Ethics Done Right
Practical Reasoning as a Foundation for Moral Theory

Examines how practical reasoning can be put into the service of ethical and moral theory.

Elijah Millgram (Author)

9780521839433, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 July 2005

356 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.4 cm, 0.6 kg

'There is much to admire about Millgram's book. It is entertainingly written, has an unusual take on familiar issues and is always insightful and interesting. Anyone interested in ethics or practical reason will find it very rewarding.' Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Ethics Done Right examines how practical reasoning can be put into the service of ethical and moral theory. Elijah Millgram shows that the key to thinking about ethics is to understand generally how to make decisions. The papers in this volume support a methodological approach and trace the connections between two kinds of theory in utilitarianism, in Kantian ethics, in virtue ethics, in Hume's moral philosophy, and in moral particularism. Unlike other studies of ethics, Ethics Done Right does not advocate a particular moral theory. Rather, it offers a tool that enables one to decide for oneself.

1. Introduction: the method of practical reasoning
2. What's the use of utility?
3. Mill's proof of the principle of utility
4. Does the categorical imperative give rise to a contradiction in the will? 5. Reasonably virtuous
6. Murdoch, practical reasoning, and particularism
7. Was Hume a Humean? 8. Hume on 'is' and 'ought'
9. Hume, political noncognitivism, and the history of England
10. Incommensurability and practical reasoning
11. Commensurability in perspective
12. Varieties of practical reasoning and varieties of moral theory.

Subject Areas: Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Analytical philosophy & Logical Positivism [HPCF5], Philosophy [HP]