Reading Parfit

Contributors: David Copp, J.L. Dowell and David Sobel, Julia Driver, Simon Kirchin, David McNaughton and Piers Rawling, Julia Markovits, Derek Parfit, Douglas W. Portmore, Kieran Setiya and Philip Stratton-Lake.Simon Kirchin is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Kent. He is the author of Metaethics (2012) and is the editor of Arguing about Metaethics (with Andrew Fisher) (Routledge, 2006).Derek Parfit (1942–2017) was for many years a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, retiring as Senior Research Fellow in 2010, whereupon he became an Emeritus Fellow. He also held visiting professorships at New York University, Harvard and Rutgers.

"Derek Parfit’s On What Matters is a major contribution to moral philosophy. The timely essays of this wonderful volume both clarify and evaluate Parfit’s central arguments. Anyone interested in Parfit’s work should study them carefully." Jussi Suikkanen, University of Birmingham, UK"Reading Parfit features an impressive group of ethicists and metaethicists offering well-aimed critiques of Parfit’s many arguments from his book, On What Matters. Parfit reacts in his characteristic style in a long response essay. The discussion illuminates many of the most important features of his argument and position. Mark van Roojen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USADerek Parfit was one of the world’s leading philosophers. His On What Matters is the most eagerly-awaited book in philosophy for many years and heralded by Peter Singer in the Times Literary Supplement as "the most significant work in ethics since Sidgwick’s masterpiece, The Methods of Ethics, was published in 1873."

• Notes on contributorsAcknowledgementsIntroductionSIMON KIRCHIN1. Reflections from Wolf and Wood: Incommensurability, Guidance, and the ‘Smoothing Over’ of Ethical LifeSIMON KIRCHIN2. Normative Naturalism and Normative Nihilism: Parfit’s Dilemma for Naturalism.DAVID COPP3. On what it is to MatterJULIA MARKOVITS4. The Buck-Passing Account of Value: Assessing the Negative ThesisPHILIP STRATTON-LAKE5. Normativity, Reasons and Wrongness: How to be a Two-Tiered TheoristDAVID McNAUGHTON and PIERS RAWLING6. Wrong-making ReasonsKIERAN SETIYA7. Parfit on Reasons and Rule ConsequentialismDOUGLAS W. PORTMORE8. Advice for Non-analytic NaturalistsJ. L. DOWELL and DAVID SOBEL9. Contingency and ConstructivismJULIA DRIVER10. ResponsesDEREK PARFITIndexIndex