The Development of Ethics, Volume 1: From Socrates to the Reformation

by Terence Irwin

The Development of Ethics is a selective historical and critical study of moral philosophy in the Socratic tradition, with special attention to Aristotelian naturalism, its formation, elaboration, criticism, and defence. It discusses the main topics of moral philosophy as they have developed historically, the human good, human nature, justice, friendship, and morality; the methods of moral inquiry; the virtues and their connexions; will, freedom, and responsibility; reason and emotion; relativism, subjectivism, and realism; the theological aspect of morality. This volume examines ancient and medieval philosophy up to the sixteenth century; Volumes 2 and 3 will continue the story up to Rawls's Theory of Justice .

The present volume begins with Socrates, the Cyrenaics and Cynics, and Plato, and then offers a fuller account of Aristotle, stressing the systematic naturalism of his position. The Stoic position is compared with the Aristotelian at some length; Epicureans and Sceptics are discussed more briefly. Chapters on early Christianity and on Augustine introduce a fuller examination of Aquinas' revision, elaboration, and defence of Aristotelian naturalism. The volume closes with an account of some criticisms of the Aristotelian outlook by Scotus, Ockham, Machiavelli, and some sixteenth-century Reformers.

The emphasis of the book is not purely descriptive, narrative, or exegetical, but also philosophical. Irwin discusses the comparative merits of different views, the difficulties that they raise, and how some of the difficulties might be resolved. The book tries to present the leading moral philosophers of the past as participants in a rational discussion that is still being carried on, and tries to help the reader to participate in this discussion.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

840 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2007

About the author

Terence Irwin is a scholar and philosopher specializing in ancient Greek philosophy and the history of ethics (i.e. the history of Western moral philosophy in ancient, medieval, and modern times).

Since 2007, he has been the Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Keble College, Oxford. From 1975 until 2007, he was at Cornell University, where he has been Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters (from 1995), Professor of Classics (from 1992), and Professor of Philosophy (from 1982). Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University (1972-1975). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Reviews

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please see my full review at my website:The Development of Ethics

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Em]

two more volumes of this is going to kill me

[Michael Kenan Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first volume in Irwin's monumental 3-vol, 3,000 page history of ethics.
He focuses on the development of the Socratic tradition, specifically the inner tensions that played out in the story of moral philosophy down the ages. He traces the triumph of Aristotelian eudaimonism & Augustinianism in Aquinas & Suarez & then documents its catastrophic abandonment in the early modern period. Taking its place is non-cognitive Humean moral psychology on the relation between reason & the passions & Irwin shows how that changed everything.

In this volume he shows the power of Aquinas' approach, arguing that it's actually a faithful yet brilliant improvement on Aristotle (and Irwin would know!) and even the mountain peak of the discipline. He's not afraid to push back and show where, say, Scotus brought some refinements & improvements to Thomas' ethics. But overall his is a compelling critique of all that rages against the Thomistic ethical settlement. Given that it's not his specialist area, Irwin's take on ethics in the Reformation is one of the best brief surveys I've seen, miles better than the descriptions of Alasdair MacIntyre or even Peter Adamson. Terence Irwin, a Plato & Aristotle expert, captured the Reformation approaches to ethics impressively despite being 2,000 years later than his period of expertise. That instils steely confidence on the rest of the ethical history he covers.