The Ethics of Social Roles

The Ethics of Social Roles – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780192843562,0192843567,9780192655585, 0192655582

Product detail:

• ISBN 10: 0192655582
• ISBN 13: 9780192655585
• Author: Alex Barber, Sean Cordell

The various social roles we occupy, such as teacher, parent, or friend, shape our ethical lives and colour our perceptions of each other and ourselves. Social roles have long been a central topic in sociology, and specific social roles frequently feature within applied moral philosophy and professional ethics. In striking contrast, the normative significance of social roles per se—the ‘ethics of social roles’ as a distinct field of philosophical enquiry—has been relatively neglected. Indeed, the view that social roles have genuine ethical bite is often tacitly dismissed as socially regressive, as if the pull of a social role must always be towards ‘knowing one’s place’. The present collection aims to change this by putting social roles back where they belong: at the centre of normative ethics. After an editors’ introduction aimed at readers new to the topic, fourteen original chapters by an international line-up of new and established authors show how the topic of social roles is a kind of missing link between several better-established topics, including collective agency, special obligations, wellbeing, and social and political justice. These contributions are organized into four parts. The first looks at the topic through a historical lens, since philosophers have not always neglected social roles. The second addresses the source of the apparent normative force of social roles. The third examines the relation of a social role’s normativity to its wider institutional context. The fourth looks at implications for self and wellbeing.

Table of contents:

1. Abstracts of Chapters
2. 1. An Overview of Social Roles and Their Ethics
3. 2. Tempted Like Achilles: Reflections on Roles and Role-Recalcitrance in Ancient and Modern Ethics
4. 3. Roles and Virtues: Which is More Important for Confucian Women?
5. 4. John Dewey’s Analysis of Moral Agency as Pragmatist Role Ethics
6. 5. A Good Doctor but a Bad Person? A Puzzle for Role Ethics from Løgstrup
7. 6. All Together Now: When Is a Role Obligation Morally Binding?
8. 7. The Part We Play: Social Group Membership as a Role
9. 8. Explaining Role-Based Reasons
10. 9. Role Ethics and Institutional Functions
11. 10. Role Obligations to Alter Role Obligations
12. 11. Are Obligations of Friendship Role Obligations?
13. 12. My Job and Its Requirements
14. 13. Three Relations Between Roles and the Good
15. 14. Participatory Wellbeing and Roles
16. 15. Virtuous Chameleons: Social Roles, Integrity, and the Value of Compartmentalizati

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