Real Ethics Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality [Paperback]

This 2001 book is a powerful defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism.John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary 'practical reasoners'. His lively and accessible study is informed by a powerful sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to both students and scholars of ethics.John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary 'practical reasoners'. His lively and accessible study is informed by a powerful sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to both students and scholars of ethics.John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular--Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary practical reasoners . His accessible study is enhanced by a strong sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to students and scholars of ethics.Introduction; 1. Moral nihilism: Socrates vs. Thrasymachus; 2. Morals and metaphysics; 3. The soul and the self; 4. Division and its remedies; 5. Rules and applications; 6. The past, present and future of practical reasoning; 7. Autonomy and choice; 8. Ethics and ideology; 9. God and ethics. His study...is of interest not only to philosophers, theologians and, in fact, all those concerned with moral theory but also to classicists inlSq