What Is the Point of Moral Philosophy?

Roger Crisp is Director of the Uehiro Oxford Institute, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, and Supernumerary Fellow, St Anne’s College, Oxford. He is the author of Sacrifice Regained (2019) and several other books and articles on ethics and the history of ethics.Ingmar Persson is Emeritus Professor of Practical Philosophy, University of Gothenburg, and Distinguished Research Fellow, Uehiro Oxford. His fields of interest are ethics and philosophy of mind and action, and his main publications are six books published by Oxford University Press.Julian Savulescu is the Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and holds the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. Trained in medicine and bioethics, he is the author of over 650 publications in medical and practical ethics, moral psychology, and philosophy.

• Introduction 1. Modern Moral Philosophy: Inconclusive and Esoteric to the Point of Pointlessness? 2. Moral Philosophy and Moral Action: A Response to Persson’s Skepticism 3. Does Moral Philosophy Have Any Point? 4. Does Moral Philosophy Really Have No Significant Moral Point? 5. What is the Point of this Paper? 6. Moral Philosophy: Possibly Not Pointless? 7. The Epistemic and Moral Points of Moral Philosophy 8. On the Possibility of Progress in Moral Philosophy 9. Changing Lives 10. Some Points of Moral Philosophy and Obstacles They May Create 11. The Point of Moral Philosophy: To Direct How We Should Live and Act 12. A Brief Response to Critics