Hard questions : facing the problems of life / John Kekes

Author: Kekes, John
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.
Physical Description: 1 online resource

Access Online

Oxford scholarship online: ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu

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Series

Oxford scholarship online

Contents

Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction -- The Hard Questions -- Personal Attitudes and the Evaluative Framework -- Conflicts -- The Approach -- Comparisons -- The Book -- 2.Is There an Absolute Value that Overrides All Other Considerations? -- The Question -- Eleazar: Old and Young -- The Case for Absolute Value -- Doubts about Absolute Value -- The Case for Conditional Values -- A Proposal -- The Answer -- 3.Must We Conform? -- The Question -- Passive Non-Conformity: Bartleby -- Hypocritical Conformity: Sarpi -- Going Deeper -- Internal Questions and Reasons -- External Questions and Reasons -- The Answer -- 4.Do We Owe What Our Country Asks of Us? -- The Question -- The Kamikaze and the Draftee -- The Evaluation of Reasons -- Reasons and the Kamikaze -- Reasons and the Draftee -- The Two Conflicts and Hard Questions -- The Answer -- 5.Must Justice Be Done at All Costs? -- The Question -- Creon vs. Antigone -- The Complexities of Justice -- The Sherpas -- Decentering Justice -- Human Justice -- The Answer -- 6.How Should We Respond to Evil? -- The Question -- What Is Evil? -- Anna and the Priest -- Responses to Evil -- The Balance of Reasons -- The Optimist Response -- The Realist Response -- The Answer -- 7.Should We Forgive Wrong Actions? -- The Question -- What Is Forgiveness? -- Vere -- Speer -- Conditions of Forgiveness -- Complexities -- The Answer -- 8.Does Shame Make Life Better or Worse? -- The Question -- The Queen -- Personal and Social Evaluations -- Hester -- Self-Respect and Shame -- Shame and Conformity -- The Answer -- 9.Is It Always Good to Be True to Who We Are? -- The Question -- The Colonel -- Personal Attitudes and Evaluative Frameworks -- Peter -- The Burden of the Past -- Responding to Dissatisfactions -- The Answer -- 10.Do Good Intentions Justify Bad Actions? -- The Question -- Mochulsky -- Gerstein -- Comparison -- Evaluation -- The Human Good? -- The Answer -- 11.Are Moral Values the Highest of All Values? -- The Question -- Yes or No? -- The Minimum Requirements -- Cato: The Moralist -- Montaigne: The Realist -- The Value of Conflicts -- The Answer -- 12.Conclusion.

Summary

The hard questions are: Is there an absolute value? Must we conform? Do we owe what our country asks of us? Is justice necessary? How should we respond to evil? Is it right to forgive wrong actions? Is shame good? Should we be true to who we are? Do good intentions justify bad actions? Should moral evaluations be overriding? These questions are hard because each has several reasonable but conflicting answers. Their conflicts show that we are ambivalent about what answer we should give when we have to make important decisions whose consequences affect us, our relationships, and our attitude to the society we live in. The aim of this work is to show how hard questions can be reasonably answered.

Subject(s)

ISBN

9780190920012 (ebook)

Audience Notes

Specialized.

Note

Previously issued in print: 2019.

Bibliography Note

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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