Ethical Theory : An Anthology

Ethical Theory is an authoritative collection of key essays that address the central questions of morality. Its broad scope includes coverage of metaethics, normative ethics, and practical ethics. Seventy-six classic and contemporary pieces raise questions about the status and rational authority of morality, and guides students through key areas in the field, among which are consequentialism, deontology, contractarianism, and virtue ethics. This anthology reaches beyond traditional texts by also including important, but usually underrepresented, topics such as moral knowledge, moral standing, moral responsibility, and ethical particularism. The essays are by some of the best-known and most-respected names in ethical theory; each part is introduced with expert and judicious commentary by the editor. Ethical Theory will reward its readers with guidance through the question at the heart of ethics: that of how best to live.

Russ Shafer-Landau is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. He is author of Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (2003) and Moral Realism: A Defence (2005). He is editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and co-editor of Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology (with Terence Cuneo, Blackwell 2006).