Principles and Persons (Paperback)

Frederick Olafson

ISBN 10: 1421430541 / ISBN 13: 9781421430546

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. Originally published in 1967. Many critics have claimed that existentialism has not produced any ethics, as distinct from the moralistic assertions of its individual proponents. Challenging this view, Professor Olafson demonstrates that Sartre, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty indeed worked out a powerful ethical theory and that their positions must be understood as deriving from a voluntarist concept of moral autonomy that can be traced beyond Nietzsche and Kant to certain tendencies in late-medieval thought. He demonstrates that a broad parallelism exists between developments in ethical theory among Continental philosophers of the phenomenological persuasion and the more analytically inclined philosophers of the English-speaking world. He demonstrates that a broad parallelism exists between developments in ethical theory among Continental philosophers of the phenomenological persuasion and the more analytically inclined philosophers of the English-speaking world. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781421430546

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Principles and Persons (Paperback)
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1421430541
• ISBN 13: 9781421430546
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Originally published in 1967. Many critics have claimed that existentialism has not produced any ethics, as distinct from the moralistic assertions of its individual proponents. Challenging this view, Professor Olafson demonstrates that Sartre, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty indeed worked out a powerful ethical theory and that their positions must be understood as deriving from a voluntarist concept of moral autonomy that can be traced beyond Nietzsche and Kant to certain tendencies in late-medieval thought. He demonstrates that a broad parallelism exists between developments in ethical theory among Continental philosophers of the phenomenological persuasion and the more analytically inclined philosophers of the English-speaking world.

About the Author

Frederick A. Olafson was a professor of education and philosophy in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.