"An excellent selection of essays on the most important topics of ethics and ethical theories..."--Ivan Boh, Ohio State University"A wonderful selection of some of the great articles and short pieces on ethics."--William E. Hannaford, Jr., Champlain College"This valuable reader is clearly organized, providing students with a comprehensive framework as well as comprehensible introductions to the discipline in general and individual moral philosophers in particular. The work is equally valuable as a primary text, supplemental reader, and/or reference source."--Harold Warlick, High Point University"Excellent and accessible work. Introduction and summaries of articles quite lucid. Comprehensive in range and outlook. A positive contribution."--Ramesh Patel, Antioch College

• INTRODUCTION ; PART I. CONCEPTS OF GOODNESS ; A. COGNITIVIST APPROACHES ; 1. The Subject-Matter of Ethics ; 2. Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer ; B. NONOGNITIVIST APPROACHES: DEFENSE AND CRITICISM ; 3. Critique of Ethics ; 4. Critique of Ayer ; 5. Reply to Critics ; 6. Expressivism ; 7. Selections from Descriptive Meaning and Principles ; 8. Moral Beliefs ; C. KINDS OF GOODNESS ; 9. Two Distinctions in Goodness ; PART 11. WHAT THINGS ARE GOOD? ; A. HEDONISM: DEFENSE AND CRITICISM ; 10. Ultimate Good ; 11. Value and Pleasure ; B. THE DESIRE-SATISFACTION THEORY: DEFENSE AND CRITICISM ; 12. The Good of Man ; 13. Desire and the Human Good ; C. OBJECTIVIST THEORIES ; 14. The Ideal ; 15. What things are Good? and Moral Goodness ; 16. Perfectionism ; 17. What Makes Someone's Life Go Best? ; PART III. VIRTUES AND ETHICS ; 18. Modern Moral Philosophy ; 19. Virtues and Vices ; 20. The Nature of the Virtues ; PART IV. REALISM VS. ANTI-REALISM ; 21. The Subjectivity of Values ; 22. Values and Secondary Qualities ; 23. Errors and the Phenomenology of Value ; 24. Moral Explanations ; PART V. VALUE AND OBLIGATION ; 25. Results the Test of Right and Wrong ; 26. Act-Utilitarianism and Rule-Utilitarianism ; 27. The Real and Alleged Problems of Utilitarianism ; 28. What Makes Right Acts Right? ; 29. Obligation and Motivation in Recent Moral Philosophy ; 30. A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness ; PART VI. THE VALUE AND MEANING OF LIFE ; 31. My Confession ; 32. Meaning and Value of Life ; 33. Morality and the Meaning of Life: Some First Thoughts ; 34. Goods and Lives ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ON CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORY ; INDEX