The ethics of our climate : hermeneutics and ethical theory / William R. O'Neill. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Neill, William R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics.

Ethics, Modern--20th century.

Ethics, Modern.

Hermeneutics.

Postmodernism.

Ethics--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 167 p. )

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, c1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book, William O'Neill, S.J., offers an interpretation of the nature and scope of practical reasoning in light of postmodern philosophical criticism. He charts a via media between the abstract formalism of neo-Kantian morality and relativist interpretations of neo-Aristotelian ethics. The three parts of the book treat the eclipse of the classical Aristotelian conception of practical reason; the Kantian heritage in the modern moral theories of John Rawls and R.M. Hare; and the hermeneutical retrieval of a moral interpretation of the world. Drawing upon the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, modern analytical philosophy, and the discourse ethics of Jurgen Habermas, O'Neill offers a critical reconstruction of practical reason which upholds the primacy of moral community while recognizing the ethical import of historical and cultural difference. The final chapter applies the preceding hermeneutical critique to the question of the distinctiveness of Christian ethics in the writings of Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Josef Fuchs, and Bruno Schuller. This original contribution will be of special interest to students and teachers of moral philosophy and theology.

Contents:

The eclipse of Phronēsis. Art and Arete

The Kantian crucible

The Kantian heritage. The universal prescriptivism of R.M. Hare

The Kantian constructivism of John Rawls

Visions and revisions : philosophy with a practical intent. The concept of prudence

On the way to hermeneutics

A concluding theological postcript.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-158) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-28378-8