
Reasons and Persons
Derek Parfit(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 23. January 1986
Book
Paperback/Softback
560 pages
978-0-19-824908-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that moral non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.
Reviews / Votes
In Reasons and Persons, [Parfit's] clipped prose, with its repetitive sentences, poetic cadence and sly humour becomes the vehicle for a depth and range of insight rarely matched in recent philosophy. * Kieran Setiya, Times Literary Supplement * Very few works in the subject can compare with Parfit's in scope, fertility, imaginative resource, and cogency of reasoning. * P.F. Strawson, The New York Review of Books *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
591 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-824908-5 (9780198249085)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Derek Parfit is a research fellow at All Souls College.