Nathan Tierney is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at California Lutheran University.

"Tierney gives us an account of moral ideals that is philosophically sophisticated, psychologically realistic, and sensitive to our nature as imaginative moral creatures. Moral philosophy is desperately in need of such an account, if it is going to address the needs and motivations of actual human beings. With brevity, subtlety, and deep insight, Tierney shows us what is unsatisfactory about a morality grounded on universal rules and based on a notion of moral motivation as compulsion. He then offers his alternative account, which focuses, not on rules, but rather on imaginative, ethical ideals. Nobody, to my knowledge, has explored these dimensions of our moral experience, and nobody has addressed the issues of imaginative ethical ideals with this kind of sophistication and clinical adequacy." — Mark L. Johnson, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

• Preface Part 1. Imagination in Ethics: Philosophical Aspects 1. Contemporary Dilemmas in the Project of Ethical Understanding The Failure of the Ethics of PrincipleThe Mark of the EthicalImagination's Fate 2. Hume and Smith: Imagination in the Extension of Sympathy 3. Kant Kant's General Theory of ImaginationImagination in Moral Judgement and Feeling 4. The Seeing-As Concept of Imagination IntroductionWittgenstein's Concept of Seeing-asSchematisms of Interpretation 5. Ethical Ideas The Nature of IdealsKierkegaard's Approach to Ethical IdealizationIdeals in Moral Reflection 6. The Moral Philosophy of the Self IntroductionThe Self in Moral Life Part 2: Psychological Aspects 7. The Self in Classical Psychoanalysis 8. Ethical Idealization in Classical Psychoanalysis Freud Later Developments in Classical PsychoanalysisHartmann's Ego Psychology 9. Heinz Kohut's Psychoanalytic Self Psychology The Bipolar SelfMetaphsychology 10. Narcissism and Ethical Idealization in Self Psychology Part 3. Conclusions and Implications 11. Moral Authority for a Free People Autonomy and AuthorityVirtue Ethics ReconsideredTheory and Practice: Relativism and the Theoretician's Dilemma ReconsideredDemocracy and Moral Authority Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

Nathan Tierney is Chair of the Department of Philosophy at California Lutheran University.

"Tierney gives us an account of moral ideals that is philosophically sophisticated, psychologically realistic, and sensitive to our nature as imaginative moral creatures. Moral philosophy is desperately in need of such an account, if it is going to address the needs and motivations of actual human beings. With brevity, subtlety, and deep insight, Tierney shows us what is unsatisfactory about a morality grounded on universal rules and based on a notion of moral motivation as compulsion. He then offers his alternative account, which focuses, not on rules, but rather on imaginative, ethical ideals. Nobody, to my knowledge, has explored these dimensions of our moral experience, and nobody has addressed the issues of imaginative ethical ideals with this kind of sophistication and clinical adequacy." — Mark L. Johnson, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

• Preface Part 1. Imagination in Ethics: Philosophical Aspects 1. Contemporary Dilemmas in the Project of Ethical Understanding The Failure of the Ethics of PrincipleThe Mark of the EthicalImagination's Fate 2. Hume and Smith: Imagination in the Extension of Sympathy 3. Kant Kant's General Theory of ImaginationImagination in Moral Judgement and Feeling 4. The Seeing-As Concept of Imagination IntroductionWittgenstein's Concept of Seeing-asSchematisms of Interpretation 5. Ethical Ideas The Nature of IdealsKierkegaard's Approach to Ethical IdealizationIdeals in Moral Reflection 6. The Moral Philosophy of the Self IntroductionThe Self in Moral Life Part 2: Psychological Aspects 7. The Self in Classical Psychoanalysis 8. Ethical Idealization in Classical Psychoanalysis Freud Later Developments in Classical PsychoanalysisHartmann's Ego Psychology 9. Heinz Kohut's Psychoanalytic Self Psychology The Bipolar SelfMetaphsychology 10. Narcissism and Ethical Idealization in Self Psychology Part 3. Conclusions and Implications 11. Moral Authority for a Free People Autonomy and AuthorityVirtue Ethics ReconsideredTheory and Practice: Relativism and the Theoretician's Dilemma ReconsideredDemocracy and Moral Authority Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index