Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Steven Lukes is professor emeritus of sociology at New York University and previously taught at the University of Oxford, the European University Institute, the University of Siena, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work; Individualism; Power: A Radical View; Moral Relativism; and other books.How to make sense of the divergence between philosophers’ quest for a single morality and social scientists’ assumption that there are multiple moralities
When we speak of morals, what are we speaking of? Is morality singular (as many philosophers tend to assume, even if they don’t agree on what it is) or are there multiple moralities (which social scientists, notably anthropologists, study)? In The Diversity of Morals, Steven Lukes brings together these differing perspectives. Drawing on philosophy, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, and political theory, Lukes considers what the moral domain includes and what it excludes; how what is moral differs from what is conventional or customary in different contexts; whether morality is unified or a series of fragments; and, if there is a diversity of morals, what that diversity consists of.
Lukes looks both ways—toward philosophers’ quest for a single best answer to the question of morality and toward sociologists’ and anthropologists’ assumption that there are several, even many, even very many, answers—to make sense of their divergence. He traces the two approaches back to their beginnings, linking them to the differences between the ideas of David Hume, Johann Gottfried Herder, and Adam Smith. Lukes examines how we went from viewing the social world as “us” versus “them” to thinking of morality as universal, envisioning shared humanity and the sacredness of the human person, and what prevents this vision from being realized. Considering the breakdown of moral constraints in the perpetration of mass atrocities, Lukes asks if there are phenomena that are beyond moral justification. And he raises this crucial question: in light of the vast variation that history and the ethnographic record display, how wide and how deep is the diversity of morals?
“Having devoted the past five decades to studying morality in all its guises, Steven Lukes, one of its most insightful analysts, returns with a fresh perspective on the complex questions it raises, revisiting classical thinkers, pleading for universal foundations open to diversity, and examining the thorny challenges of mass atrocities and social inequalities. In a time when essential values are under attack, his new book is critical to our reflection.”—Didier Fassin, Collège de France and Institute for Advanced Study
“Centered on a fresh consideration of how best to conceptualize moral values, Lukes offers a deeply considered and humane discussion, drawing on a lifetime working at the intersection of philosophy and the social sciences. Agree or disagree with his specific conclusions, readers will find the discussion consistently learned, perceptive, and measured. No one interested in the urgent questions of how peaceful coexistence might be possible between deeply opposed moral perspectives could fail to learn from reading this book.”—James Laidlaw, author of The Subject of Virtue
“An extraordinary work of interdisciplinary scholarship that perhaps only Steven Lukes could have written. The masterful survey of a vast amount of social scientific work on morality includes cogent philosophical criticism throughout. The expertly posed tension between the two perspectives carries the reader along, eager for the resolution.”—Liam Murphy, New York University