Books on Atheist Morality

MattusMaximus

Intellectual Gladiator
MattusMaximus
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Jan 26, 2006
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I was just interested in seeing what books my fellow Forumites have read concerning morality & ethics from an atheist perspective.

I'll start...

"Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe" by Erik J. Wielenberg

What are your picks?
 
Well…Kant seems to be the obvious one. I mean, he’s not actually an atheist but he did construct his system of morality as if he was one

Emmanuel Levinas, while not exactly a militant atheist, does a lot of work in locating morality in the human rather than the divine domain – as far as I understand his stuff (it’s tough going, to say the least), it’s the mere fact of ‘other being’ – our position in relation to that which of the same world as us, and yet not us, which generates a sort of ‘infinite obligation’. ‘Entre Nous’ is one of his classics, and has a translated Routledge edition.

A big fan of Levinas who is a militant atheist (he’s openly said that religion of any sort is utterly incompatible with philosophy) is Simon Critchley. I’ve not read his latest, ‘Infinitely Demanding’, as yet but it’s apparently a pretty challenging work on the obligation to political action

Hope that’s helpful…
 
Personally, I don't get my morality from books.

I can see where this would be an interesting topic, but it's not interesting to me.
 
I assume you mean as a quick defense to the charge that atheists have no morals? I don't know one off-hand.

Of course, considering the statement

MattusMaximus said:
what books my fellow Forumites have read concerning morality & ethics from an atheist perspective.
Click to expand...

From the atheist perspective, in the physical sense, ALL books dealing with morality & ethics ARE books dealing with morality & ethics, including (but not limited to) the Wholly Babble, which isn't all bad. "Thou shalt not kill," for example, is not a bad rule, regardless of theism/atheism! They were written by humans and therefore contain human moral systems. One option is to invent a God and convince others to subscribe to your morality...
 
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I don't read such. My reasons for being atheist are mine, and aren't much informed by the reasons of others, except coincidentally.
 
I just read the bible, with specific focus on the Old Testament. Then I have a pretty good idea of what kinds of morals NOT to follow.
 
Everyday Ethics: Inspired Solutions to Real-Life Dilemmas by Joshua Halberstam.

From the back cover: "Halberstam demolishes the cliches of both religion and psychotherapy and entices us into looking at the small actions that make up the big picture of our character and value"

And: "Everyday Ethics is the moral equivalent of an aerobic dance session, as exhilerating as it is instructive."
 
I developed my moral feelings on my own. However, I found "The Moral Animal" a very interesting explination of why morals are universal.
 
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