Philip Kitcher reviews Derek Parfit’s On What Matters in the New Republic:
It stands as a grand and dedicated attempt to elaborate a fundamentally misguided perspective. Its diligence and its honesty command respect. Perhaps these real virtues will set standards for very different ventures in academic ethics, Naturalist or otherwise—for a return to the tradition of attempts to understand and improve everyday judgment, and to provide resources for people and policymakers everywhere. In the end, that is what matters.
The rest is here.
January 17th, 2012 | 11:35 am
A better title: The Misguided Perspective of the Reviewer and the Reviewed.
This philosopher’s search for a “supreme principle” exists in a world where there is no Supreme God.
The same preupposition uderlies the reviewer’s alternative–Naturalism.
Reading the review is a sober reminder of the trainwreck that lies ahead of those who are lost and alone on the journey without God.