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An Atheist's Values (1964) By Richard Robinson (1902-1996)Fellow of Oriel CollegeOxfordOXFORDAT THE CLARENDON PRESS1964Oxford Universty Press, Amen House, London E.C.4GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTONBOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCACAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI IBADAN ACCRAKUALA LUMPUR HONG KONGOxford University Press 1964
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PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAINAT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORDBY VIVIAN RIDLERPRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITYAUTHOR'S NOTEThis book arose as a course of lectures;and no attempt has been madeto remove the lecturing styleCONTENTS* Index: Historical Writings* Home to Positive Atheism * 1. THE NATURE OF THE QUESTION 9o 1.1. Introduction 9o 1.2. The Search For The Good 14o 1.3. The Search For The Property Goodness 18o 1.4. The Choice of Goods 24o 1.5. Means And Ends 29o 1.6. Wise And Foolish Choice 35o 1.7. Judgement 41o 1.8. Objections to The Enterprise 43 * 2. PERSONAL GOODS 48o 2.1. Principles of Choice 48o 2.2. Life 54o 2.3. Beauty 57+ 2.31. The word 'beauty' 57+ 2.32. Beauty is a great good 59+ 2.33. Art and sex 61o 2.4. Truth 65+ 2.41. The ideal of Truth 65+ 2.42. Truth is a great good 67o 2.5. Reason 70+ 2.501. Virtue 70+ 2.502. The word 'reason' 72+ 2.503. The love of truth 73
 
+ 2.504. Respect for reasons 74+ 2.505. The love of consistency 77+ 2.506. Deductiveness 80+ 2.507. The pursuit of certainty 81+ 2.508. The pursuit of probability 84+ 2.509. Respect for evidence 88+ 2.510. Tentativeness 94+ 2.511. The submission of reason 96+ 2.512. Practical reason 98+ 2.513. Depreciations of reason 100o 2.6. Love 105o 2.7. Conscientiousness 108o 2.8. Religion 113+ 2.81. Religion and reason 113+ 2.82. Faith 118+ 2.83. There is no god or after-life 123+ 2.84. Religion and reasons for morality 130+ 2.85. Religion and causes of morality 133+ 2.86. The ethics of the synoptic gospels 140+ 2.87. Criticism of the synoptic gospels 150+ 2.88. The human situation 155 * 3. POLITICAL GOODS 158o 3.1. The State 158+ 3.11. Political goods 158+ 3.12. Is the State a great good? 160+ 3.13. No State should be worshipped 161+ 3.14. States are moral agents 168o 3.2. Equality 173+ 3.21. Equality in political power 173+ 3.22. Equality before the law 176+ 3.23. Equality in wealth 178+ 3.24. Equality in respect 181+ 3.25. The basis of equality 184o 3.3. Freedom 187+ 3.31. Freedom is a good 187+ 3.32. Muddles about freedom 194o 3-4. Tolerance 198+ 3.41. The principle of tolerance 198+ 3.42. Free speech 203+ 3.43. All men are fallible 207+ 3.44. The limits of tolerance 214o 3.5. Peace and Justice 219+ 3.51. The uses of government 219+ 3.52. Socialism 222+ 3.53. The prime ends of government 224o 3.6. Democracy 228+ 3.61. The word 'democracy' 228+ 3.62. Democracy is a great good 235+ 3.63. Plato's argument against democracy 243+ 3.64. The maintenance of democracy 248 * INDEX 254Graphic RuleAN ATHEIST'S VALUES
 
* HTML Table of Contents* Index: Historical Writings* Home to Positive AtheismGraphic Rule1THE NATURE OF THE QUESTION* Table of ContentsGraphic Rule* 1.1. Introduction 9* 1.2. The Search For The Good 14* 1.3. The Search For The Property Goodness 18* 1.4. The Choice of Goods 24* 1.5. Means And Ends 29* 1.6. Wise And Foolish Choice 35* 1.7. Judgement 41* 1.8. Objections to The Enterprise 43Graphic Rule1.1. INTRODUCTION* Table of ContentsWe often hear talk of 'Christian values'. Those who use this phrase are confidentthat everybody knows what the Christian values are. But I do not know what theyare. For example, I am puzzled whether thrift is a Christian value in view of thefact that, whereas thrift is often praised by people calling themselves Christian,it is rejected by Jesus in the gospels.We often hear talk of 'Western values', as if we knew quite well what they are. Ifind this puzzling too. Do they include capitalism? Do they include promise-keeping? If so, is promise-keeping therefore not an Eastern value?The Cambridge Journal, iii. 368, wrote of 'the very real conviction of Spaniardsthat human, and not mechanical, values alone really count'. What is thisdistinction between human and mechanical values? If you love your mother that is ahuman value, but if you love your car that is a mechanical value? In that case theJournal was saying that according to the Spaniards your love of your car does not'really count', and hence may be overridden and disregarded.In the Sunday Times of 27 July 1958 someone wrote of the 'unshaken belief thatvalues just cannot be the products of evolution'. This also seems mysterious. Ivalue birds, and I believe that birds are products of evolution. I also believethat I the valuer am myself a product of evolution, and that, until the higheranimals were evolved, no valuing was done on this earth and nothing was considereda value. These seem to be platitudes which only the rare fundamentalists deny; butI cannot imagine what else the writer can have meant to deny.Mr Gollancz wrote and published a book which he called Our Threatened Values. ButI could not make out what these values were, nor whether the threat consisted inpeople's ceasing to value them or in their ceasing to be able to realize themJoyce Cary in a broadcast (The Listener, 17 January 1952) spoke of 'the feeling
of 00

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Jack Maurice

Where's the download option for this electronic book? If anyone knows where I can read this book please advise. Thanks! Thanks! Than sk!

reply05 / 22 / 2010
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