Difficulties of Ethical Life

Philosophy is being radically transformed by questions of how to live well. What does such a way of life mean? How are we to understand the meaning of ethicality? What are the obstacles to ethical living? And should we assume that an ethical life is a “better” life? Current developments seem to have outstripped the capacity of traditional forms of reflection to answer these questions. Ranging from existentialism to deconstruction, phenomenology to psychoanalytic theory, and hermeneutics to post-structuralism, these twelve essays take up a wide but clearly connected set of issues relevant to living ethically: race, responsibility, religion, terror, torture, technology, deception, and even the very possibility of an ethical life. Some of the questions addressed are specific to our times; others are ancient questions but with quite contemporary twists.

SHANNON SULLIVAN is Professor of Philosophy, Women's Studies, and African and African American Studies at Penn State University.

DENNIS J. SCHMIDT is Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and German at Pennsylvania State University.