Moral Disquiet and Human Life
Monique Canto-Sperber
Translated by Silvia Pavel

Cloth | 2008 | $39.50 / £27.95
232 pp. | 6 x 9

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Attempting to steer moral philosophy away from abstract theorizing, Moral Disquiet and Human Life argues that moral philosophy should be a practical, rational, and argumentative engagement with reality, and that moral reflection should have direct effects on our lives and the world in which we live. Illustrating her discussion with vivid examples from literature, music, drama, and current events, the noted French philosopher Monique Canto-Sperber resumes the most ancient pursuit of philosophy: the examination of human life itself. What did Socrates mean when he said that the unexamined life is not worth living? How can reflecting on one's existence incorporate human singularity, the contingency of events, the certainty of death, the presence of the past, or the irreversibility of time? Carefully analyzing and proposing answers to such questions, Moral Disquiet and Human Life eloquently calls for a redefinition of the task of moral philosophy and of its limits.

Monique Canto-Sperber is a philosopher and the director of the École normale supérieure in Paris. She is the author of many books on philosophy and classics, and is the editor of Le Dictionnaire d'éthique et de philosophie morale.

Review:

"[A]n extremely rich and wide-ranging work, written by one of the foremost contemporary moral philosophers in France. . . . Without at all sacrificing rigor, [Monique Canto-Sperber] demonstrates in a most resounding way that philosophy at its very best is plentiful in its resources to speak quite illuminatingly to the circumstances of life that agonize us so."--Laurence Thomas, Ethics

Table of Contents

Series:

• New French Thought Series
  Thomas Pavel and Mark Lilla, Series Editors

Subject Area:

• Philosophy

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For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Cloth: $39.50 ISBN13: 978-0-691-12736-1

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Cloth: £27.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-12736-1

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File created: 11/4/2009

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