Moral Philosophy

“The work of a master in the subject, who in a few pregnant pages has sketched out skillfully and judicially the history of Greek, of medieval, and of English reflections on the aims and laws of human conduct.”
     —William Wallace (at time of first publication)

“Reason and Human Good in Aristotle opens up issues of interpretation which are as alive today as when it originally appeared. After almost two decades of extraordinary influence, this succinct book remains a ‘must’ for any serious bibliography of Aristotle’s Ethics.”
     —Sarah Broadie, Princeton University

"A splendid edition.  Schneewind's illuminating introduction succinctly situates the Enquiry in its historical context, clarifying its relationship to Calvinism, to Newtonian science, and to earlier moral philosophers, and providing a persuasive account of Hume's ethical naturalism." 
     —Martha C. Nussbaum, Brown University

This Hackett edition is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the seventh (1907) edition as published by Macmillan and Company, Limited.

These lively essays, transcribed by Kant's students during his lectures on ethics at Konigsberg in the years 1775-1780, are celebrated not only for their insight into Kant's polished and often witty lecture style but also as a key to understanding the development of his moral thought. As Lewis White Beck points out in the Foreword to this edition, those who know Kant only from his rigorous and abstract intellectual critiques may be surprised by the accessibility of these essays, which "put flesh on the bones of the critical ethics," while revealing Kant as a practical moralist, greatly concerned with the nuances of human conduct and the social effects of his moral teaching. The sharply focused discussions and definitions strengthen an interpretation of Kant's more mature speculative works and remain the riches document we have for understanding the history of the preeminent ethical theory of modern times.

Out of print - replaced by the third edition (September 2019), click here for more information.

Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition of the Irwin Nicomachean Ethics features a revised translation (with little editorial intervention), expanded notes (including a summary of the argument of each chapter), an expanded Introduction, and a revised glossary.