Natural Goodness - Softcover

Foot, Philippa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019926547X ISBN 13: 9780199265473

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 2003

Synopsis

Philippa Foot has for many years been one of the most distinctive and influential thinkers in moral philosophy. Long dissatisfied with the moral theories of her contemporaries, she has gradually evolved a theory of her own that is radically opposed not only to emotivism and prescriptivism but also to the whole subjectivist, anti-naturalist movement deriving from David Hume. Dissatisfied with both Kantian and utilitarian ethics, she claims to have isolated a special form of evaluation that predicates goodness and defect only to living things considered as such; she finds this form of evaluation in moral judgements. Her vivid discussion covers topics such as practical rationality, erring conscience, and the relation between virtue and happiness, ending with a critique of Nietzsche's immoralism. This long-awaited book exposes a highly original approach to moral philosophy and represents a fundamental break from the assumptions of recent debates. Foot challenges many prominent philosophical arguments and attitudes; but hers is a work full of life and feeling, written for anyone intrigued by the deepest questions about goodness and human.

About this title

Product Description

Presents an approach to moral philosophy. This work of dry theory, is intended for those intrigued by the questions about goodness and human life.

Review

In more than one sense, it is a work of great integrity. Beautifully and economically written, and powerfully argued, it will become a classic or modern moral philosophy. (Roger Crisp)

I read the book with mounting pleasure in all sorts of things, not least the patient response to Nietzsche, some marvellously instructive and/or amusing examples, and the whole adventure of it all. (David Wiggins)

Philippa Foot's Natural Goodness is by a long way the best modern book I have read on moral philosophy. Lucid, original and balanced, it should be a starting-point for all future discussion of the subject. (Michael Dummett)

... a short and beautifully pellucid philosophical study (John Bayley, TLS)

Natural Goodness is an exciting and provoking book, more interesting than most books in moral philosophy ... What she has given us both in this book and elsewhere deserves nothing but intellectual and moral gratitude.' (Alasdair MacIntyre, Philosophical Quarterly)

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 019926547X
• ISBN 13: 9780199265473
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 136