Roger Crisp introduces the new book 'What Is the Point of Moral Philosophy?', edited with Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu. Arising from a conference of the same name, organised by the Oxford Uehiro Centre and held in Oxford in May 2022, the book will be of interest to scholars and students working in all areas of moral philosophy, including applied ethics, metaethics, and normative ethics.
Over the last half-century, moral philosophy has taken an applied turn, covering practical issues in areas such as medicine, business, the environment, and many others. But it has largely failed to examine itself. In this volume, a range of distinguished contemporary ethicists, representing many different positions, examine what might be the point, if any, of moral philosophy.
Given the deep and apparently intransigent basic disagreements between philosophers, is the discipline able to provide genuinely helpful advice? Is there an agreed methodology for philosophical ethics? Is the truth about ethics such that few people could believe it (perhaps because the truth is so peculiar) or act upon it (because it turns out that ethics is much more demanding than most think)? Perhaps the only philosopher to have addressed these issues head-on has been Ingmar Persson. His important arguments provide a starting point for debate and are examined and discussed by several contributors. But the volume goes beyond Persson’s path-breaking work to clarify the nature of the challenges to philosophical ethics and the variety of responses available.
