Value, Reality, and Desire

by Graham Oddie

Overview

What is the nature of value and how can we have knowledge of it? Is something valuable because we desire it or do we desire it because it is valuable? These are the fundamental questions addressed and answered in this book. Graham Oddie argues that there are mind-independent irreducible facts about value, which are causally efficacious, and that we have knowledge of value by experiential acquaintance. Anyone working in ethics and metaphysics will find Value, Reality, and Desire a highly original and rewarding contribution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199273416
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/12/2005
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Graham Oddie is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Table of Contents

1. Reality and value2. Judgement and desire3. Desire as value data4. Value as refined desire5. Value beyond desire6. Irreducible value7. Value as cause8. Value, judgement, desire: bridging the gaps

Editorial Reviews

"Oddie gives you something worth thinking about on almost every page, and I am envious of his ability to put complex ideas with crystal clarity.... For anyone who wants to think rigorously but creatively about the metaphysics and epistemology that moral realism needs to be plausible, this book is essential reading."—Timothy Chappell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher