
Normativity and the Will
Selected Essays on Moral Psychology and Practical Reason
R. Jay Wallace(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 16. March 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
356 pages
978-0-19-928749-9 (ISBN)
Description
Normativity and the Will collects fourteen important papers on moral psychology and practical reason by R. Jay Wallace, one of the leading philosophers currently working in these areas.
The papers explore the interpenetration of normative and psychological issues in a series of debates that lie at the heart of moral philosophy. Part I, Reason, Desire, and the Will, discusses the nexus linking normativity to motivation, including the relations between desire and reasons, the role of normative considerations in explanations of action, and the normative commitments involved in willing an end (such as the requirement to adopt the necessary means). Part II, Responsibility, Identification, and Emotion, looks at questions about the rational capacities presupposed by accountable agency and the psychic factors that both inhibit and enable identification with what we do. It includes an interpretation of the Nietzschean claim that ressentiment is among the sources of modern moral consciousness. Part III, Morality and Other Normative Domains, addresses the structure of moral reasons and moral motivation, and the relations between moral demands and other normative domains (including especially the requirements of living a meaningful human life).
Wallace's treatments of these topics are at once sophisticated and engaging. Taken together, they constitute an advertisement for a distinctive way of pursuing issues in moral psychology and the theory of practical reason. The book articulates and defends a unified framework for thinking about those issues, while offering sustained critical discussions of other influential approaches (by philosophers such as Korsgaard, McDowell, Nietzsche, Raz, Scanlon, and Williams). It should be of interest to every serious student of moral philosophy.
The papers explore the interpenetration of normative and psychological issues in a series of debates that lie at the heart of moral philosophy. Part I, Reason, Desire, and the Will, discusses the nexus linking normativity to motivation, including the relations between desire and reasons, the role of normative considerations in explanations of action, and the normative commitments involved in willing an end (such as the requirement to adopt the necessary means). Part II, Responsibility, Identification, and Emotion, looks at questions about the rational capacities presupposed by accountable agency and the psychic factors that both inhibit and enable identification with what we do. It includes an interpretation of the Nietzschean claim that ressentiment is among the sources of modern moral consciousness. Part III, Morality and Other Normative Domains, addresses the structure of moral reasons and moral motivation, and the relations between moral demands and other normative domains (including especially the requirements of living a meaningful human life).
Wallace's treatments of these topics are at once sophisticated and engaging. Taken together, they constitute an advertisement for a distinctive way of pursuing issues in moral psychology and the theory of practical reason. The book articulates and defends a unified framework for thinking about those issues, while offering sustained critical discussions of other influential approaches (by philosophers such as Korsgaard, McDowell, Nietzsche, Raz, Scanlon, and Williams). It should be of interest to every serious student of moral philosophy.
Reviews / Votes
This collection shows Wallace to be a consummate cartographer of philosophical terrain...There is much to be learned from Wallace's arresting and inventive interventions into many disputes of keen, contemporary interest...it should be noted that Wallace is an engaging and elegant philosophical stylist and, so, these essays are a real pleasure to read. * Dion Scott-Kakures Mind *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Scholars and students of philosophy
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
541 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-928749-9 (9780199287499)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Book
03/2006
Clarendon Press
€70.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Content
I. REASON, DESIRE, AND THE WILL ; II. RESPONSIBILITY, IDENTIFICATION, AND EMOTION ; III. MORALITY AND OTHER NORMATIVE DOMAINS