Moral Discourse and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019509669X ISBN 13: 9780195096699

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

What are ethical judgments about? And what is their relation to practice? How can ethical judgment aspire to objectivity? The past two decades have witnessed a resurgence of interest in metaethics, placing questions such as these about the nature and status of ethical judgment at the very center of contemporary moral philosophy.
Moral Discourse and Practice: Some Philosophical Approaches is a unique anthology which collects important recent work, much of which is not easily available elsewhere, on core metaethical issues. Naturalist moral realism, once devastated by the charge of "naturalistic fallacy," has been reinvigorated, as have versions of moral realism that insist on the discontinuity between ethics and science. Irrealist, expressivist programs have also developed with great subtlety, encouraging the thought that a noncognivist account may actually be able to explain ethical judgments' aspirations to objectivity. Neo-Kantian constructivist theories have flourished as well, offering hope that morality can be grounded in a plausible conception of reasonable conduct. Together, the positions advanced in the essays collected here address these recent developments, constituting a rich array of approaches to contemporary moral philosophy's most fundamental debates. An extensive introduction by Darwall, Gibbard, and Railton is also included, making this volume the most comprehensive and up-to-date work of its kind. Moral Discourse is ideally suited for use in courses in contemporary ethics, ethical theory, and metaethics.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen Darwall, Allan Gibbard, and Peter Railton are all at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Review:

"An outstanding text for a graduate-level course on contemporary metaethics. A collection such as this has been needed for some time now and will quickly replace the bulky course-packs that (up to now) professors have had to assemble on their own."--Jordan J. Lindberg, Central Michigan
University

"An excellent collection, with a very helpful introductory essay by the editors. [The] book as a whole is challenging."--Carol Tauer, College of St. Catherine

"Nice selection of topics and author."--O. A. Robinson, Central Methodist College

"Excellent selections that span theories and a nice theoretical overview of ethical studies."--Emily Dial-Driver, Rogers University

"A first rate and wide-ranging collection of classic contemporary writings in metaethics, introduced by an essay that nicely puts the whole thing in context."--Mark van Roojen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"Almost ideal. Includes most all of the main articles I want to assign in an upper-level metaethics class."--James Dreier, Brown University

"This text would fit in well with my senior ethics seminar readings because it presents an array of interesting metaethical issues."--William Hannaford, Champlain College

"An excellent selection--extremely useful for upper-level courses on moral theory."--Troy Jollimore, California State University, Chico

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 019509669X
• ISBN 13: 9780195096699
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432
• Editor: Darwall Stephen, Gibbard Allan, Railton Peter