In this book, William O'Neill, SJ, offers an interpretation of the nature and scope of practical reasoning in light of postmodern philosophical criticism. He charts a via media between the abstract formalism of neo-Kantian morality and relativist interpretations of neo-Aristotelian ethics. The three parts of the book treat the eclipse of the classical Aristotelian conception of practical reason; the Kantian heritage in the modern moral theories of John Rawls and R.M. Hare; and, the hermeneutical retrieval of a moral interpretation of the world. Drawing upon the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, modern analytical philosophy, and the discourse ethics of Jurgen Habermas, O'Neill offers a critical reconstruction of practical reason which upholds the primacy of moral community while recognizing the ethical import of historical and cultural difference. The final chapter applies the preceding hermeneutical critique to the question of the distinctiveness of Christian ethics in the writings of Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Josef Fuchs, and Bruno Schuller. This original contribution will be of special interest to students and teachers of moral philosophy and theology.
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• ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
• PREFACE
• PART 1: TORTURE
• 1. What Should We Do About Torture? - James Griffin
• PART 2: WAR
• 2. The Consequences of War - Thomas Hurka
• 3. Humanitarian Intervention, Consent, and Proportionality - Jeff McMahan
• PART 3: ETHICS, TRUTH, AND BELIEF
• 4. Humanity and the Perils of Perniciously Politicized Science - N. Ann Davis
• 5. Social Moral Epistemology and the Tasks of Ethics - Allen Buchanan
• 6. The Strains of Dialogue - Richard Keshen
• PART 4: BIOETHICS AND BEYOND
• 7. Humanity and Hyper-Regulation: from Nuremberg to Helsinki - Onora O'Neill
• 8. Transhumanity: A Moral Vision of the Twenty-First Century - John Harris
• PART 5: SOME SILENCES IN HUMANITY
• 9. The Foundations of Humanity - Roger Crisp
• 10. Bystanders to Poverty - Peter Singer
• 11. Compassion: Human and Animal - Martha Nussbaum
• PART 6: PERSONAL
• 12. Jonathan Glover - Alan Ryan
• PART 7: RESPONSES
• 13. A Summing Up - Jonathan Glover.
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Ethics and Humanity pays to tribute to Jonathan Glover, a pioneering figure whose thought and personal influence have had a significant impact on applied philosophy. In topics that include genetic engineering, abortion, euthanasia, war, and moral responsibility, Glover has made seminal contributions. The papers collected here, written by some of the most distinguished contemporary moral philosophers, address topics to which Glover has contributed, with particular emphasis on problems of conflict discussed in his book, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century. There are also moving testaments to the influence Glover has had on colleagues, students, and friends. Glover himself contributes a series of fine replies, which constitute an important addition to his published work.
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• 1. Introduction: pluralism and uncertainty--
• 2. Openness--
• 3. The retreat--
• 4. The moral sphere--
• 5. Fact and value--
• 6. Value experiments--
• 7. Virtues, excellences and forms of life--
• 8. The fourth dimension--
• 9. Aspiration--
• 10. Wisdom--
• 11. Objective worth--
• 12. The Bach crystals--
• 13. Human flourishing--
• 14. The Faust legend and the mosaic--
• 15. The good and the right (I): intuitionism and Kantianism--
• 16. The good and the right (II): utilitarianism and consequentialism--
• 17. The good and the right (III): contractualism--
• 18. Politics, public morality and law: justice, care and virtue-- Bibliography-- Index.
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Modernity has challenged the ancient ideal of a universal quest for wisdom, and today's world of conflicting cultures and values has raised further doubts regarding the possibility of objective ethical standards. Robert Kane refocuses the debate on the philosophical quest for wisdom, and argues that ethical principles about right action and the good life can be seen to emerge from that very quest itself. This book contends that the search for wisdom involves a persistent striving to overcome narrowness of vision that comes from the inevitable limitations of finite points of view. When applied to questions of value and the good life, this striving has ethical implications about the way we should treat ourselves and others. This study argues for the merits of this central thesis against alternative theories in contemporary normative ethics, and discusses its practical applications for social ethics, political philosophy, law and moral education.
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• The solicitude of the father : Franz Brentano's ethics of social renewal
• A true and better I : Edmund Husserl's call for worldly renewal
• Phenomenology without reduction : the realism of the original phenomenological movement
• The blueprint of a new heart : Max Scheler and the order of love
• Philosophy en plein air : interwar social and ethical phenomenology
• Interlude : phenomenology and East European dissidence
• The point of view of life : Czechoslovak phenomenology through the Prague Spring
• The far reaches : Jan Patočka's transcendence to the world
• The definitive no : phenomenology and Czechoslovak resistance to impersonal power
• The radiation of humanity : Karol Wojtyła's phenomenological personalism
• The light of values : phenomenological ramifications in Polish dissidence
• Conclusion : why phenomenology matters on a social philosophy.

When future historians chronicle the twentieth century, they will see phenomenology as one of the preeminent social and ethical philosophies of its age. The phenomenological movement not only produced systematic reflection on common moral concerns such as distinguishing right from wrong and explaining the status of values; it also called on philosophy to renew European societies facing crisis, an aim that inspired thinkers in interwar Europe as well as later communist bloc dissidents. Despite this legacy, phenomenology continues to be largely discounted as esoteric and solipsistic, the last gasp of a Cartesian dream to base knowledge on the isolated rational mind. Intellectual histories tend to cite Husserl's epistemological influence on philosophies like existentialism and deconstruction without considering his social or ethical imprint. And while a few recent scholars have begun to note phenomenology's wider ethical resonance, especially in French social thought, its image as stubbornly academic continues to hold sway. The Far Reaches challenges that image by tracing the first history of phenomenological ethics and social thought in Central Europe, from its founders Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl through its reception in East Central Europe by dissident thinkers such as Jan Patocka, Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), and Vaclav Havel.
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