Ethics After Babel By G. Stout A major study of modern ethical theories by a leading American philosopher, exploring consequences of the ideas of moral relativism and moral diversity. ISBN-13: 9780227679142 Specifications: 234x156mm, 338pp, Paperback Price: £17.50 • US$37.50 Publication: April 1990 Order this Title Now

About this Book

Philosophers used to speak as if there were a single, essentially unitary object to be studied in ethics, something called 'the language of morals'. Now they speak as if there are many moral languages. This new talk, fashionable throughout the humanities and social sciences, has nonetheless inspired discontent. Jeffrey Stout's discussion of this discontent opens up a fresh perspective on moral diversity.

"I won't disprove moral nihilism or moral skepticism," he says, "No knockdown argument, intended to demolish opposing positions, will be given. I will try to show simply that the facts of moral diversity don't compel us to become nihilists or skeptics, to abandon the notions of moral truth and justified moral belief."

Reviews and Comments

"The most imaginative, thorough, and enlightening discussion of moral relativism I have read."
Richard Rorty, University of Virginia

"Professor Jeffrey Stout's Ethics After Babel is in effect the next step forward in public argument about moral language and ethical reasoning beyond Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue."
Stephen Toulmin

"Ethics After Babel is a crucial contribution to the conversation about how we are to live and think in a world without foundations."
Stanley Hauerwas

"Jeffrey Stout is one of the most penetrating and provocative philosophers on the American scene. He also is the leading moral critic of a pragmatic bent concerned with the relations between secular thought and religious traditions as well as the history of modern Western ethics. In his exciting new book, Stout extends his concerns into the terrain of social criticism."
Theology Today

"Stout offers no quick solutions. But no one does a better job of defining some of the problems."
The Christian Century

"Clear, thoughtful and spirited ... Stout's accurate exegesis and provocative but fair commentary on contemporary thinking in moral philosophy offer something not only for undergraduates and professional philosophers and moral theologians, but for the interested general reader as well. Highly recommended."
Choice

About the Author

Jeffrey Stout is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University. He was winner of the 1989 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence.