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Fichte's Ethics

Michelle Kosch author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:7th Nov '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Fichte's Ethics cover

One of Fichte's most important ideas - that nature can place limits on our ability to govern ourselves, and that anyone who values autonomy is thereby committed to the value of basic research and of the development of autonomy-enhancing technologies - has received little attention in the interpretative literature on Fichte, and has little currency in contemporary ethics. This volume aims to address both deficits. Beginning from a reconstruction of Fichte's theory of rational agency, this volume examines his arguments for the thesis that rational agency must have two constitutive ends: substantive and formal independence. It argues for a novel interpretation of Fichte's conception of substantive independence, and shows how Fichte's account of moral duties is derived from the end of substantive independence on that conception. It also argues for a new interpretation of Fichte's conception of formal independence, and explains why the usual understanding of this end as providing direct guidance for action must be mistaken. It encompasses a systematic reconstruction of Fichte's first-order claims in normative ethics and the philosophy of right.

provocative, tightly-argued, and insightful book . . . Fichte's Ethics is highly recommended * Gabriel Gottlieb, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
One of the many virtues of Michelle Kosch's provocative, tightly-argued, and insightful book is that she clearly establishes what, for Fichte, our moral duties consist in, if we are to take his conception of freedom, understood as absolute independence or self-sufficiency, as our guide. . . . Fichte's Ethics is highly recommended for its clarity and insight, as well as its potential to promote valuable debate about the nature of Fichte's ethics. * Gabriel Gottlieb, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

ISBN: 9780198849759

Dimensions: 230mm x 153mm x 11mm

Weight: 308g

208 pages