Ethics and the Discovery of the Unconscious (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistics Psychology) [Paperback]

John Hanwell Riker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 1997 | Series: Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistics Psychology

This book shows why the discovery of the unconscious by Nietzsche and Freud requires a reconception of the concepts of moral agency and responsibility and even of morality itself. It explicates how contemporary psychology has taken over the traditional task of ethics in elucidating a theory of human well-being, but criticizes this psychology for being unable to generate adequate notions of either responsibility or moral agency. Riker develops a new moral psychology in which the reality of unconscious functioning is included within a theory of responsibility, and the agent's primary ethic concern becomes knowing what her unconscious motivations are and integrating them into a morally and psychologically mature self.

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About the Author

John Hanwell Riker is Professor of Philosophy at Colorado College. He is the author of Human Excellence and an Ecological Conception of the Psyche, also published by SUNY Press, and The Art of Ethical Thinking.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (July 10, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791434265
• ISBN-13: 978-0791434260
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,381,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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