Title Details

Hugh LaFollette is Marie and Leslie E. Cole Chair in Ethics, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. He is editor-in-chief of the nine volume International Encyclopedia of Ethics (2013), and author of The Practice of Ethics (Blackwell, 2007) and Personal Relationships: Love, Identity, and Morality (Blackwell, 1995). He is co-author of Brute Science: The Dilemmas of Animal Experimentation (1996), and editor of several other volumes, including Ethics in Practice: An Anthology (third edition, Blackwell, 2007).

Ingmar Persson is Professor of Practical Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, and Distinguished Research Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. His publications include The Retreat of Reason (2005) and, together with Julian Savulescu, Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement (2012). He is now finishing From Morality to the End of Reason: An Essay on Rights, Reasons and Responsibility.

Introduction 1
Hugh LaFollette and Ingmar Persson

Part I Metaethics and Moral Epistemology

1 Moral Realism 17
Michael Smith

2 Relativism 43
Simon Blackburn

3 Moral Agreement 59
Derek Parfit

4 Divine Command Theory 81
Philip L. Quinn

5 Moral Intuition 103
Jeff McMahan

Part II Factual Background of Ethics

6 Ethics and Evolution 123
Richard Joyce

7 Psychological Egoism 148
Elliott Sober

8 The Science of Ethics 169
Ron Mallon and John M. Doris

9 The Relevance of Responsibility to Morality 197
Ingmar Persson

Part III Normative Ethics

10 Act-Utilitarianism 221
R.G. Frey

11 Rule-Consequentialism 238
Brad Hooker

12 Nonconsequentialism 261
F.M. Kamm

13 Intuitionism 287
David McNaughton and Piers Rawling

14 Kantianism 311
Thomas E. Hill Jr

15 Contractarianism 332
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord

16 Rights 354
L.W. Sumner

17 Libertarianism 373
Jan Narveson

18 Virtue Ethics 394
Michael Slote

19 Capability Ethics 412
Ingrid Robeyns

20 Feminist Ethics 433
Alison M. Jaggar

21 Continental Ethics 461
William R. Schroeder

Index 487

“This outstanding collection contains really valuable entries by a great many leading lights in the field. An extremely useful resource for anyone wanting to acquaint themselves with the central issues in ethical theory today.”

—Russ Shafer-Landau, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Praise for the First Edition

"The Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory is, for its size, perhaps the best single-volume resource guide to contemporary ethical theory."

—Robert B. Louden, APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Spring 2001

“Written by distinguished philosophical experts, these pieces address a full range of issues in ethical and meta-ethical theory, as well as giving a considered voice to the various defenders of ethical anti-theory. As a whole they testify to and exemplify the current vibrancy and richness of work in ethical theory.”

—David Archard, Queen’s University Belfast

“For students, this Guide provides helpful introductions to themes and topics which they are to study in more detail, and lucid surveys of other aspects of ethical theory. It will also be read with profit by academics unfamiliar with the field; some of the papers are not just guides, but original contributions, to the subject.”

—Antony Duff, University of Stirling and University of Minnesota

“The Guide provides a wide-ranging survey of the major topics in contemporary ethical theory and includes a good amount of new and important work. It should be of use to anyone wanting acquaintance with the subject in its current state.”

—Barbara Herman, University of California at Los Angeles