Abstract

An attempt to answer the question, What things are good? Although the subjectivist doctrine that value judgments are appraisals and not descriptions is adopted, the discussion is not restricted to metaethical questions, for Robinson also defends the idea that moral choices are true or false and then proceeds to state and defend his own choices under the categories of personal and political goods. His fundamental choice is to seek to decrease human misery. In the light of this he finds life, beauty, truth, and reason to be great personal goods, while conscientiousness is less good than is usually thought, and religion is evil. Political goods include equality, freedom, tolerance, and democracy. Though he calls himself a liberal, the author's views in this realm would scarcely be accepted by most of those who claim that title in Britain and the United States today. Careful attention is given to definition of the various values discussed, and to sorting out various different meanings which are often confused.—M. W.