A Theory of General Ethics – Human Relationships, Nature and the Built Environment - Softcover

Warwick Fox

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262562197 ISBN 13: 9780262562195

Publisher: MIT Press, 2006

Synopsis

With A Theory of General Ethics Warwick Fox both defines the field of General Ethics and offers the first example of a truly general ethics. Specifically, he develops a single, integrated approach to ethics that encompasses the realms of interhuman ethics, the ethics of the natural environment, and the ethics of the built environment. Thus Fox offers what is in effect the first example of an ethical "Theory of Everything."Fox refers to his own approach to General Ethics as the "theory of responsive cohesion." He argues that the best examples in any domain of interest--from psychology to politics, from conversations to theories--exemplify the quality of responsive cohesion, that is, they hold together by virtue of the mutual responsiveness of the elements that constitute them. Fox argues that the relational quality of responsive cohesion represents the most fundamental value there is. He then develops the theory of responsive cohesion, central features of which include the elaboration of a "theory of contexts" as well as a differentiated model of our obligations in respect of all beings.In doing this, he draws on cutting-edge work in cognitive science in order to develop a powerful distinction between beings who use language and beings that do not.Fox tests his theory against eighteen central problems in General Ethics--including challenges raised by abortion, euthanasia, personal obligations, politics, animal welfare, invasive species, ecological management, architecture, and planning--and shows that it offers sensible and defensible answers to the widest possible range of ethical problems.

About this title

Review:

[O]ne is unavoidably impressed with the remarkable extent to which [Fox] has succeeded in producing a genuinely original and internally consistent ethical theory from square one...[A] strikingly wide-ranging and novel work, which combines rigorous argument with occasional scholarly bombshells.

--Piers H.G. Stephens, Organization and Environment

The idea of a general ethical theory is a powerful one that at first appears beyond the scope of any book, let alone one readable by the intelligent layperson. Yet Fox elegantly and lucidly makes a case for just such a system and explains how it may be practically deployed.

--Michael J. Ostwald, Nexus Network Journal

Synopsis:

This is an integrated approach to ethics that covers interhuman ethics, the ethics of the natural environment (including animals), and the ethics of the built environment, and enables us to offer sensible and defensible answers to the widest possible range of ethical problems. With "A Theory of General Ethics", Warwick Fox both defines the field of General Ethics and offers the first example of a truly general ethics. Specifically, he develops a single, integrated approach to ethics that encompasses the realms of interhuman ethics, the ethics of the natural environment, and the ethics of the built environment. Thus Fox offers what is in effect the first example of an ethical "Theory of Everything." Fox refers to his own approach to General Ethics as the "theory of responsive cohesion." He argues that the best examples in any domain of interest - from psychology to politics, from conversations to theories - exemplify the quality of responsive cohesion, that is, they hold together by virtue of the mutual responsiveness of the elements that constitute them. Fox argues that the relational quality of responsive cohesion represents the most fundamental value there is.

He then develops the theory of responsive cohesion, central features of which include the elaboration of a "theory of contexts" as well as a differentiated model of our obligations in respect of all beings. In doing this, he draws on cutting-edge work in cognitive science in order to develop a powerful distinction between beings who use language and beings that do not. Fox tests his theory against eighteen central problems in General Ethics - including challenges raised by abortion, euthanasia, personal obligations, politics, animal welfare, invasive species, ecological management, architecture, and planning - and shows that it offers sensible and defensible answers to the widest possible range of ethical problems.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0262562197
• ISBN 13: 9780262562195
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400