Rethinking the Good: Moral Ideals and the Nature of Practical Reasoning (Oxford Ethics Series)

Larry Temkin provides a brilliant and original analysis of the conflicts between a number of deeply held beliefs about the good, moral ideals, and practical reasoning. There appears to be no theory that can accommodate all of the beliefs we would like to hold on to -- something must go. One striking possibility is that, even if (all things considered) A is a better outcome than B, and B is better than C, C might be better than A. Temkin evaluates this and other fascinating possibilities in depth. The book is a long one, but is a lively and engaging read.

Larry Temkin is one of the world's greatest living moral philosphers. Larry recounts the dinner with Derek Parfit, and Angus Deaton, along with a billionaire and other philosophers. This dinner gave Larry bad dreams as Detaon made such strong arguments that international aid was doing more harm than good - could this possibly be ture? This lead to Larry thinking up many disabalogies to Peter Singer’s classic pond analogy and this book.More accessible than his technical moral philosophy books, Temkin takes you through the problems with utiltarian views, problems with international aid, challenges to utility theory and long-termisim. Temkin is pluralist and believes we should try and go good, but that being good and doing good, is more than simply a narrow focus on one thing.Very thought provoking.