On What Matters Volume Two

by Parfit, Derek

• ISBN13: 9780199572816
• ISBN10: 019957281X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

On What Mattersis a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 bookReasons and Persons, one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. Parfit now presents a powerful new treatment of reasons, rationality, and normativity, and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories - Kant's ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism - leading to his own ground-breaking synthetic conclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues, such as the significance of consent, treating people as a means rather than an end, and free will and responsibility.On What Mattersis already the most-discussed work in moral philosophy: its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic which everyone working on moral philosophy will have to read, and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.

Author Biography

Derek Parfit is one of the leading philosophers of our time. He is a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, Global Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at New York University, and a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of Reasons and Persons, one of the most influential books in philosophy of the last several decades.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiv
Summary	p. 1
Commentaries
Hiking The Range	p. 33
Humanity As End In Itself	p. 58
A Mismatch Of Methods	p. 83
How I Am Not A Kantian	p. 116
Responses
On Hiking The Range	p. 143
Actual And Possible Consent	p. 143
Treating Someone Merely As A Means	p. 145
Kantian Rule Consequentialism	p. 147
Three Traditions	p. 152
On Humanity as an End in Itself	p. 156
Kant's Formulas Of Autonomy And Of Universal Law	p. 156
Rational Nature as the Supreme Value	p. 159
Rational Nature as the Value to be Respected	p. 164
On a Mismatch of Methods	p. 169
Does Kant's Formula Need to be Revised?	p. 169
A New Kantian Formula	p. 174
Herman's Objections to Kantian Contractualism	p. 179
How the Numbers Count	p. 191
Scanlon's Individualist Restriction	p. 191
Utilitarianism, Aggregation, and Distributive Principles	p. 193
Scalonian Contractualism	p. 213
Scanlon's Claims about Wrongness and the Impersonalist Restriction	p. 213
The Non-Identity Problem	p. 217
Scanlonian Contractualism and Future People	p. 231
The Triple Theory	p. 244
The Convergence Argument	p. 244
The Independence of Scanlon's Theory	p. 254
Normativity
Analytical Naturalism and Subjectivism	p. 263
Conflicting Theories	p. 263
Analytical Subjectivism about Reasons	p. 269
The Unimportance of Internal Reasons	p. 275
Substantive Subjective Theories	p. 288
Normative Beliefs	p. 290
Non-Analytical Naturalism	p. 295
Moral Naturalism	p. 295
Normative Natural Facts	p. 305
Arguments from 'Is' to 'Ought'	p. 310
Thick-Concept Arguments	p. 315
The Normativity Objection	p. 324
The Triviality Objection	p. 328
Normative Concepts and Natural Properties	p. 328
The Analogies with Scientific Discoveries	p. 332
The Fact Stating Argument	p. 336
The Triviality Objection	p. 341
Naturalism and Nihilism	p. 357
Naturalism about Reasons	p. 357
Soft Naturalism	p. 364
Hard Naturalism	p. 368
Non-Cignitivism and Quasi-Realism	p. 378
Non-Cognitivism	p. 378
Normative Disagreements	p. 384
Can Non-Cognitivists Explain Normative Mistakes?	p. 389
Normativity and Truth	p. 401
Expressivism	p. 401
Hare on What Matters	p. 410
The Normativity Argument	p. 413
Normative Truths	p. 426
Disagreements	p. 426
On How We Should Live	p. 430
Misunderstandings	p. 433
Naturalized Normativity	p. 439
Sidgwick's Intuitions	p. 444
The Voyage Ahead	p. 448
Rediscovering Reasons	p. 453
Metaphysics	p. 464
Ontology	p. 464
Non-Metaphysical Cognitivism	p. 475
Epistemology	p. 488
The Causal Objection	p. 488
The Validity Argument	p. 498
Epistemic Beliefs	p. 503
Rationalism	p. 511
Epistemic Reasons	p. 511
Practical Reasons	p. 525
Evolutionary Forces	p. 534
Agreement	p. 543
The Argument from Disagreement	p. 543
The Convergence Claim	p. 549
The Double Badness of Suffering	p. 565
Nietzsche	p. 570
Revaluing Values	p. 570
Good and Evil	p. 582
The Meaning of Life	p. 596
What Matters Most	p. 607
Has It All Been Worth It?	p. 607
The Future	p. 612
Appendices	p. 621
Why Anything? Why This?	p. 623
The Fair Warning View	p. 649
Some Of Kant's Arguments For His Formula Of Universal Law	p. 652
Kant's Claims About The Good	p. 672
Autonomy And Categorical Imperatives	p. 678
Kant's Motivational Argument	p. 690
On What There Is	p. 719
Notes To Volume Two	p. 750
References	p. 775
Bibliography	p. 799
Index	p. 809
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