The disappearance of moral knowledge / Dallas Willard ; edited and completed by Steven L. Porter, Aaron Preston, and Gregg A. Ten Elshof.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Willard, Dallas, 1935-2013, author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics, Modern--20th century.

Ethics, Modern.

Civilization, Western--20th century.

Civilization, Western.

Physical Description:

xxxii, 387 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Routledge, 2018.

Summary:

Based on an unfinished manuscript by the late philosopher Dallas Willard, this book makes the case that the 20th century saw a massive shift in Western beliefs and attitudes concerning the possibility of moral knowledge, such that knowledge of the moral life and of its conduct is no longer routinely available from the social institutions long thought to be responsible for it. In this sense, moral knowledge - as a publicly available resource for living - has disappeared. Via a detailed survey of main developments in ethical theory from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries, Willard explains philosophy's role in this shift. In pointing out the shortcomings of these developments, he shows that the shift was not the result of rational argument or discovery, but largely of arational social forces - in other words, there was no good reason for moral knowledge to have disappeared.

Contents:

Moral knowledge disappears

A "science of ethics"?

G.E. Moore: from science of ethics to nihilism

Emotivism: the erasure of moral knowledge

A rational form of noncognitivism? "Rational necessity" relocated

A consensus of rational people: social constructionism in Rawls

Practices, traditions, and narratives: social constructionism in MacIntyre

Prospects for a return of moral knowledge.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781138589254

113858925X

OCLC:

1031409888

Publisher Number:

99980552178

40028338932