Reading Parfit

Reading Parfit brings together some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to discuss and critique Derek Parfit's outstanding work, Reasons and Persons. 1. Parfit and Indirectly Self-Defeating Theories: Jonathan Dancy (University of Reading).

2. Rationality and The Rational Aim: David Gauthier (University of Pittsburgh).

3. Which Effects?: Frank Jackson (Australian National University).

4. Parfit and the Time of Value: Michael Stocker (Syracuse University).

5. Parfit's P: Philip Pettit and Michael Smith (both Australian National University).

6. Rational Egoism and the Separateness of Persons: David O. Brink (University of California, San Diego).

7. Parfit on Identity: Sydney Shoemaker (Cornell University).

8. Human Concerns without Superlative Selves: Mark Johnston (Princeton University).

9. Has Kant refuted Parfit?: Simon Blackburn (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

10. Persons and Their Bodies: Judith Jarvis Thomson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

11. Reductionism and the First Person: John McDowell (University of Pittsburgh).

12. Should Ethics be More Impersonal?: Robert Merrihew Adams (Yale University).

13. Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning: Larry Temkin (Rice University).

"An impressive collection of twelve essays which reflect Parfit's own knack of getting to the heart of the most fundamental problems in ethics and personal identity. With contributors of the calibre of Sydney Shoemaker, Simon Blackburn, Judith Jarvis Thomson, John McDowell and Frank Jackson you would have every right to expect some first-rate writing, and you won't be disappointed ... This is a volume for the reader who has been fascinated by the richness and complexity of Parfit and is looking for insightful, well-considered responses to it." The Philosophers' Magazine Jonathan Dancy is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading. He has published widely in the areas of ethics and epistemology, including (co-editor with Ernest Sosa) A Companion to Epistemology (Blackwell Publishers, 1992) and Moral Reasons (Blackwell Publishers, 1992). When it was first published in 1984, Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons was heralded as one of the most significant achievements in moral philosophy to have appeared in recent times. Now, Reading Parfit brings together some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to discuss and critique each of the four parts of this outstanding work, and present a detailed response to Parfit's philosophical perspective.

Including thirteen essays, of which the majority have been written especially for this volume, Reading Parfit will be an invaluable collection for both students and scholars working in the fields of metaphysics and moral philosophy. Contributors include David Gauthier, Frank Jackson, Larry Temkin, Judith Jarvis Thomson, John McDowell, Robert Merrihew Adams, Michael Stocker, Philip Pettit, Michael Smith, Simon Blackburn, Jonathan Dancy, Mark Johnston, David O. Brink and Sidney Shoemaker. Parfit's responses to these papers will be published later in two separate volumes entitled Practical Realism and The Metaphysics of the Self.