Fundamentals of ethics

Are we entitled to be confident that our moral judgements can be objective? Can they express insights into aspects of reality, rather than mere feelings, tastes, desires, decisions, upbringing, or conventions? Why must we consider some of our choices to be free, and how do our free choices matter? How far should our moral judgements be based on assessments of expected consequences? Can utilitarianism, and other consequentialist or proportionalist theories, be anything more than the rationalization of positions taken on other grounds?The main theme of this book is the challenge to ethics from philosophical scepticism and from contemporary forms of consequentialism. But in seeking to meet this challenge, the book develops a sustained philosophical argument about many of the central questions of ethics. It reviews classical positions, and challenges some long-influential interpretations of those positions. It also reviews and participates in some recent developments and controversies in Anglo-American ethical theory.The activity of ethical theorizing itself is shown to be a matter of free and intelligent decision, in pursuit of intelligible good; it thus provides a test-case for any ethical theory.

Finnis, John

Clarendon Press

Providing a rigorous and objective ethical analysis of nuclear deterrence, this book discusses such issues as the Soviet menace, possible holocaust, and strategic imperatives. At the same time, the authors unmask types of deterrence that they perceive essentially as moral evasions, maintaining that deterrence cannot be bluffing, pure counterforce, the lesser (or greater) evil, or a step towards disarmament. Concluding that deterrence is unjustifiable, this book examines the new questions of conscience that this raises for us all.

Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism

Literature & Fiction

Grisez, Germain

Boyle Jr., Joseph

British & Irish

A rigorous and objective ethical analysis of nuclear deterrence, this book provides a wide-ranging discussion of such important peace issues as possible holocaust, the Soviet menace, and strategic imperatives. The authors also unmask types of deterrence that they perceive as essentially moral evasions. Raising to a new level the moral, political, theological, and strategic debates surrounding deterrence, the volume ultimately concludes that it is an unjustifiable policy.

Politics & Social Sciences

Boyle, Joseph M.

Grisez, Germain Gabriel

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

This book uses contemporary analytical tools to provide basic accounts of values and principles, community and 'common good', justice and human rights, authority, law, the varieties of obligation, unjust law, and even the question of divine authority.

Natural Law and Natural Rights (Clarendon Law Series)

This book confronts moral skepticism by using contemporary analytical tools to provide basic accounts of values and principles, community and "common good," justice and human rights, authority, law, the varieties of obligation, unjust law, and the question of divine authority. Finnis deals with both classical accounts and modern critiques, developments in law, and arguments among contemporary political and legal theorists.

Criminal Law

This launch volume in the Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought series presents a critical examination of Aquinas's thought, combining an accessible, historically-informed account of his work with an assessment of his central ideas and arguments. John Finnis presents a richly-documented critical review of Aquinas's thought on morality, politics, law, and method in social science. Unique in his coverage of both primary and secondary texts and his vigorous argumentation on many themes, the author focuses on the philosophy in Aquinas's texts, and demonstrates how this interconnects with the theological elements. Finnis shows how Aquinas, despite some medieval limitations, makes clear and profound contributions to present debates.

Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought)

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

This launch volume in the Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought series presents a critical examination of Aquinas's thought, combining an accessible, historically-informed account of his work with an assessment of his central ideas and arguments. John Finnis presents a richly-documented critical review of Aquinas's thought on morality, politics, law, and method in social science. Unique in his coverage of both primary and secondary texts and his vigorous argumentation on many themes, the author focuses on the philosophy in Aquinas's texts, and demonstrates how this interconnects with the theological elements. Finnis shows how Aquinas, despite some medieval limitations, makes clear and profound contributions to present debates.

For over forty years John Finnis has pioneered the development of a new classical theory of natural law, a systematic philosophical explanation of human life that offers an integrated account of personal identity, practical reason, morality, political community, and law. The core of Finnis' theory, articulated in his seminal work Natural Law and Natural Rights, has profoundly influenced later work in the philosophy of law and practical reason, while his contributions to the ethical debates surrounding nuclear deterrence, abortion, and sexual morality have been a powerful, and controversial exposition of the practical implications of his theory of natural law.The Collected Essays of John Finnis brings together 122 papers, including over two dozen previously unpublished works. Thematically arranged, the five volumes provide ready access to his contributions across central areas of modern practical philosophy - the philosophy of practical reason; the philosophy of personal identity and intention; political philosophy; the philosophy of law; and the philosophy of revelation and the role of religion in public life. Fully cross-referenced, cross-indexed, and introduced by the author, the Collected Essays reveal the connections and coherence of the different branches of Finnis' work, showing the full picture of his philosophical contribution for the first time.Covering topics from the nature of divine revelation, the morality of abortion, to the adoption of Bills of Rights, the work in these volumes offer a unique insight into the intellectual currents and political debates that have transformed major areas of public morality and law over the last half century. Together with the new edition of Natural Law and Natural Rights, they will be an essential resource for all those engaged with the philosophy of law and broader questions in practical philosophy.

The Collected Essays of John Finnis: Volumes I-V

Essays & Correspondence

Reason in Action collects John Finnis' work on the theory of practical reason and moral philosophy. The essays in the volume range from foundational issues of meta-ethics to the practical application of natural law theory to ethical problems such as nuclear deterrence, obscenity and free speech, and abortion and cloning.Defending the objectivity of some evaluative and moral judgments, the volume's meta-ethical papers debate with figures as diverse as Jurgen Habermas, Bernard Williams, David Hume, Max Weber, and Christine Korsgaard, and offer a new understanding of Wittgenstein's On Certainty. Further papers engage with Philippa Foot, Geoffrey Warnock, Leo Strauss, Terence Irwin, neo-scholastic interpreters of Aquinas, utilitarians, game theorists, and Immanuel Kant on the shape of moral thought. John Rawls's conception of public reason, J.S. Mill's understanding of free speech, Jacques Maritain's appeal to "connatural" knowledge, and Karl Rahner's idea of changing human nature are critically contested. Foundational questions addressed in the volume include: how legal reasoning differs from general practical reasoning; how aesthetic appreciation differs from erotic attraction; how subrational elements enter into the rational standard of fairness; how virtues depend upon principles and norms; and how incommensurabilities count in moral thought. These papers mark the development of Finnis' new classical theory of natural law, engaged with contemporary thinkers and problems. Several papers previously unpublished show that emergence before Natural Law and Natural Rights was written. Other unpublished papers include a discussion of pornography, an analysis of freedom of speech, and a substantive introduction reflecting on the theory, its reception, and the convergence on it of capabilities theorists such as Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.

Reason in Action (Collected Essays, Vol. 1)

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Books by Finnis, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Finnis, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Fundamentals of ethics

Fundamentals of ethics

Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism

Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism

Natural Law and Natural Rights (Clarendon Law Series)

Natural Law and Natural Rights (Clarendon Law Series)

Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought)

Aquinas: Moral, Political, and Legal Theory (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought)

The Collected Essays of John Finnis: Volumes I-V

Reason in Action (Collected Essays, Vol. 1)