A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century, Second Edition - Paperback

by Alasdair MacIntyre (Author)

A Short History of Ethics is a significant contribution written by one of the most important living philosophers. For the second edition Alasdair MacIntyre has included a new preface in which he examines his book "thirty years on" and considers its impact. It remains an important work, ideal for all students interested in ethics and morality.

Back Jacket

The author writes...'This history of moral philosophy which runs from the Greeks to contemporary Anglo-Saxon discussion is necessarily compressed and selective, but is intended to enable the general reader and the student to place particular texts in moral philosophy in an historical perspective. The function of this perspective is to clarify three kinds of historical and philosophical connection whose importance is often underrated. The first is a matter of the debts which moral philosophers owe to their predecessors; the second concerns the question of the nature of the moral concepts which furnish any moral philosopher with the objects of his enquiry upon moral concepts themselves and the extent to which the philosophical analysis of a concept may play a part in transforming or even discrediting it. A consequence of these preoccupations is that the book contains a higher proportion of purely philosophical enquiry than might be expected in an historical work.'

Author Biography

Alasdair MacIntyre (1929-2025) was permanent senior distinguished research fellow at the de Nicola Center of Ethics and Culture and the Rev. John A. O'Brien senior research professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He authored numerous books over the course of his career, including After Virtue and Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry.