Partial Values: A Comparative Study in the Limits of Objectivity (Values and Identities: Crossing Philosophical Borders)

DeLapp, Kevin

ISBN 10: 178660213X / ISBN 13: 9781786602138

Published by Rowman & Littlefield International, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # V9781786602138

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Partial Values: A Comparative Study in the Limits of Objectivity (Values and Identities: Crossing Philosophical Borders)
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 178660213X
• ISBN 13: 9781786602138
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

When, if ever, is it permissible to afford special consideration to friends and family? How can we strive to be objective in our thinking, and is this always a feasible or appropriate aim?

This book examines the categories of impartiality and objectivity by showing how they frame certain debates in epistemology, moral psychology, and metaethics, arguing that many traditional conceptions of objectivity fail to capture what is important to our identities as knowers, social beings, and moral agents. A new thesis of ‘perspectival realism’ is offered as a critique of strong objectivity, but in a way that avoids radical subjectivism or relativism. Locally-situated identities can provide their own criteria of epistemic and moral justification, and we may aspire to be impartial in a way that need not sacrifice particular perspectives and relationships. Arguments throughout the book draw heavily on resources from classical Chinese philosophy, and significant attention is given to applications of arguments to
concrete issues in applied ethics, cross-cultural anthropology, and political science.

About the Author

Kevin DeLapp is Harold E. Fleming Professor of Philosophy at Converse University, USA. He has published articles in the fields of metaethics, moral psychology, and cross-cultural philosophy, and he is the author of Moral Realism (2013) and Partial Values: A Comparative Study in the Limits of Objectivity (2018) and the co-editor of Lying and Truthfulness (2016).