Science and the Structure of Ethics

Initially prepared as part of the Foundations of the Unity of Science volumes under the auspices of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Science and the Structure of Ethics soon took on a life of its own. Well positioned in the naturalistic tradition of ethical theory extending from John Dewey at the start and Richard Rorty at the conclusion of the century, Abraham Edel's volume offers a remarkable synthesis of the ways hi which ethical statements can be examined, and the nature of ethical concerns. Edel reveals a singular capacity to move beyond oracular controversies of the good and the right hi favor of a comparative, analytic, and functional account of how ethical perspectives and practices affect the content of moral discourse. In Edel's work, the structure of ethical behavior is defined by biological, psychological, social, and historical functions. Hence a scientific account of ethics is possible since moral norms are themselves products of an experiential field open to verification procedures common to all other walks of human life. In reviewing the impact of Edel's work hi general, and this volume in particular, Irving Louis Horowitz notes that Edel's naturalistic emphasis fits neatly with a view of ethics as something grounded in human experience rather than mandated from divine assumption: "It is hard for me to imagine a turning back from the hard lessons of the century, any more in ethical theory than in empirical research as such. We owe a central place in our century's intellectual capital to Edel's examination of ethical doctrines in the light of changing circumstances." This is a work certain to enlist the interest of ethicists, sociologists of knowledge, as well as those concerned with issues hi the philosophy of science and religion alike.

Table of Contents:
I. The Nature and Complexity of the Problem 1. Issues in the Relation of Science and Ethics” 2. The Place of Scientific Results in Ethical Theory 3. The Role of Scientific Method in Ethical Theory 4. The Impact of the Scientific Temper in Ethical Theory 5. Moralities 6. Methodological Approaches in Ethics 7. The Structure of an Ethical Theory II. The Theory of Existential Perspectives 8. The Concept of an Existential Perspective (EP) 9. Role of Existential Perspective within an Ethical Theory 10. Overtly Scientific Existential Perspectives: Physical and Biological 11. Overtly Scientific Existential Perspectives: Psychological 12. Overtly Scientific Existential Perspectives: Sociocultural and Sociohistorical 13. Science in Theological and Metaphysical Existential Perspectives 14. Science in Transcendence Existential Perspectives 15. Evaluation of Existential Perspectives III. The Role of Science in Conceptual and Methodological Analysis 16. Conceptual-Methodological Frameworks 17. Are There Workable Concepts of Moral Phenomena and Moral Experience? 18. Ethical Concept-Families and Their Existential Linkage 19. Organization, Generalization, Systematization 20. Validation, Verification, Reasoning, Justification 21. Application and Evaluative Processes IV. Decision, Freedom, and Responsibility 22. Evaluative Processes in Unstructured Situations 23. Toward a Scientific Study of Freedom and Responsibility 24. Toward a Strategy for Solution of the Free-Will Problem in Ethics 25. The Creative Temper and the Scientific Temper

About the Author :
Abraham Edel (1908-2007), a distinguished American moral and social philosopher, was research professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and before that the City College of New York. Some of his numerous books are Science and the Structure of Ethics, Aristotle and His Philosophy, and Ethical Judgment.