The Myth of Morality

Richard Joyce.0-511-01655-7, 0-521-80806-5

Richard Joyce argues in this study that moral discourse is hopelessly flawed. At the heart of ordinary moral judgments is a notion of moral inescapability, or practical authority, which, upon investigation, cannot be reasonably defended. He asserts, moreover, that natural selection is to blame, in that it has provided us with a tendency to invest the world with values that it does not contain, and demands that it does not make. This original and innovative book will appeal to readers interested in the problems of moral philosophy.

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Table of contents :
Contents……Page 8
Preface……Page 10
1 Error theory and motivation……Page 16
2 Error theory and reasons……Page 45
3 Practical instrumentalism……Page 68
4 The relativity of reasons……Page 95
5 Internal and external reasons……Page 121
6 Morality and evolution……Page 150
7 Fictionalism……Page 190
8 Moral fictionalism……Page 221
Epilogue: Debunking myths……Page 247
Select bibliography……Page 258
G……Page 262
P……Page 263
W……Page 264