Karma, Causation and Retributive Morality (Conceptual Essays in Ethics and Metaethics)

This collection of essays provides a conceptual analysis of various aspects of moral philosophy. After giving his strikingly novel answer to the question 'Does metaethics have any ethical implication?' Professor Prasad gives his theory of moral language and moral logic, identifying the role of rationality in the moral life. His approach is non-cognitivist, yet neither emotivist nor prescriptivist. He presents an incisive critique of G.E. Moore and concludes that his naturalistic fallacy technique of refuting a theory is unusable.

Professor Prasad's analysis of certain foundational aspects of classical Indian ethics is bold and original. Finally, he discusses some normative issues showing that conceptual analysis is as relevant in their case as it is in the discussion of the logic of morals.

The book will be useful for teachers and students of philosophy and will interest the general readers as well.

About the Author:

Rajendra Prasad (b. 1926) taught Philosophy at Patna University and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has been a Fulbright/Smith-Mundt Fellow, a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation, U.S.A. and until very recently a Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. He has published many scholarly papers in several learned journals. His publications include Regularity, Normativity and Rules of Language and Darsana Sastra Ki Ruparekha (in Hindi); Ends and Means in Private and Public Life (edited). He has also edited the journals Indian Review of Philosophy and Darsanika Traimasika, and is currently a co-editor of Indian Philosophical Quarterly and Paramarsa.

Preface

Acknowledgement

1. Ethics, Metaethics and the Moral Life
2. Types of Metaethical Theories
3. A Persuasion Theory of Moral Language
4. Evaluative, Factual and Referring Expressions
5. Meaning, Criteria and Purposes
6. Obligation, Inclination and Moral Failure
7. Intention and Action
8. Justification in Ethics
9. Rationality, Rationalization and Justification
10. God and Morality : A Conceptual Exploration
11. Moore's Arguments for the Indefinability of Goodness
12. The Otioseness of the Naturalistic Fallacy
13. Karma, Causation and Retributive Morality
14. The Theory of Purusarthas : Revaluation and Reconstruction
15. The Concept of Moksa
16. Why Should One Be Moral? A Normative Exercise in the Context of Contemporary Indian Society
17. Institutions, Roles and Values
18. Means, Ends and Pictures of the Good Life
19. Freedom as a Social Value
20. Suffering, Morality, and Society

Appendix: A List of Publications of Professor, Rajendra Prasad

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