Minding the Gap: Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement
Brand: Oxford University Press
Categories: Books, New, Used & Rental Textbooks, Humanities



Dimensions: 8.5 x 1 x 5.8 inches
ISBN-13: 978-0190867522
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0190867523
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Print length: 276 pages
Publication date: October 1, 2019
author: Visit Amazon's Karen Stohr Page search results Karen Stohr
review: Editorial Reviews Review "In this innovative book, Karen Stohr breaks new ground in understanding how we develop our moral ideals and set about the task of moral improvement. Her fascinating account includes explorations of the obstacles to moral improvement, moral identity, the development of aspirational ideals, the social aspects of moral improvement through the construction of moral neighborhoods, and the related notions of moral stagecraft and moral pretense. In formulating her ideas, she draws on Aristotle, Kant, Confucianism, Jane Austen, and Erving Goffman, among other sources ... Stohr's book is a major contribution to philosophical thinking about moral formation." -- Nancy Snow , Director and Professor of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma "In Stohr's excellent new book, self improvement turns out to be a largely social practice . She defends this view by appeal to some of the usual suspects in moral philosophy, but also to social science research, great works of literature, and a larger host of women and feminist philosophers than one usually sees discussed. The result is an engaging and insightful work of normative theory full of wisdom and nuance." -- Valerie Tiberius, Professor of Philosophy, University of Minnesota "Karen Stohr offers a nuanced and sophisticated approach to a philosophically under-appreciated aspect of moral life: trying to be better than you are. Stohr offers nuanced analysis of the enriching complexities of daily life and social interaction, making clear how moral improvement for me will need cooperation and community with others. Stohr's account exemplifies both sense and sensibility, with both careful argument in defense of moral aspiration and a close eye on how the atmospherics of our "moral neighborhoods" inflect our moral possibilities." -- Amy Olberding, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oklahoma About the Author Karen Stohr is the Ryan Family Term Associate Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy at Georgetown University and Senior Research Scholar in Georgetown's Kennedy Institute of Ethics. She works primarily in normative ethical theory, focusing on Aristotelian virtue ethics and Kantian ethics. She also writes on the ethical dimensions of civility, manners, and social interactions. She is author of On Manners (Routledge, 2011).