Dimensions of Practical Necessity

This collection of essays provides the first systematic investigation of practical necessity and offers novel perspectives on this intriguing phenomenon. While debates on necessity often take place in the realm of metaphysics, there is a form of necessity that is pertinent to practical philosophy. “Here I stand. I can do no other,” a phrase habitually attributed to Martin Luther, is often interpreted as revealing underlying normative reasons that exhibit a special kind of necessitating force, experienced as an inescapable constraint by the agent. However, one of the features that make this phenomenon so fascinating is that this constraint is often deciphered as stemming from a form of necessitation that articulates the agent’s autonomy or practical identity. Luther’s saying serves as a leitmotif for an exploration of different claims and challenges related to practical necessity. As the complex philosophical investigations are based on familiar, everyday experiences the book is accessible to any academic readership.

Somogy Varga (PhD, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main) is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Memphis. His primary areas of research are philosophy of psychiatry/mind, moral psychology and social philosophy. His publications include Authenticity as an Ethical Ideal (Routledge 2011) and Naturalism, Interpretation, and Mental Disorder (Oxford University Press 2015).Katharina Bauer, Dr. phil., is a Feodor-Lynen Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at Rijskuniversiteit Groningen. In 2016 she has completed her habilitation thesis about theories of practical necessity as a research scholar of the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)”. She is the author of Einander zu erkennen geben. Das Selbst zwischen Erkenntnis und Gabe (Alber 2012).Corinna Mieth is Professor for Political Philosophy and Philosophy of Law at the Ruhr-University of Bochum (Germany). Her main areas of specialization are positive duties, human rights and human dignity, global justice, world poverty, and moral dilemmas. She is the author of Positive Pflichten (Positive Duties). Über das Verhältnis von Hilfe und Gerechtigkeit in Bezug auf das Weltarmutsproblem (de Gruyter 2012).