Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy - cover image

Copyright

Catherine Wilson

Published On

2016-01-18

ISBN

Paperback978-1-78374-198-4
Hardback978-1-78374-199-1
PDF978-1-78374-200-4
HTML978-1-80064-507-3
XML978-1-78374-635-4
EPUB978-1-78374-201-1
MOBI978-1-78374-202-8

Language

  • English

Print Length

132 pages (viii + 124)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 7 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.29" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 10 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.38" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback440g (15.52oz)
Hardback814g (28.71oz)

Media

Tables1

OCLC Number

1058443721

LCCN

2019452838

BIC

  • HP
  • HPQ

BISAC

  • PHI000000
  • PHI005000

LCC

  • BJ1012

Keywords

  • Metaethics
  • moral philosophy
  • moral judgement
  • moral knowledge

Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint

An Introduction to Moral Philosophy

  • Catherine Wilson (author)
Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint addresses in a novel format the major topics and themes of contemporary metaethics, the study of the analysis of moral thought and judgement. Metathetics is less concerned with what practices are right or wrong than with what we mean by ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’

Looking at a wide spectrum of topics including moral language, realism and anti-realism, reasons and motives, relativism, and moral progress, this book engages students and general readers in order to enhance their understanding of morality and moral discourse as cultural practices. Catherine Wilson innovatively employs a first-person narrator to report step-by-step an individual’s reflections, beginning from a position of radical scepticism, on the possibility of objective moral knowledge. The reader is invited to follow along with this reasoning, and to challenge or agree with each major point. Incrementally, the narrator is led to certain definite conclusions about ‘oughts’ and norms in connection with self-interest, prudence, social norms, and finally morality. Scepticism is overcome, and the narrator arrives at a good understanding of how moral knowledge and moral progress are possible, though frequently long in coming. Accessibly written, Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint presupposes no prior training in philosophy and is a must-read for philosophers, students and general readers interested in gaining a better understanding of morality as a personal philosophical quest.

Reviews

Let me recommend it warmly [...] because the book is written beautifully, and was a great pleasure to read.

Herman Philipse

"Catherine WILSON. Metaethics from a First Person Standpoint: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy". Ethical Perspectives (1370-0049), vol. 24, no. 3, 2017. doi:10.2143/EP.24.3.3248540

Full Review

Contents

Enquiry I

(pp. 5–16)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry II

(pp. 17–30)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry III

(pp. 31–38)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry IV

(pp. 39–52)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry V

(pp. 53–62)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry VI

(pp. 63–74)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry VII

(pp. 75–86)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry VIII

(pp. 87–94)
  • Catherine Wilson

Enquiry IX

(pp. 95–106)
  • Catherine Wilson

Introduction

(pp. 1–4)
  • Catherine Wilson

Summary

(pp. 107–114)
  • Catherine Wilson

Endnotes

(pp. 115–116)
  • Catherine Wilson
  • Catherine Wilson

Contributors

Catherine Wilson

(author)
Anniversary Professor of Philosophy at University of York