Abstract

This is a book both sober and optimistic, both analytical and humane. In the course of a virtual reinstatement of a Socratic ethics, it is claimed that: analytic philosophy can decide moral issues, at least indirectly, by clarifying the relevant concepts; moral philosophers are wrong in saying that there can be no argument about generally accepted standards; our failure to resolve cases of ultimate ethical disagreement is only a measure of our ignorance of the human machine, and confusion about our shared purposes; students of moral concepts cannot be neutral with respect to morals--analytic philosophers should not disguise their role as social reformers.--A. P. D. M.