Now in an expanded and revised second edition, this book offers clear, penetrating examination of the central questions of ethics through study of the most important ethical theories in Western philosophy. Readers are introduced not only to the main ideas of each theory but also to contemporary developments and defenses of those ideas. Among theories the book covers are egoism, the eudaimonism of Plato and Aristotle, act and rule utilitarianism, modern natural law theory, Kant's moral theory, and existentialist ethics.…
Updated and expanded with two new chapters, Chapters 7 and 8, covering Hume’s ethics, Sidgwick’s program for defending utilitarianism, and Rawls’ hypothetical contractarianism