The ethical project /
Principles of right and wrong guide the lives of almost all human beings, but we often see them as external to ourselves, outside our own control. In a revolutionary approach to the problems of moral philosophy, Philip Kitcher makes a provocative proposal: Instead of conceiving ethical commands as d...
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| Language: | eng |
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Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press,
2011
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| _version_ | 1796745771725357056 |
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| author | Kitcher, Philip, 1947- |
| author_facet | Kitcher, Philip, 1947- |
| author_sort | Kitcher, Philip, 1947- |
| collection | OCEAN |
| description | Principles of right and wrong guide the lives of almost all human beings, but we often see them as external to ourselves, outside our own control. In a revolutionary approach to the problems of moral philosophy, Philip Kitcher makes a provocative proposal: Instead of conceiving ethical commands as divine revelations or as the discoveries of brilliant thinkers, we should see our ethical practices as evolving over tens of thousands of years, as members of our species have worked out how to live together and prosper. Elaborating this radical new vision, Kitcher shows how the limited altruistic tendencies of our ancestors enabled a fragile social life, how our forebears learned to regulate their interactions with one another, and how human societies eventually grew into forms of previously unimaginable complexity. The most successful of the many millennia-old experiments in how to live, he contends, survive in our values today. Drawing on natural science, social science, and philosophy to develop an approach he calls "pragmatic naturalism," Kitcher reveals the power of an evolving ethics built around a few core principles--including justice and cooperation--but leaving room for a diversity of communities and modes of self-expression. Ethics emerges as a beautifully human phenomenon--permanently unfinished, collectively refined and distorted generation by generation. Our human values, Kitcher shows, can be understood not as a final system but as a project--the ethical project--in which our species has engaged for most of its history, and which has been central to who we are. ---- Book Description. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-05T12:45:00Z |
| format | |
| id | KOHA-OAI-TEST:485003 |
| institution | Universiti Teknologi Malaysia - OCEAN |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-05T12:45:00Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | KOHA-OAI-TEST:4850032020-12-19T17:17:53ZThe ethical project / Kitcher, Philip, 1947- Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press,2011.engPrinciples of right and wrong guide the lives of almost all human beings, but we often see them as external to ourselves, outside our own control. In a revolutionary approach to the problems of moral philosophy, Philip Kitcher makes a provocative proposal: Instead of conceiving ethical commands as divine revelations or as the discoveries of brilliant thinkers, we should see our ethical practices as evolving over tens of thousands of years, as members of our species have worked out how to live together and prosper. Elaborating this radical new vision, Kitcher shows how the limited altruistic tendencies of our ancestors enabled a fragile social life, how our forebears learned to regulate their interactions with one another, and how human societies eventually grew into forms of previously unimaginable complexity. The most successful of the many millennia-old experiments in how to live, he contends, survive in our values today. Drawing on natural science, social science, and philosophy to develop an approach he calls "pragmatic naturalism," Kitcher reveals the power of an evolving ethics built around a few core principles--including justice and cooperation--but leaving room for a diversity of communities and modes of self-expression. Ethics emerges as a beautifully human phenomenon--permanently unfinished, collectively refined and distorted generation by generation. Our human values, Kitcher shows, can be understood not as a final system but as a project--the ethical project--in which our species has engaged for most of its history, and which has been central to who we are. ---- Book Description.Includes bibliographical references and index.Introduction : The shape of things to come ; Methodological preliminaries -- An analytical history : The springs of sympathy : Psychological altruism: basics ; The varieties of altruistic reactions ; Some dimensions of altruism ; Maternal concern ; Broader forms of altruism? ; Possibilities of evolutionary explanation ; The coalition game -- Normative guidance : The limits of altruism ; Following orders ; Punishment ; Conscience ; Social embedding -- Experiments of living : From there to here ; Cultural competition ; The unseen enforcer ; Some dots to be connected ; Division of labor ; Roles, rules, and institutions ; Altruism expanded -- One thing after another? : Mere change? ; Three ancient examples ; Second-sex citizens ; Repudiating chattel slavery ; The withering of vice ; The divine commander -- II. A metaethical perspective : Troubles with truth : Taking stock ; Prima facie problems ; Truth, realism and constructivism ; The sources of troubles -- Possibilities of progress : The centrality of ethical progress ; Generalizations from history ; Problems, functions and progress ; Modes of refinement ; Functional generation ; Local and global progress ; Ethical truth revisited ; Residual concerns -- Naturalistic fallacies? : Hume's challenge ; Authority undermined? ; Troublesome characters ; Settling disputes -- III. A normative stance : Progress, equality, and the good : Two visions of normative ethics ; Dynamic consequentialism ; Failures and successes ; From the local community to the human population ; Equality and the good life ; Population size ; Aspects of the good life -- Method in ethics : Varieties of ethical change ; Method and the good ; Mutual engagement ; Ethical debate ; Dissent and the limits of tolerance ; The challenger revisited -- Renewsing the project : Philosophical midwifery ; Scarce resources ; Habits and their limits ; Conflicting roles ; Ethically insulated spheres ; Maintaining equality ; The challenges of technology -- Conclusion : Summing up.Principles of right and wrong guide the lives of almost all human beings, but we often see them as external to ourselves, outside our own control. In a revolutionary approach to the problems of moral philosophy, Philip Kitcher makes a provocative proposal: Instead of conceiving ethical commands as divine revelations or as the discoveries of brilliant thinkers, we should see our ethical practices as evolving over tens of thousands of years, as members of our species have worked out how to live together and prosper. Elaborating this radical new vision, Kitcher shows how the limited altruistic tendencies of our ancestors enabled a fragile social life, how our forebears learned to regulate their interactions with one another, and how human societies eventually grew into forms of previously unimaginable complexity. The most successful of the many millennia-old experiments in how to live, he contends, survive in our values today. Drawing on natural science, social science, and philosophy to develop an approach he calls "pragmatic naturalism," Kitcher reveals the power of an evolving ethics built around a few core principles--including justice and cooperation--but leaving room for a diversity of communities and modes of self-expression. Ethics emerges as a beautifully human phenomenon--permanently unfinished, collectively refined and distorted generation by generation. Our human values, Kitcher shows, can be understood not as a final system but as a project--the ethical project--in which our species has engaged for most of its history, and which has been central to who we are. ---- Book Description.PSZJBLEthics, EvolutionaryURN:ISBN:9780674061446 (hbk.)URN:ISBN:0674061446 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
| spellingShingle | Ethics, Evolutionary Kitcher, Philip, 1947- The ethical project / |
| title | The ethical project / |
| title_full | The ethical project / |
| title_fullStr | The ethical project / |
| title_full_unstemmed | The ethical project / |
| title_short | The ethical project / |
| title_sort | ethical project |
| topic | Ethics, Evolutionary |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kitcherphilip1947 theethicalproject AT kitcherphilip1947 ethicalproject |