ABSTRACT
This book has looked at a number of crucial topics relating to its core concern with values: neuroscience, religion, sympathy, the uniqueness of the subject, Freud's attempt to understand destructiveness, the nature of selves. But it has left a gaping hole at the centre of the topic. What is the glue that holds the self and its values together? Or, to alter the metaphor, what is the fuel that powers responsible action, assuming it is not mere compliance with external force majeure (or internalised force majeure such as a superego)? In Chapter 9 I used the phrase, to `keep faith' with a commitment. That seems correct, but what does it mean? What is faith? How does it work? Why `keep' it? How are we to respond to the cynic, who sniggers at all talk of `faith' and is often psychologically rather acute?
