Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Fontana masterguides) - Softcover

Williams, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000686001X ISBN 13: 9780006860013

Publisher: Fontana Press, 1993

Synopsis

With a new foreword by Jonathan Lear

'Remarkably lively and enjoyable...It is a very rich book, containing excellent descriptions of a variety of moral theories, and innumerable and often witty observations on topics encountered on the way.' - Times Literary Supplement

Bernard Williams was one of the greatest philosophers of his generation. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is not only widely acknowledged to be his most important book, but also hailed a contemporary classic of moral philosophy. Drawing on the ideas of the Greek philosophers, Williams reorients ethics away from a preoccupation with universal moral theories towards ‘truth, truthfulness and the meaning of an individual life’. He explores and reflects upon the most difficult problems in contemporary philosophy and identifies new ideas about central issues such as relativism, objectivity and the possibility of ethical knowledge.

This edition also includes a commentary on the text by A.W.Moore.

At the time of his death in 2003, Bernard Williams was hailed by the Times as 'the outstanding moral philosopher of his age.' He taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Berkeley and Oxford and is the author of many influential books, including Morality; Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry (available from Routledge) and Truth and Truthfulness.

About this title

Review:

'Williams's discussions are much to be valued: his explicitness and argumentative ingenuity focus the issues more sharply, and at greater depth, than any comparable work I know...One of the most interesting contributions of recent years, not only to ethics but to philosophy.' - John McDowell, Mind

'This is a superior book, glittering with intelligence and style.' - Thomas Nagel, Journal of Philosophy

'Bernard Williams has a greater force of thought, deployed over a wider horizon, than anyone else I have ever listened to.' John Dunn - The Times Higher Education Supplement

'Who has not asked―if only when depressed―"How should I live, and how can I find out?" To read this book is to be taken through one of the most sophisticated discussions available of such questions by an engaging, sceptical often wryly witty and extraordinary subtle professional.' - Ronald de Sousa, New York Times Book Review

'Bernard Williams’s book is better read not as an introduction to ethics, but as an attempt to take stock of the present state of the subject. As such, it is a splendid piece of work. It illuminatingly maps the various tendencies and difficulties which they encounter...Such stocktaking is much needed. Bernard Williams is probably the philosopher best placed to undertake it, and he has done it admirably.' - Richard Norman, Times Higher Education Supplement

'Remarkably lively and enjoyable...It is a very rich book, containing excellent descriptions of a variety of moral theories, and innumerable and often witty observations on topics encountered on the way.' - Philippa Foot, Times Literary Supplement

'Williams's discussions are much to be valued: his explicitness and argumentative ingenuity focus the issues more sharply, and at greater depth, than any comparable work I know...One of the most interesting contributions of recent years, not only to ethics but to philosophy.' - John McDowell, Mind

 

From the Back Cover:

What is ethical thought about? What can philosophy do for it? Bernard Williams takes up these questions in a radically new way, claiming that the modern world makes unprecedented demands on ethical thought, demands which philosophy, with its present resources, cannot meet. He explains the theories that moral philosophy typically presents, asks what the point of such theories is, and suggests that they suffer from a 'rationalistic conception of rationality', which is merely a reflection of the modern world, rather than something that can help us to live in it.

Bernard Williams strikingly relocates many central issues of ethics, such as relativism, objectivity, and the possibility of ethical knowledge. He claims that to face modernity, we in fact need some older ideas, which owe more to ancient Greece; and that we should reject as no longer helpful that particular form of ethical thought which is centred on the idea of obligation and is known as 'morality'.

The argument is rigorous, but it does not demand a philosophical training to follow it. Writing clearly and forcefully, Williams gives here a wide-ranging account of what ethical philosophy is, challenges current conceptions of its powers, and suggests what it needs to become.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fontana Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 000686001X
• ISBN 13: 9780006860013
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240