The language of morals

Clarendon Press

1952

202 p.

Part I. The imperative mood : Prescriptive language – Imperatives and logic – Inference – Decisions of principle – Part II. 'Good' : 'Naturalism' – Meaning and criteria – Description and evaluation – Commending and choosing – 'Good' in moral contexts – Part III. 'Ought' : 'Ought' and 'right' – 'Ought' and imperatives – An analytical model.

Includes bibliographical references and index

"I have set out in this book to write a clear, brief, and readable introduction to ethics which shall bring the beginner as directly as possible to grips with the fundamental problems of the subject. I have therefore, in reducing the material which I had prepared to about half its original length, left out most of those qualifications, answers to minor objections, and other defences with which the security-minded philosopher is apt to hedge himself round... Almost every paragraph in this book, as in other works of philosophy, requires some qualification; but to supply it on every occasion would be to make my main contentions difficult to grasp. I have therefore tried to adopt throughout as definite a standpoint as possible, in the belief that it is more important that there should be discussion of the points herein raised, than that I should survive it unscathed." -- Preface.

Английский