The moral philosophers: an introduction to ethics

This text adopts a historical approach to moral philosophy, taking in chronological sequence some of the major ethical philosophers of the past. Richard Norman introduces the thought of each figure as a coherent and comprehensive ethical theory, exploring their richness and complexity. Each theory is critically examined and presented as an attempt to surmount some of the deficiencies of its predecessors - and through this critical process the book moves towards some concluding suggestions about the content of an acceptable ethical theory. This edition includes four new chapters - one on Nietzsche, and three which provide substantially extended coverage of 20th-century moral philosophy, including discussions of contemporary utilitarianism, rights-based ethical theories, contractarian ethics and virtue ethics, and recent debates between realism and anti-realism in ethics.