Responsibility and Practical Freedom

Mrs Roberts examines responsibility and freedom in terms of human interests and purposes.

Moira Roberts (Author)

9780521166386, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 January 2012

328 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 kg

This book may be taken as a plea for a return to a teleological moral philosophy. Mrs Roberts examines responsibility and freedom in terms of human interests and purposes and seeks to establish the autonomy of the personal decision. F. H. Bradley's criteria for moral responsibility serves as a starting point, but Mrs Roberts finds these theoretical and remote. She builds up an account of the social context in which we learn to use words like 'responsibility', 'freedom' and 'action'. Ambiguities in the use of 'action' and 'perception' are dealt with at length.

Preface
1. Introductory
2. A search for evidence
Appendix to chapter 2
3. The kind of evidence: words, objects and facts
4. Dealing with evidence: language and logic
Appendix to chapter 4
5. The status of concepts
6. Bradley's account of moral responsibility
7. Social relations
8. The ambiguity in 'action'
Appendix to chapter 8
9. The logic of 'situation'
10. The application of 'responsibility'
11. Acting freely: reason and morality
Appendix to chapter 11
12. The agent: the concept of a person
13. In conclusion: the grounds of responsibility
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]