
Rethinking the Value of Humanity
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 13. March 2023
Book
Hardback
458 pages
978-0-19-753936-1 (ISBN)
Description
To treat some human beings as less worthy of concern and respect than others is to lose sight of their humanity. But what does this moral blindness amount to? What are we missing when we fail to appreciate the value of humanity?
The essays in this volume offer a wide range of competing, yet overlapping, answers to these questions. Some essays examine influential views in the history of Western philosophy. In others, philosophers currently working in ethics develop and defend their own views. Some essays appeal to distinctively human capacities. Others argue that our obligations to one another are ultimately grounded in self-interest, or certain shared interests, or our natural sociability. The philosophers featured here disagree about whether the value of human beings depends on the value of anything else. They disagree about how reason and rationality relate to this value, and even about whether we can reason our way to discovering it. This rich selection of proposals encourages us to rethink some of our own deepest assumptions about the moral significance of being human.
The essays in this volume offer a wide range of competing, yet overlapping, answers to these questions. Some essays examine influential views in the history of Western philosophy. In others, philosophers currently working in ethics develop and defend their own views. Some essays appeal to distinctively human capacities. Others argue that our obligations to one another are ultimately grounded in self-interest, or certain shared interests, or our natural sociability. The philosophers featured here disagree about whether the value of human beings depends on the value of anything else. They disagree about how reason and rationality relate to this value, and even about whether we can reason our way to discovering it. This rich selection of proposals encourages us to rethink some of our own deepest assumptions about the moral significance of being human.
Reviews / Votes
Some philosophers hold, with Kant, that humanity (and perhaps only humanity) has priceless value. This special worth, they claim, underwrites the importance of morality. But precisely what is this value? How do we acquire knowledge of it? This collection offers a rich discussion of Kant's framework, pre-Kantian conceptions of value, and a wide range of post-Kantian and contemporary theories. It should be essential reading for all students of ethics. * Richard Kraut, author of Against Absolute Goodness * This book presents major authors addressing a central topic in ethics. The essays range creatively over the value of persons, love and respect, dignity and moral standing, reasons and rights, consent and sovereignty, and a multitude of philosophers important for these topics. These rich and insightful essays-many contributing significantly to the history of ethics-illuminate Kant, as well as earlier figures and later authors as different as Nietzsche and Gandhi. * Robert Audi, John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
812 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-753936-1 (9780197539361)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Sarah Buss | Nandi Theunissen
Rethinking the Value of Humanity
E-Book
01/2023
OUP eBook
€54.49
Available for download

Sarah Buss | Nandi Theunissen
Rethinking the Value of Humanity
E-Book
01/2023
OUP eBook
€54.49
Available for download
Persons
Sarah Buss is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. She is the author of articles on autonomy, moral responsibility, practical rationality, respect for persons, and various issues in ethics, and co-editor of The Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt (2001).
Nandi Theunissen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. She works on foundational topics in ethics, with a focus on the nature of value, and is the author of The Value of Humanity (OUP, 2020), as well as essays on Kant's moral philosophy, regress arguments, moral realism, and the nature of well-being.
Nandi Theunissen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. She works on foundational topics in ethics, with a focus on the nature of value, and is the author of The Value of Humanity (OUP, 2020), as well as essays on Kant's moral philosophy, regress arguments, moral realism, and the nature of well-being.
Editor
Professor of PhilosophyProfessor of Philosophy, University of Michigan
Professor of PhilosophyProfessor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
Content
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction
Sarah Buss
1. Decomposing Humanity
Jon Garthoff
2. Do the Ancients See Value in Humanity?
Richard Bett
3. Spinoza's Anti-Humanism: Human Value and Dignity
Yitzhak Melamed
4. Slavery, Freedom, and Human Value in Early Modern Philosophy
Julia Jorati
5. Valuing Humanity in 'Common Life': Grotius and Pufendorf on Equal 'Sociable' Dignity
Stephen Darwall
6. The Dignity of Humanity
Ralf M. Bader
7. Great Beyond All Comparison
Kenneth Walden
8. Fichte on the Value of Rational Agency
Michelle Kosch
9. Explaining the Value of Human Beings
L. Nandi Theunissen
10. Are We of Equal Moral Worth?
Andrea Sangiovanni
11. The Normative Significance of Humanity
Peter Railton
12. Finding the Humean Value in Humean Humanity
Don Garrett
13. Other People
Kieran Setiya
14. Learning from Love: Reasoning, Respect, and the Value of a Person
Kyla Ebels-Duggan
15. The Invention of Value and the Value of Humanity
Elijah Millgram
16. The Human Foundations of our Political Ideals: An Essay on Gandhi's Political Radicalism
Akeel Bilgrami
Index
List of Contributors
Introduction
Sarah Buss
1. Decomposing Humanity
Jon Garthoff
2. Do the Ancients See Value in Humanity?
Richard Bett
3. Spinoza's Anti-Humanism: Human Value and Dignity
Yitzhak Melamed
4. Slavery, Freedom, and Human Value in Early Modern Philosophy
Julia Jorati
5. Valuing Humanity in 'Common Life': Grotius and Pufendorf on Equal 'Sociable' Dignity
Stephen Darwall
6. The Dignity of Humanity
Ralf M. Bader
7. Great Beyond All Comparison
Kenneth Walden
8. Fichte on the Value of Rational Agency
Michelle Kosch
9. Explaining the Value of Human Beings
L. Nandi Theunissen
10. Are We of Equal Moral Worth?
Andrea Sangiovanni
11. The Normative Significance of Humanity
Peter Railton
12. Finding the Humean Value in Humean Humanity
Don Garrett
13. Other People
Kieran Setiya
14. Learning from Love: Reasoning, Respect, and the Value of a Person
Kyla Ebels-Duggan
15. The Invention of Value and the Value of Humanity
Elijah Millgram
16. The Human Foundations of our Political Ideals: An Essay on Gandhi's Political Radicalism
Akeel Bilgrami
Index