Agent-Centered Morality

An Aristotelian Alternative to Kantian Internalism

George W. Harris

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9780520922228
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

What kinds of persons do we aspire to be, and how do our aspirations fit with our ideas of rationality? In Agent-Centered Morality, George Harris argues that most of us aspire to a certain sort of integrity: We wish to be respectful of and sympathetic to others, and to be loving parents, friends, and members of our communities. Against a prevailing Kantian consensus, Harris offers an Aristotelian view of the problems presented by practical reason, problems of integrating all our concerns into a coherent, meaningful life in a way that preserves our integrity. The task of solving these problems is "the integration test." Systematically addressing the work of major Kantian thinkers, Harris shows that even the most advanced contemporary versions of the Kantian view fail to integrate all of the values that correspond to what we call a moral life. By demonstrating how the meaning of life and practical reason are internally related, he constructs from Aristotle's thought a conceptual scheme that successfully integrates all the characteristics that make a life meaningful, without jeopardizing the place of any. Harris's elucidation of this approach is a major contribution to debates on human agency, practical reason, and morality. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1999.
What kinds of persons do we aspire to be, and how do our aspirations fit with our ideas of rationality? In Agent-Centered Morality, George Harris argues that most of us aspire to a certain sort of integrity: We wish to be respectful of and sympathetic to

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Part 1 BEGINNINGS
• 1. The Internalism Requirement and the Integration Test
• 2. Impartiality, Regulative Norms, and Practical Reason
• 3. The Thin Conception of Integrity and the Integration Test
• 4. An Integrity-Sensitive Conception of Human Agency, Practical Reason, and Morality
• Part 2 THE GOODS OF RESPECT
• 5. General Features and Varieties of Respect
• 6. Respect, Egoism, and Self-Assessment
• 7. The Categorical Value of the Goods of Respect
• Part 3 THE GOODS OF LOVE
• 8. General Features of Love
• 9. The Normative Thoughts of Parental Love, Part I Self-Restricting Normative Beliefs
• 10. The Normative Thoughts of Parental Love, Part II Other-restricting Normative Beliefs
• 11. Peer Love
• 12. The Normative Thoughts of Friendship
• 13. The Normative Thoughts of Neighborly Love, Part I Autonomy and Subservience
• 14. The Normative Thoughts of Neighborly Love, Part II Autonomy of Conscience and the Unjust Community
• 15. Loneliness, Intimacy, and the Integration Test
• Part 4 THE GOODS OF ACTIVITY The Place of the Aesthetic in Practical Reason
• 16. Solitary Activities
• 17. Shared Activities
• 18. Normative Thoughts and the Goods of Activity
• Bibliography
• Index