Overview

Stephen Darwall is a moral philosopher who has played a central role in contemporary debates around the foundation of ethics. This book is a sequel to his earlier volume Modern Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to Kant, and like its predecessor it explores the history of the period through its key ethical thinkers. Fichte, Hegel, Marx, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche – the founding members of the 'continental' tradition – are masterfully examined as they are brought into vivid conversation with both analytic philosophy and the mainstream Anglophone philosophical tradition. The author addresses topics which include the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill; the anti-naturalism of Sidgwick and the British idealists; and Nietzsche's late-century critique of morality. He reveals that all these canonical thinkers – just like their precursors and successors – were wrestling with fundamental and enduring ethical problems, even when they claimed otherwise or were presenting their views in new and challenging terms.

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9781009543873

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Reviews

'Stephen Darwall is both a leading moral philosopher and a leading historian of modern moral philosophy. His latest book tells the story of nineteenth century moral philosophy in both the German and the British traditions. Admirably, it begins by correcting the long neglect of Fichte's ethics, and takes us as far as Sidgwick and T. H. Green. His balanced yet critical approach helps us to see where our thinking about both individual agency and society has come from and also helps us to think about where it should be going.' Ruth Norman Halls Professor, Indiana University and Ward W. and Priscillia B. Woods Professor emeritus, Stanford University Allen Wood, Ruth Norman Halls Professor, Indiana University and Ward W. and Priscillia B. Woods Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

Author Information

Stephen Darwall is the Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale. He is the author of The Second-Person Standpoint (2006), in fundamental ethical theory, and Modern Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to Kant (Cambridge, 2023), in the history of ethics.

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