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Moral Discourse and Practice

Some Philosophical Approaches

Edited by Stephen Darwall, Allan Gibbard, and Peter Railton

Publication Date - 12 September 1996

ISBN: 9780195096699

432 pages
Paperback
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches

Description

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.

Table of Contents

    I. INTRODUCTION
    1. Toward Fin de Siecle Ethics: Some Trends, Darwall, Gibbard, Railton
    II. PROBLEMS
    2. From Principia Ethica, G. E. Moore
    3. Lecture on Ethics, Ludwig Wittgenstein
    4. The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms, Charles Stevenson
    5. Ethics and Observation, Gilbert Harman
    6. From Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, J. L. Mackie
    III. METAETHICS
    A. Realism
    7. How to be a Moral Realist, Richard Boyd
    8. Moral Realism, Peter Railton
    B. ANTIREALISM
    9. How to Be an Ethical Anti-Realist, Simon Blackburn
    10. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings, Allan Gibbard
    C. SENSIBILITY THEORIES
    11. Value and Secondary Qualities, John McDowell
    12. Projection and Truth in Ethics, John McDowell
    D. CONSTRUCTIVISM
    14. Kantian Constructivism in Moral Theory, John Rawls
    15. Contractualism and Utilitarianism, T. M. Scanlon
    16. Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification, Jurgen Habermas
    IV. REASONS, MOTIVES, AND THE DEMANDS OF MORALITY
    17. Reasons, Motives, and the Demands of Morality: An Introduction, Stephen Darwall
    18. Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives, Philippa Foot
    19. From The Possibility of Altruism, Thomas Nagel
    20. From Morals By Agreement, David Gauthier
    21. Internal and External Reasons, Bernard Williams
    22. Skepticism About Practical Reason, Christine Korsgaard
    23. The Sources of Normativity, Christine Korsgaard
    Bibliography

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