The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment, 1690-1805

The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment, 1690-1805 PDF Author: Thomas Ahnert
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300153805
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In the Enlightenment it was often argued that moral conduct, rather than adherence to theological doctrine, was the true measure of religious belief. Thomas Ahnert argues that this “enlightened” emphasis on conduct in religion relied less on arguments from reason alone than has been believed. In fact, Scottish Enlightenment champions advocated a practical program of “moral culture,” in which revealed religion was of central importance. Ahnert traces this to theological controversies going back as far as the Reformation concerning the conditions of salvation. His findings present a new point of departure for all scholars interested in the intersection of religion and Enlightenment.

The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment, 1690-1805

The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment, 1690-1805 PDF Author: Thomas Ahnert
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300153805
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the Enlightenment it was often argued that moral conduct, rather than adherence to theological doctrine, was the true measure of religious belief. Thomas Ahnert argues that this “enlightened” emphasis on conduct in religion relied less on arguments from reason alone than has been believed. In fact, Scottish Enlightenment champions advocated a practical program of “moral culture,” in which revealed religion was of central importance. Ahnert traces this to theological controversies going back as far as the Reformation concerning the conditions of salvation. His findings present a new point of departure for all scholars interested in the intersection of religion and Enlightenment.

Moral Clarity

Moral Clarity PDF Author: Susan Neiman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691143897
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
"Neiman reclaims the vocabulary of morality--good and evil, heroism and nobility--as a lingua franca for the twenty-first century. In constructing a framework for taking responsible action on today's urgent questions, [she] reaches back to the eighteenth century, retrieving a series of values--happiness, reason, reverence, and hope--held high by Enlightenment thinkers. In this ... updated edition, Neiman reflects on how the moral language of the 2008 presidential campaign has opened up new political and cultural possibilities in America and beyond"--Back cover.

Natural Law and Moral Philosophy

Natural Law and Moral Philosophy PDF Author: Knud Haakonssen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521498029
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Providing the most comprehensive guide to modern natural law theory available, this major contribution to the history of philosophy sets out the full background to liberal ideas of rights and contractarianism, and offers an extensive study of the Scottish Enlightenment.

The Evolution of Moral Progress

The Evolution of Moral Progress PDF Author: Allen Buchanan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190868430
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
In The Evolution of Moral Progress, Allen Buchanan and Russell Powell resurrect the project of explaining moral progress. They avoid the errors of earlier attempts by drawing on a wide range of disciplines including moral and political philosophy, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, anthropology, history, and sociology. Their focus is on one especially important type of moral progress: gains in inclusivity. They develop a framework to explain progress in inclusivity to also illuminate moral regression--the return to exclusivist and "tribalistic" moral beliefs and attitudes. Buchanan and Powell argue those tribalistic moral responses are not hard-wired by evolution in human nature. Rather, human beings have an evolved "adaptively plastic" capacity for both inclusion and exclusion, depending on environmental conditions. Moral progress in the dimension of inclusivity is possible, but only to the extent that human beings can create environments conducive to extending moral standing to all human beings and even to some animals. Buchanan and Powell take biological evolution seriously, but with a critical eye, while simultaneously recognizing the crucial role of culture in creating environments in which moral progress can occur. The book avoids both biological and cultural determinism. Unlike earlier theories of moral progress, their theory provides a naturalistic account that is grounded in the best empirical work, and unlike earlier theories it does not present moral progress as inevitable or as occurring in definite stages; but rather it recognizes the highly contingent and fragile character of moral improvement.

Utilitarianism in the Age of Enlightenment

Utilitarianism in the Age of Enlightenment PDF Author: Niall O'Flaherty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108474470
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Studies the influential tradition of 'theological utilitarianism' in the eighteenth century through the lens of William Paley's life and thought.

The Enlightenment of Sympathy

The Enlightenment of Sympathy PDF Author: Michael L. Frazer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199780218
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The Enlightenment of Sympathy reclaims the sentimentalist theory of reflective autonomy as a resource for enriching social science, normative theory, and political practice today. The sentimentalist description of the reflective process is more empirically accurate than the competing rationalist description, and can guide scientists investigating the processes by which the mind formulates moral and political principles. Yet the theory is much more than merely descriptive, and can also contribute to the philosophical project of finding principles--including principles of justice--that wield genuine normative authority. Enlightenment sentimentalism demonstrates that emotion is necessarily central to our civic life, and shows how our reflective sentiments can counterbalance the unreflective feelings that might otherwise lead our political principles astray.

The Emergence of Modern Aesthetic Theory

The Emergence of Modern Aesthetic Theory PDF Author: Simon Grote
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107110920
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This new study of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory situates it in theological contexts that are crucial to explaining why it arose.

An Anthropology of the Enlightenment

An Anthropology of the Enlightenment PDF Author: Nigel Rapport
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1350086622
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
In a time of intellectual uncertainty, the question of how we know what we do about human lives becomes ever more pressing. The essays collated in this volume argue that anthropology can be used to acknowledge, explore and interpret divergence and ideological conflict over human meaning. Using questions raised as part of the Enlightenment movement, this volume is structured around some of the key themes the Enlightenment fostered, including human nature, time, Earth and the Cosmos, beauty, order, harmony and design, moral sentiments, and the query of whether wealthy nations make for healthy publics. The volume focuses in particular on how 'moral sentiment' offered a guiding idea in Enlightenment thought. The idea of 'moral sentiment' is central to the essays' grappling with the ethical anxieties of contemporary anthropology. The essays therefore trace historical connections and fissures and focus on Adam Smith's attempts toward an understanding of what would later be called 'modernity'. With an afterword from Marilyn Strathern, this volume will be a strong addition to the Association of Social Anthropologists conference proceedings.

The Moral Foundations of Politics

The Moral Foundations of Politics PDF Author: Ian Shapiro
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300189753
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
When do governments merit our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? Ian Shapiro explores this most enduring of political dilemmas in this innovative and engaging book. Building on his highly popular Yale courses, Professor Shapiro evaluates the main contending accounts of the sources of political legitimacy. Starting with theorists of the Enlightenment, he examines the arguments put forward by utilitarians, Marxists, and theorists of the social contract. Next he turns to the anti-Enlightenment tradition that stretches from Edmund Burke to contemporary post-modernists. In the last part of the book Shapiro examines partisans and critics of democracy from Plato’s time until our own. He concludes with an assessment of democracy’s strengths and limitations as the font of political legitimacy. The book offers a lucid and accessible introduction to urgent ongoing conversations about the sources of political allegiance.

Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry

Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry PDF Author: Alasdair MacIntyre
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268160562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Alasdair MacIntyre—whom Newsweek has called "one of the foremost moral philosophers in the English-speaking world"—here presents his 1988 Gifford Lectures as an expansion of his earlier work Whose Justice? Which Rationality? He begins by considering the cultural and philosophical distance dividing Lord Gifford's late nineteenth-century world from our own. The outlook of that earlier world, MacIntyre claims, was definitively articulated in the Ninth Edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, which conceived of moral enquiry as both providing insight into and continuing the rational progress of mankind into ever greater enlightenment. MacIntyre compares that conception of moral enquiry to two rival conceptions also formulated in the late nineteenth century: that of Nietzsche's Zur Genealogie der Moral and that expressed in the encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII Aeterni Patris. The lectures focus on Aquinas's integration of Augustinian and Aristotelian modes of enquiry, the inability of the encyclopaedists' standpoint to withstand Thomistic or genealogical criticism, and the problems confronting the contemporary post-Nietzschean genealogist. MacIntyre concludes by considering the implications for education in universities and colleges.