Ethics through history: an introduction

Irwin provides an extended historical and philosophical discussion of the major questions and key philosophers in the history of ethics, from Socrates onwards. He covers some of the main ancient, medieval, and modern moral philosophers, whose engaging arguments have formed the agenda for contemporary ethical theory. What is the human good? What are the primary virtues that make a good person? What makes an action right? Must we try maximize good consequences? How can we know what is right and good? Can morality be rationally justified? Irwin makes the debates surrounding such fundamental questions intelligible to readers with no extensive background in philosophy. Concentrating on the authors who are most often read by students of philosophy in particular, he examines them in sufficient detail to convey both the strengths and weaknesses of their positions. --Provided by publisher.

Introduction -- Socrates: the choice of lives -- Plato -- Aristotle -- Scepticism -- Epicurus: happiness as pleasure -- The Stoics: happiness as virtue -- Christian belief and moral philosophy: Augustine -- Aquinas -- Scotus and Ockham -- Morality and social human nature: Suarez and Grotius -- Hobbes: natural law without social human nature -- Voluntarism, naturalism, and moral realism: Pufendorf, Shaftesbury, Cudworth, and Clarke -- Sentimentalism: a non-rational ground for morality: Hutcheson and Hume -- Rationalism: a rational ground for morality: Butler, Price, and Reid -- Kant and some critics -- Schopenhauer: Kant's insights and errors -- Hegel: beyond Kantian morality -- Nietzsche: against Kant and morality -- Utilitarianism: Mill and Sidgwick -- Beyond Kantian and utilitarian morality: an idealist alternative: Green and Bradley -- Meta-ethics: objectivity and its critics -- Utilitarianism and its critics: some further questions.