This book presents a theory of the morality of human relations deeply drawn from widespread spiritual traditions, offering an account of the full range of sociality that comprises our moral life. Bennett Gilbert argues that the dynamic character of our choices and actions is developed as the center of philosophical inquiry into ethics. Relying on the tradition of philosophical personalism, the author reads moral life in terms of the central worth and value of human personhood. This fully relational concept supports a picture of the clash and cooperation of two great moral forces, power and compassion. By combining hermeneutics, first-person philosophy, moral philosophy, and existential philosophy of history, Power and Compassion is a philosophical exploration of the ways in which we use our moral force to create meaningfulness in our collective experience.
Introduction
I. Personhood and History
Chapter
1. Of Moral Change
Chapter
2. On Descriptive Ethics
Chapter
3. Humble Anthropocentrism
Chapter
4. Meaningfulness in History
Chapter
5. Personhood and Time
II. The Good Hearts Quest
Chapter
6. Power and Compassion
Chapter
7. Moral Labor in History
Chapter
8. Of Compassionating
Chapter
9. Moral Force Ethics
Chapter
10. As to God
Bibliography
Bennett Gilbert is adjunct Assistant Professor of History and Philosophy at Portland State University, USA, where he teaches philosophy, history, and philosophy of history. He is the author of A Personalist Philosophy of History (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Ethics and Time in the Philosophy of History: A Cross-Cultural Approach (Bloomsbury, 2023), as well as numerous papers. Besides moral philosophy and philosophy of history, his interests include a broad range of the history of ideas, notably around the beginnings of print in Europe and at the turn of the eighteenth century.
