On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethics and Politics

by Charles E. Scott

Overview

". . . remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics . . . commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. . . . an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology . . ." —Choice

This book takes as its point of departure the question of ethics: that values and their pursuit in the West often perpetuate their own worst enemies. At issue are the dangers in the structures and movements of images, values, and ways of knowing that are most intimately a part of our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253210760
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	10/22/1996
Series:	Studies in Continental Thought
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1400L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

CHARLES E. SCOTT holds The Edwin Erle Sparks Chair in Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. His publications include The Question of Ethics, The Language of Difference, and Boundaries in Mind: A Study of Immediate Awareness Based in Psychotherapy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Selected Works Cited
Introduction: Crossing the Ethical by "the" Nonethical

1. Nonbelonging/Authenticity

2. Language in a Passing Sense of Transcendence

3. Ethics in a Passing Sense of Transcendence

4. A (Non-) Passing Sense of Tragedy

5. Thinking Noninterpretively

6. The Ascetic Ideal: Nietzsche contra Heidegger

7. Transition: "What Is Paris Doing to US?"

8. Self-Fragmentation: The Danger to Ethics

9. "Not to Be Trapped by Abuse...": Genealogy and a Child's Pain

10. Responsibility and Danger

11. A Peoples' Witness beyond Politics

12. Democratic Space

13. On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Politics for Life

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

"Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.), a leading author in the field of American Continental philosophy, writes from a vantage point beyond ethics, though the essence of beyond here is neither hostile to ethics nor standing above the ethical domain. He claims that Nietzsche and such contemporary philosophers as Heidegger, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida argue persuasively that we no longer can think and justify our acts within the traditional framework of transcendence. Nevertheless, this does not imply an absence of ethics or renunciation of the legitimacy of ethical concerns. In fact Scott celebrates this apparent loss of transcendence as what frees ethics from its excess. This remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics is particularly insightful in discussing the genealogical approach to practical philosophy that characterizes the work of Nietzsche and Foucault. The work is commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. Scott offers an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology, seeing evidence there of both of a lingering moral asceticism and a mode of temporally rooted questioning that overcomes ethical subjectivity and its notion of responsibility. Upper—division undergraduate; graduate; faculty."

W. A. Brogan

Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.), a leading author in the field of American Continental philosophy, writes from a vantage point beyond ethics, though the essence of beyond here is neither hostile to ethics nor standing above the ethical domain. He claims that Nietzsche and such contemporary philosophers as Heidegger, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida argue persuasively that we no longer can think and justify our acts within the traditional framework of transcendence. Nevertheless, this does not imply an absence of ethics or renunciation of the legitimacy of ethical concerns. In fact Scott celebrates this apparent loss of transcendence as what frees ethics from its excess. This remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics is particularly insightful in discussing the genealogical approach to practical philosophy that characterizes the work of Nietzsche and Foucault. The work is commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. Scott offers an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology, seeing evidence there of both of a lingering moral asceticism and a mode of temporally rooted questioning that overcomes ethical subjectivity and its notion of responsibility. Upper—division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.

W. A. Brogan]]>

Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.), a leading author in the field of American Continental philosophy, writes from a vantage point beyond ethics, though the essence of beyond here is neither hostile to ethics nor standing above the ethical domain. He claims that Nietzsche and such contemporary philosophers as Heidegger, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida argue persuasively that we no longer can think and justify our acts within the traditional framework of transcendence. Nevertheless, this does not imply an absence of ethics or renunciation of the legitimacy of ethical concerns. In fact Scott celebrates this apparent loss of transcendence as what frees ethics from its excess. This remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics is particularly insightful in discussing the genealogical approach to practical philosophy that characterizes the work of Nietzsche and Foucault. The work is commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. Scott offers an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology, seeing evidence there of both of a lingering moral asceticism and a mode of temporally rooted questioning that overcomes ethical subjectivity and its notion of responsibility. Upper—division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.

Editorial Reviews

Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.), a leading author in the field of American Continental philosophy, writes from a vantage point beyond ethics, though the essence of beyond here is neither hostile to ethics nor standing above the ethical domain. He claims that Nietzsche and such contemporary philosophers as Heidegger, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida argue persuasively that we no longer can think and justify our acts within the traditional framework of transcendence. Nevertheless, this does not imply an absence of ethics or renunciation of the legitimacy of ethical concerns. In fact Scott celebrates this apparent loss of transcendence as what frees ethics from its excess. This remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics is particularly insightful in discussing the genealogical approach to practical philosophy that characterizes the work of Nietzsche and Foucault. The work is commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. Scott offers an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology, seeing evidence there of both of a lingering moral asceticism and a mode of temporally rooted questioning that overcomes ethical subjectivity and its notion of responsibility. Upper—division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.

W. A. Brogan

Scott (Pennsylvania State Univ.), a leading author in the field of American Continental philosophy, writes from a vantage point beyond ethics, though the essence of beyond here is neither hostile to ethics nor standing above the ethical domain. He claims that Nietzsche and such contemporary philosophers as Heidegger, Levinas, Foucault, and Derrida argue persuasively that we no longer can think and justify our acts within the traditional framework of transcendence. Nevertheless, this does not imply an absence of ethics or renunciation of the legitimacy of ethical concerns. In fact Scott celebrates this apparent loss of transcendence as what frees ethics from its excess. This remarkable account of the impact of postmodern philosophy on the question of ethics and politics is particularly insightful in discussing the genealogical approach to practical philosophy that characterizes the work of Nietzsche and Foucault. The work is commendable also for its balanced view of Heidegger's relationship to politics and ethics. Scott offers an excellent account of Heidegger's philosophical understanding of technology, seeing evidence there of both of a lingering moral asceticism and a mode of temporally rooted questioning that overcomes ethical subjectivity and its notion of responsibility. Upper—division undergraduate; graduate; faculty.W. A. Brogan, Villanova University, 1997oct CHOICE.

From the Publisher

Read More