Moral Engines: Exploring the Ethical Drives in Human Life

Published by Berghahn Books 2017

Moral Engines

Exploring the Ethical Drives in Human Life

Edited by: Cheryl Mattingly , Rasmus Dyring , Maria Louw and Thomas Schwarz Wentzer

Volume 5 in the series WYSE Series in Social Anthropology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785336942

Overview
Contents

About this book

In the past fifteen years, there has been a virtual explosion of anthropological literature arguing that morality should be considered central to human practice. Out of this explosion new and invigorating conversations have emerged between anthropologists and philosophers. Moral Engines: Exploring the Ethical Drives in Human Life includes essays from some of the foremost voices in the anthropology of morality, offering unique interdisciplinary conversations between anthropologists and philosophers about the moral engines of ethical life, addressing the question: What propels humans to act in light of ethical ideals?

Author / Editor information

Cheryl Mattingly is Professor of Anthropology at University of Southern California. She is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and has received numerous awards from the American Anthropological Association, including the Victor Turner Prize, the Stirling Prize and the New Millennium Prize. Her most recent book is Moral Laboratories: Family Peril and the Struggle for a Good Life (University of California Press 2014).

Rasmus Dyring is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas, Aarhus University. In dialogue with the anthropology of ethics, Dyring’s research aims at foregrounding the existential dimensions of ethical life. He has published several articles on this subject, for instance, “A Spectacle of Disappearance” (Tropos 2015).

Maria Louw is Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University. She is the author of Everyday Islam in Post-Soviet Central Asia (Routledge 2007) and a number of other publications focusing on religion, secularism, atheism and morality in Central Asia.

Thomas Schwarz Wentzer is Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas, Aarhus University. He is author of Bewahrung der Geschichte: Die hermeneutische Philosophie Walter Benjamins (Philo-Verlag 2002), co-editor of Finite but Unbounded: New Approaches in Philosophical Anthropology (DeGruyter 2017).

Cheryl Mattingly is Professor of Anthropology at University of Southern California. She is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and has received numerous awards from the American Anthropological Association, including the Victor Turner Prize, the Stirling Prize and the New Millennium Prize. Her most recent book is Moral Laboratories: Family Peril and the Struggle for a Good Life (University of California Press 2014).

Reviews

“Overall the text offers an insightful interdisciplinary discussion on the topics of morality and ethics, albeit a conflicted title and theme as is made evident by many of the authors’ concerns with the idea and term ‘moral engines’ throughout the volume. A fascinating read for those interested in the in the field regardless of what side of the fence one sits.” • Irish Journal of Anthropology

“This is an excellent collection of essays that contributes to the growing anthropological literature on morality and ethics. It addresses the current debates in a new and useful way.” • Johan Rasanayagam, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen

“This stimulating volume suggests a new metaphor to reshape this central question to moral theory within an anthropological perspective.” • Samuel Leze, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Prologue Cheryl Mattingly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Question of ‘Moral Engines’ Introducing a Philosophical Anthropological Dialogue Rasmus Dyring, Cheryl Mattingly and Maria Louw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Part I Moral Engines and Human Experience
2 Ethics, Immanent Transcendence and the Experimental Narrative Self Cheryl Mattingly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3 Being Otherwise: On Regret, Morality and Mood C. Jason Throop Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
4 Haunting as Moral Engine: Ethical Striving and Moral Aporias among Sufis in Uzbekistan Maria Louw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
5 Every Day: Forgiving after War in Northern Uganda Lotte Meinert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
6 The Provocation of Freedom Rasmus Dyring Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Part II Moral Engines and ‘Moral Facts’
7 On the Immanence of Ethics Michael Lambek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
8 Where in the World are Values? Exemplarity and Moral Motivation Joel Robbins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
9 Fault Lines in the Anthropology of Ethics James Laidlaw Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
Part III Moral Engines and the Human Condition
10 An Ethics of Dwelling and a Politics of Worldbuilding: Responding to the Demands of the Drug War Jarrett Zigon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
11 Human, the Responding Being: Considerations Towards a Philosophical Anthropology of Responsiveness Thomas Schwarz Wentzer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
12 The History of Responsibility François Raffoul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 266
Keywords: Anthropology (General); Cultural Studies (General)

eBook

Published: October 1, 2017
ISBN: 9781785336942