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...

This book is a major work in the history of ethics, and provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades. Professor Darwall discerns two distinct traditions feeding into the moral philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the one hand, there is the empirical, naturalist tradition, comprising Hobbes, Locke, Cumberland, Hutcheson, and Hume, which argues that obligation is the practical force that empirical discoveries acquire in the process of deliberation. On the other hand, there is the group including Cudworth, Shaftesbury, Butler, and in some...

This book is a major work in the history of ethics, and provides the first study of early modern British philosophy in several decades. Professor Darwall discerns two distinct traditions feeding into the moral philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the one hand, there is the empirical, naturalist tradition, comprising Hobbes, Locke, Cumberland, Hutcheson, and Hume, which argues that obligation is the practical force that empirical discoveries acquire in the process of deliberation. On the other hand, there is the group including Cudworth, Shaftesbury, Butler, and in some...

Consequentialism collects, for the first time, both the main classical sources and the central contemporary expressions of this important position. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative ethics.

• Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, examines key topics in the consequentialist branch of moral theory.
• Includes seven essays which respond to the classic sources.
• Includes an insightful discussion of central topics in consequentialism by John Rawls and Amartya Sen.
• Includes...

Consequentialism collects, for the first time, both the main classical sources and the central contemporary expressions of this important position. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative ethics.

• Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, examines key topics in the consequentialist branch of moral theory.
• Includes seven essays which respond to the classic sources.
• Includes an insightful discussion of central topics in consequentialism by John Rawls and Amartya Sen.
• Includes...

Contractualism/Contractarianism collects, for the first time, both major classical sources and central contemporary discussions of these important approaches to philosophical ethics. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative ethics.

• With a helpful introduction by Stephen Darwall, examines key topics in the contractarian and contractualist moral theory.
• Includes six contemporary essays which respond to the classic sources.
• Includes an insightful discussion of contractualism by Gary...

Contractualism/Contractarianism collects, for the first time, both major classical sources and central contemporary discussions of these important approaches to philosophical ethics. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative ethics.

• With a helpful introduction by Stephen Darwall, examines key topics in the contractarian and contractualist moral theory.
• Includes six contemporary essays which respond to the classic sources.
• Includes an insightful discussion of contractualism by Gary...

Virtue Ethics collects, for the first time, the main classical sources and the central contemporary expressions of virtue ethics approach to normative ethical theory. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative theory.

• Introduced by Stephen Darwall, this collection brings together classic and contemporary readings which define and advance the literature on virtue ethics.
• Includes six essays which respond to the classic sources.
• Includes a contemporary discussion on character and virtue by...

What kind of life best ensures human welfare? Since the ancient Greeks, this question has been as central to ethical philosophy as to ordinary reflection. But what exactly is welfare? This question has suffered from relative neglect. And, as Stephen Darwall shows, it has done so at a price. Presenting a provocative new "rational care theory of welfare," Darwall proves that a proper understanding of welfare fundamentally changes how we think about what is best for people.

Most philosophers have assumed that a person's welfare is what is good from her point of view, namely, what...

Why is ethics part of philosophy? Stephen Darwall's Philosophical Ethics introduces 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 Ethics shows how Hobbes, Mill, Kant, Aristotle, and Nietzsche all did ethical philosophyhow, for example, they sought to gain...