Moral Particularism [Paperback]

A timely and penetrating investigation, this book seeks to transform moral philosophy. In the face of continuing disagreement about which general moral principles are correct, there has been a resurgence of interest in the idea that correct moral judgements can be only about particular cases. This view--moral particularism--forecasts a revolution in ordinary moral practice that has until now consisted largely of appeals to general moral principles. Moral particularism also opposes the primary aim of most contemporary normative moral theory that attempts to show that either one general principle, or a set of general principles, is superior to all its rivals.

1. Moral Particularism: Wrong and Bad,Brad Hooker
2. Particularising Particularism,Roger Crisp
3. The Truth in Particularism,Joseph Raz
4. Ethical Particularism and Patterns,Frank Jackson, Philip Pettit, and Michael Smith
5. Ethics as an Inexact Science: Aristotle's Ambition for Moral Theory,T. H. Irwin
6. The Particularist's Progress,Jonathan Dancy
7. Ethical Particularism in Context,David Bakhurst
8. Particularity and Principle: The Structure of Moral Knowledge,Jay Garfield
9. Against Deriving Particularity,Lawrence Blum
10. Why Practice Needs Ethical Theory: Particularism, Principle, and Bad Behaviour,Martha Nussbaum
11. Unprincipled Ethics,David McNaughton and Piers Rawling
12. Moral Generalities Revisited,Margaret Olivia Little
Bibliography
Index

The volume is indispensable to anyone working on the topic and useful for upper-level and graduate courses. --The Philosophical Review

Brad Hooker is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Reading. Margaret Little is Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University.