Derek Parfit

Challenging, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity, Parfit claims that we have a false view about our own nature. It is often rational to act against our own best interests, he argues, and most of us have moral views that are self-defeating. We often act wrongly, although we know there will be no one with serious grounds for complaint, and when we consider future generations it is very hard to avoid conclusions that most of us will find very disturbing.

On What Matters is a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 book Reasons and Persons , one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. In this first volume Parfit presents a powerful new treatment of reasons and rationality, and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories -- Kant's ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism -- leading to his own ground-breaking synthetic conclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues, such as the significance of consent, treating people as a means rather than an end, and free will and responsibility. On What Matters is already the most-discussed work in moral its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic which everyone working on moral philosophy will have to read, and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.

On What Matters is a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 book Reasons and Persons, one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. Parfit now presents a powerful new treatment of reasons, rationality, and normativity, and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories - Kant's ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism - leading to his own ground-breaking synthetic conclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues, such as the significance of consent, treating people as a means rather than an end, and free will and responsibility. On What Matters is already the most-discussed work in moral philosophy: its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic which everyone working on moral philosophy will have to read, and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.

On What Matters is a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 book Reasons and Persons , one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. In this first volume Parfit presents a powerful new treatment of reasons and rationality, and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories -- Kant's ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism -- leading to his own ground-breaking synthetic conclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues, such as the significance of consent, treating people as a means rather than an end, and free will and responsibility. On What Matters is already the most-discussed work in moral its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic which everyone working on moral philosophy will have to read, and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.

Derek Parfit presents the third volume of On What Matters, his landmark work of moral philosophy. Parfit develops further his influential treatment of reasons, normativity, the meaning of moral discourse, and the status of morality. He engages with his critics, and shows the way to resolution of their differences.This volume is partly about what it is for things to matter, in the sense that we all have reasons to care about these things. Much of the book discusses three of the main kinds of meta-ethical theory: Normative Naturalism, Quasi-Realist Expressivism, and Non-Metaphysical Non-Naturalism, which Derek Parfit now calls Non-Realist Cognitivism. This third theory claims that, if we use the word 'reality' in an ontologically weighty sense, irreducibly normative truths have no mysterious or incredible ontological implications. If instead we use 'reality' in a wide sense, according to which all truths are truths about reality, this theory claims that some non-empirically discoverable truths-such as logical, mathematical, modal, and some normative truths-raise no difficult ontological questions.Parfit discusses these theories partly by commenting on the views of some of the contributors to Peter Singer's collection Does Anything Really Matter? Parfit on Objectivity. Though Peter Railton is a Naturalist, he has widened his view by accepting some further claims, and he has suggested that this wider version of Naturalism could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Railton is right, since these theories no longer deeply disagree. Though Allan Gibbard is a Quasi-Realist Expressivist, he has suggested that the best version of his view could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Gibbard is right, since Gibbard and he now accept the other's main meta-ethical claim. It is rare for three such different philosophical theories to be able to be widened in ways that resolve their deepest disagreements. This happy convergence supports the view that these meta-ethical theories are true. Parfit also discusses the views of several other philosophers, and some other meta-ethical and normative questions.

An Essay by Derek Parfit published in the London review of books volume 20 No. 2.

Derek Parfit var en av vår tids mest originella filosofer och hans "Jämlikhet eller prioritet?" är oumbärlig för alla som funderar över jämlikhet och moraliska skyldigheter. På flera sätt gav Parfit moralfilosofin en ny riktning och formulerade nya och ofta oväntade problem. Bland annat gjorde han banbrytande bidrag till diskussionen om personlig identitet, och om våra skyldigheter gentemot framtida generationer. Dessutom synliggjorde han allvarliga misstag i våra moraluppfattningar. I denna text undersöker Parfit vad vi menar med jämlikhet, och framför allt om vi bör värdera jämlikhet, och i så fall hur. Parfit undrar om det inte är viktigare att bistå dem som har det sämst i stället för att bry sig så mycket om skillnader mellan människor. Derek Parfit (1942–2017) var verksam vid All Souls College i Oxford i nära 50 år och undervisade även vid Harvard, Rutgers och universitetet i New York. Han var ledamot i British Academy och fick 2014 Rolf Schockpriset. Hans bok "Reasons and Persons" från 1984 är en modern klassiker.

Swedish / Svenska

Rare Book

From Book 1: On What Matters is a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 book Reasons and Persons, one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. In this first volume Parfit presents a powerful new treatment of reasons and rationality, and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories — Kant's ethics, contractualism, and consequentialism — leading to his own ground-breaking syntheticconclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues, such as the significance of consent, treating people as a means rather than an end, and free will and responsibility. On What Matters is already the most-discussed work in moral philosophy: its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic whicheveryone working on moral philosophy will have to read, and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.

《论重要之事一一规范伦理学卷（上）》进一步发展了《理与人》中的理由理论，对理由的主观主义展开了更详尽的反驳，为理由的客观主义提供了更有力的辩护。帕菲特基于其理由理论，试图重勘道德哲学的版图，打破“后果主义者与义务论者之间存在着根本分歧”这一公认的假定，重构并且发展出他认为更好的康德式义务论与斯坎伦契约论，然后表明重构之后的三种理论之间有着惊人的趋同性，可以说是从不同的侧面攀登同一座山峰，从而获得规范伦理学的“三重理论”。《论重要之事一一规范佗理学卷（下）》主要包括沃尔芙、伍德，赫尔曼和斯坎伦的四篇批判性论文与帕菲特的回应。四位评论者从不同方面讨论一个问题：帕菲特试图证实会趋同的各种道德观点．在何种程度上是其常见观点的真实版本。沃尔芙认为帕菲的康德式版本眼制了自主性在康德哲学中的重要性。伍德认为帕菲持的思想试验论证是无效的。赫尔曼认为康德主义与后果主义在方法论上有着深刻的“不匹配”，试图组合它们必然会扭曲康德自己的论说。斯坎伦认为帕菲特对其理论的重构错失了某些重要的成分。帕菲特对批评做出了详尽的回应，其总体精神是他不需要执着于三种理论的原意，而是要找到三种理论的最佳版本。

《论重要之事——元伦理学卷（上）》主要探讨规范性的各种代表性版本，但是不同于规范伦理学卷中寻求各种理论的趋同，帕菲特在此努力论证其他理论版本都不能恰当地解释我们思想中的规范性维度；基于所有这些观点，规范性都被证明是种幻觉。对于这些立场，帕菲特在书中讨论和批评了其中许多有影响的版本，包括布莱克本、布兰德特、吉伯德、黑尔、麦基和威廉姆斯等人的观点。帕菲特最终的结论是：所有这类观点都倾向于虚无主义，且对于承认不可还原地规范性的真理来说，虚无主义是唯一真正的竞争对手。帕菲特由此认为我们应该接受非形而上的、非自然主义的认知主义理论，拒绝一切形式的自然主义和非认知主义理论。《论重要之事——元伦理学卷（下）》主要是回应《真的有事重要吗？》一书对其规范性理论提出的各种反驳。帕菲特为了回应这些批评，进一步发展了他自己有关理由和规范性的理论。他的核心转变在于，明确交代其规范性真理并不具有本体论地位，从而避免本体论上的怪异性。同时为避免混淆与误解，帕菲特将其理论改名为非实在论的认知主义，从而获得空间可以寻求与自然主义、准实在论的表达主义两种理论的趋同。帕菲特由此发展出的非实在论的认知主义理论，与雷尔顿进一步发展出的广义自然主义和吉伯德发展出的新型版本的表达主义，最终达成了基本共识，得到了元伦理学领域的“新三重理论”。