ISBN: 9780521556224

The essays in this collection are concerned with the psychology of moral agency. They focus on moral feelings and moral motivation, and seek to understand the operations and origins of th… Meer...

The essays in this collection are concerned with the psychology of moral agency. They focus on moral feelings and moral motivation, and seek to understand the operations and origins of these phenomena as rooted in the natural desires and emotions of human beings. An important feature of the essays, and one that distinguishes the book from most philosophical work in moral psychology, is the attention to the writings of Freud. Many of the essays draw on Freud's ideas about conscience and morality, and several explore the depths and limits of Freud's theories. An underlying theme of the volume is a critique of influential, rationalist accounts of moral agency. Rejecting the rationalist thesis that reason alone can originate action, John Deigh shows how moral agency derives from both the cognitive and affective capacities of human beings. Media > Book, [PU: Cambridge University Press]<