Inhaltsangabe
Following an explanation of the nature of an action, the topic is limited to the motives of actions which are simultaneously morally good and obligatory. Motives cause actions only upon being freely accepted. The book proposes a novel vision of a sixfold motivation of moral actions: 1. The value of states of affairs the agent intends to realize - not just as a source of our pleasure or happiness, but because of their own value. 2. The moral obligation itself requires an obedience its object cannot explain. 3. The moral value of one's own action (the will to be and do the good). 4. A universal call to perform good actions (not to perform evil ones) not only here and now. 5. God has to be responded to, at least implicitly. 6. The agent's own happiness, while not being the prime motive. It is pointed out that, while some of these motives must be explicitly present before the agent's mind and be adequately responded to for an obligatory action to be morally good, others, especially the fifth and the sixth one, need only be implicitly present in the sense of not being consciously rejected by the agent. The concluding remarks emphasize that, ultimately the moral action aims at a surrender to something eternal, and that in many cases improper motives are mixed with the ones investigated, but that this realistic recognition of the human situation is not an argument against the analyses presented.
Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor
Josef Seifert, born in 1945, received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Salzburg in 1969 and his Habilitation at the University in Munich in 1975. He served as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Salzburg, subsequently at the University of Dallas, then at the International Academy of Philosophy (IAP) in Texas. He is Founding Rector (1986- ) of the IAP in Liechtenstein. 2004-2012, he served as Full Professor at the IAP located at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, and since 2011, he holds the Dietrich von Hildebrand Chair for Realist Phenomenology at the IAP-IFES (Instituto de Filosofía Edith Stein) in Granada/Spain. Professor Seifert has published 360 articles in 12 languages and 29 books. His philosophical work deals with epistemology, logic, methodology, game theory, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of religion (including proofs of God’s existence), philosophical anthropology, ethics, and aesthetics. He is the leading contemporary representative of phenomenological realism. Books published in English include: Back to Things in Themselves—A Phenomenological Foundation of Classical Realism, Second Edition (London: Routledge, 2013); Christian Philosophy and Free Will (South Bend/Indiana: St. Augustine Press, 2015); and True Love (South Bend/Indiana: St. Augustine Press, 2015). He also has received numerous honors and awards, such as the European Community Medal of Merit and the “Austrian Cross of Merit for Science and Art 1st class.” Under the pen name Melchior Seifert, he has also published five short stories.
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