Moral Time

This book brings together in one volume some of the very latest developments in moral psychology that were presented at a major American conference in 2004. Moral psychology is a broad area at the intersection of moral philosophy and philosophy of mind and action. Essays in this collection deal with most of the central issues in moral psychology that are of interest to a large number of philosophers today, including important questions in normative ethical theory, meta-ethics, and applied ethics.

“This splendid volume sheds much light on forgiveness, moral repair, and related issues. The multidisciplinary and cross-cultural approach of the volume is particularly helpful with regard to these famously complicated topics. Anyone interested in them will find this book well worth consulting.”

An appreciable part of the scientific community seems to believe that contemporary physical theories are likely to affect the construction of any overall philosophical outlook, especially insofar as they are relevant to the settlement of certain persistent philosophical controversies. Two physical conceptions - the theory of relativity and the quantum theory - which have brought about a reformulation of the fundamental principles common to all the natural sciences, are considered particularly important in this regard. These conceptions have shed new light, it is held, on a number of problems involving empiricism and rationalism, determinism and indeterminism, materialism and spiritualism, idealism and realism. Such philosophical implications of the theory of relativity and quantum theory have been Widely discussed by both philosophers and philosophizing physicists. The trend in this development has been to portray these theories as generally conducive to an idealist stance.