The primal destruction of man was self-love. There is no one who does not love himself; but one must search for the right love and avoid the warped. Indeed you did not love yourself when you did not love the God who made you. These three sentences set side by side show why the problem of self-love in St. Augustine of Hippo constitutes a problem. Self-love is loving God; it is also hating God. Self-love is common to all men; it (...) is restricted to those who love God. Mutually incompatible assertions about self-love jostle one another and demand to be reconciled. --from the Introduction In saying that self-love finds its only true expression in love of God Augustine is formulating in one of many possible ways a principle fundamental to his metaphysical and ethical outlook, namely that moral obligation derives from an obligation to God which is at the same time a call to self-fulfillment. --from the Conclusion. (shrink)

In this urbane and witty book, Ronald de Sousa disputes the widespread notion that reason and emotion are natural antagonists.

This 1988 volume is a collection of thirteen seminal essays on ethics, free will, and the philosophy of mind. The essays deal with such central topics as freedom of the will, moral responsibility, the concept of a person, the structure of the will, the nature of action, the constitution of the self, and the theory of personal ideals. By focusing on the distinctive nature of human freedom, Professor Frankfurt is able to explore fundamental problems of what it is to be (...) a person and of what one should care about in life. (shrink)