The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability / Stephen Darwall.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Darwall, Stephen, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, [2009]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Why should we avoid doing moral wrong? The inability of philosophy to answer this question in a compelling manneralong with the moral skepticism and ethical confusion that ensueresult, Stephen Darwall argues, from our failure to appreciate the essentially interpersonal character of moral obligation. After showing how attempts to vindicate morality have tended to change the subjectfalling back on nonmoral values or practical, first-person considerationsDarwall elaborates the interpersonal nature of moral obligations: their inherent link to our responsibilities to one another as members of the moral community. As Darwall defines it, the concept of moral obligation has an irreducibly second-person aspect; it presupposes our authority to make claims and demands on one another. And so too do many other central notions, including those of rights, the dignity of and respect for persons, and the very concept of person itself. The result is nothing less than a fundamental reorientation of moral theory that enables it at last to account for morality's supreme authorityan account that Darwall carries from the realm of theory to the practical world of second-person attitudes, emotions, and actions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Part I

1 The Main Ideas I

2 The Main Ideas II

3 The Second-Person Stance and Second-Personal Reasons

Part II

4 Accountability and the Second Person

5 Moral Obligation and Accountability

6 Respect and the Second Person

Part III

7 The Psychology of the Second Person

8 Interlude: Reid versus Hume on Justice (with Contemporary Resonances)

Part IV

9 Morality and Autonomy in Kant

10 Dignity and the Second Person: Variations on Fichtean Themes

11 Freedom and Practical Reason

12 A Foundation for Contractualism

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed April 28 2026)

ISBN:

9780674253636