Does being virtuous make you happy? Roger Crisp examines the
answers to this ancient question provided by the so-called 'British
Moralists', from Thomas Hobbes, around 1650, for the next two
hundred years, until Jeremy Bentham. This involves elucidating
their views on happiness (self-interest, or well-being) and on
virtue (or morality), in order to bring out the relation of each to
the other. Themes ran through many of these writers: psychological
egoism, evaluative hedonism, and—after Hobbes—the acceptance of
self-standing moral reasons. But there are exceptions, and even
those taking the standard views adopt them for very different
reasons and express them in various ways. As the ancients tended to
believe that virtue and happiness largely coincide, so these modern
authors are inclined to accept posthumous reward and punishment.
Both positions sit uneasily with the common-sense idea that a
person can truly sacrifice their own good for the sake of morality
or for others. This book shows that David Hume—a hedonist whose
ethics made no appeal to the afterlife—was the first major
British moralist to allow for, indeed to recommend, such
self-sacrifice. Morality and well-being of course remain central to
modern ethics, and Crisp demonstrates how much there is to learn
from this remarkable group of philosophers.
General
Imprint: |
Oxford UniversityPress
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
September 2023 |
Authors: |
Roger Crisp
(Uehiro Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy)
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-19-889656-2 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-19-889656-5 |
Barcode: |
9780198896562 |
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