Ethical Encounter: The Depth of Moral Meaning [Hardcover]

This book shows how our moral concepts are nourished by awe, reverence and various forms of love. These ways of encountering the world and other human beings inform our sense of good and evil, of justice and injustice, of obligation, of fidelity and betrayal, and of many virtues and vices. In ways moral philosophy commonly misses, this book shows moral understanding is broadened and deepened by what is disclosed only in these forms of encounter.Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction Aristotelian Virtue and Beyond Altruism and Moral Meaning Altruism and 'the Other' Absolute Otherness and Common Humanity Duty and Ethical Motivation Virtue and Goodness 'Romantic' Love? Liking, Loving and Respecting Others The Limits of Morality? Endnotes Bibliography Index

'...an intriguing, original grounding for morality...Cordner is a pleasure to read, for he develops his theses through beautifully crafted meditations upon incidents from literature and life. His many fine distinctions and intriguing insights about moral action and motivation will broaden and deepen any reader's understanding of morality...his book is a lyrically written, persuasive evocation of an important strand in the tapestry (or tangle) that constitutes contemporary moral theory.' - Howard J. Curzer, The Philosophical Quarterly