Wonder, Value and God
Regular price
€62.99
A01=Robin Attfield
Agnostics
Aquinas
argument
Author_Robin Attfield
Biotic Relations
Category=QRAB
Characteristic Human Responses
Conferred
craftsmanship and creativity
Darwinian Naturalism
Dimmer
environmental
environmental philosophy
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
Essential Human Capacities
ethics
evolutionary ethics
Fine Tuning Argument
Follow
Free Agents
Good Life
Held
human
Immodest Proposal
Inclines
keith
Make Up
meaningful
Meaningful Relations
Meaningful Work
meaningful work studies
Natural Beauty
Natural World
Non-human Creatures
ourishing
panentheism theory
Peacocke's Account
Peacocke’s Account
philosophy of value and purpose
Sponges
theistic metaphysics
Theodicy
tuning
ward
work
Worthwhile Life
Product details
- ISBN 9781138388161
- Weight: 380g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 18 Sep 2018
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
This book relates the value present in the natural world and in human creativity to an underlying purpose which it traces in creation. It opens by invoking the wonder aroused by nature's value and celebrated by poets, and moves to a cosmic purpose as the best explanation of this value. Natural evils are considered and set in their evolutionary context. Human creativity is later related to inspiration, and to traditional theistic teaching about the purpose of human life. Criticisms of "the value approach" are considered, together with the quest for meaning, and fears that Darwinism undermines it, which are found to be illusory. New ground is broken through this response to the spectre of bleakness. The author's previous studies of meaningful work are applied to the question of the nature of a worthwhile life and life's meaning. While the world's value is argued to point to creation by a transcendent lover of value, human beings are shown to be capable of augmenting that value through their creativity (not least through activities such as craftsmanship and gardening). In integrating the themes of value, creativity and purpose, the book contributes a new synthesis to the literature of philosophy, environmental studies and theology.
Robin Attfield taught philosophy at Cardiff University full-time from 1968 to 2009 and was a doctoral supervisor from 2009 to 2012. He has been a Professor of Philosophy since 1991. In 2008 he was awarded a DLitt by Cardiff University for contributions to Environmental Philosophy. His nine monographs include Creation, Evolution and Meaning, published in 2006, as well as his best-selling textbook Environmental Ethics (2003 and 2014), hailed by Dieter Birnbacher as the best introduction to the subject so far.
