Skip to main content
Taylor & Francis Group Logo
    Advanced Search

    Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

    • Login
    • Hi, User  
      • Your Account
      • Logout
      Advanced Search

      Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

      Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

      Book

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge
      loading

      Book

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

      DOI link for The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge book

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

      DOI link for The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge book

      ByDallas Willard, Steven L. Porter, Aaron Preston, Gregg A. Ten Elshof
      Edition 1st Edition
      First Published 2018
      eBook Published 1 April 2020
      Pub. Location New York
      Imprint Routledge
      DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429491764
      Pages 420
      eBook ISBN 9780429491764
      Subjects Humanities
      Share
      Share

      Get Citation

      Willard, D. (2018). The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge (S.L. Porter, A. Preston, & G.A.T. Elshof, Eds.) (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429491764

      ABSTRACT

      Based on an unfinished manuscript by the late philosopher Dallas Willard, this book makes the case that the 20th century saw a massive shift in Western beliefs and attitudes concerning the possibility of moral knowledge, such that knowledge of the moral life and of its conduct is no longer routinely available from the social institutions long thought to be responsible for it. In this sense, moral knowledge—as a publicly available resource for living—has disappeared. Via a detailed survey of main developments in ethical theory from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries, Willard explains philosophy’s role in this shift. In pointing out the shortcomings of these developments, he shows that the shift was not the result of rational argument or discovery, but largely of arational social forces—in other words, there was no good reason for moral knowledge to have disappeared.

      The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge is a unique contribution to the literature on the history of ethics and social morality. Its review of historical work on moral knowledge covers a wide range of thinkers including T.H Green, G.E Moore, Charles L. Stevenson, John Rawls, and Alasdair MacIntyre. But, most importantly, it concludes with a novel proposal for how we might reclaim moral knowledge that is inspired by the phenomenological approach of Knud Logstrup and Emmanuel Levinas. Edited and eventually completed by three of Willard’s former graduate students, this book marks the culmination of Willard’s project to find a secure basis in knowledge for the moral life.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      chapter 1|49 pages

      Moral Knowledge Disappears

      chapter 2|61 pages

      A “Science of Ethics”?

      chapter 3|57 pages

      G. E. Moore

      From Science of Ethics to Nihilism

      chapter 4|47 pages

      Emotivism

      The Erasure of Moral Knowledge

      chapter 5|37 pages

      A Rational Form of Noncognitivism?

      “Rational Necessity” Relocated

      chapter 6|52 pages

      A Consensus of Rational People

      Social Constructionism in Rawls 1

      chapter 7|39 pages

      Practices, Traditions and Narratives

      Social Constructionism in MacIntyre 1

      chapter 8|41 pages

      Prospects for a Return of Moral Knowledge

      T&F logoTaylor & Francis Group logo
      • Policies
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
      • Journals
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
      • Corporate
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
      • Help & Contact
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
      • Connect with us

      Connect with us

      Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067
      5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2022 Informa UK Limited