Ethical Sentimentalism: New Perspectives

Remy Debes · Karsten R. Stueber

oct 2017 · Cambridge University Press

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In recent years there has been a tremendous resurgence of interest in ethical sentimentalism, a moral theory first articulated during the Scottish Enlightenment. Ethical Sentimentalism promises a conception of morality that is grounded in a realistic account of human psychology, which, correspondingly, acknowledges the central place of emotion in our moral lives. However, this promise has encountered its share of philosophical difficulties. Chief among them is the question of how to square the limited scope of human motivation and psychological mechanism - so easily influenced by personal, social, and cultural circumstance - with the seeming universal scope and objective nature of moral judgment. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive evaluation of the sentimentalist project with a particular eye to this difficulty. Each essay offers critical clarification, innovative answers to central challenges, and new directions for ethical sentimentalism in general.

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Remy Debes is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis, and has published numerous articles and book chapters on moral theory with an emphasis on human dignity, respect, metaethics, moral psychology, empathy, and understanding. He is the editor of Dignity: A History (2017).

Karsten R. Stueber is Professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts. He is the author of, among others, Rediscovering Empathy: Agency, Folk Psychology, and the Human Sciences (2006), and co-editor of Empathy and Agency (2000) and Debating Dispositions (2009).