Morality Within the Limits of Reason

Morality Within the Limits of Reason PDF Author: Russell Hardin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226316203
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This provocative, lucidly written reconstruction of utilitarianism focuses on the practical constraints involved in ethical choice: information may be inadequate, and understanding of causes and effects may be limited. Good decision making may be especially constrained if other people are closely involved in determining an outcome. Hardin demonstrates that many of these structural issues can and should be distinguished from the thornier problems of utilitarian value theory, and he is able to show what kinds of moral conclusions we can reach within the limits of reason.

Morality Within the Limits of Reason

Morality Within the Limits of Reason PDF Author: Russell Hardin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226316203
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book

Book Description
This provocative, lucidly written reconstruction of utilitarianism focuses on the practical constraints involved in ethical choice: information may be inadequate, and understanding of causes and effects may be limited. Good decision making may be especially constrained if other people are closely involved in determining an outcome. Hardin demonstrates that many of these structural issues can and should be distinguished from the thornier problems of utilitarian value theory, and he is able to show what kinds of moral conclusions we can reach within the limits of reason.

Ethics, Faith, and Reason

Ethics, Faith, and Reason PDF Author: Richard Taylor
Publisher: Prentice Hall
ISBN:
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
"In this book, the author revives the ancient moral ideas of virtue, happiness, and pride rather than analyzing such concepts as moreal right and wrong, moral obligation, and so on." From back cover.

Freedom within Reason

Freedom within Reason PDF Author: Susan Wolf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019535897X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Philosophers typically see the issue of free will and determinism in terms of a debate between two standard positions. Incompatibilism holds that freedom and responsibility require causal and metaphysical independence from the impersonal forces of nature. According to compatibilism, people are free and responsible as long as their actions are governed by their desires. In Freedom Within Reason, Susan Wolf charts a path between these traditional positions: We are not free and responsible, she argues, for actions that are governed by desires that we cannot help having. But the wish to form our own desires from nothing is both futile and arbitrary. Some of the forces beyond our control are friends to freedom rather than enemies of it: they endow us with faculties of reason, perception, and imagination, and provide us with the data by which we come to see and appreciate the world for what it is. The independence we want, Wolf argues, is not independence from the world, but independence from forces that prevent or preclude us from choosing how to live in light of a sufficient appreciation of the world. The freedom we want is a freedom within reason and the world.

Kant: Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

Kant: Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason PDF Author: Immanuel Kant
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521599641
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason is a key element of the system of philosophy which Kant introduced with his Critique of Pure Reason, and a work of major importance in the history of Western religious thought. It represents a great philosopher's attempt to spell out the form and content of a type of religion that would be grounded in moral reason and would meet the needs of ethical life. It includes sharply critical and boldly constructive discussions on topics not often treated by philosophers, including such traditional theological concepts as original sin and the salvation or 'justification' of a sinner, and the idea of the proper role of a church. This volume presents it and three short essays that illuminate it in new translations by Allen Wood and George di Giovanni, with an introduction by Robert Merrihew Adams that locates it in its historical and philosophical context.

Nature, Reason, and the Good Life

Nature, Reason, and the Good Life PDF Author: Roger Teichmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780198708971
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
At the centre of our ethical thought stands the human being. Roger Teichmann examines the ways in which facts about human nature determine the shape of ethical concepts such as rationality, virtue, and happiness.

Religion Within Reason

Religion Within Reason PDF Author: Steven M. Cahn
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231543662
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 121

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Book Description
In the views of most believers and critics, religion is essentially connected to the existence of a supernatural deity. If supernaturalism is not reasonable, the argument goes, religion cannot be reasonable—or if supernaturalism is reasonable, religion must be as well. Are faith and reason, religion and science, doomed to a constant struggle for the heart of humanity? Steven M. Cahn believes that they are not, that even if God exists, religion may not be justified and that even if religion is justified, belief in God may not be. In Religion Within Reason, Cahn argues that the common understanding of the relationship between religion and supernaturalism is flawed and that while supernaturalism is not reasonable, religious commitment may well be. Writing not as a theist but as one who finds much to admire in a religious life, he examines faith and reason, miracles, heaven and hell, religious diversity, and the problem of evil, using a variety of examples taken from religious thought, literature, and popular culture. Lucidly written in a nonpolemical spirit, Religion Within Reason offers an exciting new approach to the reconciliation of science and religion.

Within Reason

Within Reason PDF Author: Donald Calne
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030749330X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
It has long been a central conviction of western humanistic thought that reason is the most godlike of human traits, and that it makes us unique among animals. Yet if reason directs what we do, why is human behavior so often violent, irrational and disastrous? In Within Reason, leading neurologist Donald B. Calne investigates the phenomenon of rationality from an astonishingly wide array of scientific, sociological, and philosophical perspectives--and shows that although reason evolved as a crucial tool for human survival, it is an aspect of mind and brain which has no inherent moral or spiritual qualities and one whose relationship to our thoughts and actions may not be as central as we want to believe. Learned, lucid, and always illuminating, Within Reason brings together the latest developments in the science of mind with some of the most enduring questions of Western thought.

Trust Within Reason

Trust Within Reason PDF Author: Martin Hollis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521586818
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Does trust grow fragile when people are too rational or when they are not rational enough? Both thoughts are plausible. Which is right depends on how we define "reason." Martin Hollis' elegant and distinctive study argues for an interpretation of "reason" as putting the common good before one's own. This offers a universal reciprocity to people who then choose what reason shall mean for them.

Faith Within Reason

Faith Within Reason PDF Author: Herbert McCabe
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441191879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Is it possible to think about religious beliefs philosophically? Should religious beliefs be viewed as a flight from reason or as capable of rational support? Can theologians learn from philosophers? Can philosophers learn from theologians? Is it possible to be both a good Christian and a good thinker? Can there be such a thing as reasonable faith? This book is chiefly concerned with these questions and others related to them. A collection of previously unpublished papers written by the late Herbert McCabe O.P., it examines the nature of religious belief, especially belief in God, with an eye on both theological and philosophical arguments. Some thinkers have sought to drive a wedge between philosophy and theology. Like Thomas Aquinas, whose writings he especially admired, McCabe seeks to show how the two can be systematically connected. Some religious truths, he argues, may defy our understanding. But this does not mean that they cannot be reasonably discussed.

Profit at Any Cost?

Profit at Any Cost? PDF Author: Jerry Fleming
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1441242821
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
As a young executive, Jerry Fleming wondered if making a profit and behaving ethically were even compatible. Years later, he discovered that ethical companies not only showed greater profits than their unethical competitors but also experienced greater employee satisfaction and public trust. With corporate scandals in the headlines, Profit at any Cost? is Fleming's call for businesspeople to rethink how ethics are lived out in the marketplace. In so doing, he says, they will find greater peace, success, and profits. With real-life examples from his thirty-year business career, Fleming challenges readers to: " see that the business world is not a separate playing field with its own "rules" examine the failures of energy-giant Enron and other troubled corporations " understand how seemingly insignificant choices lead to unethical business practices " discover four moral principles that lead to long-term success in business and life " learn why ethical companies are more successful in the long run With humor, poignant insights, and a wealth of research, Profit at Any Cost? will challenge and inspire men and women of all professions to bring integrity back to the workplace.