Skip to content

The Point of View of the Universe : Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Point of View of the Universe : Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics Hardcover - 2014

by Singer, Peter, Lazari-Radek, Katarzyna de

  • Used

Description

Oxford University Press, Incorporated. Used - Good. Ships from the UK. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Used - Good
NZ$86.61
NZ$16.54 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 5 to 21 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Better World Books Ltd (Fife, United Kingdom)

About Better World Books Ltd Fife, United Kingdom

Biblio member since 2009
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Better World Books generates funding for literacy charities through the sales of second-hand books. Our current partner charities in the UK are READ International, the National Literacy Trust, Room to Read. (Registered Charities no. 1128534, no. 1116260 and no. 1125803 and the National Adult Literacy Agency. Much of our stock is ex-library due to our close relationships with UK libraries. We offer a service that helps them keep their unwanted books out of landfill. All ex-library books will be marked as such in their individual listings. 99% of orders are dispatched within 24 hours and we offer a 100% money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied.

Terms of Sale: 30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping cost for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Please keep in mind that because we deal mostly in used books, any extra components, such as CDs or access codes, are usually not included. CDs: If the book does include a CD, it will be noted in the book's description ("With CD!"). Otherwise, there is no CD included, even if the term is used in the book's title. Access Codes: Unless the book is described as "New," please assume that the book does *not* have an access code.

Browse books from Better World Books Ltd

Details

  • Title The Point of View of the Universe : Sidgwick and Contemporary Ethics
  • Author Singer, Peter, Lazari-Radek, Katarzyna de
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition 1st Edition
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 422
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2014. 432p. Hardback. [The authors]... do something new and worthwhile. They present Sidgwicks most important ideas in an admira
  • Date 2014-07-22
  • Features Bibliography
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 47139028-75
  • ISBN 9780199603695 / 0199603693
  • Weight 1.75 lbs (0.79 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 in (23.37 x 15.75 x 3.30 cm)
  • Themes
    • Aspects (Academic): Ethical
    • Chronological Period: Modern
  • Library of Congress subjects Ethics, Sidgwick, Henry
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2013954154
  • Dewey Decimal Code 170

From the publisher

What does the idea of taking 'the point of view of the universe' tell us about ethics? The great nineteenth-century utilitarian Henry Sidgwick used this metaphor to present what he took to be a self-evident moral truth: the good of one individual is of no more importance than the good of any other. Ethical judgments, he held, are objective truths that we can know by reason. The ethical axioms he took to be self-evident provide a foundation for utilitarianism. He supplements this foundation with an argument that nothing except states of consciousness have ultimate value, which led him to hold that pleasure is the only thing that is intrinsically good.

Are these claims defensible? Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer test them against a variety of views held by contemporary writers in ethics, and conclude that they are. This book is therefore a defence of objectivism in ethics, and of hedonistic utilitarianism. The authors also explore, and in most cases support, Sidgwick's views on many other key questions in ethics: how to justify an ethical theory, the significance of an evolutionary explanation of our moral judgments, the choice between preference-utilitarianism and hedonistic utilitarianism, the conflict between self-interest and universal benevolence, whether something that it would be wrong to do openly can be right if kept secret, how demanding utilitarianism is, whether we should discount the future, or favor those who are worse off, the moral status of animals, and what is an optimum population.

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 02/01/2015, Page 987

About the author

Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek is a Polish utilitarian philosopher, working as an assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Lodz. She received her PhD at the same university. She is the author of several articles in Polish and English on Henry Sidgwick, utilitarianism, bioethics, and philosophy for children.

Peter Singer first became well-known internationally after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975. Since then he has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than forty other books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason), and The Life You Can Save. He was born in Melbourne, Australia, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. Since 1999 he has been Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position that, since 2005, he has combined with that of Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. In 2005 Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2012, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the nation's highest civic honour.