Critical essays on Derek Parfit

Essays on Derek Parfit's "On What Matters"

eds. by Jussi Suikkanen & John Cottingham

(Wiley-Blackwell, 2009),
168 pages






Description

In "Essays on Derek Parfit's On What Matters", seven leading moral philosophers offer critical evaluations of the central ideas presented in a greatly anticipated new work by world-renowned moral philosopher Derek Parfit. Addresses Parfit's central thesis - that the main ethical theories can agree on what matters - as well as his defense of moral realism.

Contents

1. Introduction: Jussi Suikkanen
2. Naturalism without Tears: James Lenman
3. Can There Be a Kantian Consequentialism?: Seiriol Morgan
4. The Kantian Argument for Consequentialism: Michael Otsuka
5. Climb Every Mountain?: Michael Ridge
6. Might Kantian Contractualism be the Supreme Principle of Morality?: Gideon Rosen
7. Desires, Values, Reasons, and the Dualism of Practical Reason: Michael Smith
8. Should Kantians Be Consequentialists?: Jacob Ross

The essays have previously been published in Ratio vol. 22 no. 1 (March 2009).

The unpublished manuscript for Derek Parfit's "On What Matters" is available here (Draft January 23, 2009, 895 pages!). It includes comments by Susan Wolf, Allen Wood, Barbara Herman and T. M Scanlon, and a response from Parfit.