Preface Part I 1. The Main Ideas I 2. The Main Ideas II 3. The Second-Person Stance and Second-Personal Reasons Part II 4. Accountability and the Second Person 5. Moral Obligation and Accountability 6. Respect and the Second Person Part III 7. The Psychology of the Second Person 8. Interlude: Hume Versus Reid on Justice (with Contemporary Resonances) Part IV 9. Morality and Autonomy in Kant 10. The Second Person and Dignity: Variations on Fichtean Themes 11. Freedom and Practical Reason 12. A Foundation for Contractualism Works Cited Index
Stephen Darwall's The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect, and Accountability is an important contribution to moral philosophy, and its arguments are sure to be widely discussed and debated. The book brings into contemporary philosophical debates a series of ideas centering around what Darwall calls 'the second person'-- the idea that morality is fundamentally about the demands that particular people are entitled to make on each other. Obligation, understood as what people owe to each other, has been central to recent moral philosophy, but the second person standpoint gets behind the idea of obligation and explains that in terms of the standing the particular people have to make claims against each other. These ideas have been of great significance in the history of philosophy, but that have not attracted the attention of philosophers in recent decades. This is a fascinating and important book. -- Arthur Ripstein, Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy, Yale University.
Stephen Darwall's The Second-Person Standpoint: Morality, Respect,
and Accountability is an important contribution to moral
philosophy, and its arguments are sure to be widely discussed and
debated. The book brings into contemporary philosophical debates a
series of ideas centering around what Darwall calls 'the second
person'-- the idea that morality is fundamentally about the demands
that particular people are entitled to make on each other.
Obligation, understood as what people owe to each other, has been
central to recent moral philosophy, but the second person
standpoint gets behind the idea of obligation and explains that in
terms of the standing the particular people have to make claims
against each other. These ideas have been of great significance in
the history of philosophy, but that have not attracted the
attention of philosophers in recent decades. This is a fascinating
and important book.
*Arthur Ripstein, Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of
Toronto*
The Second-Person Standpoint, Stephen Darwall's innovative and
engaging new book, contends that not only can we use Strawson's
argument to develop a new line on free will; we can also employ it
in developing a new perspective on moral obligations...It is a mine
of insight into an aspect of morality that has escaped sustained
exploration. Even if it overreaches in its claim to confound
consequentialism, the elements it puts in place ought to figure
prominently in every account of morality, and it should help to
ensure that from now on they will.
*Times Literary Supplement*
The idea of a second-personal reason is a genuine and important
advance in moral philosophy.
*Ethics*
The Second-Person Standpoint has quickly become one of the most
discussed recent books in ethics. It richly deserves that honor,
since it offers a thorough, intriguing and deeply thoughtful
reconception of the entire sphere of morality...Darwall's book
challenges the meta-ethical presuppositions of practically every
going moral theory. Darwall remains, as he has been throughout his
career, strongly committed to Kantianism. But his Kantianism is now
one in which a certain relationship--the relationship between an I
and a you--lies deeper than even the categorical imperative. If he
is right, we will need to read Kant himself in a different
light.
*Utilitas*
Darwall's foray into this relatively untrampled philosophical
terrain turns out to be enormously exciting. The result is a book
which takes its place among the very best contemporary works on
Kantian ethics and which ought to be regarded as required reading
for any contemporary ethical theorist.
*Philosophical Quarterly*
One of the main achievements of Darwall's book is that it provides
an answer to [Anscombe's] challenge. The authorities to whom modern
moral consciousness appeals are simply you and I.
*Ethics*
A theory regarding the form and content of moral obligation
requires attention to issues in both ethics and metaphysics.
Darwall's construction of such a theory is historically informed,
concisely written, and provocative in ways that extend far beyond
the merely theoretical.
*Choice*
The Second-Person Standpoint is a rigorous and convincing volume of
utmost importance to ongoing discussions of the foundations of
rights and obligations in ethics and jurisprudence, as well as to
the current debates on the foundations of practical rationality.
Additionally, Darwall’s book is likely to be a catalyst for a new
and beneficial discussion of the long neglected ethical doctrines
of early-modern theological voluntarism and German idealism and the
contributions these rich traditions can offer to contemporary
thinking about morality, responsibility, and the dignity of
persons.
*Review of Metaphysics*
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