A01=Andre Grahle
agency
analytic philosophy
Author_Andre Grahle
Category=QDHR9
Category=QDTQ
duty
emotions
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Ethics
ideals
meaning of life
meta-ethics
morality
normativity
virtue
Product details
- ISBN 9781786611420
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 17 Jun 2025
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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The book develops a theory of ideals as conceptions of admirable ways of being. It provides a
story of what it means to have an ideal and why the rationality of acquiring one’s ideals implies a
greater degree of selectivity than does our admiration for the manifestation of ideals in others.
Having ideals is understood as a relationship between an agent and an ideal, consisting of a set of
emotional dispositions, at the heart of which lies a feeling of a calling to be as represented by the
ideal. This relationship is normatively significant. It provides the agent with a reason to try to live
up to one’s ideal. The question arises, moreover, whether a life suffused with ideals is a better life.
Here it is argued that the pursuit of one’s ideals doesn’t necessarily make one happier, but has the
potential of rendering one’s life more meaningful in a number of ways.
story of what it means to have an ideal and why the rationality of acquiring one’s ideals implies a
greater degree of selectivity than does our admiration for the manifestation of ideals in others.
Having ideals is understood as a relationship between an agent and an ideal, consisting of a set of
emotional dispositions, at the heart of which lies a feeling of a calling to be as represented by the
ideal. This relationship is normatively significant. It provides the agent with a reason to try to live
up to one’s ideal. The question arises, moreover, whether a life suffused with ideals is a better life.
Here it is argued that the pursuit of one’s ideals doesn’t necessarily make one happier, but has the
potential of rendering one’s life more meaningful in a number of ways.
André Grahle is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU).
