From Metaphysics to Ethics A Defence of Conceptual Analysis [Paperback]

Frank Jackson champions the cause of conceptual analysis as central to philosophical inquiry. In recent years conceptual analysis has been undervalued and widely misunderstood, suggests Jackson. He argues that such analysis is mistakenly clouded in mystery, preventing a whole range of important questions from being productively addressed. He anchors his argument in discussions of specific philosophical issues, starting with the metaphysical doctrine of physicalism and moving on, via free will, meaning, personal identity, motion, and change, to ethics and the philosophy of color. In this way the book not only offers a methodological program for philosophy, but also casts new light on some much-debated problems and their interrelations.

1. Serious metaphysics and supervenience
2. The role of conceptual analysis
3. Conceptual analysis and metaphysical necessity
4. The primary-quality view of colour
5. The location problem for ethics: moral properties and moral content
6. Analytical descriptivism
Bibliography
Index

In the present climate, any serious work on philosophical methodology is of real interest; when the work is by a philosopher as clear and original as Frank Jackson, it is mandatory reading. --Philosophical Review

An outstanding work. Given its breadth and originality, it deserves to be widely studied. Given its brevity and clarity, it actually might be. The book covers a vast range of topics, from the issue of physicalism in the philosophy of mind, via the nature of conceptual analysis, to the metaphysics of colour and ethics. In each area Jackson stakes out a distinctive position which accords with the basic account of metaphysics defended throughout. --British Journal of the Philosophy of Science

[A] brilliant exposition and defense of the role of conceptual analysis in serious metaphysics....This excellent book deserves a spot in every academic library. --Choice

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