Sacrifice and Value: A Kantian Interpretation

Sacrifice and Value: A Kantian Interpretation argues that we create values by making sacrifices. Values don't exist outside of us; they exist only when we give a gift without expecting a return. As Sidney Axinn demonstrates, we must have values in order to make decisions, to have friends or lovers, and to choose goals of any sort. Sacrifice is basic to almost everything of importance: care, love, religion, patriotism, loyalties, warfare, friendship, gift giving, morality. Axin uses Aristotle, Cicero, and Kant, and contemporary philosophers Oldenquest, Frankfurt, Friedman, Starobinski and others to analyze the role of sacrifice. A novel feature is the attention given to Kant's use of sacrifice. Sacrifice and Value will interest advanced students and scholars of philosophy-particularly value theory and moral theory-as well as women's studies, religion, political theory, and psychology.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Sacrifice and the Creation of Intrinsic Value Chapter 3. Care and Sacrifice Chapter 4. Love Chapter 5. Religion and Sacrifice Chapter 6. Patriotism Chapter 7. Business and Other Loyalties Chapter 8. Friendship Chapter 9. Gifts Chapter 10. Pluralism vs. Fanaticism: The Need for More than One Inherent Value Chapter 11. Kant's Use of Sacrifice Chapter 12. Relations to Certain Significant Theories and Issues Chapter 13. Conclusions

About the Author :
Sidney Axinn is emeritus professor of philosophy at Temple University and courtesy professor of philosophy at the University of South Florida. He is author of The Logic of Hope: Extensions of Kant's View of Religion and A Moral Military and co-editor of Autonomy and Community: Readings in Contemporary Kantian Social Philosophy.

Review :
Professor Axinn's thoughtful discussion of the meaning and importance of sacrifice offers the provocative claim that our willingness to sacrifice produces what has absolute value for us. His wide reading and non-pedantic, conversational style make his ideas about love, loyalty, military ethics and his allusions to a range of philosophers from Protagoras and Kant to contemporary ethicists accessible to any serious reader. Axinn (emer., Temple Univ.) here examines the concept of sacrifice. He argues that sacrifice establishes ends thought to be good in themselves, rather than the opposed view, which holds sacrificial actions to be derived from certain intrinsically good ends. Though the idea of sacrifice has often remained below the surface of philosophical treatments, Axinn brings it to the forefront by showing that the alignments of his thoughts coincide with those of other philosophers, who range from Aristotle to Virginia Held. Kant, however, is the thinker whose writings on ethics provide the author with more substantial support. Like Kant, the author takes value to be found from the things human beings do; this view counters philosophical realism with "irrealism." This book is a well-written foray into the notion of sacrifice....Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.