Philosophical Ethics: An Historical And Contemporary Introduction

Why is ethics part of philosophy? Stephen Darwall'sPhilosophical Ethicsintroduces students to ethics from a distinctively philosophical perspective, one that weaves together central ethical questions such as "What has value?" and "What are our moral obligations?" with fundamental philosophical issues such as "What is value?" and "What can a moral obligation consist in?"With one eye on contemporary discussions and another on classical texts,Philosophical Ethicsshows how Hobbes, Mill, Kant, Aristotle, and Nietzsche all did ethical philosophyhow, for example, they sought to gain insight into what has value through understanding what value itself is. After an introductory section, and one on main approaches to metaethics, chapters discuss "modern" philosophical moralistsHobbes, Mill, and Kantand pre- and postmodern philosophical approaches to ethics in Aristotle, Nietzsche, and the ethics of care.Throughout, the reader is invited to dorather than just read aboutphilosophical ethics and, in doing so, to think through questions that face all thoughtful human beings. Themes include the nature of value and moral obligation, freedom and choice, human flourishing, excellence and merit, radical critiques of morality, and the importance of relationships for human life.

Stephen Darwall is professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and is the author of Impartial Reason and The British Moralists and the Internal “Ought”: 1640–1740.