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Philip Pettit offers a new insight into moral psychology. He shows that attachments such as love, and certain virtues such as honesty, require their characteristic behaviours not only as things actually are, but also in cases where things are different from how they actually are. He explores the implications of this idea for key moral issues.
About the author
Philip Pettit is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University. He is the author of The Common Mind (OUP, 1996), Republicanism (OUP, 1997), A Theory of Freedom (OUP, 2001), and Rules, Reasons, and Norms (OUP 2002), and co-author of The Economy of Esteem (OUP, 2004), with Geoffrey Brennan; Mind, Morality, and Explanation (OUP, 2004), and Group Agency (OUP, 2011), with Christian List.
Summary
Philip Pettit offers a new insight into moral psychology. He shows that attachments such as love, and certain virtues such as honesty, require not only their characteristic positive behaviours in the actual world (i.e. as things are), but preservation of those characteristic behaviours across a range of counterfactual scenarios in which things are different from how they actually are. The counterfactual 'robustness', in this sense, of these behaviours is thus part of our very conception of these attachments and these virtues. Pettit shows that attachment, virtues, and respect all conform to a similar conceptual geography. He explores the implications of this idea for key moral issues, such as the doctrine of double effect and the distinction between doing and allowing. He articulates and argues against an assumption, which he calls 'moral behaviourism,' which permeates contemporary ethics.
Additional text
Bristling with characteristic style, Pettit's book develps a novel and nuanced account of robustly demanding goods.
