Dimensions of goodness

450 Pages·2013·2.36 MB·English

by  Hösle

Dimensions of Goodness

Dimensions of Goodness
Edited by
Vittorio Hösle
Dimensions of Goodness,
Edited by Vittorio Hösle
This book first published 2013
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2013 by Vittorio Hösle and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-4699-6, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4699-8
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................. 1
Vittorio Hösle
Part I: Values and Reality
Chapter One ............................................................................................... 27
Moral Realism
Franz von Kutschera
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 45
Is the World as Such Good? The Question of Theodicy
Markus Gabriel
Part II: Historical Changes in Value Perception and Ethical Theory
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 69
What Are the Major Changes in the History of Our Moral Principles?
Jonathan Israel
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 85
What Is Christianity’s Contribution to Ethics?
Jennifer Herdt
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 113
Can a Plausible Story Be Told of the History of Ethics?
An Alternative to MacIntyre’s After Virtue
Vittorio Hösle
Part III: Science and Ethics
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 151
What Happens in the Brain when We Make a Decision?
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa
vi Table of Contents
Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 165
Values and Political Ideology
Clive Seligman
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 203
Academic Opportunities for Shaping a Better Future
Richard R. Ernst
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 225
Finding Goodness among Is and Ought Debates in Stem-Cell Research
Jane Maienschein
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 243
Medicine in the Twenty-First Century: Ethical Means and Ends
Anita L. Allen
Part IV: Moral Challenges of the Contemporary World
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 265
What Moral Consequences Does the Environmental Crisis Have?
Robin Attfield
Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 281
Defining Goodness in Business and Economics
Georges Enderle
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 303
What Are the Right Politics for Developing Countries?
Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 319
The Constitution and the Goods of Religion
Steven D. Smith
Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 339
Good Law against War
Mary Ellen O’Connell
Dimensions of Goodness vii
Part V: Goodness from an Intercultural Perspective
Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 365
The Voices of Good and Evil: What Is Enlightenment? Rereading
Lu Xun’s “Toward a Refutation of Malevolent Voices”
Wang Hui
Contributors ............................................................................................. 423
Index of Names........................................................................................ 431

INTRODUCTION
VITTORIO HÖSLE
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

It is one of the paradoxes of our time that, as a collective, we
accumulate more and more knowledge but, as individuals, we inevitably
become less and less able to grasp even the basic concepts of those
disciplines to which we do not dedicate our lives. Philosophy itself, which
traditionally sought an overview of the knowledge of its time before it
could start to clarify concepts, has become a highly specialized enterprise
that often prides itself in speaking a language that is inaccessible to non-
specialists and in dealing with problems that are no longer connected with
those of everyday persons—or, for that matter, with those of scholars
outside the realm of philosophy. Those who read recent work in
metaethics are often amazed at how little such work is connected to the
concrete issues that torment those trying to live good lives. The Notre
Dame Institute for Advanced Study was founded in the fall of 2008 as a
place where scholars who want to counteract this tendency of
fragmentation—often, but not always, inspired by the Catholic tradition—
are encouraged to pursue their research. In addition to its residential
program, the Institute organizes every year a large conference addressing
questions that are by their very nature interdisciplinary—problems that
focus in particular on connections between the descriptive and normative
realms. After its inaugural 2010 symposium on beauty, the Institute
decided to hold its second major conference in April 2011 on “Dimensions
of Goodness.” Representatives of disciplines as diverse as philosophy,
chemistry, biology, neuroscience, medicine, psychology, economics, law,
history, and theology were invited to address issues connected with the
question: what are moral decisions, both generally and in those specific
fields that challenge the contemporary world? A deliberate choice was
made to include a former statesman, who could add practical experience to
his theoretical reflections. Given the global nature of the problems
humanity has to face, the group was international: it included scholars
from Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United