The Importance of What We Care About: Philosophical Essays

by Harry G. Frankfurt

• ISBN13: 9780521336116
• ISBN10: 0521336112
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1988-05-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This volume is a collection of thirteen seminal essays on ethics, free will, and the philosophy of mind. The essays deal with such central topics as freedom of the will, moral responsibility, the concept of a person, the structure of the will, the nature of action, the constitution of the self, and the theory of personal ideals. By focusing on the distinctive nature of human freedom, Professor Frankfurt is ale to explore fundamental problems of what it is to be a person and of what one should care about in life.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Sources	x
Alternate possibilities and moral responsibility	1	(10)
Freedom of the will and the concept of a person	11	(15)
Coercion and moral responsibility	26	(21)
Three concepts of free action	47	(11)
Identification and externality	58	(11)
The problem of action	69	(11)
The importance of what we care about	80	(15)
What we are morally responsible for	95	(9)
Necessity and desire	104	(13)
On bullshit	117	(17)
Equality as a moral ideal	134	(25)
Identification and wholeheartedness	159	(18)
Rationality and the unthinkable	177