Skip to main content

Distributed for Center for the Study of Language and Information

Unsettling Obligations

Essays on Reason, Reality and the Ethics of Belief

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.

250 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2002

Lecture Notes

Philosophy: Ethics, General Philosophy, Philosophy of Society


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

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press