
The Emergence of Value
Human Norms in a Natural World
Lawrence Cahoone(Author)
State University of New York Press
Published on 2. March 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
340 pages
978-1-4384-9446-3 (ISBN)
Description
Argues that truth, moral right, political right, and aesthetic value may be understood as arising out of a naturalist account of humanity, if naturalism is rightly conceived.
Philosophers, social scientists, and natural scientists argue over whether a natural scientific account of human being is compatible with uniquely human norms like ethics, justice, art, and the concern for truth. Many attempts at such an account have been tried and failed; others, like evolutionary psychology, have tried but stumbled. The Emergence of Value argues that a broad enough understanding of nature and human nature can incorporate human values and norms, without reducing them to inhuman processes. Lawrence Cahoone advances the position that nature includes values as well as facts, and human uniqueness is therefore compatible with nature, as it must be. To demonstrate this, we must consider multiple sciences and recent philosophical traditions and their impact on our notions of truth, morality, justice, and beauty.
Philosophers, social scientists, and natural scientists argue over whether a natural scientific account of human being is compatible with uniquely human norms like ethics, justice, art, and the concern for truth. Many attempts at such an account have been tried and failed; others, like evolutionary psychology, have tried but stumbled. The Emergence of Value argues that a broad enough understanding of nature and human nature can incorporate human values and norms, without reducing them to inhuman processes. Lawrence Cahoone advances the position that nature includes values as well as facts, and human uniqueness is therefore compatible with nature, as it must be. To demonstrate this, we must consider multiple sciences and recent philosophical traditions and their impact on our notions of truth, morality, justice, and beauty.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
7 Figures
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
556 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4384-9446-3 (9781438494463)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2023
1st Edition
De Gruyter
from
€88.99
Available for download
Person
Lawrence Cahoone is Professor of Philosophy at College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of The Orders of Nature; The Ends of Philosophy; and The Dilemma of Modernity: Philosophy, Culture, and Anti-Culture, all published by SUNY Press.
Content
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Approaching the Fact-Value Problem
1. Facts, Values, and Other Dichotomies
2. An Objective Relativism
3. Emergence in Nature
II. Nature and Human Judgments
4. The Feud over Purpose
5. Animal Minds, Theirs and Ours
6. Dimensions of Human Agency
7. Beyond the Naturalistic Fallacy
8. Values in Judgments
9. What Modernity Did to Values
III. Emergent Norms
10. Objective Morality
11. Truth and Logical Validity
12. Ethics of the Truly Social Animal
13. Political Rights, Political Wrongs
14. Art Works
15. The Good
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Approaching the Fact-Value Problem
1. Facts, Values, and Other Dichotomies
2. An Objective Relativism
3. Emergence in Nature
II. Nature and Human Judgments
4. The Feud over Purpose
5. Animal Minds, Theirs and Ours
6. Dimensions of Human Agency
7. Beyond the Naturalistic Fallacy
8. Values in Judgments
9. What Modernity Did to Values
III. Emergent Norms
10. Objective Morality
11. Truth and Logical Validity
12. Ethics of the Truly Social Animal
13. Political Rights, Political Wrongs
14. Art Works
15. The Good
Notes
Works Cited
Index