Action and Ethics in Aristotle and Hegel

Escaping the Malign Influence of Kant

Gary Pendlebury (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

222 Seiten

2017
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-138-26633-9 (ISBN)

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Pendlebury alleges that abstraction and rationalization have had a strong and malign influence on normative moral philosophy in the 20th century. Criticizing writers such as Hare, Rawls and Scanlon for pursuing a conception of moral philosophy that bears little resemblance to the way in which human beings actually think and conduct themselves, Pendlebury, instead, suggests a ’Virtue Ethics’ inspired by Hegel’s and Aristotle’s accounts of action as a corrective to this trend, showing that moral activity is historically and socially based and must address the formed character of individual agents. This trend, which began with the responses by Locke, Hume and Kant to Descartes’ Meditations, rendered moral philosophy individualistic and psychologistic in contrast to Aristotle and Hegel’s claim that man is essentially a social creature. Pendlebury argues that this should be the starting point of any account and understanding of morality which roots the concept of will in the practical activity involved in being a member of an ethical community rather than an abstract metaphysical entity that is supposedly in the possession of individuals. In providing a critique of modern moral philosophy from this perspective, Pendlebury’s line of enquiry lends much support to ’Virtue Ethics’ as exemplified in the work of Hursthouse and Slote, while taking a more combative approach with those with whom he disputes. In doing so he shows that serious considerations of continental philosophy highlights the richness of moral activity absent from ’analytical’ tradition which for so long has been bent on marginalizing it.

Dr Gary Pendlebury is Associate Lecturer of Philosophy for the Open University in the East Midlands, UK.

Contents: Preface; Introduction. Part One Hegel on Philosophy, Ethics and Will: Modern philosophy and ethics; Ethics and the individual: law, reason and freedom; Will, ethics and action. Part Two Aristotle and Hegel on the Conditions of Action: Reason and desire in character and action; Judgement, conscience and weakness of will; Agency, choice and self-sufficiency; Eudaimonia and action. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Erscheinungsdatum	04.07.2017
Reihe/Serie	Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	453 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie Altertum / Antike
ISBN-10	1-138-26633-7 / 1138266337
ISBN-13	978-1-138-26633-9 / 9781138266339
Zustand	Neuware