Dimensions of Moral Creativity: Paradigms, Principles, and Ideals - Hardcover

Antonio S. Cua

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271005408 ISBN 13: 9780271005409

Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr, 1979

Synopsis

The creative aspect of moral life is explored in this book by focusing on the role of paradigmatic individuals. Such individuals are seen as concrete embodiments of moral principles and ideals. Professor Cua's approach is transcultural, comparing the Confucian conception of paradigmatic individuals with the conceptions of classical Greek thought, Buddhism, Christianity, and modern Western ethics, anthropology, and psychology.The valuative experience of an individual moral agent is viewed by the author in terms of three focal notions: form of life, way of life, and style of life. Form of life is the existential matrix. Way of life manifests how an individual orders and integrates his emotions, desires, needs, and aspirations. Style of life encompasses idiosyncratic features of identity. All three are partly personal, partly communal. Given every man's form-way-style of life and consequent apprehension of exemplary individuals, how can we interpret his moral ideals? One way is to regard them as norms with perceptive implications. Another way is to conceiver of moral ideals as quasi-aesthetic themes: for example, Plato's Good, Christian agape, Confucian jen. An ideal norm is a blueprint for action, whereas an ideal theme is a point of orientation for the moral life as a whole. Both are exemplified in paradigmatic individuals. The normative or rule-making dimension of morality can be understood through systematic theoretical analysis, but understanding its creative dimension is akin to artistic appreciation. Understanding the moral life as a whole, including its claims to justification, therefore requires a harmony of what the 18th century called reason and sentiment.

About this title

About the Author

A. S. Cua is the author of Reason and Virtue, co-editor of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and a member of the Board of Editorial Consultants, American Philosophical Quarterly. A graduate of Far Eastern University (Manila), he took his Ph.D. at the University of California (Berkeley) and is Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America. He has been visiting professor at George Mason University and the Universities of Missouri and Hawaii.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pennsylvania State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271005408
• ISBN 13: 9780271005409
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 180