Impossible Dreams: Rationality, Integrity And Moral Imagination / Edition 1

by Susan Babbitt

Overview

Conventional wisdom and commonsense morality tend to take the integrity of persons for granted. But for people in systematically unjust societies, self-respect and human dignity may prove to be impossible dreams.Susan Babbitt explores the implications of this insight, arguing that in the face of systemic injustice, individual and social rationality

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367316150
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan E. Babbitt is assistant professor of philosophy at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Myths, Fantasies, and Realism: The Story of Sethe; Transformation Experiences and Rational Deliberation; Objective Interests, Nonpropositional Knowledge, and Conversion Experiences; Leading Life from the Inside: Individuals, Minority Rights, and Some Problems About Indeterminacy; Personal Integrity, Politics, and Moral Imagination; Feminists and Nature: A Defense of Essentialism; Reason and the Erotic: The Moral Significance of Personal Relations and Commitments; Philosophy and Literature: Recalling the Archangel; Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

Babbitt (philosophy, Queen's U., Kingston, Ontario) highlights the role of rational deliberation in personal transformations by oppressed people that may look extremely irrational to people who are not oppressed. She shows how the personal autonomy and integrity that people are assumed to possess may be impossible for people suffering from systematic injustice, and how their only rational choice is to turn to moral imagination to discover and defend a more human vision of society. Some chapters were part of a 1991 doctoral dissertation for Cornell University. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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