The Sources of Moral Agency
Essays in Moral Psychology and Freudian Theory

These essays are concerned with the psychology of moral agency, focusing on moral feelings and moral motivation.

John Deigh (Author)

9780521556224, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 July 1996

276 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.552 kg

"...these essays will repay the attention of philosophers and psychologists alike." Choice

The essays in this collection are concerned with the psychology of moral agency. They focus on moral feelings and moral motivation, and seek to understand the operations and origins of these phenomena as rooted in the natural desires and emotions of human beings. An important feature of the essays, and one that distinguishes the book from most philosophical work in moral psychology, is the attention to the writings of Freud. Many of the essays draw on Freud's ideas about conscience and morality, while several explore the depths and limits of Freud's theories. An underlying theme of the volume is a critique of influential rationalist accounts of moral agency. John Deigh shows that one can subject the principles of morality to rational inquiry without thereby holding that reason alone can originate action.

1. Morality and personal relations
2. On the right to be punished: some doubts
3. Love, guilt, and the sense of justice
4. Remarks on some difficulties in Freud's theory of moral development
5. Freud's later theory of civilisation: changes and implications
6. Freud, naturalism, and modern moral philosophy
7. Reason and motivation
8. Empathy and universalisability
9. Sidgwick on ethical judgment
10. Reason and ethics in Hobbes's Leviathan
11. Shame and self-esteem: a critique.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]