ABSTRACT

Bernard Williams’ Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is widely regarded as one of the most important works of moral philosophy in the last fifty years. Williams’s powerful sceptical critique of the "morality system" sent shockwaves through philosophy, the implications of which are still being reckoned with thirty years later.

In this outstanding collection of new essays, fourteen internationally-recognised philosophers examine the enduring contribution that Williams’s book continues to make to ethics. After a detailed topical summary of Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy by Adrian Moore, the full scope of the work is assessed, including the role of Aristotle and Hume in Williams’ thought and his arguments concerning the history of philosophy; the nature of virtue, the good life, practical reason, and deliberation; and the themes of duty, blame and inauthenticity.

Ethics Beyond the Limits is required reading for students and researchers in ethics, metaethics, and moral psychology, and highly recommended for anyone studying the work of Bernard Williams.

chapter 1|18 pages

Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

chapter 2|10 pages

Lonely in Littlemore

Confidence in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

chapter 3|16 pages

Hume’s optimism and Williams’s pessimism

From “Science of Man” to genealogical critique

chapter 4|19 pages

Williams (on) doing history of philosophy

A case study on Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

chapter 5|12 pages

The good life and the unity of the virtues

Some reflections upon Williams on Aristotle

chapter 6|20 pages

Humanism and cruelty in Williams

chapter 7|25 pages

Duty, beauty, and booty

An essay in ethical reappropriation 1

chapter 8|19 pages

Gauguin’s lucky escape

Moral luck and the morality system

chapter 9|20 pages

The irrelativism of distance

chapter 11|21 pages

The inevitability of inauthenticity

Bernard Williams and practical alienation

chapter 12|13 pages

How should one live?

Williams on practical deliberation and reasons for acting