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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $66.00

Format:
Hardback
288 pp.
156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198811572

Publication date:
May 2018

Imprint: OUP UK


Regard for Reason in the Moral Mind

Joshua May

The burgeoning science of ethics has produced a trend toward pessimism. Ordinary moral thought and action, we're told, are profoundly influenced by arbitrary factors and ultimately driven by unreasoned feelings. This book counters the current orthodoxy on its own terms by carefully engaging with the empirical literature. The resulting view, optimistic rationalism, shows the pervasive role played by reason our moral minds, and ultimately defuses sweeping debunking arguments in ethics. The science does suggest that moral knowledge and virtue don't come easily. However, despite the heavy influence of automatic and unconscious processes that have been shaped by evolutionary pressures, we needn't reject ordinary moral psychology as fundamentally flawed or in need of serious repair. Reason can be corrupted in ethics just as in other domains, but a special pessimism about morality in particular is unwarranted. Moral judgment and motivation are fundamentally rational enterprises not beholden to the passions.

Readership : Researchers, scholars, and graduate students working on morality, rationality, and the mind, whether in philosophy, psychology, or neuroscience.

Introduction
1. Empirical Pessimism
Part A: Moral Judgement and Knowledge
2. The Limits of Emotion
3. Reasoning Beyond Consequences
4. Defending Moral Judgment
5. The Difficulty of Moral Knowledge
Part B: Moral Motivation and Virtue
6. Beyond Self-Interest
7. The Motivational Power of Moral Beliefs
8. Freeing Reason from Desire
9. Defending Virtuous Motivation
Conclusion
10. Cautious Optimism

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Joshua May is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before arriving in Birmingham, he taught for two years at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His research is primarily at the intersection of science and ethics, with recent publications appearing in the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Cognition, Journal of Medical Ethics, Philosophical Studies, and Synthese.

Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin
Character and Moral Psychology - Christian B. Miller
The Emotional Construction of Morals - Jesse Prinz
Talking to Our Selves - John M. Doris
Free Will, Agency, and Meaning in Life - Derk Pereboom

Special Features

  • A much-needed defence of the rationality of moral thought and action.
  • Rebuts scientific debunking of morality.
  • Engages critically with both the science and the philosophy of morality.
  • Written in a lively style, accessible to readers from any disciplinary background.