Ethics and the discovery of the unconscious / John Hanwell Riker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Riker, John H., 1943-

Series:

SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics--Psychological aspects.

Ethics.

Moral development.

Social values--Psychological aspects.

Social values.

Physical Description:

x, 254 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1997]

Summary:

This book shows why the discovery of the unconscious by Nietzsche and Freud requires a reconception of the concepts of moral agency and responsibility and even of morality itself. it explicates how contemporary psychology has taken over the traditional task of ethics in elucidating a theory of human well-being, but criticizes this psychology for being unable to generate adequate notions of either responsibility or moral agency. Riker develops a new moral psychology in which the reality of unconscious functioning is included within a theory of responsibility, and the agent's primary ethical concern becomes knowing what her unconscious motivations are and integrating them into a morally and psychologically mature self.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-248) and index.

ISBN:

0791434257

0791434265

OCLC:

35559085