Overview

"Many questions about moral and legal judgments hinge on how we understand the identity of the agents. The intractability of many of these questions stems, this book argues, from ignoring how we actually connect actions with agents. When making everyday judgments about the morality or legality of actions, we do not use Aristotelian logic but what is termed ""character logic"". The difference is crucial because implicit in character logic is an understanding of personal identity that is both coherent and intuitively familiar. A person, as we conceptualize him in moral and legal contexts, is a character of resolve. By unpacking what it means to be a character of resolve, this book reveals what underwrites our most fundamental beliefs about a person's rights and responsibilities. It also provides a new and useful perspective on a variety of issues about rights and responsibilities that perennially occupy philosophers. This book discusses the following: - How we can make better sense of ""human rights"" if we think of them as ""personal rights"". - How the right to be civilly disobedient, in contrast with ordinary law-breaking, can be justified as a personal right. - What basis we have for holding that someone's responsibility is diminished. - How it makes sense to hold someone responsible for acting irresponsibly. - How it makes sense to distinguish a juvenile offender from someone who should be tried in criminal court. - What kind of correction we should expect from our correctional institutions and how we should design them to achieve that. By making explicit the axioms of character logic and exploring their origins and justification, the book provides a conceptually powerful tool for interpreting the protocols of a person-respecting society."

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9781622738359

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Far and away the most important contribution to personalist philosophy in at least the last 10 years. More, this book effects any and every attempt to speak about persons and the world in which they live. Prust and Geller's 'Character Logic' lifts the heavy burden of Aristotelian categories from the shoulders of Western philosophy once and for all. Follow their thinking out and we will certainly discover the means to reconcile the many dichotomies which continue to plague us: subject/object, mind/body, self/other, etc. 'Character Logic' transforms all such abstractions into concrete modes of activity: the ways and means by which persons come to be. Furthermore, by subtly navigating the practical proceedings of our moral judgements, this 'Character Logic' offers every kind of ethicist a route back to the real world of human intercourse. Put bluntly, this illuminating work could and should change the way philosophy is done across the board. Since it is only the beginning of a new philosophical conversation, it is to be profoundly hoped that this is not the last word on the subject. It is, nevertheless, quite clearly the first sensible word that has been spoken on the subject in some considerable time. Simon Smith Open Research Team, University of Surrey; Editor of 'Appraisal', journal of the British Personalist Forum The concept person is central to Western thought and life but has fallen into philosophical disrepute. Rational discourse about persons seems illusory to many. In this book Prust and Geller reclaim the concept and set out an approach to reasoning about persons. What they term character logic is central to their project. They posit that reasoning about persons is different from reasoning about things. Aristotelian logic is inappropriate because it concerns relationships between categories. For Prust and Geller, persons are not categorical. Instead, persons are identified by the present character of their resolve. Roughly speaking, that means a person is what she intentionally does. Character logic takes the form A does C. Explanation is not causal, but intentional. Importantly, Prust and Geller eschew rough speaking: they use formal language in developing their argument. This short review is insufficient to present their language and lay out their reasoning. I rely here on paraphrase hoping not to distort their meaning too much. (Their formal terms are accessible with clear intuitive and etymological bases. And the presentation is crisp and engaging. The book rewards careful reading.) In developing the moral and legal implications of their theory of persons, the authors explore how persons act with resolve toward other persons, how a person's resolve extends over time, and how a person negotiates her own competing intentions. They discuss the bases of personal rights and personal responsibilities. They posit, defend, and apply an axiom of moral integrity. They conclude by making a rational case for punishment and rehabilitation of persons who commit criminal acts. This book will challenge and excite not only philosophers, but students of law, ethics, society, anthropology, politics, and religion. By giving us new language to reason about personhood, Prust and Geller open a new perspective for our thinking about our life together as persons. Gordon P. Whitaker Professor Emeritus, School of Government The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Author Information

Richard Prust is the author of Wholeness: The Character Logic of Christian Belief, published by Rodopi Press in 2004. He taught Philosophy at St. Andrews University in North Carolina and has been a long-time participant in the Forum on Persons. Jeffery Geller is a retired Philosophy professor, having taught at UNC-Pembroke for several decades. He has held fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and the Camargo Foundation. He received his PhD from Duke University. His publications span a variety of sub-disciplines, including epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy.

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