Power and Compassion: On Moral Force Ethics and Historical Change - Hardcover

by Bennett Gilbert (Author)

This book presents a theory of the morality of human relations deeply drawn from widespread spiritual traditions, offering an account of the full range of sociality that comprises our moral life. Bennett Gilbert argues that the dynamic character of our choices and actions is developed as the center of philosophical inquiry into ethics. Relying on the tradition of philosophical personalism, the author reads moral life in terms of the central worth and value of human personhood. This fully relational concept supports a picture of the clash and cooperation of two great moral forces, power and compassion. By combining hermeneutics, first-person philosophy, moral philosophy, and existential philosophy of history, Power and Compassion is a philosophical exploration of the ways in which we use our moral force to create meaningfulness in our collective experience.

Author Biography

Bennett Gilbert is adjunct Assistant Professor of History and Philosophy at Portland State University, USA, where he teaches philosophy, history, and philosophy of history. He is the author of A Personalist Philosophy of History (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Ethics and Time in the Philosophy of History: A Cross-Cultural Approach (Bloomsbury, 2023), as well as numerous papers. Besides moral philosophy and philosophy of history, his interests include a broad range of the history of ideas, notably around the beginnings of print in Europe and at the turn of the eighteenth century.