Underivative Duty: British Moral Philosophers from Sidgwick to Ewing
Thomas Hurka
Abstract
The chapters in this volume discuss a group of British moral philosophers active between the 1870s and 1950s and including Henry Sidgwick, Hastings Rashdall, J. M. E. McTaggart, G. E. Moore, H. A. Prichard, E. F. Carritt, W. D. Ross, C. D. Broad, and A. C. Ewing. After an opening chapter explaining how these philosophers form a unified group in the history of ethics, they address specific topics arising in their work: Sidgwick on the nature of pleasure, Rashdall's defence of ideal consequentialism, McTaggart on the value of love, Prichard on consequentialism, Prichard and Carritt as critics of ... More
The chapters in this volume discuss a group of British moral philosophers active between the 1870s and 1950s and including Henry Sidgwick, Hastings Rashdall, J. M. E. McTaggart, G. E. Moore, H. A. Prichard, E. F. Carritt, W. D. Ross, C. D. Broad, and A. C. Ewing. After an opening chapter explaining how these philosophers form a unified group in the history of ethics, they address specific topics arising in their work: Sidgwick on the nature of pleasure, Rashdall's defence of ideal consequentialism, McTaggart on the value of love, Prichard on consequentialism, Prichard and Carritt as critics of ancient ethics, Ross's defence of deontology, Ross on retributivism, Ross on derivative prima facie duties, and Ewing's attempt at a middle way in metaethics between non‐naturalism and non‐cognitivism. The chapters are both historical and philosophical. They expound in greater detail than has been done before neglected aspects of these philosophers' work, thereby recovering them for present‐day scholarship. But they also engage philosophically with the group's ideas, assessing their arguments, showing how these relate to present‐day debates, and discussing what we can learn from them. The volume therefore offers both philosophically informed history and historically grounded philosophy.
Keywords:
ethics,
Sidgwick,
Rashdall,
McTaggart,
Moore,
Prichard,
Carritt,
Ross,
Broad,
Ewing,
moral philosophers
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199577446 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577446.001.0001 |
