Human Transactions

"This is an original and provocative work that asserts--and arguably demonstrates--the conjunction between ethics and metaphysics. Stahl writes in an authentic and distinctive voice; he not only presents arguments--it is clear that he also believes them. The point he stresses repeatedly is not a version of 'compatibilism' between science and ethics, between the material and moral worlds--but the necessity of the relation between them (and so also, of course, of its possibility). This is an important thesis from which both moral philosophers and researchers in the sciences can learn. Stahl calls attention to significant issues in ethics and in the relation between ethics and epistemology--and does this in a way that is at once challenging and evocative. This is a valuable addition to the literature." --Berel Lang, State University of New York at Albany

• Acknowledgments Introduction: The Tree Original Questions 1. On Not Reducing Agents to Organisms People and Process Levels of Process The Emergence of Persons within Process Methodological Problems and Prospects 2. Biological and Ethical Processes Health at Different Levels of Process "Health" and "Disease" as Integrative Concepts Morality as an Ordering Principle Health and Morality as Levels of Integration Emergent Levels of Space and Time Replies to Some Criticisms Implications of the Bioethical Parallels 3. The Exemplary Status of Moral Acts Meaning in History History and Evolution as Limits to Moral Meaning Acts in Moral Space and Time Moral Judgment as Both Reflective and Determinant Transition to the Issues of History 4. W.W. Miller and the Midworld of Action Miller's Role in the Discussion Miller's Basic Philosophic Stance The Finite Act as Constitutional The Role of "Functional Objects" Transition Back to the Original Questions 5. The Constitutional Status of the Three Original Questions The Status of the Original Questions The Questions as Representing the Dialectic of Process Reformulations of Question 1 Reformulations of Question 2 Reformulations of Question 3 Transition to Issues of Methodology 6. Self and the Focus of Significance The Status of Inquiry in The Developmental Sciences Organism and Environment Can Be Treated as Separate Entities Similar Outcomes Are the Result of Similar Processes Science Is Value Free The Concept of "Locus of Significance" Transition to Issues of Development 7. Meaning as the Order of Processes The Continuity of Developmental Processes Deprivation Experiments, Both Biological and Moral The Inseparability of Subject and Object The Drive toward Reductionism Irreducible Outcome in Development Taking the Outcome as the Locus of Significance 8. Albert Hofstadter and the Dialectic of Process The Next Steps of the Argument The Historical Dialectic of Aesthetic Theory The Level of Truth of Statement The Level of Truth of Things The Level of Truth of Spirit The Relations between the Three Modes of Truth Relationships between the Levels of Ownness The Interpenetration of the Three Modes of Truth The Demand for Ownness with All That Is 9. Human Transactions as the Locus of Significance What Remains to Be Done Necessity Is in the Conditions of Process Returning to Socrates' Question The Problem of the Regress One More Time Dissolving the Problem of Schematism The Emergence of Meaning in Time Notes Bibliography Index