In Face of the Facts

Recently there has been a renewed interest in moral inquiry among American scholars in a variety of disciplines. This collection of accessible essays by scholars in philosophy, political theory, psychology, history, literary studies, sociology, religious studies, anthropology, and legal studies affords a view of the current state of moral inquiry in the American academy, and it offers fresh departures for ethically informed, interdisciplinary scholarship. Seeking neither to reduce values to facts nor facts to values, these essays aim to foster discussion about inquiry and moral judgment, and demonstrate that moral inquiry need not be either dispassionate and value-free or moralistic and preachy.

• Brings together a range of disciplinary perspectives on moral inquiry • Accessible and thought-provoking discussion • A view of the current state of moral inquiry in the American academy

Introduction; 1. Pragmatism, science, and moral inquiry; 2. Political theory and moral responsibility; 3. Moral inquiry within the bounds of politics: a question of victimhood; 4. Moral confidence: three cheers for naturalized ethics; 5. Fighting (over) words: speech, power, and the moral imagination in American history; 6. ‘Of the standard of moral taste’: literary criticism as moral inquiry; 7. The moral force field of Haitian Vodou; 8. Snakes alive: resituating the moral in the study of religion; 9. Social science and the moral revival: dilemmas and difficulties; 10. Religion, morality, and other unmentionables: the revival of moral discourse in the law.