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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781608994380 |
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Publisher: | Wipf & Stock Publishers |
Publication date: | 05/19/2010 |
Edition description: | New Edition |
Pages: | 252 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
1 Moral Perplexity and Consistency 7
The Argument from Prescriptivity
The Argument from Universalizability
The Argument from Deductive Logic
The Argument from Deontic Metaprinciples
Conclusion
2 Perplexity as Dilemma 41
A Pragmatic View
Phenomenological Considerations
The Rejection of Moral Realism
The Fragmentation of Moral Reality (I)
The Fragmentation of Moral Reality (II)
Conclusion
3 Thomistic Natural Law and the Order of Value 78
The General Theory
Aquinas on Dilemmas
The Limitations of Practical Reason
Concluding Reflections
4 Divine Commands and Moral Dilemmas
A Causal Divine Command Theory
Perplexity, Divine Reason, and Providence
Creation, Redemption, and Moral Conflict
Imperatives, Logic, and Consistency
Imperatives, Reason, and Pragmatics
Concluding Reflections
5 Theological Ethics and Moral Conflict 156
Agape and Special Relations
Love and Coercion
Conscience and Consequences
Borderline Situations
Conclusion
Postscript 202
Notes 215
Bibliography 231
Index 239
What People are Saying About This
Perplexity in the Moral Life is an excellent book. It deals in a lucid and subtle way with an important theological and philosophical issue, and it presents a careful, sustained, and compelling argument that in Christian ethics perplexity is a problem of moral knowledge rather than a problem of real moral dilemmas that cannot be resolved. It deserves the widest possible attention in theological and philosophical ethics.
James F. Childress
Kyle Professor of Religious Studies and Professor of Medical Education Chairman, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia
One can only say that the argument here is devastating.... [Santurri] calls contemporary theology and a series of contemporary theological ethicists on the carpet. The standard arguments about moral perplexity simply do not work.... What some of us teach is simply wrong.
Max Stackhouse, Theology Today
Perplexity in the Moral Life is a powerful study of the very idea of "genuine moral dilemmas"situations in which moral agents are bound to do evil no matter what. Since it appeared in 1987, nobody has surpassed Santurri in offering such a sustained and interdisciplinary accountone that engages both philosophical studies and theological reflections with keen appreciation and sophistication. More generally, anyone interested in learning excellence in the precision of argument, theological or philosophical, should read this book.
William Werpehowski, Villanova University
Perplexity in the Moral Life offers one of the most important critiques in modern Christian ethics of philosophical and theological views that affirm the existence of genuine moral dilemmasnamely, situations in which an agent does moral wrong no matter what course of action is taken. Readers will profit not only by engaging this controversial thesis, but by confronting its suggestive claim that any characterization of the issue bears upon fundamental commitments in ethical theory and theology. Renewed debates about "dirty hands" and moral tragedy make its availability in print especially welcome.
Eric Gregory, Princeton University