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Ethics after Anscombe

Post “Modern Moral Philosophy”

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Duncan Richter

    1. Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, USA

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Part of the book series: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy (LOET, volume 5)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. The Incoherence of the Moral ‘Ought’

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 1-18

  3. Is Moral Philosophy Possible?

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 19-34

  4. How to do Moral Philosophy

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 35-56

  5. How to do Moral Philosophy

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 57-75

  6. The Ethics of Suicide

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 76-96

  7. Persons, Babies and Martians

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 97-124

  8. Does Meat Mean Murder?

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 125-145

  9. Conclusion

    • Duncan Richter
    Pages 146-162

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 163-175
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Keywords

About this book

How, if at all, can we do moral philosophy in the light of the radical critique made by Elizabeth Anscombe in "Modem Moral Philosophy"? Among the principal theses of this essay is that ethical thinking (that of philosophers and others) suffers from a widespread appeal to incoherent uses of terms such as 'obligation,' 'ought,' 'right' and 'wrong. ' In this book I first explain and evaluate her thesis and the argument for it, and I then confront the challenge it poses: what ways are there of doing moral philosophy that avoid the kind of incoherence to which she has drawn our attention? The best way to show how it is possible for us to think about ethics is to demonstrate how to do so, using actual cases. This book therefore combines the critical study of central theoretical issues about ethics, in the first half, with concrete examination of serious practical issues, in the second. Following Dostoyevsky's Ivan Karamazov, it is often said that if God does not exist then everything is permitted. This is not literally the case, since God cannot permit anything if He does not exist, and those of us who do exist do not permit everything, or at least our parents, employers, and governments do not. It is true, though, that if God does not exist then nothing is forbidden in the traditional sense of 'forbidden'.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, USA

    Duncan Richter

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Ethics after Anscombe

  • Book Subtitle: Post “Modern Moral Philosophy”

  • Authors: Duncan Richter

  • Series Title: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1478-5

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2000

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-6093-3Published: 31 December 1999

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-5371-8Published: 05 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-1478-5Published: 09 March 2013

  • Series ISSN: 1387-6678

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-0323

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 176

  • Topics: Ethics, Ontology, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy, general

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