Ethics and the Between

by William Desmond

Overview

Articulates the necessity for a comprehensive reconstructive thinking about the meaning of being good.

In Ethics and the Between William Desmond addresses our current perplexities regarding the devaluation of being in modernity and the shadow of ethical nihilism. He rethinks the sources of value, the diverse ethical ways, the nature of ethical selving and communities, and articulates the necessity for a comprehensive reconstructive thinking about the meaning of being good, consonant with the response to the question of being in Being and the Between, the first book of a planned trilogy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791448489
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	01/25/2001
Series:	SUNY series in Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William Desmond is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the International Program of Philosophy in the Higher Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain), Belgium. He is the author of many books, including Being and Between, which won both the Prix Cardinal Mercier Award in 1995, as well as the J. N. Findlay Award of the Metaphysical Society of America for the best book in metaphysics.

Table of Contents

(Abridged)Introduction
Part I. Ethos
1. The Ethos: Being As Worthy/Being As Worthless
Part II: Ethical Ways
2. Ethos and Univocal Ethics
3. Ethos and Equivocal Ethics
4. Ethos and Dialectical Ethics
5. Ethos and Metaxological Ethics
Part III: Ethical Selvings
6. First Ethical Selving: The Idiocy of Root Will
7. Second Ethical Selving: The Redoubling of Will
8. Third Ethical Selving: The Becoming of Freedom
9. Fourth Ethical Selving: Dialectical Autonomy
10. Fifth Ethical Selving: Erotic Sovereignty
11. Sixth Ethical Selving: Agapeic Service and Friendship
12. Seventh Ethical Selving: Released Freedom and the Passion of Being
Part IV: Ethical Communities
13. The Familial Community of the Intimate: The Ethical Intermediation of the Idiot
14. The Network of Serviceable Disposability: The Instrumental Intermediation of the Aesthetic
15. The Community of Erotic Sovereignty: The Intermediation of Immanent Excellence
16. The Community of Agapeic Service: The Intermediation of Transcendent Good
Index

Editorial Reviews

With this book, Desmond (philosophy, Katholieke U., Louvain, Belgium) aims to create a reconstruction of metaphysical thinking about the meaning of being good. Sections are devoted to the ethos and being, ethical ways (univocal, equivocal, dialectical, and metaxological), ethical "selving" and free will, and ethical communities. This second volume in a planned trilogy follows , the author's discussion of the question of being. The volume lacks a bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"This is a truly important work by one of the most interesting thinkers writing today. It is a profound phenomenological—metaphysical reflection on the basis of ethics, and the ways in which we can be faithful or unfaithful to this basis. At the same time there is nothing programmatic in it: We are offered a comprehensive treatment of the milieu of ethics, how we can go generally right or wrong in our after–the–fact constructions, but also the various specific regions of ethics, like family relations. If the ambition is extraordinary, so also is the accomplishment. Its reach is greater than any book on ethics that I know." — Cyril O'Regan, author of The Heterodox Hegel

"I like its originality, synthetic quality, and insight. ...a first-rate work by a first-rate mind." — James L. Marsh, author of Critique, Action, and Liberation

From the Publisher