Unsettling Obligations
Essays on Reason, Reality and the Ethics of Belief
9781575863948
9781575863931
9781575869841
Distributed for Center for the Study of Language and Information
Unsettling Obligations
Essays on Reason, Reality and the Ethics of Belief
Should we hold beliefs only insofar as they are rationally supportable? According to Allen W. Wood, we’re morally obliged to do so—and yet how does this apply to religious beliefs? Unsettling Obligations examines these and related ethical and philosophical issues, taking and defending stances on many of them. Along with the theme of belief and evidence, other topics include a historical perspective of philosophy based on the Enlightenment rationalist tradition and a study of how our practical commitments help define truth and value.

Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. W. K. Clifford and the Ethics of Belief
2. Clifford’s Principle and Religious Faith
3. Kant’s Deism
4. Self-Deception and Bad Faith
5. Relativism
6. The Objectivity of Value
7. Attacking Morality: A Metaethical Project
8. What Dead Philosophers Mean
9. What Is Philosophy?
Index
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. W. K. Clifford and the Ethics of Belief
2. Clifford’s Principle and Religious Faith
3. Kant’s Deism
4. Self-Deception and Bad Faith
5. Relativism
6. The Objectivity of Value
7. Attacking Morality: A Metaethical Project
8. What Dead Philosophers Mean
9. What Is Philosophy?
Index
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