Reason and goodness / / Brand Blanshard

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910787610003321
• Autore: Blanshard Brand <1892-1987., >
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2002
• ISBN: 1-315-83043-4; 1-317-85285-0; 1-317-85286-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (452 p.)
• Collana: Muirhead Library of Philosophy : Ethics ; ; Volume II
• Disciplina: 170
• Soggetti: Ethics; Reason
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: "First published in 1961. Reprinted in 2002 by Routledge"--T.p. verso.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Half Title; Title page; Copyright Page; Original Title Page; Original Copyright Page; Dedication; Preface; Table of Contents; Chapter I The tension between reason and feeling in western ethics; 1. Is reason or feeling primary in moral judgment?; 2. The issue is of practical importance; 3. It is rooted in an ancient tension in western ethics; 4. Greek moralists conceived life as the striving for an end; 5. Which became explicit only in ethical reflection; 6. And involved a world-view; 7. They held that knowledge was required for virtue and led to it; 8. Their ethical ideal produced many remarkable characters9. The Christian emphasis was not on knowledge, but on love; 10. Which was essentially, though not merely, feeling; 11. The Greek and Christian emphases are thus in sharp contrast; 12. But we regard both as essential in the appraising of conduct; Chapter II Stoicism and the supremacy of reason; 1. The Stoic ideal was, in a double sense, comformity to reason; 2. Which required the acceptance of all that happened as necessary; 3. And engendered extraordinary fortitude of character; 4. Feeling was mastered through reconceiving its object; 5. A method effective in controlling anger and fear6. But understanding events does not necessarily make them acceptable; 7. And if it dissolves evil, it also dissolves good; 8. Stoic fortitude paralysed ; sympathy; 9. The total suppression of feeling would destroy all value; 10. And entail the wreck of the moral life; 11. The importance of feeling has been vividly attested by Mill; Chapter III St Francis and the supremacy of feeling; 1. There have been various experiments on governing life by feeling; 2. Of which that of St Francis is the most attractive; 3. It involved a total surrender to love4. A love that extended to the animal world, and even beyond; 5. St Francis repudiated intellectual interest; 6. As is shown in his theology and his practice; 7. He sought to embody a love that was wholly selfless; 8. But this unhappily conflicts with justice; 9. And humility, when unqualified, is incoherent; 10. His attitude toward mateial goods was slf-defeating; 11. Indeed love itself is self-defeating when not implemented by knowledge; 12. And is unable by itself to discriminate among its objects; 13. Summary; Chapter IV The dialectic of reason and feeling in british ethics1. Opinion is divided on belief and feeling in moral judgment; 2. British thought upon it has shown a dialectic movement; 3. According to Clarke, the perception of rightness was intellectual; 4. Moral judgments do in some respects resemble mathematical; 5. But (1) they are far less definite in their terms; 6. (2) They require reference to consequences, not to timeless consequents; 7. And (3) they involve feeling; 8. Hence Shaftesbury and Hutcheson made goodness akin to beauty; 9. And held the organ of its apprehension to be a 'moral sense'
• Sommario/riassunto: First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.