Self-love, Egoism and the Selfish Hypothesis: Key Debates from Eighteenth-Century British Moral Philosophy
Christian Maurer
Mar 2019 · Edinburgh University Press
Ebook
240
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
Analyses of one of the central debates at the dawn of the Enlightenment: are people motivated only by self-interest?The dawn of the Enlightenment saw heated debates on self-love. Do people only act out of self-interest? Or is there a less pessimistic explanation for human behaviour? Maurer delves into the contributions to these debates from both famous and lesser known authors, including Lord Shaftesbury, Bernard Mandeville, Francis Hutcheson, Joseph Butler, Archibald Campbell, David Hume and Adam Smith, and puts them in their philosophical, theological and economic context.Maurer identifies five distinct conceptions of self-love and looks at their role within theories of human psychology and morality while drawing attention to the heuristic limits of our contemporary notion of egoism. He compares the central arguments and the different strategies intended to morally rehabilitate human nature and self-love before and during the Enlightenment.Key FeaturesThoroughly analyses and compares various positions in the debates on self-love in 18th-century British moral philosophyPlaces the central arguments on self-love in their philosophical and theological contextProvides the first analysis of Archibald Campbell's account of self-love in his moral philosophy"...
About the author
Christian Maurer is SNSF Professor in Philosophy at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He has studied, taught and held research fellowships in various Universities across Switzerland, Scotland, France and Germany. Maurer's main research areas are in moral and political philosophy. He has worked extensively on the history of British moral philosophy and theology, on pre-Enlightenment Scottish moral philosophy, on the reception of Stoicism, on tolerance and on love.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
