Philosophy, the Good, the True and the Beautiful

Discussions of value play a central role in contemporary philosophy. This book considers the role of values in truth seeking, in morality, in aesthetics and also in the spiritual life. We have got beyond the simplistic view that values are simply expressions of feeling, but their precise ontological and epistemological status remains controversial. The essays in this book indicate in an accessible way the state of the discussion as it is at the end of the second millennium. The distinguished contributors include Simon Blackburn, Jonathan Dancy, Paul Horwich, John Leslie, Timothy Sprigge, David Wiggins and others who have made significant contributions in this field.

• Includes some of the most distinguished names in philosophy • Essays are written in an accessible way and will be appreciated by professionals and the educated lay reader

1. Value and idealism Sebastian Gardner; 2. Norms of language Paul Horwich; 3. Values and cosmic imagination Ronald Hepburn; 4. Spiritual values, consolation and abandonment John Haldane; 5. The divine mind John Leslie; 6. Enchantment Roger Fellows; 7. ‘Beyond Reality’: Plato’s good revisited David Evans; 8. Battering, gilding, and staining Simon Blackburn; 9. Is the esse of intrinsic value percipi?: pleasure, pain, and value Timothy Sprigge; 10. On criticizing values A. W. Price; 11. Should we pass the buck? Jonathan Dancy; 12. ‘The right and the good’ and W. D. Ross’s criticism of consequentialism David Wiggins; 13. Deontology and value David McNaughton and Piers Rawling; 14. Beauty and testimony Robert Hopkins; 15. The sirens’ serenade Anthony Savile; 16. Misplacing freedom, displacing the imagination: Cavell and Murdoch on the fact/value distinction Stephen Mulhall.