Natural Goodness

by Foot, Philippa

• ISBN13: 9780198235088
• ISBN10: 0198235089
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Philippa Foot is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, Honourary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(5)
A Fresh Start?	5	(20)
Natural Norms	25	(13)
Transition to Human Beings	38	(14)
Practical Rationality	52	(14)
Human Goodness	66	(15)
Happiness and Human Good	81	(18)
Immoralism	99	(17)
Postscript	116	(1)
Bibliography	117	(6)
Index	123