Williams: ∗ethics∗ & The Limits Of Philosophy (clo Th) - Hardcover

WILLIAMS, B

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674268571 ISBN 13: 9780674268579

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1985

Synopsis

In this book Bernard Williams delivers a sustained indictment of moral theory from Kant onward. His goal is nothing less than to reorient ethics toward the individual. He deals with the most thorny questions in contemporary philosophy and offers new ideas about issues such as relativism, objectivity, and the possibility of ethical knowledge.

About this title

Review:

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, skeptical, often wryly witty and extraordinarily 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 the 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" skeptical, often wryly witty and extraordinarily subtle professional. various tendencies and the 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. Remarkably lively and enjoyable...It is a very rich book, containing excellent descriptions of a variety of moral theories, and innumerable original and often witty observations on topics encountered on the way.

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: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0674268571
• ISBN 13: 9780674268579
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248