IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/utilit/v24y2012i02p300-312_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What's the Matter? Review of Derek Parfit, On What Matters

Author

Listed:
  • LANG, GERALD

Abstract

In the Preface to this enormous work, Derek Parfit makes a reference to Sidgwick's ‘great, drab book’ The Methods of Ethics (xxxiii). The juxtaposition of adjectives is amusing and oddly endearing; for Parfit, Sidgwick's drabness is not in any serious competition with his greatness. Parfit's two-volume book is not drab – though it can be exhausting – and, although it is probably too early to tell for sure, it also shows certain signs of greatness. Time and time again, one is impressed, even moved, by Parfit's enthralling and indefatigable resourcefulness and level of immersion in these issues, and by his dogged and transparently sincere commitment to discovering the truth about them. Despite its length, On What Matters demands careful study by everyone with a serious interest in philosophical ethics.

Suggested Citation

  • Lang, Gerald, 2012. "What's the Matter? Review of Derek Parfit, On What Matters," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 300-312, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:utilit:v:24:y:2012:i:02:p:300-312_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0953820812000210/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:utilit:v:24:y:2012:i:02:p:300-312_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/uti .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.