Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious

Riker, John Hanwell

ISBN 10: 0791434265 / ISBN 13: 9780791434260

Published by State University of New York Press, 1997

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0791434265I4N00

Synopsis:

Develops an original and compelling moral psychology that recognizes both the centrality of unconscious motivation and the inescapability of moral responsibility.

This book shows why the discovery of the unconscious by Nietzsche and Freud requires a reconception of the concepts of moral agency and responsibility and even of morality itself. It explicates how contemporary psychology has taken over the traditional task of ethics in elucidating a theory of human well-being, but criticizes this psychology for being unable to generate adequate notions of either responsibility or moral agency. Riker develops a new moral psychology in which the reality of unconscious functioning is included within a theory of responsibility, and the agent's primary ethic concern becomes knowing what her unconscious motivations are and integrating them into a morally and psychologically mature self.

About the Author: John Hanwell Riker is Professor of Philosophy at Colorado College. He is the author of Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Psyche, also published by SUNY Press, and The Art of Ethical Thinking.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Publication Date: 1997
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket