Divine Motivation Theory

Widely regarded as one of the foremost figures in contemporary philosophy of religion, Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski has written a new book that will be seen as a major contribution to ethical theory and theological ethics. At the core of the book lies a new form of virtue theory based on the emotions. Distinct from deontrological, consequentialist, and teleological virtue theories, this one has a particular theological, indeed Christain, foundation. The new theory helps to resolve philosophical problems and puzzles of various kinds: the dispute between cognitivism and noncognitivism in moral phychology; the claims and counterclaims of realism and antirealism in the metaphysics of value; and paraoxes of perfect goodness in natural theology, including the problem of evil. A central feature of Zagzebski's theory is the place given to exemplars of goodness. This allows the theory to assume discrete but overlapping forms in different cultures and religions.