How Skeptics Do Ethics: A Brief History of the Late Modern Linguistic Turn

Description

Enlightenment philosophers are often credited with formulating many theories about humankind & society, & in our post-modern age, we still live with some of the very same compelling, contentious & often unresolved questions about ourselves & the world we live in. Author Aubrey Neal suggests that one of these issues that lingers with us today is scepticism, & in "How Skeptics do Ethics", he unravels the thread of this philosophy from its origins in enlightenment thinking down to our present age. He contends that linguistics & language have not brought modern philosophy any closer to understanding the role & nature of ethics in our current science-based society. Going further, Neal suggests the contemporary reader meets traditional terms for ethical theory, plausible belief & moral action in a different world from the one in which they were coined. Instead, these considerations for modern thinkers require a coherent language practice suitable for the social context in which we live, & thus raise the question of the meaning of old philosophical debates & their value for our society today. Referencing such luminary thinkers as Hume, Kant, & Hegel, Neal seeks to re-ignite age old questions & awaken the reader to a sense that our contemporary modes of reference & understanding should be seen from a substantially different point of view. Challenging, bracing, & entirely unflinching, "How Skeptics do Ethics" is a wake-up call for anyone who thinks seriously about our society, ourselves, & the world in which we live.