Innocence and Experience / Edition 1

by Stuart Hampshire

Overview

Human beings have lived by very different conceptions of the good life. In this book, Stuart Hampshire argues that no individual and no modern society can avoid conflicts between incompatible moral interests. Philosophers have tried in the past to find some underlying moral idea of justice which could resolve these conflicts and would be valid for any society. Hampshire claims that there can be no such thing. States can be held together, and war between them avoided, only by respect for the political process itself, and it is in these terms that justice must be defined.

The book closely examines the critical relationship between morality and justice, paying particular attention to Hume's moral subjectivism (which Hampshire disputes) and proposing a reply to Machiavelli's claim that the realities of politics inevitably oblige leaders to choose between unavoidable evils.

Most academic and moral philosophy, Hampshire argues, has been a fairy tale, representing ideals of private innocence rather than the realities of public experience. Conflicts between incompatible moral interests are as unavoidable in social and international arenas as they are in the lives of individuals. Philosophers, politicians, and theologians have all looked for an underlying moral consensus that will be valid for any just society. But the diversity of the human species and important differences in how various cultures define the good life militate against the formation of any such consensus. Ultimately, conflicts can be mediated only by respect for procedural justice.

Hampshire believes that themes of moral philosophy come from the writer's own experience, and he has given a brief but compelling account of his own life to help the reader understand the sources of his philosophy. Combining intellectual rigor with imaginative power, in Innocence and Experience Stuart Hampshire vividly illuminates the tensions between justice and other sources of value in society and in the life of the individual.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674454491
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1991
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Stuart Hampshire was Bonsall Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

Index

Introduction

1. Parts of the Soul

Reason and the Soul

Justice and the Soul

Thought and Reflection

Reason and Imagination

Language and Knowledge

2. Justice and History

Practical Reasoning

Procedural Justice and Historical Possibility

Reply to Relativism

Nazism and Evil

Basic Procedural justice

3. Hume's Ghost

False Isolation

Value Judgments

Possibilities and Presuppositions

Fact and Value

Kinds of Possibility

Good and Evil Again

Procedural Justice: A Summary

Hume's Last Reply

4. Individuality and Memory

Memory and Variety

Individuals and History

Imagination

Transcendence

Virtue and Justice

The Dual Aspect of Morality

Justice and Pluralism

Justice and Liberal Assumptions

Attachment to the Past

Conflicts about Duty

Conceptions of the Good: Nietzsche

5. Morality and Machiavelli

Machiavelli's Problem

Towards a Reply

Innocence and Experience Illustrated

History Again

Justice and the Dispossessed

A Reply to Machiavelli

Editorial Reviews

Hampshire sharply separates justice from the rest of morality, arguing that while conceptions of the good vary over time and differ among persons and societies, the virtue of procedural justice remains constant: Everyone has the right to present his or her standpoint for consideration by impartial methods. Although this procedural view of justice will not suffice for universal agreement on the good, it does secure consensus about some things, e.g., the need to avert manifest evils, such as murder and ruthless suppression of dissent. Hampshire's contention is in part the outcome of his facing the horror of Nazism in intelligence work during World War II. He presents his argument skillfully and persuasively but tends to steer clear of details: What happens, e.g., if people do not agree on fair procedures? Nevertheless, Hampshire's book is illuminating. Highly recommended.-- David Gordon, Social Philosophy and Policy Ctr., Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio

Library Journal