Conduct your own research by using our links and reading list.
Altruism
Further Reading
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 2006 – first edition 1976)
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Bantam Press, 2006)
Matt Ridley, The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation (Penguin, 1998)
Some Suggested Readings in Moral Philosophy: David Hume and Immanuel Kant
Hume’s ‘negative phase’ (reason cannot motivate action; morality based in sentiment)
David Hume: Treatise Bk.II Part III §3;
and (as argument for subjectivism) Bk.III Part I §1 (1739)
J. L. Mackie, Hume’s Moral Theory chs.3-4 (1980)
James Baillie, Hume on Morality (2000) chs.3&4
Hume’s ‘positive phase’ (the origins of different sorts of moral virtues)
For natural virtues, D. Hume Treatise Bk. III Part III, and Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals ch. 2, and chs. 6-8
For artificial virtues, D. Hume Treatise Bk. III Part II (esp. sects.1-2 on justice), and Enquiry Concerning The Principle of Morals sects. 3-5, Appendix 3
James Baillie, Hume on Morality (2000) ch.6
J. L. Mackie, Hume’s Moral Theory chs.6-7 (1980)
Kant’s deontology (morality as grounded in pure reason)
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
[Recommended: Mary Gregor ed. with v.clear introduction by Christine Korsgaard]
Stephen Darwall, Philosophical Ethics chs.14-15 (1998)
Richard Norman, The Moral Philosophers ch.6 (1998)
Piers Benn: Ethics (1998);
J. L. Mackie’s Ethics—Inventing Right and Wrong (1977)
