Humane Perspective: Philosophical Reflections on Human Nature, the Search for Meaning, and the Role

The book brings together fourteen essays from the work of John Cottingham on moral philosophy and the philosophy of religion spanning the past fifteen years. The papers are closely related in so far as they all deal with the perennial moral and spiritual challenges of human existence, and the search for meaning and value in human life. As well as being thematically linked, they also share a common style and methodology, illustrating the distinctive goal that has increasingly informed the author's work in recent years, that of promoting a more 'humane' conception of philosophizing. While in no way discarding the technical tools of the professional philosopher such as abstract argumentation and analysis, whose value and importance are unquestionable, this approach is notable for drawing on the full range of resources available to the human mind, including those that depend on literary, artistic, poetic, imaginative, aesthetic, and emotional modes of awareness. In contrast to the model of the philosopher as a kind of detached scrutineer, the essays exemplify the belief that there is a distinctive and valuable kind of philosophical understanding that requires a more involved and engaged stance. The philosophical questions dealt in the volume all fall broadly within the familiar domains of moral philosophy and the philosophy of religion, but the reflections offered on these areas of human thought and practice always aim to be sensitive to how morality and religion actually operate in the lives of the human beings involved.