1st Edition
The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge
Based on an unfinished manuscript by the late philosopher Dallas Willard, this book makes the case that the 20th century saw a massive shift in Western beliefs and attitudes concerning the possibility of moral knowledge, such that knowledge of the moral life and of its conduct is no longer routinely available from the social institutions long thought to be responsible for it. In this sense, moral knowledge—as a publicly available resource for living—has disappeared. Via a detailed survey of main developments in ethical theory from the late 19th through the late 20th centuries, Willard explains philosophy’s role in this shift. In pointing out the shortcomings of these developments, he shows that the shift was not the result of rational argument or discovery, but largely of arational social forces—in other words, there was no good reason for moral knowledge to have disappeared.
The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge is a unique contribution to the literature on the history of ethics and social morality. Its review of historical work on moral knowledge covers a wide range of thinkers including T.H Green, G.E Moore, Charles L. Stevenson, John Rawls, and Alasdair MacIntyre. But, most importantly, it concludes with a novel proposal for how we might reclaim moral knowledge that is inspired by the phenomenological approach of Knud Logstrup and Emmanuel Levinas. Edited and eventually completed by three of Willard’s former graduate students, this book marks the culmination of Willard’s project to find a secure basis in knowledge for the moral life.
Foreword, by Scott Soames
Editors’ Introduction
Preface
1. Moral Knowledge Disappears
2. A "Science of Ethics"?
3. G. E. Moore: From Science of Ethics to Nihilism
4. Emotivism: The Erasure of Moral Knowledge
5. A Rational Form of Noncognitivism? "Rational Necessity" Relocated
6. A Consensus of Rational People: Social Constructionism in Rawls
7. Practices, Traditions and Narratives: Social Constructionism in MacIntyre
8. Prospects for a Return of Moral Knowledge
Biography
Dallas Willard (1935-2013) was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California from 1965 to 2012. A specialist in the philosophy of Edmund Husserl, his publications include Logic and the Objectivity of Knowledge: a Study in Husserl’s Philosophy as well as numerous articles on Husserl as well as in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. He also published the first English translations of Husserl’s Philosophy of Arithmetic, his Early Writings in the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics, and a number of shorter pieces by Husserl and other early phenomenologists.
Steven L. Porter is Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Biola University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from USC in 2003 under the direction of Dallas Willard. His previous publications include Restoring the Foundations of Epistemic Justification: A Direct Realist and Conceptualist Theory of Foundationalism and Neuroscience and the Soul: The Human Person in Philosophy, Science, and Theology.
Aaron Preston is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Valparaiso University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from USC in 2002 under the direction of Dallas Willard. His previous publications include Analytic Philosophy: the History of an Illusion, and Analytic Philosophy: an Interpretive History.
Gregg A. Ten Elshof is Professor of Philosophy at Biola University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from USC in 2000 under the direction of Dallas Willard. His previous publications include Introspection Vindicated, I Told Me So, and Confucius for Christians
"Willard's book is a profound and timely contribution to the history of ethical theory and to the future of moral epistemology. It is essential reading for all who wish to understand the broad cultural drift away from moral knowledge in the twentieth century and for all who wish to contribute to the recovery of moral knowledge in the twenty-first century." – Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge by the late Professor Willard is a major contribution to the history of twentieth century analytic ethics as well as an incisive analysis of the possibility of moral knowledge. Porter et al. have done magnificent editorial work and have facilitated an invaluable contribution to the literature. This book surely will stand out as one of the most important contributions to the epistemology of ethics." – John H. Dreher, University of Southern California, USA
