Those who love philosophy books that present new, exciting, and complex theories have been given a gift in Barbara Herman’s The Moral Habitat. In my view, it is also a gift to Kant, since it develops a deeply Kantian account of deliberation as part of showing how perfect and imperfect duties can be seen as working together in a dynamic moral (eco)system of duties of right and of virtue. In the process of doing this, Herman develops a new, intriguing account of imperfect duties and replaces many of Kant’s bad examples with good ones, providing an ideal model for how to argue by example, whether one is Kantian or not. Moreover, by her many intriguing and rich examples, Herman makes many of Kant’s ideas, as well as her revisionary Kantian ideas, available as resources in our shared philosophical practice. Of course, Kantians and others will disagree with some of...
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Book Review|
April 01 2023
The Moral Habitat
Herman, Barbara,
The Moral Habitat
. Oxford
: Oxford University Press
, 2022
. 272 pp.
The Philosophical Review (2023) 132 (2): 309–312.
Citation
Helga Varden; The Moral Habitat. The Philosophical Review 1 April 2023; 132 (2): 309–312. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-10294487
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