Plural and Conflicting Values

by Stocker, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780198244479
• ISBN10: 0198244479
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1990-03-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Plural values and conflicting values are often held to be conceptually problematic, threatening the very possibility of ethics, or at least of rational ethics. This book rejects this view.The author first demonstrates why it is so important to understand the issues raised by plural and conflicting values. This includes a full discussion of Aristotle's treatment of the issues. He then goes on to show that plurality and conflict are commonplace and generally unproblematic features ofour everyday choice and action, and that they do allow for a sound and rational ethic.

Table of Contents

Plurality and choice

Monism, pluralism, and conflict

Conflict

Maximization

Ought and can

Act and agent evaluations

Akrasia: The unity of the good, commensurability, and comparability

Courage, the doctrine of the mean, and the possibility of emotional and evaluative coherence

Dirty hands and ordinary life

Dirty hands and conflicts of value and desires in Aristotle's ethics

Friendship and morality: some difficult relations

Some problems with counter-examples in ethics

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.