1 minute read

Subjectivism

Conclusion



In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries there has been a great deal of work on objectivism and subjectivism. As such views become more subtle and sophisticated, it becomes more difficult for an outsider to tell them apart. But they remain important, involving as they do very basic questions about the human condition and our place in the world.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ayer, A. J. Language, Truth, and Logic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950. The most famous early account (originally published in 1936) of noncognitivism; oversimplified by today's standards, but vividly written, very accessible, and still worth the read.

Blackburn, Simon. Essays in Quasi-Realism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. A sophisticated account of projectivism which is a central component of Hume's moral philosophy.

Gibbard, Allan. Wise Choices, Apt Feelings. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. By far the most sophisticated development of noncognitivism.

Harman, Gilbert. The Nature of Morality. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. An influential argument against moral objectivity; very accessible.

Hume, David. Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Originally published in 1739–1740. Book III contains Hume's views on ethics, including his seminal defense of subjectivism; accessible.

Nagel, Thomas. The Last Word. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. State-of-the-art defense of objective standards for many sorts of reasoning, including moral reasoning.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness: An Essay of Phenomenological Ontology. Translated by Hazel E. Barnes. New York: Philosophical Library, 1956. Sartre's magnum opus, originally published in French in 1943. Difficult.

Williams, Bernard. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985. A sustained and subtle argument against various forms of objectivism—particularly those inspired by Aristotle and Kant—in ethics. Difficult in spots, but repays the effort.

Chris Swoyer

Additional topics

Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Stomium to SwiftsSubjectivism - Ethics And Values, Varieties Of Subjectivism, Conclusion, Bibliography - Objectivity