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An Intriguing Trio
Love and Objectivity in Virtue Ethics
Aristotle, Lonergan, and Nussbaum on Emotions and Moral Insight
Robert J. Fitterer
(University of Toronto 2008)
From the Back Cover:
“Fitterer first demonstrates how certain cognitive operations set out in Aristotelian virtue ethics can indeed arrive at objective moral truth precisely through the contribution emotions make in moral discernment. Then, drawing on Lonergan’s notion of inductive insight, he argues that objectivity is the result of the properly functioning subjectivity of a moral agent. Finally, building on his study of Nussbaum’s ethical writings, Fitterer concludes that compassionate love is an attitude that actually fosters the likelihood of discerning and choosing the genuine good, and encourages objectivity in moral decision-making.”
Faithful to the Earth
Nietzsche and Whitehead on God and the Meaning of Human Life
J. Thomas Howe
(Rowman and Littlefield 2002)
From the Table of Contents:
~The Death of God and the Problem of Nihilism
~The Rise and Development of the Christian Moral Interpretation
Part One: Socratic Platonism
~The Rise and Development of the Christian Moral Interpretation
Part Two: Christianity and Kantian Philosophy
~Nietzsche and the Life of Affirmation
~Whitehead’s Criticism of the Classical Christian Doctrine of God
~The Life and Sense of the World
~Whitehead’s View of God and the Religious Life
The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality
Andre Comte-Sponville
(Penguin 2006)
“Here is where all our different themes converge without conflating.
“Fidelity to truth: rationalism---the rejection of sophism.
“Fidelity to love: humanism---the rejection of nihilism.
“Fidelity to a separation between the two: atheism.
“Truth is not love; if truth loved itself, it would be God. Rather, love can be true, and it is absolute only insofar as we love truly. Such is the atheists’ Pentecost, or the true spirit of atheism: not the Spirit that descends but the spirit that can open us up to the world, to other people, to ever-present eternity---and rejoice. The absolute is not love; rather, love can open us up to the absolute.
“Thus ethics can lead to but not replace spirituality, just as spirituality can lead to but not replace ethics. Here, perhaps---at their culmination---is where the wise and the saintly agree:
“Love, not hope, is what helps us live. Truth, not faith, is what sets us free.
“We are already in the kingdom. Eternity is now.” (205-6)
(Edited by Stephen Boydstun on 2/28, 4:50am)
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