Nietzsche and Contemporary Ethics

by Simon Robertson

Overview

Nietzsche is one of the most subversive thinkers of the western philosophical canon. Yet until recently, his ethics has been sidelined within Anglophone moral philosophy. Simon Robertson offers the first sustained, single-authored critical assessment of his ethical thought and its significance, arguing that Nietzsche raises well-motivated challenges to morality's objectivity, authority, and value. Nietzsche and Contemporary Ethics develops insightful arguments about ethical objectivity, the pitfalls of internalising moral values, and the relation between good and bad. Robertson concludes by considering Nietzsche's broader import: how he challenges our usual views of what ethics itself is—and what it, and we, should be doing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198722212
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Simon Robertson

Simon Robertson completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews in 2005. He has worked at several universities in the UK, most recently Cardiff University (2012-18). His main research interests are in ethics, normativity, risk, and Nietzsche. He has published in each of these fields, in journals and edited collections, and is the editor of Spheres of Reasons (Oxford 2009) and coeditor with Christopher Janaway of Nietzsche, Naturalism, and Normativity (Oxford 2012). He is now an independent scholar.

Table of Contents

Preface1.. Introduction2.. Nietzsche's Critical Target: Morality3.. Error Theory and Naturalism4.. Error Theory and Normative Authority5.. Morality's Disvalue: Feature-Specific Objections6.. Morality's Disvalue: Morality vs. Excellence7.. Moral Psychology: Will to Power8.. A Sentimentalist Moral Psychology9.. Perfectionism10.. Value and a Good Life11.. Normativity12.. Metaethical Loose Ends13.. ConclusionsAppendicesReferences