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Paul Katsafanas, Philosophy of Devotion: The Longing for Invulnerable Ideals, Oxford University Press, 2023, 256pp., $98.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780192867674.
Reviewed by Michael Cholbi, The University of Edinburgh
Human beings have a wide range of commitments, but we assign some of our commitments a privileged practical, axiological, and epistemic status. The success of some of our commitments (for example, to personal relationships, achievements, or political causes) requires toil or self-sacrifice, yet these burdens notwithstanding, we are often unwilling to swap—or even contemplate swapping—these commitments for other less demanding ones. And when invited to rationally interrogate these commitments, we seemingly cannot be moved to relinquish or downgrade them even in the face of evidence that calls them into question or that militates in favor of alternative commitments.
In his outstanding Philosophy of Devotion, Paul Katsafanas refers to such commitments as “sacred values” and the evaluative outlook wherein a commitment is impervious to rational rejection…
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