On the Ethical Philosophy of Edith Stein

William E. Tullius is assistant professor of philosophy at American Public University.

This book is a tour de force. William Tullius tells a story that not only gives the key pieces of Stein’s moral theory, but also places her thought within broader European ethical conversations. The drama moves from a Kantian separation of ethical and anthropological argument into Stein’s full-bodied and holistic theory which reunites what Kant separated and makes key steps forward in phenomenological ethics and value theory. Tullius ably draws from the scope of Stein’s writings, making clear that she is a moral theorist to be reckoned with. Those for whom ethical questions are paramount and those for whom the phenomenological tradition is compelling will find here a readable and rigorously articulated account of Stein’s distinct contributions to ethical conversations.

• Introduction: Edith Stein as Moral Philosopher?Part I: Philosophical and Theological Anthropology Across Stein’s WorksChapter 1: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Anthropology: Stein, Scheler, and the Problem of KantChapter 2: Philosophical Anthropology in the Phenomenological Works I: The Basic Structure of Human Nature in On the Problem of EmpathyChapter 3: Philosophical Anthropology in the Phenomenological Works II: Expanding the Structure in Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities and An Investigation Concerning the StateChapter 4: Philosophical and Theological Anthropology in Stein’s Later PhilosophyChapter 5: Final Philosophical Characterization of Steinian Personalism—Being-in-the-MetaxyPart II: Phenomenological and Metaphysical Axiologies in Edith SteinChapter 6: Formal and Material Axiology in the Phenomenological TraditionChapter 7: Stein’s Phenomenological and Metaphysical AxiologyPart III: Systematic Unfolding of a Steinian Ethical TheoryChapter 8: Stein on Human and Personal Moral VocationChapter 9: Phenomenological “Renewal” and Christian “Metanoia”Conclusion: A Steinian Contribution to Moral Debate