Ethics and Self-Knowledge: Respect for Self-Interpreting Agents

✍ Scribed by Peter Lucas (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 207
• Series: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy 26
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores the theoretical basis of our ethical obligations to others as self-knowing beings - this task being envisaged as an essential supplement to a traditional ethic of respect for persons. Authoritative knowledge of others brings with it certain obligations, which are reflected in (inter alia) the moral and legal safeguards designed to ensure that certain information is ‘put out of play’ for job selection purposes etc. However, the theoretical basis for such obligations has never been fully clarified. This book begins by identifying a distinctive class of ‘interpretive’ moral wrongs (including stereotyping, discrimination and objectification). It then shows how our obligations in respect of these wrongs can be understood, drawing on insights from the tradition of philosophical reflection on recognition. The book will be of interest to anyone concerned with the adequacy of a modern ethic of respect for persons – particularly in applied and professional ethics.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Front Matter....Pages 9-9
Introduction....Pages 1-7
Fragmentation....Pages 11-37
Discrimination....Pages 39-51
Stereotyping....Pages 53-63
Objectification....Pages 65-82
Interpretive Moral Wrongs and Radical Theorising....Pages 83-102
Front Matter....Pages 103-103
Hegel and Recognition....Pages 105-122
Heidegger and Authenticity....Pages 123-142
Sartre and Sadism....Pages 143-165
Foucault and Subjection....Pages 167-181
Honesty....Pages 183-200
Back Matter....Pages 201-205

✦ Subjects

Ethics