ENGLISH

Truth and Normativity: An Inquiry into the Basis of Everyday Moral Claims

Book information

Publisher
Ashgate Publishing
Year
2007
ISBN
0754658740, 9780754658740
Open Library ID
OL22747959M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1999637 bytes)
Series
Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy
Pages
195\195
Time added
2011-01-26 19:25:26

Description

Beginning by posing the question of what it is that marks the difference between something like terrorism and something like civil society, Brassington argues that commonsense moral arguments against terrorism or political violence tend to imply that the modern democratic polis might also be morally unjustifiable. At the same time, the commonsense arguments in favour of something like a modern democratic polis could be coopted by the politically violent as exculpatory. In exploring this prima facie problem and in the course of trying to substantiate the commonsense distinction, Brassington identifies a tension between the primary values of truth and normativity in the standard accounts of moral theory which he ultimately resolves by adopting lines of thought suggested by Martin Heidegger and concluding that the problem with mainstream moral philosophy is that, in a sense, it tries too hard.

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