Will as commitment and resolve : an existential account of creativity, love, virtue, and happiness / John Davenport.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davenport, John J., 1966-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Will.

Ethics.

Conduct of life.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxiv, 706 p. )

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Fordham University Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In contemporary philosophy, the will is often regarded as a sheer philosophical fiction. In Will as Commitment and Resolve, Davenport argues not only that the will is the central power of human agency that makes decisions and forms intentions but also that it includes the capacity to generate new motivation different in structure from prepurposive desires. The concept of "projective motivation" is the central innovation in Davenport's existential account of the everyday notion of striving will. Beginning with the contrast between "eastern" and "western" attitudes toward assertive willing, Davenport traces the lineage of the idea of projective motivation from NeoPlatonic and Christian conceptions of divine motivation to Scotus, Kant, Marx, Arendt, and Levinas. Rich with historical detail, this book includes an extended examination of Platonic and Aristotelian eudaimonist theories of human motivation. Drawing on contemporary critiques of egoism, Davenport argues that happiness is primarily a byproduct of activities and pursuits aimed at other agent-transcending goods for their own sake. In particular, the motives in virtues and in the practices as defined by Alasdair MacIntyre are projective rather than eudaimonist. This theory is supported by analyses of radical evil, accounts of intrinsic motivation in existential psychology, and contemporary theories of identity-forming commitment in analytic moral psychology. Following Viktor Frankl, Joseph Raz, and others, Davenport argues that Harry Frankfurt's conception of caring requires objective values worth caring about, which serve as rational grounds for projecting new final ends. The argument concludes with a taxonomy of values or goods, devotion to which can make life meaningful for us.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface: The Project of an Existential Theory of Personhood

1. Introduction

2. The Heroic Will in Eastern and Western Perspectives

3. From Action Theory to Projective Motivation

4. The Erosiac Structure of Desire in Plato and Aristotle

5. Aristotelian Desires and the Problems of Egoism

6. Psychological Eudaimonism: A Reading of Aristotle

7. The Paradox of Eudaimonism: An Existential Critique

8. Contemporary Solutions to the Paradox and Their Problems

9. Divine and Human Creativity: From Plato to Levinas

10. Radical Evil and Projective Strength of Will

11. Scotus and Kant: The Moral Will and Its Limits

12. Existential Psychology and Intrinsic Motivation: Deci, Maslow, and Frankl

13. Caring, Aretaic Commitment, and Existential Resolve

14. An Existential Objectivist Account of What Is Worth Caring About

Conclusion: The Danger of Willfulness Revisited

Notes

Glossary of Definitions, Technical Terms, and Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 665-689) and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612698675

9780823225729

0823225720

9780823235896

0823235890

9780823246861

0823246868

9781282698673

1282698672

9780823238804

0823238806

9780823225774

0823225771

OCLC:

647876515