The Morality of Pluralism (ebook)

Argumento de The Morality of Pluralism (ebook)

Controversies about abortion, the environment, pornography, AIDS, and similar issues naturally lead to the question of whether there are any values that can be ultimately justified, or whether values are simply conventional. John Kekes argues that the present moral and political uncertainties are due to a deep change in our society from a dogmatic to a pluralistic view of values. Dogmatism is committed to there being only one justifiable system of values. Pluralism recognizes many such systems, and yet it avoids a chaotic relativism according to which all values are in the end arbitrary. Maintaining that good lives must be reasonable, but denying that they must conform to one true pattern, Kekes develops and justifies a pluralistic account of good lives and values, and works out its political, moral, and personal implications.

"Kekes's presentation of pluralism is the first sustained account of an important new moral theory and a formidable attempt to refute the claim that `our morality is disintegrating.'"--Choice

"In this eloquent work, Kekes proposes an apology for moral pluralism.... He painstakingly analyzes the radicality of moral conflict, which cannot be masked by resort to facile monisms. Further, he carefully sketches a reasonable approach to the practical resolution of value conflicts in the individual and the political orders. . . . [H]e provides a remarkable analysis of moral imagination as the locus of possible moral and aesthetic values, the rich horizon of our actual pluralism."--John J, Conley, S.J., Theological Studies

"Kekes's book is a study of a neglected and profoundly crucial issue in political thought: the nature and presuppositions of ethical pluralism and its implications for political philosophy. The contribution it makes to reflection on this issue is subtle, original, and of the first importance."--John Gray, Jesus College, University of Oxford

"Kekes's articulation of pluralism has a powerful suppleness. The consequences of adopting such an understanding of pluralism in the political sphere are genuinely thought-provoking."--Stephen Mulhall, The Times Literary Supplement0Acknowledgments Ch. 1 Introduction: Setting the Stage 3 Ch. 2 The Six Theses of Pluralism 17 Ch. 3 The Plurality and Conditionality of Values 38 Ch. 4 The Unavoidability of Conflicts 53 Ch. 5 The Nature of Reasonable Conflict-Resolution 76 Ch. 6 The Possibilities of Life 99 Ch. 7 The Need for Limits 118 Ch. 8 The Prospects for Moral Progress 139 Ch. 9 Some Moral Implications of Pluralism: On There Being Some Limits Even to Morality 161 Ch. 10 Some Personal Implications of Pluralism: Innocence Lost and Regained 179 Ch. 11 Some Political Implications of Pluralism: The Conflict with Liberalism 199 Works Cited 219 Index 225