Towards a Phenomenological Axiology: Discovering What Matters - Hardcover

by Roberta de Monticelli (Author)

​1. Introduction2. Phenomenology of the Cynical Consciousness3. Where is Socrates?4. The Normative Embodiment of Practical Reason5. Truth Suspended6. Value: Prolegomena to a Phenomenological Axiology

Back Jacket

This book attempts to open up a path towards a phenomenological theory of values (more technically, a phenomenological axiology). By drawing on everyday experience, and dissociating the notion of value from that of tradition, it shows how emotional sensibility can be integrated to practical reason. This project was prompted by the persuasion that the fragility of democracy, and the current public irrelevance of the ideal principles which support it, largely depend on the inability of modern philosophy to overcome the well-entrenched skepticism about the power of practical reason. The book begins with a phenomenology of cynical consciousness, continues with a survey of still influential theories of value rooted in 20th century philosophy, and finally offers an outline of a bottom-up axiology that revives the anti-skeptical legacy of phenomenology, without ignoring the standards set by contemporary metaethics.

Author Biography

Roberta De Monticelli is currently Full Professor for Philosophy of Personhood at San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. She has been Full Professor of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1989-2004). She is Chief Editor of "Phenomenology and Mind". Among her books: L'avenir de la phénoménologie (1997) and L'ascèse philosophique - Phénoménologie et Platonisme (1995).