Agent-Centered Morality : An Aristotelian Alternative to Kantian Internalism / George W. Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, George W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804--Ethics.

Aristotle--Ethics.

Ethics.

Agent (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 434 p. )

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1999]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

What kinds of persons do we aspire to be, and how do our aspirations fit with our ideas of rationality? In Agent-Centered Morality, George Harris argues that most of us aspire to a certain sort of integrity: We wish to be respectful of and sympathetic to others, and to be loving parents, friends, and members of our communities. Against a prevailing Kantian consensus, Harris offers an Aristotelian view of the problems presented by practical reason, problems of integrating all our concerns into a coherent, meaningful life in a way that preserves our integrity. The task of solving these problems is "the integration test." Systematically addressing the work of major Kantian thinkers, Harris shows that even the most advanced contemporary versions of the Kantian view fail to integrate all of the values that correspond to what we call a moral life. By demonstrating how the meaning of life and practical reason are internally related, he constructs from Aristotle's thought a conceptual scheme that successfully integrates all the characteristics that make a life meaningful, without jeopardizing the place of any. Harris's elucidation of this approach is a major contribution to debates on human agency, practical reason, and morality.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

1. The Internalism Requirement and the Integration Test

2. Impartiality, Regulative Norms, and Practical Reason

3. The Thin Conception of Integrity and the Integration Test

4. An Integrity-Sensitive Conception of Human Agency, Practical Reason, and Morality

5. General Features and Varieties of Respect

6. Respect, Egoism, and Self-Assessment

7. The Categorical Value of the Goods of Respect

8. General Features of Love

9. The Normative Thoughts of Parental Love, Part I.

10. The Normative Thoughts of Parental Love, Part II.

11. Peer Love

12. The Normative Thoughts of Friendship

13. The Normative Thoughts of Neighborly Love, Part I.

14. The Normative Thoughts of Neighborly Love, Part II.

15. Loneliness, Intimacy, and the Integration Test

16. Solitary Activities

17. Shared Activities

18. Normative Thoughts and the Goods of Activity

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 419-426) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520922228

0520922220

9780585277097

0585277095

OCLC:

1153522386