Morals from Motives

by Michael Slote

Overview

Morals from Motives develops a virtue ethics inspired more by Hume and Hutcheson's moral sentimentalism than by recently-influential Aristotelianism. It argues that a reconfigured and expanded "morality of caring" can offer a general account of right and wrong action as well as social justice. Expanding the frontiers of ethics, it goes on to show how a motive-based "pure" virtue theory can also help us to understand the nature of human well-being and practical reason.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190207939
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/15/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	765 KB

Table of Contents

PART I: MORALITY AND JUSTICEONE: Agent-Based Virtue Ethics1. Virtue Ethics2. Objections to Agent-Basing3. Morality as Inner Strength4. Morality as Universal Benevolence5. Morality as Caring and Further Aspects of Agent-BasingTWO: Morality and the Practical1. Is Agent-basing Practical? 2. The Value of Conscientousness3. Moral ConflictTHREE: The Structure of Caring1. Caring and Love2. Balanced Caring3. Balanced Caring versus Aggregative Partialism4. Self-Concern5. Sentimentalist Deontology6. Caring versus the PhilosophersFOUR: The Justice of Caring1. From the Personal to the Political2. Social Justice3. Laws and Their Applications4. ConclusionFIVE: Universal Benevolence versus Caring1. Universal Benevolence and Universal Love2. The Justice of Universal Benevolence3. Humanitarianism and Religious Belief4. Humanitarianism and Intolerance5. The Choice between Caring and Universal BenevolencePART II: PRACTICAL RATIONALITY AND HUMAN GOODSIX: The Virtue in Self-Interest1. Unification in Utilitarianism2. Elevation versus Reduction3. Is Elevation Viable? 4. Aristotelian Elevationism5. Platonic Elevationism6. ConclusionSEVEN: Agent-Based Practical Reason1. Conceptions of Practical Reason2. Agent-Based Rationality3. Practical Reason and Self-Interest4. The Rational Requiements of Morality5. ConclusionEIGHT: Extending the Approach1. Hyper-Agent-Basing2. General ConclusionIndex

Editorial Reviews

"The purest and most interesting virtue-ethical theory yet developed. The publication of this book should change the way virtue ethics is understood."—Thomas Hurka, University of Toronto

"[Slote's] project is an attractively shaped one. It is also ambitious, encompassing discussions of political morality and practical rationality."—Times Literary Supplement, November 22, 2002

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