In the ‘Author’s Note to the Second Edition’ in Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor writes: Does one’s integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Unsurprisingly, here we find a provocative interventionContinue reading “Flannery O’Connor On Free Will And Integrity”
Tag Archives: actions
Robert Merton On The Importance Of Knowledge For Analyzing Social Actions
In ‘The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action” (American Sociological Review, Vol. 1, No. 6 (Dec., 1936), pp. 894-904) Robert Merton writes: The most obvious limitation to a correct anticipation of consequences of action is provided by the existing state of knowledge. The extent of this limitation may be best appreciated by assuming the simplest case whereContinue reading “Robert Merton On The Importance Of Knowledge For Analyzing Social Actions”
On The Alleged Undesirability of Inconsistency
Inconsistency in our beliefs–and thus actions–is often held to be not just a cognitive failure, a breakdown of rationality, but also a moral failure of sorts. Sometimes the inconsistent are accused of hypocrisy, of disingenuousness. We are urged to forensically examine their utterances and actions, sifting through the traces they leave, all the better to indictContinue reading “On The Alleged Undesirability of Inconsistency”
April Bernard on Margaret Drabble as Moral Psychologist
In reviewing a selection of Margaret Drabble‘s novels, April Bernard writes: Drabble, as a moralist, seems to believe that it is less important what and why we do what we do, than how we think about it—before, during, after….If the reason that a man always sins is that he is sinful, what matters can onlyContinue reading “April Bernard on Margaret Drabble as Moral Psychologist”
Samir Chopra 