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What's the Matter? Review of Derek Parfit, On What Matters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2012

GERALD LANG
GERALD LANG*
Affiliation:
University of [email protected]
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Extract

In the Preface to this enormous work, Derek Parfit makes a reference to Sidgwick's ‘great, drab book’ The Methods of Ethics (xxxiii). The juxtaposition of adjectives is amusing and oddly endearing; for Parfit, Sidgwick's drabness is not in any serious competition with his greatness. Parfit's two-volume book is not drab – though it can be exhausting – and, although it is probably too early to tell for sure, it also shows certain signs of greatness. Time and time again, one is impressed, even moved, by Parfit's enthralling and indefatigable resourcefulness and level of immersion in these issues, and by his dogged and transparently sincere commitment to discovering the truth about them. Despite its length, On What Matters demands careful study by everyone with a serious interest in philosophical ethics.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Utilitas , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 300 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

1 Page reference numbers in parentheses in the body of the main text will be to On What Matters. References will be preceded by the numeral ‘1’ or ‘2’, to denote the volume.

2 I lack space to assess Parfit's treatment of Expressivism, which has already ruffled some feathers: see Simon Blackburn, ‘All Souls Night: Parfit on Expressivism’, currently online at: <http://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/PAPERS/Allsoulsnight.htm>.

3 See Williams, Bernard, ‘Internal and External Reasons’, in his Moral Luck (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 101–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Gibbard, Allan, Thinking How to Live (Cambridge, Mass., 2003)Google Scholar.

5 See Mackie, J. L., Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong (London, 1977)Google Scholar, ch. 1.