Like the two earlier volumes of Bernard Williams' papers published by Cambridge University Press, Problems of the Self and Moral Luck, Making Sense of Humanity will be welcomed by all readers with a serious interest in philosophy. It is published alongside a volume of essays on Williams' work, World, Mind and Ethics: Essays on the Ethical Philosophy of Bernard Williams, edited by J.E.J. Altham and Ross Harrison, which provides a reappraisal of his work by other distinguished thinkers in the field.
By:
Bernard Williams (University of Oxford)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 228mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 425g
ISBN: 9780521478687
ISBN 10: 0521478685
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 04 September 1995
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Preface; Part I. Action, Freedom, Responsibility: 1. How free does the will need to be? 2. Voluntary acts and responsible agents; 3. Internal reasons and the obscurity of blame; 4. Moral incapacity; 5. Acts and omissions, doing and not doing; 6. Nietzsche's minimalist moral psychology; Part II. Philosophy, Evolution and the Human Sciences: 7. Making sense of humanity; 8. Evolutionary theory and epistemology; 9. Evolution, ethics and the representation problem; 10. Formal structures and social reality; 11. Formal and substantial individualism; 12. Saint-Just's illusion; Part III. Ethics: 13. The point of view of the universe; 14. Ethics and the fabric of the world; 15. What does intuitionism imply; 16. Professional morality and its dispositions; 17. Who needs ethical knowledge?; 18. What slopes are slippery? 19. Resenting one's own existence; 20. Must a concern for the environment be centred on human beings? 21. Moral luck: a postscript.
Reviews for Making Sense of Humanity: And Other Philosophical Papers 1982–1993
'A treat: civilised, sharp discussions of serious issues, spiked with asides which are deep, funny and sometimes both' Onora O'Neill, Times Higher Education Supplement 'In Making Sense of Humanity, Williams takes his scapel and sets about slicing morality's jugular: free will, blame, moral responsibility, the ability of everone to do the right thing, and the possibility of a theoretical justification for being good. His attack seems to me to be alarmingly convincing.' Spectator
