Obligation and the Fact of Sense

Bryan Lueck offers a substantially new solution to a classic philosophical problem: how is it possible that morality genuinely obligates us, binding us without regard to our perceived or actual well-being? Staging a fruitful dialogue between the analytic and Continental philosophical traditions, while reflecting specifically on the work of Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Serres and Nancy, Lueck offers a creative new approach. Building on Immanuel Kant’s fact of reason – the idea that being a moral subject presupposes that one has accepted the bindingness of obligation – Lueck shows that moral obligation must be rethought as the fact of sense.

• Presents a substantially new approach to the classic philosophical problem of the source of normativity
• Provides a detailed account of the history of western philosophical reflection on obligation
• Develops the ethical implications of the work of 20th century and contemporary Continental philosophers who are not typically regarded as moral philosophers
• Suggests new and fruitful paths of research on the work of Merleau-Ponty, Serres and Nancy