Imagination and Ethical Ideals - Prospects for a Unified Philosophical and Psychological Understanding

Imagination and Ethical Ideals is an interdisciplinary work which investigates some of the links between moral philosophy and moral psychology, with implications for both personal ethics and social philosophy. Tierney begins with the argument that the widespread fascination with moral principles has led moral philosophers into a dead end, which is revealed both by their inability to deal with the problem of relativism, and by the felt irrelevancy of moral philosophy to the lives that people are actually striving to lead. He then offers an alternative account of the nature of ethical thought, grounded in a theory of imaginative ethical ideals. A psychological framework for ideals is then developed using the results of contemporary psychoanalysis and psychology, particularly the self psychology of Heinz Kohut.

About the author

Nathan Tierney is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at California Lutheran University.

Product details

• Authors: Nathan L Tierney, Nathan L. Tierney
• Publisher: Global Academic Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.08.1994
• EAN: 9780791420478
• ISBN: 978-0-7914-2047-8
• No. of pages: 184
• Weight: 435 g
• Series: Suny Series in Buddhist Studie; Suny Series in Buddhist Studie; Suny Ethical Theory
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works