{"product_id":"propositional-ethics-s-c-sayles-9798243243926","title":"Propositional Ethics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Moral Obligation","description":"\u003cb\u003ePropositional Ethics: Authority, Judgment, and the Conditions of Moral Obligation\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEvery age speaks confidently about right and wrong. Moral language saturates public life-justice, harm, rights, dignity, responsibility-yet one question is persistently avoided: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy what authority do moral claims bind at all?\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ePropositional Ethics\u003c\/i\u003e does not offer another ethical theory competing for attention alongside utilitarianism, deontology, or virtue ethics. It asks a more fundamental question-one that those theories quietly presuppose but rarely examine. Before ethics can judge actions, persons, or societies, ethics itself must be judged. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book argues that moral judgment is not optional, expressive, or merely social. It is irreducibly normative, binding, and inescapable. But binding judgment requires more than sentiment, consensus, reason, or outcomes. It requires \u003cb\u003eauthority\u003c\/b\u003e-authority with the right to judge, not merely the power to enforce. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough a rigorous, proposition-driven analysis, \u003ci\u003ePropositional Ethics\u003c\/i\u003e shows: \u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy moral judgment cannot be reduced to preference, culture, or strategy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy normativity entails obligation-and obligation entails authority\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy authority must be jurisdictional to be legitimate\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy no immanent source (reason, outcomes, consensus, or tradition) can bear ultimate moral authority\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy moral claims function as truth-claims requiring propositional clarity\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy accountability forces the question of ultimacy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy ethics collapses into power when authority is denied or concealed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWhy judgment cannot be suspended without contradiction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003eThe conclusion reached is stark but unavoidable: \u003cb\u003eethics must either stand under confessed authority or abandon its claim to bind.\u003c\/b\u003e There is no stable middle ground. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eImportantly, this volume does \u003cb\u003enot\u003c\/b\u003e name that authority. It stops precisely where philosophy must stop. Its task is not confession, but exposure-demonstrating that moral discourse cannot remain intelligible without answering a question it has long tried to evade. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ePropositional Ethics\u003c\/i\u003e is written for philosophers, theologians, scholars, and serious readers dissatisfied with ethical systems that command obedience without explaining their right to do so. It is the first part of a two-volume work, preparing the ground for a theological answer without prematurely importing it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is not a book about what to do. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt is a book about \u003cb\u003ewhether ethics has the right to tell us what to do at all\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e S. C. Sayles\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798243243926\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/10\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 450\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.32lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.91d","brand":"S. C. Sayles","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48623565177087,"sku":"9798243243926","price":32.17,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/propositional-ethics-s-c-sayles-9798243243926","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}