Philosophy, Ethics and a Common Humanity Essays in Honour of Raimond Gaita

The work of Raimond Gaita, in books such as Good and Evil: An Absolute Conception, A Common Humanity and The Philosopher?s Dog, has made an outstanding and controversial contribution to philosophy and to the wider culture. In this superb collection an international team of contributors explore issues across the wide range of Gaita?s thought, including the nature of good and evil, philosophy and biography, the unthinkable, Plato and ancient philosophy, Wittgenstein, the religious dimensions of Gaita?s work, aspects of the Holocaust, and aboriginal reconciliation in Australia.

Raimond Gaita: A brief biography Introduction 1. Gaita on recognizing the human Lars Hertzberg 2. The work of saintly love: the religious impulse in Gaita’s writing Stephen Mulhall 3. Insanity, crankiness and evil - and other ways of thinking the unthinkable Jonathan Glover 4. Gaita and Plato: goodness, love and beauty Christopher Cordner 5. Good and Evil and the criminal law Antony Duff 6. In search of goodness Marina Barabas 7. Human dignity between kitsch and deification Avishai Margalit 8. The meaning of what we have done: humanity, invisibility and law in the European settlement of Australia Martin Krygier 9. Primo Levi: an appreciation Robert Manne 10. "It goes deep with me": Plato’s Charmides on knowledge, self-knowledge and integrity M.M. McCabe 11. Romulus, My Father and the ‘virtues of truth’ Genevieve Lloyd 12. Form and content in Romulus, My Father Peter Coghlan 13. On adapting Romulus, My Father Nick Drake 14. A poem and its haunting Peter Steele. Index

Christopher Cordner is Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His main area of interest is moral philosophy, including its Greek and Christian tributaries, and its overlap with aesthetics. He is currently writing a book called Simple Goodness.