Comparative Metaethics: Neglected Perspectives on the Foundations of Morality

by Colin Marshall (Editor)

This collection of original essays explores metaethical views from outside the mainstream European tradition. The guiding motivation is that important discussions about the ultimate nature of morality can be found far beyond ancient Greece and modern Europe. The volume’s aim is to show how rich the possibilities are for comparative metaethics, and how much these comparisons offer challenges and new perspectives to contemporary analytic metaethics. Representing five continents, the thinkers discussed range from ancient Egyptian, ancient Chinese, and the Mexican (Aztec) cultures to more recent thinkers like Augusto Salazar Bondy, Bimal Krishna Matilal, Nishida Kitarō, and Susan Sontag. The philosophical topics discussed include religious language, moral discovery, moral disagreement, essences’ relation to evaluative facts, metaphysical harmony and moral knowledge, naturalism, moral perception, and quasi-realism. This volume will be of interest to anyone interested in metaethics or comparative philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

272 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2019

About the author

Colin Marshall is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington, Seattle. Raised in Pojoaque, New Mexico, he received his BA from Reed College and his PhD from New York University. From 2011 through 2013 he was the Gerry Higgins Lecturer in the History of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.