Agnes Katalin Koós, Kenneth Keulman

Horizons of Value Conceptions

Axiological Discourses for the 21st Century

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Horizons is a critical inventory of value-related thinking, demonstrating that the mind has the ability to profile a distinctive circumstance in diverse ways. Readers are first invited to a historical inquiry into typical configurations of values, their collisions, and the worldviews that drive them. They are then introduced to the epistemologies employed by the social sciences, so that they are better able to gauge the potential of these disciplines for coming to terms with values. Axiology is portrayed as a field that has broken free from its neo-Kantian roots, benefiting from challenging new conceptual frames based in documents with global reach-mainly the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After scrutiny of what various sociological models claim about values and the way in which empirical surveys approach them, Horizons reaffirms the assumption that social life and its dynamics condition the fate of values. Yet, for the sake of more accurate accounts, research should consider to a greater extent social stratification, and pressing macrosocial problems such as environmental protection, sustainable development, and attainment of some form of global equity. Social sciences' limitations modulate their ability to serve as an unequivocal guide for value choices. These limitations are a problem because of the significance of the process of dialogue and deliberation in value-related fields. Rather than advancing the allegedly universal characteristics of any one culture, in a world consisting of many civilizations, the imperative is to acknowledge pluralism and discern what is held in common.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Globe Pequot Publishing Group Inc/Bloomsbury
• Seitenzahl: 262
• Erscheinungstermin: 15. November 2007
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 16mm
• Gewicht: 430g
• ISBN-13: 9780761839439
• ISBN-10: 0761839437
• Artikelnr.: 23426642

Autorenporträt

Agnes K. Koos earned a licentiate in philosophy from University Babes-Bolyai (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), and performed three years of research training in philosophy with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. She received a M.A. in political science from the University of New Orleans. Kenneth Keulman is the author of The Balance of Consciousness, and the editor and coauthor of Critical Moments in Religious History. He is review editor of Human Rights Review, and has been a member of the Berkeley-Harvard project in Comparative Ethics. Keulman is a Professor of Social Ethics at Loyola University, and has recently been a visiting scholar and associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

Inhaltsangabe

Part 1 Preface Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 Values and Their
Collisions: Outlines of a Value Typology Based on the Social Motives of
Decision Theory Chapter 4 Value and Science Chapter 5 Value and Its
Context: Preliminaries to a Theory of Value Chapter 6 Value and Individual
Chapter 7 Value and Society: The Dynamics of Moral Thinking Chapter 8
Claims and Methods of the Main Alternative Social Paradigms Concerning
Values Chapter 9 Opportunities to Comprehend and Predict the Change of
Fundamental Values in a Society Part 10 Appendices Part 11 Bibliography
Part 12 Index Part 13 About the Authors

Rezensionen

This book is an original philosophical contribution which develops a way of discussing values within a pluralistic world. The work's importance lies in showing how, despite the different values individuals and/or cultures may uphold, there is still a rational basis for reconciling disputes without comprising diversity. In the process, the work takes basic ethical quandaries, for example, the reciprocal influence between society and individual, and transforms them within a contemporary context. The result is an account of the possibility of examining the relation between values "cross culturally". Even while societies may uphold different and even conflicting ideologies, it may still be possible to develop a dialogue about the values that may nevertheless be held in common. The advantage of this approach is that it moves between the options of absolution and relativism, thereby avoiding the undesirable options of "dogmatism" on the one hand and "skepticism" on the other. A contemporary ethics must be able to address the changing historical and cultural horizons in order to be relevant in the technological, pluralistic world of today. But traditional ethics from Plato forward, lags behind the curve of this change. Rather than succumb to a 'nihilistic' devaluation of values, the place that a theory of values occupies in ethics must be addressed again. This work courageously takes up this challenge. Moreover, this [volume] fulfills an important task of bringing a theoretical mode of ethical principles in line with an account of empirical data, for example, what sociologists consider as variables which define human behavior, both in individually and in groups. The authors thereby provide a concrete thrust to their discussion of contemporary values. Indeed, this attempt to explore the interface between the a priori dimension of ethical principles and the empirical dimension of human behavior is rare in most moral studies. The work has special interdisciplinary appeal, insofar as it develops a philosophical framework to treat issues that emerge in corollary fields like sociology. As a result of this interdisciplinary focus, the book should appeal to a larger audience than might normally be expected for a scholarly book on the foundation of ethics. While technical in character, the work is surprisingly lucid-particularly given its detail and degree of erudition. Frank H. Schalow, Ph.D., Department of Philosophy, University of New Orleans -- Frank Schalow, Department of Philosophy, University of New Orleans