Grammar Of Responsibility, A - Hardcover

Moran, Gabriel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824515544 ISBN 13: 9780824515546

Publisher: Crossroad, 1996

Synopsis

A Grammar of Responsibility is an interesting, provocative, and careful study of the way to speak about responsibility. The term is everywhere these days but is seldom examined in any detail. And yet, responsibility is a complicated idea with a peculiar history.
The book starts from the way people speak, using hundreds of examples from contemporary discussions. It explains the need for a grammar, that is, a consistent and comprehensive way to use the term. It goes on to analyze a host of ethical dilemmas. In each case, a "grammar of responsibility" provides a fresh look at seemingly intractable problems. The result is a book of clear ideas to help us deal intelligently with the sense of moral crisis that is widespread today.

About this title

About the Author

Gabriel Moran is a professor in the department of Culture and Communication, New York University, and director of the doctoral program in religious education.

Reviews

Millions of self-help disciples have learned to recite the phrase, "Take responsibility for your own life." But those willing to join Moran in analyzing, rather than reciting, this slogan will soon discover its deceptiveness, even dangerousness. For in modern speech, the word responsibility frequently hides numerous ambiguities and unresolved cultural tensions. By tracing the linguistic and philosophical history of the word, Moran establishes the preconditions for its meaningful use in contemporary contexts. In the first instance, we must recognize the impossibility of identifying what or whom we are responsible for until we have first established what or whom we are responsible to. Raising questions of great urgency, Moran resists the temptation to supply simple answers. Drawing from Aristotle and the apostle Paul, from Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky, he defines responsibility as a spiritual posture characterized by a willingness to listen, to open ourselves to the various and conflicting voices in the world around us. A challenging and rewarding text for larger collections. Bryce Christensen

Moran (culture and communication, New York Univ.) is widely known for his many writings on religious education. In the tradition of popular philosophy, he asks what it means to speak of "responsibility" and makes an important distinction between being responsible to and being responsible for. In language accessible to all readers, he considers some current arguments about responsibility, e.g., the responsibility of present-day Germans for the Holocaust or Americans for Hiroshima, and tries to clarify the issue of language as an entry into clarifying the moral issues themselves. He treats not only interhuman issues, including how we are responsible to/for the past and the future and how corporate entities like businesses can be said to be responsible, but also of responsibility to/for the environment. Moran's work is a reasoned and reasonable consideration of an important but often misunderstood topic.?Augustine J. Curley, Newark Abbey, N.J.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crossroad
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824515544
• ISBN 13: 9780824515546
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 253