Normative Cultures

· State University of New York Press
电子书
280
符合条件
评分和评价未经验证  了解详情

关于此电子书

The great civilizations of the world are very different from one another, indeed more strangely different the closer they come in economic, social, and cultural interaction. Yet each claims to be a normative way of being human. At the very minimum human achievement requires competence in the conventions of one's own civilization. To be human is to participate in a conventional culture, and the normatively human conventional cultures are different. Here is the "clash of civilizations": Without commitment to some conventions of civilized humanity, no one can be human; yet the conventions are different, perhaps even opposed.

Two problems bring philosophy to the refiner's fire. How can we conceive of human culture across the differences of civilized cultures? This is a problem about the nature of theory itself. It calls for a new theory of theorizing that at once provides synoptic understanding and recognized differences and incommensurabilities. Many postmodern critics have thundered against theories that oppress by the value-laden bias of their own forms, and by the interest guiding their forms. Neville provides a theory of theories that responds to these challenges and addresses the problem of theorizing across different cultures.

The other problem is how to exercise practical reason across cultures expressive of different civilizations. How can human beings be responsible in a world where all values seem culture-bound and the obvious solution seems to be moral relativism that trivializes responsibility? Neville presents a theory of practical reason oriented to objective norms determined cross-culturally and based on a Confucian sense of the ritual character of the most important levels of moral life.

This book completes Neville's series, Axiology of Thinking, a trilogy of systematically related studies of valuation in four kinds of thinking: imagination, interpretation, theorizing, and the pursuit of responsibility. Reconstruction of Thinking and Recovery of the Measure, both published by SUNY Press, are companion volumes.

作者简介

Robert Cummings Neville is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Boston University where he is also Dean of the School of Theology. He is past president of the American Academy of Religion, the Metaphysical Society of America, and the International Society for Chinese Philosophy. Neville has also written Behind the Masks of God: An Essay Toward Comparative Theology; New Essays in Metaphysics; The Puritan Smile: A Look Toward Moral Reflection; and The Tao and the Daimon, all published by SUNY Press.

为此电子书评分

欢迎向我们提供反馈意见。

如何阅读

智能手机和平板电脑
只要安装 AndroidiPad/iPhone 版的 Google Play 图书应用,不仅应用内容会自动与您的账号同步,还能让您随时随地在线或离线阅览图书。
笔记本电脑和台式机
您可以使用计算机的网络浏览器聆听您在 Google Play 购买的有声读物。
电子阅读器和其他设备
如果要在 Kobo 电子阅读器等电子墨水屏设备上阅读,您需要下载一个文件,并将其传输到相应设备上。若要将文件传输到受支持的电子阅读器上,请按帮助中心内的详细说明操作。