The moral fool
Subtitle: a comparative case for amorality
By: Hans-Georg Moeller.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 212
ISBN-13: 9780231145084; 9780231145091; 9780231519243
Subjects: Social ethics; Moral conditions; Social values
Description: An expert on Eastern philosophies and social systems theory, Hans-Georg Moeller questions the perceived goodness of morality and those who claim morality is inherently positive. Critiquing the ethical "fanaticism" of Western moralists, such as Immanuel Kant, Lawrence Kohlberg, John Rawls, and the utilitarians, Moeller points to the absurd fundamentalisms and impracticable prescriptions arising from definitions of good. Instead he advances a theory of "moral foolishness," or moral asceticism, extracted from the "amoral" philosophers of East Asia and such thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Niklas Luhman. The moral fool doesn't understand why ethics are necessarily good, and he isn't convinced that the moral perspective is always positive. In this way he is like most people, and Moeller defends this foolishness against ethical pathologies that support the death penalty, just wars, and even Jerry Springer's crude moral theater. Comparing and contrasting the religious philosophies of Christianity, Daoism, and Zen Buddhism, Moeller presents a persuasive argument in favor of amorality.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The moral fool; title: Negative ethics; title: The redundancy of ethics; title: The morality of anger; title: Ethics and aesthetics; title: The presumptions of philosophical ethics; title: The myth of moral progress; title: For the separation of morality and law; title: Morality and civil rights; title: How to get a death verdict; title: Masters of war; title: Ethics and the mass media.