Against Ethics

' ...one of the most important works on philosophical ethics written in recent years...Caputo speaks with a passion and a concern that are rare in academic philosophy. His profound sense of humor deepens the passion of the viewpoints he develops' - Mark C. Taylor. '...a counterethics whose multiple voices will be heard long after the trivializing arguments of many analytic ethicists have vanished and the arcane formulations of many postmoderns jettisoned...The either/or of this dialogue is shown as the topos of a postmodern ethics' - Edith Wyschogrod. In "Against Ethics", John D. Caputo undertakes a passionate, poetic, and satiric search for the basis of an ethics in the postmodern situation. Restaging Fear and Trembling, Caputo defends the notion of obligation without ethics, of responsibility without the support of ethical foundations. Retelling the story of Abraham and Isaac, Caputo strikes the pose of a postmodern-day Johannes de Silentio, accompanied by communications from such startling figures as Johanna de Silentio, Felix Sineculpa, and Magdalena de la Cruz. In dialogue with the thought of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, and Lyotard, Caputo forges a challenging, original account of what is possible and what is not possible for a continentalist ethics today.