What Is the Point of Moral Philosophy? (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)

Over the last half-century, moral philosophy has taken an applied turn, covering practical issues in areas such as medicine, business, the environment, and many others. But it has largely failed to examine itself. In this volume, a range of distinguished contemporary ethicists, representing many different positions, examine what might be the point, if any, of moral philosophy.

Given the deep and apparently intransigent basic disagreements between philosophers, is the discipline able to provide genuinely helpful advice? Is there an agreed methodology for philosophical ethics? Is the truth about ethics such that few people could believe it (perhaps because the truth is so peculiar) or act upon it (because it turns out that ethics is much more demanding than most think)? Perhaps the only philosopher to have addressed these issues head-on has been Ingmar Persson. His important arguments provide a starting point for debate and are examined and discussed by several contributors. But the volume goes beyond Persson’s path-breaking work to clarify the nature of the challenges to philosophical ethics and the variety of responses available.

What Is the Point of Moral Philosophy? will be of interest to scholars and students working in all areas of moral philosophy, including applied ethics, metaethics, and normative ethics.

Roger Crisp is Director of the Uehiro Oxford Institute, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, and Supernumerary Fellow, St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of Sacrifice Regained (2019) and several other books and articles on ethics and the history of ethics.

Ingmar Persson is Emeritus Professor of Practical Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, and Distinguished Research Fellow, Uehiro Oxford. His fields of interest are ethics and philosophy of mind and action, and his main publications are six books published by Oxford University Press.

Julian Savulescu is the Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and holds the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. Trained in medicine and bioethics, he is the author of over 650 publications in medical and practical ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy.