The constitution of agency : essays on practical reason and moral psychology / Christine M. Korsgaard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Korsgaard, Christine M. (Christine Marion)

Contributor:

Oxford Scholarship Online.

Class of 1891 Department of Arts Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Practical reason.

Ethics.

Psychology and philosophy.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 345 pages)

polychrome

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

This book is a collection of ten papers on practical reason and moral psychology. Part I defends the view that the principles of practical reason are constitutive principles of action. By governing our actions in accordance with Kant's categorical imperative and the principle of instrumental reason we take control of our own movements and so render ourselves active, self-determining beings. Part II takes up the question of the role of our passive or receptive faculties -- our emotions and responses -- in constituting our agency. It offers a reading of the Nicomachean Ethics based on the idea that our emotions are perceptions of good and evil, and argues that Aristotle and Kant share a distinctive view about the locus of moral value and the nature of human choice. Part III takes up the question how we come to view one another as moral agents in Hume's philosophy, and examines the possible clash between the agency of the state and that of the individual that led to Kant's paradoxical views about revolution. And finally, the book discusses methodology in an account of what it means to be a constructivist moral philosopher.

Contents:

Abbreviations for Frequently Cited Works ix

Part 1 The Principles of Practical Reason

1 The Normativity of Instrumental Reason 27

2 The Myth of Egoism 69

3 Self-Constitution in the Ethics of Plato and Kant 100

Part 2 Moral Virtue and Moral Psychology

4 Aristotle's Function Argument 129

5 Aristotle on Function and Virtue 151

6 From Duty and for the Sake of the Noble: Kant and Aristotle on Morally Good Action 174

7 Acting for a Reason 207

Part 3 Other Reflections

8 Taking the Law into Our Own Hands: Kant on the Right to Revolution 233

9 The General Point of View: Love and Moral Approval in Hume's Ethics 263

10 Realism and Constructivism in Twentieth-Century Moral Philosophy 302.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [327]-334) and index.

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1891 Department of Arts Fund.

Other Format:

Print version: Korsgaard, Christine M. (Christine Marion). Constitution of agency.

ISBN:

9780191564598

0191564591

OCLC:

302347108

Publisher Number:

9786611853372

Access Restriction:

Description based on print version record.