The Worth of Persons
eBook - ePub

The Worth of Persons

The Foundation of Ethics

  1. 288 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Worth of Persons

The Foundation of Ethics

About this book

The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere firework. The moral difference is grounded in the nature of humans: humans have intrinsic worth, a worth that makes their fate really matter. This is the worth that the Australian philosopher James Franklin proposes as the foundation of ethics. In The Worth of Persons he explains that ethics in the usual sense of right and wrong actions, rights and virtues, and how to live a good life, is founded on something more basic that is not itself about actions, namely the worth of persons. Human moral worth arises from certain properties that distinguish humans from the rest of creation (though some animals share a lesser degree of those properties): rationality, consciousness, the ability to act for reasons, emotional structure and love, individuality. This complex package makes humans the "piece of work" of which Hamlet says "How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty."In clear prose and deeply-informed philosophical argument, The Worth of Persons establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective and immune to relativist attacks because it is based on the metaphysical truth about humans. The Worth of Persons will appeal to all those who feel that endless debate about ethical dilemmas, rules, and principles fails to connect with what is really important ethically, that is, what makes humans matter.

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Yes, you can access The Worth of Persons by James Franklin in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Ethics & Moral Philosophy. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction
  6. Chapter One: Absolute Ethics and the Worth of Persons
  7. Chapter Two: Rights, Duties, Virtues, Values, Consequences, Dilemmas
  8. Chapter Three: Five False Starts and One True One
  9. Chapter Four: The Search for a Foundation of the Worth of Persons
  10. Chapter Five: The Supervenience of Worth on Natural Properties
  11. Chapter Six: The Properties of Humans Which Ground Their Worth
  12. Chapter Seven: Worth of the Non-human
  13. Chapter Eight: The Source of Obligation
  14. Chapter Nine: How Do We Know?
  15. Epilogue: What Kind of Universe?
  16. Select Bibliography
  17. Acknowledgment
  18. Notes
  19. Index