Real Ethics: Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality

by John M. Rist

• ISBN13: 9780521006088
• ISBN10: 0521006082
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular--Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary "practical reasoners". His accessible study is enhanced by a strong sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to students and scholars of ethics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction: Ethical crises old and new	1	(9)
Moral nihilism: Socrates vs. Thrasymachus	10	(17)
Morals and metaphysics	27	(34)
Plato's metaphysical grounding of morality	27	(11)
From Plato to Augustine	38	(7)
Towards alternatives to Platonic realism	45	(16)
The soul and the self	61	(34)
Multiple selves	61	(11)
Core self or future soul?	72	(11)
Moral vs. ontological accounts of man	83	(5)
Agent-relative reductionism	88	(4)
Morality, humanity and the soul	92	(3)
Division and its remedies	95	(24)
Psychological incompleteness	95	(5)
Towards integration: love and reflection	100	(8)
Towards integration: love and friendship	108	(2)
An alternative proposal: politics and virtue without metaphysics	110	(9)
Rules and applications	119	(21)
Some uses of rules	119	(11)
Dirty hands	130	(5)
The limits of fairness	135	(5)
The past, present and future of practical reasoning	140	(38)
Post-realist moral debate	140	(2)
Aristotle's ethics: between Platonism and `practical reasoning'	142	(9)
Aristotle, Aquinas and the goals of life	151	(5)
Old battles transformed: Hume and naturalism	156	(7)
Kant and post-Kantian practical reasoning	163	(15)
Autonomy and choice	178	(27)
Rights, needs and wants	178	(10)
Choice: history and prospects	188	(6)
Choice, continuing moral identity and responsibility	194	(5)
Freedom, habit and the good life	199	(6)
Ethics and ideology	205	(52)
Responsibility, correction and community	205	(17)
Realism or ideological deception?	222	(6)
From ethics to politics	228	(13)
The end of history and the ahistorical individual	241	(16)
God and ethics	257	(28)
Realist ethics and divine commands	257	(7)
God, `dirty hands' and the possibility of politics	264	(7)
Philosophy and theology: tactics and honest traditions	271	(14)
Bibliography	285	(7)
Index	292