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For the greater part of this century, most philosophers and social scientists have eschewed moral realism. According to their view, moral facts cannot be accommodated by a suitably scientific picture of the world. However, recent developments in moral theory, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of language have undermined the standard arguments against moral realism and have led many to maintain that there are powerful reasons for believing in moral facts. As a result, moral realism is enjoying renewed vitality, while the arguments against it have of necessity become more sophisticated and penetrating.

This collection of influential essays illustrates the range, depth, and importance of moral realism, the fundamental issues it raises, and the problems it faces. Geoffrey Sayre-McCord has chosen accessible, rigorous, and thought-provoking papers, all of which are rich enough to encourage and reward several readings and careful study. In addition, the volume strikes a balance between wide-ranging papers that advance a barrage of arguments, and more focused papers that develop a few arguments in great detail. What emerges is a comprehensive overview of the moral realism debate that exhibits the scope, as well as the intricacies, of the arguments marshaled on all sides. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of philosophy, the social sciences, and political science.

CONTRIBUTORS: A. J. Ayer, Simon Blackburn, Richard Boyd, Gilbert

Harman, Jonathan Lear,' J. L. Mackie, John McDowell, Mark Platts,

Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Nicholas Sturgeon, David Wiggins, Bernard

Williams.

Consequentialism, a moral doctrine that asserts that the right act in any given situation is the one that will produce the best overall outcome, as judged from an impersonal standpoint that gives equal weight to all interests, has been criticized on the grounds that it fails to capture the most crucial features of moral thinking and cannot, when worked out in detail, provide an adequate account of morality. In this anthology, distinguished scholars--Thomas Nagel, T. M. Scanlon, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Samuel Scheffler, Conrad D. Johnson, Bernard Williams, Peter Railton, Amartya Sen, Philippa Foot, and Derek Parfit--debate arguments for and against consequentialism to present a complete view of this significant area in moral philosophy.

Dame Iris Murdoch, who has written several works of philosophy as well as twenty-four distinguished novels, now crowns her philosophic quest with a book that asks many questions and reflects on the essential aspects of the great subject: moral philosophy. Among her concerns are the roles literature, politics, art, and science play in the search for morality in a world that avoids the issue. What is morality, after all, Murdoch asks. Is it important? Is it true? Can it be taught in schools? Is it the very basis of our existence, or is it just one of many peripheral matters? A main theme of this profound work concerns religion and its relation to morals, to moral philosophy, and to the great metaphysical systems which have supported it in the past. These are questions that concern us all, as we are driven to reflect upon the relation between religion and morals and upon the various conceptions of what religion is. Iris Murdoch believes it is time for a dialogue between moral philosophy and a demythologizing theology. She casts fresh light on our great western metaphysicians, Plato and Kant. She writes that philosophy is now in danger of being fragmented into psychology, sociology, anthropology, and other peripheral disciplines. Some universities are closing their philosophy departments. Moral philosophy (ethics), if considered at all, tends to be segregated as a small, special subject. Technology, so beneficial in innumerable ways, displays to us a vast, colorful world of facts within which "moral value" may appear as a little particular item. In her lucid and tightly reasoned "reflections," Dame Iris Murdoch constructs a warning that the survival of philosophy with its persistent ever-new attempts to seek "foundations" is more than ever essential, when the very question of "human being" is at stake. A grand work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time.

Inleiding tot het denken van de Frans-joodse filosoof (1905), gevolgd door 4 korte essays van zijn hand.

This book is a well informed and discriminating account of the main ethical problems that have been discussed this century in England, France, and the U.S. Besides dealing with key concepts in the work of Ayer, Hare, Moore, Nowell-Smith, Prichard, Ross, Sartre, Stevenson, Urmson, and Wittgenstein, this third edition includes a discussion of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice.

In this book the author examines the notion of a "right" and its relation to other moral, legal, and political notions, which often accompany it. In stressing the variety of things to which we are said to have rights, he aims to free the analysis of the notion from the narrow restrictions to which many philosophers and jurisprudents confine it. By examining in close detail the logical and linguistic features, not only of "a right" but also for "liberty", "privilege", "power", and "claim", etc. he tries to establish the exact position in our thinking of these notions and to disprove many current theories about them and their inter-relations.

Based on extensive fieldwork, this book explores the Lahu society in Southwest China where practical gender equality has become the byproduct of a potent ideology of gender unity, vividly expressed by the proverb, "chopsticks only work in pairs."

Computers have permeated almost every facet of modern chess, yet few players know how to gain the maximum benefit from working with them. Computers function as playing partners, opening study tools, endgame 'oracles', tactics trainers, sources of information on opponents and searchable game databases. Kongsted provides practical advice on how to use computers in all these ways and more. He also takes a look at the history of the chess computer, and how its 'thinking' methods have developed since the early days. The book features an investigation of human vs. machine contests, including the recent Kasparov vs. "Deep Junior" and Kramnik vs. "Deep Fritz" matches, in which honours ended even.

70 Partien

Drie overbeschaafde mensen met sterk tegengestelde karakters ontmoeten elkaar in een pension in Londen, waardoor hun levens sterk worden beïnvloed.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688-9 was a decisive moment in England's history; an invading Dutch army forced James II to flee to France, and his son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary, were crowned as joint sovereigns. The wider consequences were no less startling: bloody war in Ireland, Union with Scotland, Jacobite intrigue, deep involvement in two major European wars, Britain's emergence as a great power, a 'financial revolution', greater religious toleration, a riven Church, and a startling growth of parliamentary government. Such changes were only part of the transformation of English society at the time. An enriching torrent of new ideas from the likes of Newton, Defoe, and Addison, spread through newspapers, periodicals, and coffee-houses, provided new views and values that some embraced and others loathed. England's horizons were also growing, especially in the Caribbean and American colonies. For many, however, the benefits were uncertain: the slave trade flourished, inequality widened, and the poor and 'disorderly' were increasingly subject to strictures and statutes. If it was an age of prospects it was also one of anxieties.

Inspecteur Duck van Schotland verdiept zich in de merkwaardige dood van de paus.

Portret van het steeds veranderende Jeruzalem vanaf de oudste tijden tot kort na de Zesdaagse Oorlog in 1968.

Bundeling van enkele bekende en minder bekende werken van de Vlaamse auteur (1912-1979). De Kapellekensbaan, Eros en de eenzame man, Wapenbroeders, Het nieuwe onkruid [en] 90 Mensen

Breed opgezette studie van hand-, vinger- en zithoudingen en de betekenis en achtergrond ervan in het hindoeïsme en het boeddhisme.

What is ethics? Where does it come from? Can we really hope to find any rational way of deciding how we ought to live? If we can, what would it be like, and how are we going to know when we have found it? To capture the essentials of what we know about the origins and nature of ethics, Peter Singer has drawn on anthropology, evolution, game theory, and works of fiction, in addition to the classic moral philosophy of such thinkers as Nietzsche, Kant, and Confucius. By choosing some of the finest pieces of writing, old and new, in and about ethics, he conveys the intellectual excitement of the search for answers to basic questions about how we ought to live. From the debates of Socrates and the profound writing of Rousseau to Jane Goodall's reflections on the ethics of chimpanzee kinship and Luther's commentary on the Sixth Commandment (thou shalt not kill), this engaging reader offers a complete and thorough introduction to the fascinating world of ethical debate.

Presents the major issues in Aristotle's writings on Friendship.

We tend to suppose that the ancient Greeks had primitive ideas of the self, of responsibility, freedom, and shame, and that now humanity has advanced from these to a more refined moral consciousness. Bernard Williams's original and radical book questions this picture of Western history. While we are in many ways different from the Greeks, Williams claims that the differences are not to be traced to a shift in these basic conceptions of ethical life. We are more like the ancients than we are prepared to acknowledge, and only when this is understood can we properly grasp our most important differences from them, such as our rejection of slavery.



The author is a philosopher, but much of his book is directed to writers such as Homer and the tragedians, whom he discusses as poets and not just as materials for philosophy. At the center of his study is the question of how we can understand Greek tragedy at all, when its world is so far from ours.



Williams explains how it is that when the ancients speak, they do not merely tell us about themselves, but about ourselves. Shame and Necessity gives a new account of our relations to the Greeks, and helps us to see what ethical ideas we need in order to live in the modern world.