Ethics, Life and Institutions – An Attempt at Practical Philosophy - Softcover

Sokol, Jan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 8024634295 ISBN 13: 9788024634296

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2017

Synopsis

General complaints about moral decay, however frequent and even justified they may be, are of little use. This book does not complain; it acts. Jan Sokol's Ethics, Life and Institutions applies our ever improving knowledge in various fields to questions of morality in an effort to enhance our ability to discern different moral phenomena and to discuss them more precisely. With few exceptions, moral philosophy considers the acting person to be an autonomous, independent individual pursuing his or her own happiness. But in the context of social institutions for example, in workplaces it is often an organization's goals, not an individual's, that take precedence. In complex networks of organizations, morals take a different shape. Divided into three parts, this book begins by exploring basic notions such as freedom, life, responsibility, and justice, and their relationship to practical philosophy; looks to the main schools of Western thought in the search for a common moral foundation; and reintroduces the forgotten idea of biological and cultural heritage an idea that could prove fundamental in addressing our responsibility not only to human lives, but also to the natural world. In a closing analysis, Sokol brings all of these moral concepts to bear on problems connected to the growing complexity of institutions, offering hope for a practical philosophy for the modern world.

About this title

About the Author

A former dissident, translator, and post-1990 Czech politician, Jan Sokol teaches courses in phenomenology, philosophic anthropology, religious science, and anthropology of law at Charles University Prague. He is the author of Thinking about Ordinary Things: A Short Invitation to Philosophy, also published by Karolinum Press. Neil Cairns and Marketa Pauzerova work jointly on translations from Czech into English and are based in Scotland.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8024634295
• ISBN 13: 9788024634296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230