The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory is a major new reference work in ethical theory consisting of commissioned essays by leading moral philosophers. Ethical theories have always been of central importance to philosophy, and remain so; ethical theory is one of the most active areas of philosophical research and teaching today. Courses in ethics are taught in colleges and universities at all levels, and ethical theory is the organizing principle for all of them.
The Handbook is divided into two parts, mirroring the field. The first part treats meta-ethical theory, which deals with theoretical questions about morality and moral judgment, including questions about moral language, the epistemology of moral belief, the truth aptness of moral claims, and so forth. The second part addresses normative theory, which deals with general moral issues, including the plausibility of various ethical theories and abstract principles of behavior. Examples of such theories are consequentialism and virtue theory. As with other Oxford Handbooks, the twenty-five contributors cover the field in a comprehensive and highly accessible way, while achieving three goals: exposition of central ideas, criticism of other approaches, and putting forth a distinct viewpoint.

The central philosophical challenge of metaethics is to account for the normativity of moral judgment without abandoning or seriously compromising moral realism. In Morality in a Natural World, David Copp defends a version of naturalistic moral realism that can accommodate the normativity of morality. Moral naturalism is often thought to face special metaphysical, epistemological, and semantic problems as well as the difficulty in accounting for normativity. In the ten essays included in this volume, Copp defends solutions to these problems. Three of the essays are new, while seven have previously been published. All of them are concerned with the viability of naturalistic and realistic accounts of the nature of morality, or, more generally, with the viability of naturalistic accounts of reasons.

“Moral realism” is a family of theories of morality united by the idea that there are moral facts—facts about what is right or wrong or good or bad—and that morality is not simply a matter of personal preferences, emotions, attitudes, or sociological conventions. The fundamental thought underlying moral realism can be expressed as a parity thesis. There are many kinds of facts, including physical, psychological, mathematical, temporal, and moral facts. So understood, moral realism can be distinguished from a variety of anti-realist theories including expressivism, non-cognitivism, and error theory. The Handbook is divided into four parts, the first of which contains essays about the basic concepts and distinctions which characterize moral realism. The subsequent parts contain essays first defending the idea that morality is a naturalistic phenomenon like other subject matters studied by the empirical sciences; second, that morality is a non-natural phenomenon like logic or “pure rationality”; and the final section is dedicated to those theories which deny the usefulness of the natural/non-natural distinction. The twenty-five commissioned essays cover the field of moral realism in a comprehensive and highly accessible way.

Under what conditions can moral claims be said to be true? Copp's book explores this question, starting from a new cognitivist theory of normative judgement - the "standard-based theory" - which offers a schematic account of the truth conditions of normative propositions of all kinds, including moral propositions and propositions about reasons. According to the theory, a moral proposition is true only if a corresponding moral standard is relevantly justified. At the heart of the book is a theory of the circumstances under which moral standards qualify as justified, the "society-centered theory". Copp argues that because any society needs a social moral code in order to enable its members to live together successfully, and because it would be rational for a society to choose such a code, certain moral codes, and the standards they include, are justified. The standard-based theory says, then, that corresponding moral propositions may therefore be true. Offering new perspectives on reason and rational choice, Copp's approach to morality and normativity raises a number of important issues in moral theory, as well as in metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory is a major new reference work in ethical theory consisting of commissioned essays by leading moral philosophers. Ethical theories have always been of central importance to philosophy, and remain so; ethical theory is one of the most active areas of philosophical research and teaching today. Courses in ethics are taught in colleges and universities at all levels, and ethical theory is the organizing principle for all of them. The Handbook is divided into two parts, mirroring the field. The first part treats meta-ethical theory, which deals with theoretical questions about morality and moral judgment, including questions about moral language, the epistemology of moral belief, the truth aptness of moral claims, and so forth. The second part addresses normative theory, which deals with general moral issues, including the plausibility of various ethical theories and abstract principles of behavior. Examples of such theories are consequentialism and virtue theory. As with other Oxford Handbooks, the twenty-five contributors cover the field in a comprehensive and highly accessible way, while achieving three goals: exposition of central ideas, criticism of other approaches, and putting forth a distinct viewpoint.

In the wake of the recent expansion of democratic forms of government around the world, political theorists have begun to rethink the nature and justification of this form of government. The essays in this book address a variety of foundational questions about democracy: How effective is it? How stable can it be in a pluralist society? Does it deserve its current popularity? Can it successfully guide a socialist society?

Moral claims not only purport to be true, they also purport to guide our choices. This book presents a new theory of normative judgment, the "standard-based theory," which offers a schematic account of the truth conditions of normative propositions of all kinds, including moral propositions and propositions about reasons. The heart of Copp's approach to moral propositions is a theory of the circumstances under which corresponding moral standards qualify as justified, the "society-centered theory." He argues that because any society needs a social moral code in order to enable its members to live together successfully, and because it would be rational for a society to choose such a code, certain moral codes, and the standards they include, are justified. According to the standard-based theory then, if certain moral standards are indeed justified, corresponding moral propositions may be true.

This book focuses on Saint-Estephe, the most northerly of the great Medoc communes which, for far too long has been relatively neglected. There are now some 55 chateaux in the commune. Many of them are owned by sophisticated wine producers from elsewhere, attracted by the uniqueness of the terroir and the more reasonable cost of land compared with Pauillac, Saint-Julien and Margaux. They have invested heavily in soil analysis, replanting, in new winery equipment and have brought in fresh winemaking talent and experience. The results have been spectacular. Perhaps the strongest reason for re-appraising Saint-Estephe is that as the cost of classified growth wines has escalated in response to world demand, the real claret enthusiast can find outstanding value-for-money wines from properties that share similar climate and soil conditions. David Copp, a frequent visitor to Saint-Estephe over the last 50 years, explains how the wines have improved, and introduces the people and personalities behind them.

Should pornography and obscenity be controlled in society, and, if so, what kind of control is desirable? This issue deeply concerns and excites the passions of people in many countries. It is difficult to make a wise decision regarding the control of pornography, for the debate tends to be distorted by impassioned rhetoric and misinformation. There is also a divergence of views on this much-debated subject. Feminists like Susan Brownmiller advocate censorship of pornography on the basis that it is "the undiluted essence of antifemale propaganda." Liberals and libertarians, who follow in the tradition of John Stuart Mill, argue against censorship on the ground that prohibitions against the dissemination of any form of information function to preserve the status quo and to prevent the development of a critically reflective morality which is necessary to pave the way for needed social change.
Pornography and Censorship facilitates rational and informed debate on the topic of pornography and censorship by collecting in one volume related studies from philosophy, the social sciences, and law and provides a wide range of points of view on the subject. It gathers together some of the best recent social-scientific studies and the most important works of the past decade.
This book is unusual in the scope of the material discussed which includes key empirical studies by social scientists, conceptual studies by philosophers, and judicial essays. Together these essays present the ethical, political, and legal issues relevant to the problem of pornography and censorship, and assess the bearing of the empirical research on these issues. The interdisciplinary nature of the book reflects the editors' conviction that wise decision-making on public issues requires empirical knowledge, philosophical clarity, and an understanding of the difficulties of formulating principles that can be applied in law.