Reading Parfit

Reading Parfit brings together some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to discuss and critique Derek Parfita s outstanding work, Reasons and Persons,

Review: "An impressive collection of twelve essays which reflect Parfita s own knack of getting to the heart of the most fundamental problems in ethics and personal identity. With contributors of the calibre of Sydney Shoemaker, Simon Blackburn, Judith Jarvis Thomson, John McDowell and Frank Jackson you would have every right to expect some first--rate writing, and you wona t be disappointed ... This is a volume for the reader who has been fascinated by the richness and complexity of Parfit and is looking for insightful, well--considered responses to it." The Philosophersa Magazine

Contents: 1. Parfit and Indirectly Self--Defeating Theories: Jonathan Dancy (University of Reading). 2. Rationality and The Rational Aim: David Gauthier (University of Pittsburgh). 3. Which Effects?: Frank Jackson (Australian National University). 4. Parfit and the Time of Value: Michael Stocker (Syracuse University). 5. Parfita s P: Philip Pettit and Michael Smith (both Australian National University). 6. Rational Egoism and the Separateness of Persons: David O. Brink (University of California, San Diego). 7. Parfit on Identity: Sydney Shoemaker (Cornell University). 8. Human Concerns without Superlative Selves: Mark Johnston (Princeton University). 9. Has Kant refuted Parfit?: Simon Blackburn (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). 10. Persons and Their Bodies: Judith Jarvis Thomson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). 11. Reductionism and the First Person: John McDowell (University of Pittsburgh). 12. Should Ethics be More Impersonal?: Robert Merrihew Adams (Yale University). 13. Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning: Larry Temkin (Rice University).