The Structure of Normative Ethics - & Other Essays in Moral Philosophy

This volume contains a selection of essays on the structure and methods of normative ethics by eminent philosopher Shelly Kagan. Its successor, Rethinking Intrinsic Value: And Other Essays on the Good, collects essays on value, well-being, and desert. The volume opens with a cluster of essays that concern the structure of normative ethics. A general theme of these essays is that, by carving ethics at the joints, we can glean a better idea of what the main moral theories are up to, whether they are offering up competing hypotheses, or whether they are answering different questions that arise at different levels. The second Part explores the various methods of normative ethics, critically examining the role of thought experiments and the practical difficulty of following moral principles given various epistemic limitations. The final section brings together essays on practical ethics. Strictly speaking, the essays in this section are not themselves essays in practical or applied ethics.