The Sources of Normativity

Produktbeschreibung

Ethical concepts are, or purport to be, normative. They make claims on us: they command, oblige, recommend, or guide. Or at least when we invoke them, we make claims on one another; but where does their authority over us - or ours over one another - come from? Christine Korsgaard identifies four accounts of the source of normativity that have been advocated by modern moral philosophers: voluntarism, realism, reflective endorsement, and the appeal to autonomy. She traces their history, showing how each developed in response to the prior one and comparing their early versions with those on the contemporary philosophical scene. Kant's theory that normativity springs from our own autonomy emerges as a synthesis of the other three, and Korsgaard concludes with her own version of the Kantian account. Her discussion is followed by commentary from G. A. Cohen, Raymond Geuss, Thomas Nagel, and Bernard Williams, and a reply by Korsgaard. 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Onora O'Neill; Prologue: excellence and obligation: a very concise history of western metaphysics 387 BC to 1887 AD Christine Korsgaard; 1. The normative question Christine Korsgaard; 2. Reflective endorsement Christine Korsgaard; 3. The authority of reflection Christine Korsgaard; 4. The origin of value and the scope of obligation Christine Korsgaard; 5. Reason, humanity, and the moral law G. A. Cohen; 6. Morality and identity Raymond Geuss; 7. Universality and the reflective self Thomas Nagel; 8. History, morality and the test of reflection Bernard Williams; 9. Reply Christine Korsgaard; Bibliography; Index. 

Kritik

"The book is well worth reading..." International Studies in Philosophy 

Autoreninfo

Thomas Nagel wurde am 4. Juli 1937 in Belgrad geboren, kam aber bereits 1939 in die Vereinigten Staaten und wuchs in New York auf: 1958 schloss er seine Studien an der Cornell University ab, studierte in Oxford und in Harvard und nahm später Lehrtätigkeiten u. a. in Berkeley und in Princeton auf. Gegenwärtig lehrt er an der New York University School of Law. Für sein Werk wurde er u. a. mit dem Balzan-Preis ausgezeichnet.