The Autonomy of Morality

✍ Scribed by Charles Larmore

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 289
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In The Autonomy of Morality, Charles Larmore challenges two ideas that have shaped the modern mind. The world, he argues, is not a realm of value-neutral fact, nor is reason our capacity to impose principles of our own devising on an alien reality. Rather, reason consists in being responsive to reasons for thought and action that arise from the world itself. In particular, Larmore shows that the moral good has an authority that speaks for itself. Only in this light does the true basis of a liberal political order come into view, as well as the role of unexpected goods in the makeup of a life lived well. Charles Larmore is W. Duncan MacMillan Family Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Brown University. The author of The Morals of Modernity and The Romantic Legacy, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he received the Grand Prix de Philosophie from the Académie Française for his book Les pratiques du moi.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Introduction: Response and Commitment......Page 13
The Importance Of History......Page 14
The Nature Of Reason......Page 18
Freedom And Philosophy......Page 24
Part I Reason and Reasons......Page 29
1 History and Truth......Page 31
1. Historicist Skepticism......Page 32
2. Growth and Progress......Page 34
3. Agreeing and Coping......Page 37
4. Overcoming Dualisms......Page 40
5. Moral Progress......Page 42
2 Back to Kant? No Way......Page 45
1. Kant’s Modesty......Page 46
2. Dualisms and Ultimate Principles......Page 49
3. Kant on Reason......Page 51
4. The Fate of Autonomy......Page 55
1. Introduction......Page 59
2. Experience and Reality......Page 63
3. Experience As a Tribunal......Page 67
4. Platonisms......Page 72
5. The Conservation of Trouble......Page 76
Part II The Moral Point of View......Page 79
1 . The One and the Many......Page 81
2 . The Critique of Utilitarianism......Page 84
3. Hume Vs. Kant......Page 88
4 . Moral Constructivism......Page 93
1. The Problem With Morality......Page 99
2. Morality and Advantage......Page 103
3. Instrumentalism and Its Failure......Page 107
4. Letting Morality Speak For Itself......Page 115
5. The Ethics of Autonomy......Page 117
6. Reflection and Reasons......Page 124
7. Reconceiving the World......Page 135
8. Reconceiving the Emind......Page 141
Part III Political Principles......Page 149
1. Introduction......Page 151
2. Classical and Political Liberalism......Page 156
3. Political Legitimacy and Moral Respect......Page 158
4. Rawls’ Ambiguities......Page 161
5. What Habermas and Rawls Share......Page 165
6. Metaphysics and Politics......Page 167
7. Habermas’ Ideal Of Political Autonomy......Page 170
8. Democracy and Liberalism......Page 172
9. Freedom and Morality......Page 176
7 The Meanings of Political Freedom......Page 180
1. Three Concepts of Liberty......Page 181
2. Freedom and Self-Government......Page 187
3. Freedom and Pluralism......Page 190
4. Republican Vs. Liberal......Page 196
5. Domination and Respect......Page 202
8 Public Reason......Page 208
1. Publicity In A Theory Of Justice......Page 209
2. From Publicity To Public Reason......Page 215
3. The Domain of Public Reason......Page 220
4. Aims and Exceptions......Page 225
5. Conclusion......Page 231
Part IV Truth and Chance......Page 233
1. Pious and Free Spirits......Page 235
2. Truth and Morality......Page 237
3. Deception and Self-Deception......Page 239
4. Truth and Thought......Page 242
5. Perspectivism......Page 246
6. Truth As A Goal......Page 249
7. Overcoming the Ascetic Attitude......Page 255
1. A Philosophical Prejudice......Page 258
2. Ancient Roots......Page 265
3. The Rawlsian Conception......Page 271
4. Some Other Objections......Page 274
5. Prudence and Wisdom......Page 280
Index......Page 285