Philosophy of Devotion - The Longing for Invulnerable Ideals

Paul Katsafanas examines the role of devotion as an ethical stance in human life. Devotion typically involves treating certain values, goals, or relationships as inviolable, incontestable, and invulnerable to argument. Katsafanas argues that devotion can be reasonable, and suggests how it can avoid deforming into fanaticism.

List of contents

• Acknowledgements


• 1: The Longing for Devotion


• 2: The Nature of Sacred Values


• 3: Resisting Comparisons of Comparable Items


• 4: Devotion and Dialectical Invulnerability


• 5: Nihilism and the Abundance of Values


• 6: The Enlightenment Account of Fanaticism


• 7: Fanaticism as Individual Pathology


• 8: Group Fanaticism and Narratives of Ressentiment


• 9: Irony, Affirmation, and the Appeal of Inarticulacy


• 10: Conclusion


• References

About the author

Paul Katsafanas is Professor of Philosophy at Boston University. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and works on ethics, moral psychology, and nineteenth-century philosophy. He is the author of The Nietzschean Self (OUP, 2016), Agency and the Foundations of Ethics (OUP, 2013), and approximately thirty articles that have appeared in leading journals and edited volumes.

Summary

Paul Katsafanas examines the role of devotion as an ethical stance in human life. Devotion typically involves treating certain values, goals, or relationships as inviolable, incontestable, and invulnerable to argument. Katsafanas argues that devotion can be reasonable, and suggests how it can avoid deforming into fanaticism.

Additional text

Clearly written with elucidating examples...Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Product details

• Authors: Paul Katsafanas, Paul (Professor of Philosophy Katsafanas, Katsafanas Paul
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.12.2022
• EAN: 9780192867674
• ISBN: 978-0-19-286767-4
• No. of pages: 246
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; PHILOSOPHY / Religious, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Terrorism, RELIGION / Philosophy, RELIGION / Psychology of Religion, Ethics & moral philosophy, Terrorism, armed struggle, Behavioural theory (Behaviourism), Ethics and moral philosophy, Philosophy of religion, Behaviourism, Behavioural theory, PSYCHOLOGY / Psychotherapy / Behaviorism