Formalism In Ethics And Non Formal Ethics Of Values

A lengthy critique of Kant's apriorism precedes discussions on the ethical principles of eudaemonism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, and positivism.

In The Wisdom of Our Ancestors, the authors mount a powerful defense of Western civilization, sketching a fresh vision of conservatism in the present age. In this book, Graham McAleer and Alexander Rosenthal-Pubul offer a renewed vision of conservatism for the twenty-first century. Taking their inspiration from the late Roger Scruton, the authors begin with a simple question: What, after all, is the meaning of conservatism? In reply, they make a case for a political orientation that they call “conservative humanism,” which threads a middle way between liberal universalism and its ideological alternatives. This vision of conservatism is rooted in the humanist tradition (that is, classical humanism, Christian humanism, and secular humanism), which the authors take to be the hallmark of Western civilizational identity. At its core, conservative humanism attempts to reconcile universal moral values (rooted in natural law) with local, particularist loyalties. In articulating this position, the authors show that the West—contra various contemporary critics—does, in fact, have a great deal of wisdom to offer. The authors begin with an overview of the conservative thought world, situating their proposal relative to two major poles: liberalism and nationalism. They move on to show that conservatism must fundamentally take the form of a defense of humanism, the “master idea of our civilization.” The ensuing chapters articulate various aspects of conservative humanism, including its metaphysical, institutional, legal, philosophical, and economic dimensions. Largely rooted in the Anglo-Continental conservative tradition, the work offers fresh perspectives for North American conservatism.

Included are essays in epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophical psychology by one of the most important twentieth-century continental philosophers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the intellectual progeny of the competing liberal and dialectical theological camps of his time. Yet he found both camps incapable of properly accounting for Christ’s relation to time and history, which both grounds their conflict and generates further theological problems, both theoretical and practical. In this book Nik Byle argues that Bonhoeffer was able to mine Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time for material theologically useful for moving beyond this impasse. Bonhoeffer sifts through Heidegger’s analysis of human existence and finds a number of moves and concepts useful to theology. These include Heidegger’s emphasis on anthropology over epistemology, his position that one must begin with concrete existence, and that human existence is fundamentally temporal. Bonhoeffer must, however, reject other hallmark concepts, such as authenticity and Heidegger’s entire anthropocentric method, that would threaten the legitimate theological use of Heidegger. Making the appropriate theological alterations, Bonhoeffer applies the useful elements from Heidegger to his Christocentric theology. Essentially, Christ and the church become fundamentally temporal and historical in the same way that human existence is for Heidegger. This sets a new foundation for Bonhoeffer’s Christology with concomitant effects in his ecclesiology, sacramentalism, theological anthropology, and epistemology.

The human being stands at the center of the humanities and social sciences. In an age that some have dubbed the Anthropocene, this book addresses Heidegger's conception of the human being and its role in the world. Contributors discuss how Heidegger envisages and interprets the human being and what we can learn from his thought. Pluralistic in outlook, this volume covers a broad range of divergent views on Heidegger and his complex conception of the human. A short introductory chapter orients the reader to the significance of the question of the human in Heidegger's works, its topicality, and its relevance for interpreting Heidegger's oeuvre. Chapters are divided into three thematic groups: anthropology and philosophy; human being, otherness, and world; and life, identity, and finitude. This organization facilitates discussions of the systematic interconnection between Heidegger's philosophy and his critical thoughts on anthropology and humanism, as well as his relation to contemporary philosophers and their views on the subject. Various problems in Heidegger's concept of the human are addressed, and moral dimensions and practical imperatives implicit in Heidegger explored in discussions about intersectionality and oppression, the frailty of the human, and the embeddedness of the human being in nature, society, and history.

Phenomenology is the philosophy of our times. Through the entire twentieth century this philosophy unfolded and flourished, following stepwise the intrinsic logic and dynamism of its original project as proposed by its founder Edmund Husserl. Now its seminal ideas have been handed over to a new era. The worldwide contributors to this volume make it manifest that phenomenological inspiration knows no cultural barriers. It penetrates and invigorates not only philosophical disciplines but also most of the sectors of knowledge, transforming our way of seeing the world, our actions toward others, and our lives. Phenomenology's universal spread has, however, oftentimes diluted its original sense, even beyond recognition, and led to a weakening of its dynamics. There is at present an urgent need to retrieve the original understanding of phenomenology, to awaken its dormant forces and redirect them. This is the aim of the present book: resourcement and reinvigoration. It is meant to be not only a reference work but also a guide for research and study. To restore the authentic vision of phenomenology, we propose returning to its foundational source in Husserl's project of a `universal science', unpacking all its creative capacities. In the three parts of this work there are traced the stages of this philosophy's progressive uncovering of the grounding levels of reality: ideal structures, constitutive consciousness, the intersubjective lifeworld, and beyond. The key concepts and phases of Husserl's thought are here exfoliated. Then the thought of the movement's classical figures and of representative thinkers in succeeding generations is elucidated. Phenomenology's geographic spread is reviewed. We then proceed to the culminating work of this philosophy, to the phenomenological life engagements so vigorously advocated by Husserl, to the life-significant issues phenomenology addresses and to how it has enriched the human sciences. Lastly the phenomenological project's new horizons on the plane of life are limned, horizons with so powerful a draw that they may be said not to beckon but to summon. Here is the movement's vanguard. This collection has 71 entries. Each entry is followed by a relevant bibliography. There is a helpful Glossary of Terms and an Index of Names.

Patrick Nullens and Ronald T. Michener seek to revitalize Christian ethics through an integrative approach to classical ethics. Their matrix of consequential, principle, virtue and value ethics provides an alternative to postmodern situation ethics and brings the framework of biblical wisdom to bear on contemporary ethical questions.