Abstract
This paper explores the nature of moral action. Its shows the mutability of what has been considered moral over time and is critical of its more contemporary identification with the ‘good will’ and good intentions. It argues instead for a circumscription of the arena of the moral to concrete and particular actions produced in the face of the overarching ambiguity which inheres in all our acts. It makes the counterintuitive claim that ritual practice provides an important propaedeutic to this type of moral action.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Though we must recall that 11,343 Greek, Macedonian and Thracian Jews who were then under Bulgarian administrative rule, were not saved but were deported and except for 12, all were murdered in concentration camps (Todorov 1999, p. 9).
- 2.
- 3.
This argument is developed in greater depth in Seligman and Weller (2012).
- 4.
The following argument is taken from A. Seligman et al. (2008).
References
Bercovitz, S. 1975. The Puritan origins of the American self. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Dewey, J. 1930. The quest for certainty: A study of the relation of knowledge and action. New York: Milton Balach.
Freud, S. 1955. Beyond the pleasure principle. In Standard edition of the complete psychological writings of Sigmund Freud, vol. 18. New York: W.W. Norton.
Hsun, T. 1963. Basic writings. Trans. B. Watson. New York: Columbia University Press.
Kant, I. 1989. Foundations of the metaphysics of morals. Trans. L. White Beck. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Makdisi, G. 1991. Religion, law and learning in classical Islam. Hampshire: Variorum.
Martin, R., et al. 1997. Defenders of reason in Islam. Oxford: Oneworld Publishers.
Miller, P. 1959. Orthodoxy in Massachusetts. Boston: Beacon.
Nagel, T. 1979. Moral questions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Plato, Euthyphro. n.d. In The works of Plato. Trans. B. Jowett, 57–88. New York: Tudor Publishing Co.
Pocock, J.G.A. 1975. The Machiavellian moment: Florentine political thought and the Atlantic republican tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rappaport, R. 1999. Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reinhart, K. 1997. Before revelation: The boundaries of Muslim moral thought. Albany: SUNY Press.
Sandel, M. 1989. Liberalism and the limits of justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Seligman, A., and R. Weller. 2012. Rethinking pluralism: Ritual, experience and ambiguity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Seligman, A., et al. 2008. Ritual and its consequences: An essay on the limits of sincerity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Skinner, Q. 2002. Visions of politics; Renaissance virtues. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stone, J. 1965. Human law and human justice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Tierney, B. 2008. Natural law and natural rights. In Christianity and law, ed. J. Witte Jr. and F.S. Alexander, 89–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Todorov, T. 1999. The fragility of goodness: Why Bulgaria’s Jews survived the Holocaust. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Williams, B. 1981. ``Moral luck'' pp. 20–40 in his Moral luck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Winnicott, D.W. 1971. Playing and reality. New York: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Seligman, A.B. (2013). Enacting the Moral; Concrete Particularity and Subjunctive Space. In: Musschenga, B., van Harskamp, A. (eds) What Makes Us Moral? On the capacities and conditions for being moral. Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6343-2_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6343-2_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-6342-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6343-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)