Lisa Tessman's Books

Moral Failure

On the Impossible Demands of Morality

By: Lisa Tessman

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Moral Failure

On the Impossible Demands of Morality

By: Lisa Tessman

Moral Failure: On the Impossible Demands of Morality asks what happens when the sense that "I must" collides with the realization that "I can't." Bringing together philosophical and empirical work in moral psychology, Lisa Tessman here examines moral requirements that are non-negotiable and that contravene the principle that "ought implies can." In some cases, it is because two non-negotiable requirements conflict that one of them becomes impossible to satisfy, and yet remains binding. In other cases, performing a particular action may be non-negotiably required -- even if it is impossible -- because not performing the action is unthinkable. After offering both conceptual and empirical explanations of the experience of impossible moral requirements and the ensuing failures to fulfill them, Tessman considers what to make of such experience, and in particular, what role such experience has in the construction of value and of moral authority. According to the constructivist account that the book proposes, some moral requirements can be authoritative even when they are impossible to fulfill. Tessman points out a tendency to not acknowledge the difficulties that impossible moral requirements and unavoidable moral failures create in moral life, and traces this tendency through several different literatures, from scholarship on Holocaust testimony to discussions of ideal and nonideal theory, from theories of supererogation to debates about moral demandingness and to feminist care ethics.

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Page Count

297

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190650915

ISBN 13

9780190650919

Burdened Virtues

Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

By: Lisa Tessman

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Burdened Virtues

Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

By: Lisa Tessman

Lisa Tessman's Burdened Virtues is a deeply original and provocative work that engages questions central to feminist theory and practice, from the perspective of Aristotelian ethics. Focused primarily on selves who endure and resist oppression, she addresses the ways in which devastating conditions confronted by these selves both limit and burden their moral goodness, and affect their possibilities of flourishing. She describes two different forms of "moral trouble" prevalent under oppression. The first is that the oppressed self may be morally damaged, prevented from developing or exercising some of the virtues; the second is that the very conditions of oppression require the oppressed to develop a set of virtues that carry a moral cost to those who practice them--traits that Tessman refers to as "burdened virtues." These virtues have the unusual feature of being disjoined from their bearer's own well being. Tessman's work focuses on issues that have been missed by many feminist moral theories, and her use of the virtue ethics framework brings feminist concerns more closely into contact with mainstream ethical theory. This book will appeal to feminist theorists in philosophy and women's studies, but also more broadly, ethicists and social theorists.

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Page Count

198

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199884463

ISBN 13

9780199884469

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

By: Lisa Tessman

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When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

By: Lisa Tessman

Suppose that in an emergency evacuation of a hospital after a flood, not all of the patients can make it out alive. You are the doctor faced with the choice between abandoning these patients to die alone and in pain, or injecting them with a lethal dose of drugs, without consent, so that they die peacefully. Perhaps no one will be able to blame you whatever you decide, but, whichever action you choose, you will remain burdened by guilt. What happens, in cases like this, when, no matter what you do, you are destined for moral failure? What happens when there is no available means of doing the right thing? Human life is filled with such impossible moral decisions. These choices and case studies that demonstrate them form the focus of Lisa Tessman's arresting and provocative work. Many philosophers believe that there are simply no situations in which what you morally ought to do is something that you can't do, because they think that you can't be required to do something unless it's actually in your power to do it. Despite this, real life presents us daily with situations in which we feel that we have failed morally even when no right action would have been possible. Lisa Tessman boldly argues that sometimes we feel this way because we have encountered an 'impossible moral requirement.' Drawing on philosophy, empirical psychology, and evolutionary theory, When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible explores how and why human beings have constructed moral requirements to be binding even when they are impossible to fulfill.

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Page Count

185

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190657596

ISBN 13

9780190657598

Burdened Virtues

Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

By: Lisa Tessman

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Burdened Virtues

Virtue Ethics for Liberatory Struggles

By: Lisa Tessman

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Page Count

199

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0198039824

ISBN 13

9780198039822

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

By: Lisa Tessman

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When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

By: Lisa Tessman

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Page Count

185

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190657596

ISBN 13

9780190657598

Moral Failure

On the Impossible Demands of Morality

By: Lisa Tessman

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Moral Failure

On the Impossible Demands of Morality

By: Lisa Tessman

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297

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190650915

ISBN 13

9780190650919

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

By: Lisa Sowle Cahill

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Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Pacifism, Just War, and Peacebuilding

By: Lisa Sowle Cahill

This book is a contribution to the Christian ethics of war and peace. It advances peacebuilding as a needed challenge to and expansion of the traditional framework of just-war theory and pacifism. It builds on a critical reading of historical landmarks from the Bible through Augustine, Aquinas, the Reformers, Christian peace movements, and key modern figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, and recent popes. Similar to just-war theory, peacebuilding is committed to social change and social justice but includes some theorists and practitioners who accept the use of force in extreme cases of self-defense or humanitarian intervention. Unlike just-war theorists, they do not see the justification of war as part of the Christian mission. Unlike traditional pacifists, they do see social change as necessary and possible and, as such, requiring Christian participation in public efforts. Cahill argues that transformative Christian social participation is demanded by the gospel and the example of Jesus, and can produce the avoidance, resolution, or reduction of conflicts. And yet obstacles are significant, and expectations must be realistic. Decisions to use armed force against injustice, even when they meet the criteria of just war, will be ambiguous and tragic from a Christian perspective. Regarding war and peace, the focus of Christian theology, ethics, and practice should not be on justifying war but on practical and hopeful interreligious peacebuilding.

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Page Count

394

Publisher

Fortress Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1506457797

ISBN 13

9781506457796

We Should Meet in Air

A Graphic Memoir on Reading Sylvia Plath

By: Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg

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We Should Meet in Air

A Graphic Memoir on Reading Sylvia Plath

By: Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg

Part memoir, part literary biography, the writing of Sylvia Plath teaches one young woman the power of her own feelings.

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Page Count

208

Published Date

ISBN 10

1951491068

ISBN 13

9781951491062

Book's by Lisa Tessman

Moral Failure

Moral Failure

Burdened Virtues

Burdened Virtues

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

Burdened Virtues

Burdened Virtues

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible

Moral Failure

Moral Failure

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

We Should Meet in Air

We Should Meet in Air

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