Robert Cummings Neville 
Metaphysics of Goodness [EPUB ebook] 
Harmony and Form, Beauty and Art, Obligation and Personhood, Flourishing and Civilization

In
Metaphysics of Goodness, Robert Cummings Neville extends Alfred North Whitehead’s project of cultural studies, which was based on a new metaphysics that Whitehead developed in
Adventures of Ideas. Neville’s focus is value or goodness in many modes. The metaphysics treated in this book derive from the Platonic and Confucian traditions, with significant modifications of Whitehead, Peirce, Dewey, Confucius, Xunzi, and Zhou Dunyi. Part one develops a theory of form based on a metaphysics of harmony. Part two elaborates a theory of art based on a metaphysics of beauty. Part three sketches a theory of personhood based on a metaphysics of obligation. Part four discusses civilization in a systematic way based on a metaphysics of flourishing. Throughout the book, Neville elaborates a theory of interpretation that is inspired by Peirce, Dewey, and Xunzi but is not limited to their ideas. While the reasoning of the book is concise, it employs methodologies from many kinds of philosophy, art criticism, ethics, and cultural studies, and sees philosophy as needing to learn from all these disciplines.

قائمة المحتويات

Preface: A Philosophy of Goodness

Philosophical Background and Context

The Plot



Acknowledgments



Part I. Goodness in Harmony and Form



1. Goodness in Experience

Ubiquity, Evolution, and Aesthetic Perception

Harmonies Defined, and Ecosystems

Situations, Perspectives, and Sunsets

Goodness Experienced



2. A Metaphysics of Form as Goodness

Density of Being and Existential Fields

Quantity, Complexity, Simplicity, and Elegance

Narrowness, Width, Vagueness, and Triviality

Focus, Field, Intensity, and Immediacy



3. A Cosmology of Form as Goodness

Possibilities, Determinism, Indeterminism, and Temporality

Actuality, Becoming, Conditions, and Loci of Goodness

Goodness-Identity



4. Testing the Theory

The Question of the Meaning of Goodness

Imaginative Analytic of Goodness

Immediacy and Mediacy in Framing Intensity

Goodness, Engagement, Relations, and Experience



Part II. Goodness in Beauty and Art



5. Beauty in Form

Beauty as What Is Good in Itself

Beauty as Ubiquitous and Ultimate

Beauty as Simplification

Beauty as Experienced



6. Beauty in Art

Art as an Elementary Human Process

Art in Motivation and Creativity

Art as a Basic Response to Existence

Art and Religion



7. To Appreciate Arts

Beauty for Appreciation

Beauty in Form

Beauty in Actualizing Form

Beauty in Repose



8. To Create Arts

To Seek Beauty

To Seek Beauty in Form

To Seek Beauty in Actualizing Form

Beauty in Achieving Beauty: The Artistic Life



Part III. Goodness in Obligation and Personhood



9. Goodness in Being True

Goodness as Conformity

The Goodness of Truth

Being True

The Obligation to Inquiry



10. Goodness in Being Moral

Morality as a Two-Term Relation

Obligation with Freedom

Obligation without Freedom

Achievement of Responsible Identity



11. Goodness in Being Right

Engagement

Appropriate Engagement with the Contours of the World

Engagement as Self-Constitution

Engagement as Finite Limitation



12. Goodness in Being Virtuous

Conformation to the Ultimate Content of Life

The Harmony of Virtue

Virtue-Identity

Virtue and the World’s Goodness



Part IV. Goodness in Flourishing and Civilization



13. Goodness in Human Flourishing

Goodness in Contexts

Civilization

Flourishing

The Global Context of High Civilizations



14. Goodness in Rituals and Institutions

A General Theory of Ritual

Rituals in Human Flourishing

Institutions in High Civilization

Rituals in Global Society and Civilization



15. Goodness in Creativity and Spirit

Initiative

Making a Life

Pursuit of Beauty

The Spirit of Creativity



16. The Goodness in Civilization

Culture and Civilization

Spirit of Civilization: Character

Energy

Creativity



Notes

Bibliography

Index

عن المؤلف

Robert Cummings Neville is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Religion, and Theology and Dean Emeritus of the School of Theology at Boston University. He is the author of many books, including
Defining Religion: Essays in Philosophy of Religion and
The Good Is One, Its Manifestations Many: Confucian Essays on Metaphysics, Morals, Rituals, Institutions, and Genders, both also published by SUNY Press.