Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and other writings on ethics

David McNaughton is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University and Professor Emeritus at Keele University. He is the founder and first President of the British Society for Ethical Theory. He is the author of Moral Vision (1988) and, with Eve Garrard, Forgiveness (2010), and of a number of papers on ethics, philosophy of religion, and the relations between the two. He is currently writing a book with Piers Rawling on their approach to practical reasons, and editing Butler's Analogy of Religion for OUP.

David McNaughton provides an excellent and accessible critical introduction to Butler's celebrated Fifteen Sermons and a number of other shorter pieces (which he has edited and annotated). In this introduction he brings out the ongoing relevance of Butler's work to questions raised by modern philosophy, albeit shorn of theological components.

• Sermon 1 Upon Human Nature Sermon 2 Upon Human Nature Sermon 3 Upon Human Nature Sermon 4 Upon the Government of the Tongue Sermon 5 Upon Compassion Sermon 6 Upon Compassion Sermon 7 Upon the Character of Balaam Sermon 8 Upon Resentment Sermon 9 Upon the Forgiveness of Injuries Sermon 10 Upon Self-Deceit Sermon 11 Upon the Love of our Neighbour Sermon 12 Upon the Love of our Neighbour Sermon 13 Upon the Love of God Sermon 14 Upon the Love of God Sermon 15 Upon the Ignorance of Man A Dissertation of the Nature of Virtue A Sermon Preached Before the House of Lords A Selection from the Correspondence between Joseph Butler and Samuel Clarke Editorial Notes Butler's Predecessors