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This book argues that self-righteous moralism has replaced religion as a source of embattled and gratuitous certainties. High-minded moral convictions invoke the authority of sacred moral truths; but there are no such truths. In reality, moral passions are rooted in atavistic emotional dispositions and arbitrary social conventions.
List of contents
ONE: INTRODUCTION; TWO: FOUR ANSWERS TO WHY QUESTIONS; THREE: THREE MORE ANSWERS TO WHY QUESTIONS; FOUR: MORAL SYSTEMS TEND TO BE TOTALISING; FIVE: TWO FRAMEWORKS FOR REASONS; SIX: DOUBLE COUNTING; SEVEN: THE BLACK HOLE OF FOUNDATIONAL DISPUTES; EIGHT: WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE AN AMORALIST?
About the author
Ronald de Sousa, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, was born in Switzerland and educated at New College, Oxford (BA) and Princeton (PhD). He is the author of The Rationality of Emotion (1987), Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007), Emotional Truth (2011) and Love: A Very Short Introduction (2015). A number of his interviews and debates are available on YouTube.
Summary
This book argues that self-righteous moralism has replaced religion as a source of embattled and gratuitous certainties. High-minded moral convictions invoke the authority of sacred moral truths; but there are no such truths. In reality, moral passions are rooted in atavistic emotional dispositions and arbitrary social conventions.
