The war by Russia against the Ukraine will be of serious consequences under a number of political categories. This book is devoted to the study of changes brought about by the war. To set out, it starts with a recollection of the development towards the war in the two decades prior to February 2022. It then asks for the renewal of specific political theories, among them political realism especially, on behalf of the war. Also it studies the consequences for the relevance of international war (jus ad bellum and jus ex bellum) and for the international standing of Western democracies.

The book illustrates the concept of action in three different contexts - the justification of actions, people's life history, and pragmatism. The special feature of this book is that a comprehensive view of this kind marks a departure from the atomistic approach of action theory, which in itself raises a number of questions. If actions are not justified by mental states, how can persons then act for reasons? How can persons' actions over time be described, and what is the connection with the question of personal identity? If there is to be a unified understanding of the person, does the practical have to take precedence over the theoretical, and what does this mean for epistemology, for example? The ten contributors to this volume engage in an instructive manner with these and similar questions in the three sections of the book.

Der moralische Kontraktualismus ist neben der kantischen und utilitaristischen Tradition die dritte Haupttradition einer aufgeklarten Moralphilosophie. Seine Kernthese besagt, dass moralische Normen und Forderungen legitim sind, wenn die Betroffenen sich aus ihren Interessen heraus auf die Etablierung dieser Normen hatten einigen koennen. Eine vernunftige Moral ist demnach, obwohl sie Freiheitsbeschrankungen verlangt, zum gegenseitigen Vorteil der Einzelnen. Die Autoren des Bandes diskutieren im Lichte neuerer Arbeiten die Vorzuge und Schwierigkeiten der moralischen Vertragstheorie. Zentrale Themen sind der Begriff der Moral, das Problem der moralischen Normativitat, der Zusammenhang von Moral und Interesse, von Moral und Rationalitat sowie die Frage, welche moralischen Normen eine kontraktualistische Theorie konkret zu begrunden vermag.

Die Kantische Ethik gilt bis heute als die dominante Theorie der Moral, und dies nicht nur mit Blick auf ihre moralischen Inhalte, sondern mehr noch in Bezug auf ihre Methode der Begrundung moralischer Prinzipien aus der Vernunft. Die im vorliegenden Buch prasentierten Beitrage verbindet die Erwartung, dass die Moral uber ihre Funktion im Rahmen sozialer Beziehungen konkretisierbar sein sollte. Nur eine in diesem Sinn kontextuelle, an Beziehungstypen anschliessende Betrachtung der Moral vermag aus dem Gegensatz von abstrakter Vernunftphilosophie und pluralistischer angewandter Ethik' herauszufuhren."

In seinem im Stil einer vorlesungsartigen Einfuhrung in die Ethik verfassten Buch stellt Anton Leist die unausweichliche Bedeutung der Ethik fur jeden einzelnen in seinem eigenen Leben heraus. Verstanden wird die Moral in einem an Kant orientierten Vorschlag als eine ideelle Konstruktion, die objektive Kriterien sowohl entwickelt wie ihnen gehorcht. Inhaltlich entsteht dabei eine universelle Moral, die allerdings von internen Widerspruchen bedroht ist. Die personlichen und unpersonlichen Beziehungen, die Forderungen nach Hilfe und Nichtschaden stehen widerspruchlich zueinander und benotigen einer neuen Zuordnung. Der moderne Universalismus ist auch heute noch weitgehend ein Programm wenn auch, wie der Autor zeigt, ein grundsatzlich realisierbares."

New essays examining the intellectual allegiances of Coetzee, arguably the most decorated and critically acclaimed writer of fiction in English today and a deeply intellectual and philosophical writer. Arguably the most decorated and critically acclaimed writer of today, J. M. Coetzee is a deeply intellectual writer. Yet while just about everyone who comes to Coetzee's writing is aware that the visible superstructure of his works is moved from below by a vast substructure of ideas, we are still far from grasping Coetzee's intellectual allegiances as a whole. This book sets out to examine these allegiances in ways not attempted before, by bringing leadingfigures in the philosophy of literary fiction and ethics together with leading Coetzee scholars. The book is organized into three parts: the first part evaluates Coetzee with respect to notions of truth and justification. At issue is how the reader is to understand the ground on which Coetzee builds his ethical commitments. The second part considers the problem of language, in which ethics is rooted and on which it depends. The chapters of the third partposition Coetzee's writing with respect to notions of social and moral solidarity, where, in regard to literature as such or experience as such, philosophy and literature together exercise an unrivaled right to be heard. Contributors: Elisa Aaltola, Derek Attridge, David Attwell, Maria Boletsi, Carrol Clarkson, Simon During, Patrick Hayes, Alexander Honold, Anton Leist, Tim Mehigan, Christian Moser, Robert B. Pippin, Robert Stockhammer, Markus Winkler, Martin Woessner. Tim Mehigan is Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland. Christian Moser is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Bonn.

In 2003, South African writer J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his riveting portrayals of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and the hypocrisy of human beings toward animals and nature. Coetzee was credited with being "a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization." The film of his novel "Disgrace," starring John Malkovich, brought his challenging ideas to a new audience.

Anton Leist and Peter Singer have assembled an outstanding group of contributors who probe deeply into Coetzee's extensive and extraordinary corpus. They explore his approach to ethical theory and philosophy and pay particular attention to his representation of the human-animal relationship. They also confront Coetzee's depiction of the elementary conditions of life, the origins of morality, the recognition of value in others, the sexual dynamics between men and women, the normality of suppression, and the possibility of equality in postcolonial society. With its wide-ranging consideration of philosophical issues, especially in relation to fiction, this volume stands alone in its extraordinary exchange of ethical and literary inquiry.

In 2003, South African writer J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his riveting portrayals of racial repression, sexual politics, the guises of reason, and the hypocrisy of human beings toward animals and nature. Coetzee was credited with being "a scrupulous doubter, ruthless in his criticism of the cruel rationalism and cosmetic morality of western civilization." The film of his novel "Disgrace," starring John Malkovich, brought his challenging ideas to a new audience.

Anton Leist and Peter Singer have assembled an outstanding group of contributors who probe deeply into Coetzee's extensive and extraordinary corpus. They explore his approach to ethical theory and philosophy and pay particular attention to his representation of the human-animal relationship. They also confront Coetzee's depiction of the elementary conditions of life, the origins of morality, the recognition of value in others, the sexual dynamics between men and women, the normality of suppression, and the possibility of equality in postcolonial society. With its wide-ranging consideration of philosophical issues, especially in relation to fiction, this volume stands alone in its extraordinary exchange of ethical and literary inquiry.