Reading Parfit: (Philosophers & Their Critics)

This volume contains 12 essays about Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons" (OUP, 1984). Nine of these are newly written for this volume, two have been published before and one is largely reworked. The contributors are: Jonathan Dancy, David Gauthier, Philip Pettit and Michael Smith, Michael Stocker, David Brink, Simon Blackburn, John McDowell, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Mark Johnston, Sidney Shoemaker, Robert Merrihew Adams and Larry Temkin. The book contains substantial replies by Derek Parfit. Parfit's "Reasons and Persons" is regarded as a significant work in its field. But it is in many ways hard to approach; it is difficult to teach and has not yet generated the sort of detailed response from other thinkers in the area that would be expected. The book attempts to remedy this situation. There are papers on each of the four parts of "Reasons and Persons", and most of the main themes of the book are treated in some depth by one or another contributor. Some of the essays tackle Parfit's views directly and in some detail, while others attempt rather to relate their author's views to Parfit's.

Table of 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. Parfit'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).

About the Author :
Jonathan Dancy is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading. He has published widely in the areas of ethics and epistemology, including (co-editor with Ernest Sosa) A Companion to Epistemology (Blackwell Publishers, 1992) and Moral Reasons (Blackwell Publishers, 1992).

Review :
"An impressive collection of twelve essays which reflect Parfit'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 won'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 Philosophers' Magazine