Freedom and Fulfillment: Philosophical Essays

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Dealing with a diverse set of problems in practical and theoretical ethics, these fourteen essays reconfirm Joel Feinberg's leading position in the field of legal philosophy. With a clarity and humor that will be familiar to readers of his other works, Feinberg writes on topics including "wrongful life" suits in the law of torts, or whether there is any sense in the remark that a person is so badly off that he would be better off not existing at all; the morality of abortion; educational options; free expression; civil disobedience; and the duty of easy rescue in criminal law. He continues with a three-part defense of moral rights in the abstract, a discussion of voluntary euthanasia, and an inquiry into arguments of various kinds for not granting legal rights in enforcement of a person's acknowledged moral rights. The collection concludes with two essays dealing with concepts used in appraising the whole of a person's life: absurdity and self-fulfillment, and their interplay. Feinberg brings to bear on each of these concerns a coherent view on morality and the philosophy of law. Three of the essays have never been published before. Of the remaining eleven, three are being published almost simultaneously with the book, and most of the rest are not easily accessible at this time. Freedom and Fulfillment is an ideal source for specialists seeking to understand Feinberg's overall position and for the general reader concerned with ethical issues.

Reviews

"This volume collects twelve essays, all published in the last decade, by arguably the most persuasive and certainly the most lucid contemporary American liberal jurisprude."--Dena S. Davis, Religious Studies Review

Author Bio

Joel Feinberg, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona, is the author of the four-volume work "The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law." Among his other collections of essays is "Doing and Deserving: Essays in the Theory of Responsibility" (Princeton).