theories form the groundwork of his treatment of the deterrence of potential offenders, the punishment of convicted offenders, and the criminalization of various types of behavior. By restating Bentham's thinking about these topics in contemporary philosophical terms, Sverdlik allows readers to see how it relates to current ideas about the proper goals of criminal justice systems.