Noah Lemos

Intrinsic Value: Concept and Warrant

Preface Acknowledgements Part I. Value, Plurality, Parts and Wholes: 1. The Concept of Intrinsic Value 2. The Bearers of Intrinsic Value 3. Organic Unities and the Principle of Universality 4. Higher goods and the myth of Tithonus 5. Pleasure and its intrinsic value 6. Consciousness, knowledge and the consciousness thesis Part II. Naturalism, Nonnaturalism and Warrant: 7. The distinctiveness of intrinsic value 8. Intrinsic value and modest a priori justification 9. Coherence and experience Appendices Selected bibliography Index.

Value . . . And What Follows

How can we know what is worth seeking or avoiding in life? Is there anything to know? If so, is it in some sense personal? This fresh and engaging work by noted philosopher Joel Kupperman addresses these questions as it examines the epistemology of value. Kupperman looks first at how judgments of values manifest themselves, whether there can be evidence for them, and whether a realistic account is appropriate. Focusing on emotional states, he rejects the notion that there is one primary value, arguing instead for a pluralistic understanding of value. He contends that value is strongly contextual; the value of a particular set of experiences in ones life can depend heavily on how they fit in with or provide contrast to other elements. Kupperman argues both for a realistic account of value-some things really do have a value about which we can have reasonable confidence-and for skepticism about how much we can actually know about value. The study moves on to explore the relations between judgments of value, and moral or social policy decisions of how we should behave. Acknowledging strong objections to the attempt by any group to impose its vision of a good life in a pluralistic society, Kupperman nevertheless argues that proper attention to value leads to perfectionism in social policy. Emphasizing the importance of detail in ethics, he focuses on variations among cases, and examines the weight cultural values can have in the social policy of a liberal society. Going further than previous works in determining what counts as evidence for a judgment of value, this book fills a substantial gap in the literature of ethical philosophy. Tackling difficult issues in an accessible manner, it will interest philosophers and students of ethics, epistemology, and social theory.

Objective Value and Requirements

Ernest Sosa is best known for his work in epistemology and metaphysics, but in his long and distinguished career, he has made significant contributions to ethics and value theory. These include his early work with Roderick Chisholm on the logic of intrinsic value and, in later essays, defenses of objectivity in ethics and value theory. In the first section, I will present some of his replies to arguments against the objectivity of evaluative and normative claims. In the second and third sections, I will explore some issues in value theory in light of his views.