Moral Perception and Particularity

This collection of Laurence Blum's essays examines the moral import of emotion, motivation, judgement, perception, and group identifications.

Lawrence A. Blum (Author)

9780521436199, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 January 1994

288 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

"If there are any doubts that the writings of Iris Murdoch have spawned creative work in moral philosophy, Lawrence Blum's recent collection of essays should put them to rest....Blum's collection has much to commend it." The Journal of Religion

Most contemporary moral philosophy is concerned with issues of rationality, universality, impartiality, and principle. By contrast Laurence Blum is concerned with the psychology of moral agency. The essays in this collection examine the moral import of emotion, motivation, judgment, perception, and group identifications, and explore how all these psychic capacities contribute to a morally good life. Blum takes up the challenge of Iris Murdoch to articulate a vision of moral excellence that provides a worthy aspiration for human beings. Drawing on accounts of non-Jewish rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust Blum argues that impartial principle can mislead us about the variety of forms of moral excellence.

Part I. Particularity: 1. Introduction
2. Iris Murdoch and the domain of the moral
3. Moral perception and particularity
Part II. Moral Excellence: 4. Moral exemplars: reflections on Scindler, the Trocmes, and others
5. Vocation, friendship, community: limitations of the personal/impersonal framework
6. Altruism and the moral value of rescue: Resisting persecution, racism, and genocide
7. Virtue and community
Part III. The Morality of Care: 8. Compassion
9. Moral development and conceptions of morality
10. Gilligan and Kohlberg: implications for moral theory
11. Gilligan's two voices and the moral status of group identity.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]