Self-Fulfillment

by Gewirth, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780691059761
• ISBN10: 0691059764
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-08-03
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Cultures around the world have regarded self-fulfillment as the ultimate goal of human striving and as the fundamental test of the goodness of a human life. The ideal has also been criticized, however, as egotistical or as so value-neutral that it fails to distinguish between, for example, self-fulfilled sinners and self-fulfilled saints. Alan Gewirth presents here a systematic and highly original study of self-fulfillment that seeks to overcome these and other arguments and to justify the high place that the ideal has been accorded. He does so by developing an ethical theory that ultimately grounds the value of self-fulfillment in the idea of the dignity of human beings.Gewirth begins by distinguishing two models of self- fulfillment--aspiration-fulfillment and capacity-fulfillment--and shows how each of these contributes to the intrinsic value of human life. He then distinguishes between three types of morality--universalist, particularist, and personalist--and shows how each contributes to the values embodied in self-fulfillment. Building on these ideas, he develops a Odialectical' conception of reason that shows how human rights are central to self-fulfillment. Gewirth also argues that self-fulfillment has a social as well as an individual dimension: that the nature of society and the obstacles that disadvantaged groups face affect strongly the character of the self-fulfillment that persons can achieve.Bold in scope and rigorous in execution, Self-Fulfillment is a powerful new contribution to moral, social, and political philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Ideal of Self-Fulfillment	3	(16)
Self-Fulfillment: Pro and Con	3	(3)
Some Terminological Distinctions	6	(2)
Self-Fulfillment as Actualization of Potentialities	8	(5)
Two Modes of Self-Fulfillment	13	(6)
Self-Fulfillment as Aspiration-Fulfillment	19	(40)
What Are Aspirations?	19	(11)
How Does One Get Aspirations?	30	(7)
How Does One Fulfill One's Aspirations?	37	(9)
To What Does One and Should One Aspire?	46	(6)
Three Types of Morality	52	(7)
Capacity-Fulfillment and Universalist Morality	59	(48)
Capacities and Their Fulfillment	59	(7)
Weighing Values to Determine the Best Capacities: The Purposive Ranking Thesis	66	(5)
Is Reason the Best of Human Capacities?	71	(6)
The Rational Justification of Universalist Morality	77	(10)
Universalist Morality and Fulfillment of the Reasonable Self	87	(6)
Self-Respect and Diverse Ways of Life	93	(8)
The Moral Criticism of Aspirations	101	(6)
Capacity-Fulfillment and the Good Life	107	(52)
Freedom and Well-Being as the Best of Practical Capacities	107	(5)
Personalist Morality as Based upon Freedom	112	(3)
Identity and Alienation	115	(5)
Personalist Morality as Based upon Well-Being	120	(5)
Virtues and Culture	125	(9)
Duties to Oneself	134	(6)
Particularist Morality: Family, Love, Friendship	140	(11)
Particularist Morality: Community, Country, Culture	151	(8)
Ultimate Values, Rights, and Reason	159	(70)
Human Dignity as the Basis of Rights	159	(15)
Spirituality as Self-Transcendent Excellence	174	(8)
The Meaning of Life	182	(7)
Individual and Social Contexts of Self-Fulfillment	189	(11)
On Varieties of Self-Fulfillment	200	(4)
Human Rights as Bases of Self-Fulfillment	204	(11)
Are Self-Fulfillment and Rights Compatible?	215	(2)
Self-Fulfillment and Rational Agency	217	(12)
Index	229