The Roots of Morality by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

The Roots of Morality by Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

Argues the case for a foundationalist ethics centrally based on an empirical understanding of human nature. Demonstrates that the tension between the darker and the more positive sides of human nature calls for an interdisciplinary therapeutic resolution.

“This innovative and clearly written book is a significant contribution to the philosophy of the body, to ethics, and to phenomenology”

—Robert P. Crease, SUNY, Stony Brook

“The Roots of Morality is the crowning glory of Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s career-long three-volume survey of the sources of human thinking, power, and morals in the operations of human nature. With her trademark erudition and comprehensiveness of thought, drawing dramatically from disciplines as diverse as biology, sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, and literature, she traces the origins of morality in patterns of human behavior that shape our troubled journey from birth to death. Sheets-Johnstone gives a breathtaking tour of the deep tensions between our aggressive self-interest and our counterbalancing concern for the welfare of others. Along the way, she guides us into the depths of male-male competition, the cultural origins of war, our reliance on ideologies of immortality to flee from death, and the empathic strands of our nature that make possible our capacities for care, nurturance, and trust.”

—Mark Johnson, University of Oregon

“The Roots of Morality is a powerful examination of the origins of basic moral character from the interplay of human nature and social affective bodily experiences. Sheets-Johnstone offers ample evidence that moral education must be based not in formulation of moral principles, but rather firmly rooted in understandings of the nature of human nature. This carefully argued, well-documented text offers a compelling challenge to traditional approaches to moral theorizing.”

—Nancy Tuana, Pennsylvania State University

“Maxine Sheets-Johnstone handles weighty philosophy like a dancer: she writes gracefully of the body, movement, creativity, the smile, and vital aspects of play, not just cerebral matter.”

—E. James Lieberman ForeWord

“[The Roots of Morality] provides an indispensable supplement to any of a number of disciplines concerned with the question of what it is to be human.”

—Phillip Guddemi Cybernetics and Human Knowing

Maxine Sheets-Johnstone is an independent scholar affiliated with the Department of Philosophy, University of Oregon. This volume is the third in a series of studies about “roots.” The previous volumes are The Roots of Thinking (1990) and The Roots of Power (1994).

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780271033938
ISBN 10	0271033932
Title	The Roots of Morality
Author	Maxine Sheets-Johnstone
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pennsylvania State University Press
Year published	2012-09-15
Number of pages	464
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.