Description
Book SynopsisIs there any such thing as a single ethical system to which all human beings could conceivably subscribe?
The short answer is no; and most people, being tolerant, would probably agree with this answer. Yet most people, precisely in being tolerant, also subscribe to an idea of human rights which presupposes just such a universal ethics.
This basic question of ethics is similarly treacherous when approached on a higher technical level. Specialists have long recognized that Kant's categorical imperative is neither theoretically nor practically tenable. But efforts to revive and repair the Kantian projectincluding especially the monumental work of Jürgen Habermashave all themselves been theoretically questionable, while developing a complexity that makes them impractical.
Must we then simply do without ethics in the sense of a universal ethical method?
By way of a close study of literary and philosophical texts, from
Trade Review
Benjamin Bennett’s Shaping A Modern Ethics offers a series of provocative case studies, focusing on Lessing and Freud, on Nietzsche and Rorty, on Habermas and Wittig. Bennett introduces us to Enlightenment thought and a post-Enlightenment relativism that also re-centers our attention towards Jewish philosophy and feminist thought. This is a very timely book that will be appreciated by students of philosophy and literature alike. -- Liliane Weissberg, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, USA
One of the foremost literary scholars of our times, Benjamin Bennett, with his signature flair and brilliance, argues in his newest book for the ethical significance of literature—precisely when it defies all ethical propositions. In the tradition of Leibniz, Lessing, Nietzsche, Kafka, Wittgenstein, and Bachmann, he resists the clamor for extrinsic guidelines and the authoritarian injunction to literal interpretation. Instead, Bennett celebrates the non-compliant, ironic, and experimental text. A refreshing voice! * Alice Kuzniar, Professor of German and English, University of Waterloo, Canada *
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Abbreviations Preliminary Remarks: Wittgenstein and Strawson Chapter One: Introduction: Ethics, “Literature,” and Irony Chapter Two: Nietzsche and Rorty: The Ethics of Irony Chapter Three: Kant and Leibniz Chapter Four: Lessing: History, Irony, and Diaspora Chapter Five: Lessing and Freud: Theory, Wisdom, and the Scope of Ethics Chapter Six: Habermas, Rorty, and Machiavelli Chapter Seven: Woolf, Bachmann, Wittig: Toward a Feminist Ethics Conclusion, or Not
