Description
Book SynopsisWhile highly respected among evolutionary scholars, the sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Edward Westermarck is now largely forgotten in the social sciences. This book is the first full study of his moral and social theory, focusing on the key elements of his theory of moral emotions as presented in The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas and summarised in Ethical Relativity. Examining Westermarck's evolutionary approach to the human mind, the author introduces important new themes to scholarship on Westermarck, including the pivotal role of emotions in human reciprocity, the evolutionary origins of human society, social solidarity, the emergence and maintenance of moral norms and moral responsibility. With attention to Westermarck's debt to David Hume and Adam Smith, whose views on human nature, moral sentiments and sympathy Westermarck combined with Darwinian evolutionary thinking, Morality Made Visible highlights the importance of the theory o
Trade Review
"Otto Pipatti has done a great service by writing a brief, clear and careful book on Westermarck’s core moral and social ideas [...]. What Pipatti has given us is a compelling and very well researched monograph on an unjustifiably overlooked major figure in the social sciences."
Aaron Garrett, The Journal of Scottish Philosophy
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Research Programme on Morality 2. The Evolution of Westermarck’s Theory of Moral Emotions 3. Westermarck’s Mature Account of Morality 4. Sympathy in Westermarck’s Sociology (I): Evolutionary Roots and Expansion 5. Sympathy in Westermarck’s Sociology (II): The Genesis and Maintenance of Moral Norms 6. The Anatomy of Moral Responsibility 7. The Origin and Development of Moral Sentimentalism: Westermarck on Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, and Hume 8. The Smithian Roots of Westermarck’s Theory of Morality Concluding Remarks
