Persons and Valuable Worlds: A Global Philosophy

(Paperback)

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Description

This text argues for pluralistic ethics, philosophical anthropology and epistemology in a cross-cultural context. It provides an account of what it means to be a genuine social and spiritual being - what it means to be a person in the diverse worlds of which we are a part, and to which we contribute in significant ways. It further strives to reintegrate moral and value considerations into philosophy throughout the range of its inquiries. The work is organized into four parts. Part I deals with personhood and includes areas of inquiry such as the performance of emotions and the nature of the body and of consciousness/mind. The following section focuses on questions of rationality and discusses various forms of rationality and rational practices that integrate value considerations at their core. In part III, Deutsch analyzes the ontological or metaphysical problems of time and space causality, creativity, and freedom. The final section sets forth the conditions for a creative morality and creative anarchism, concluding with a discussion of human destiny and death.

Reviews

A very distinctive book in a number of ways. It features remarkable breadth and erudition. It also moves effortlessly back and forth across the line between contemporary Western philosophy on one hand, and Indian and Chinese philosophy on the other. Topics addressed include personhood and consciousness, rationality, time, space, casuality and creativity, morality, and finally destiny and death. There are not many philosophers who could be as good as Deutsch is on such a broad range of topics. There are fascinating insights in a number of places. * Philosophy East and West *
...carefully organized and quite persuasive. * Choice Reviews *

Author Bio

Eliot Deutsch is chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawaii. He has published 14 previous books, including a translation of The Bhagavad Gita.