Understanding moral obligation : Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard / Robert Stern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stern, Robert, 1962- author.

Series:

Modern European philosophy.

Modern European philosophy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.

Kant, Immanuel.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich.

Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855.

Kierkegaard, Søren.

Duty.

Responsibility.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 277 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In many histories of modern ethics, Kant is supposed to have ushered in an anti-realist or constructivist turn by holding that unless we ourselves 'author' or lay down moral norms and values for ourselves, our autonomy as agents will be threatened. In this book, Robert Stern challenges the cogency of this 'argument from autonomy', and claims that Kant never subscribed to it. Rather, it is not value realism but the apparent obligatoriness of morality that really poses a challenge to our autonomy: how can this be accounted for without taking away our freedom? The debate the book focuses on therefore concerns whether this obligatoriness should be located in ourselves (Kant), in others (Hegel) or in God (Kierkegaard). Stern traces the historical dialectic that drove the development of these respective theories, and clearly and sympathetically considers their merits and disadvantages; he concludes by arguing that the choice between them remains open.

Contents:

pt. I. Kant. Kant, moral realism, and the argument from autonomy

The argument from autonomy and the problem of moral obligation

Kant's solution to the problem of moral obligation

pt. II. Hegel. Hegel's critique of Kant (via Schiller)

Hegel's solution to the problem of moral obligation

pt. III. Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel

Kierkegaard's solution to the problem of moral obligation

Conclusion : from Kant to Kierkegaard

and back again?

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-20983-3

1-107-22903-0

1-280-48517-5

9786613580153

1-139-22274-0

1-139-21794-1

1-139-21485-3

1-139-22445-X

1-139-22102-7

0-511-99774-4

OCLC:

775869938