Good and Evil is one of the most important, original and provocative books on the nature of morality to have been published in recent years. It is essential reading for anyone interested in what it means to talk about good and evil. Gaita argues that questions about morality are inseparable from the preciousness of each human being, an issue we can only address if we place the idea of remorse at the centre of moral life. Drawing on an astonishing array of thinkers and writers, including Plato, Wittgenstein, George Orwell and Primo Levi, Gaita also reflects on the place of reason and truth in morality, and ultimately on how questions about good and evil are connected to the meaning of our lives. (Routledge)
I would not have believed that a work in moral philosophy could, in our present age, have such depth, brilliance and force … His examples from life enliven our sense of the human significance of the concepts of morality and the good. Throughout his work he sustains a remarkable clarity and eloquence. This book will lift moral philosophy into a new dimension of seriousness
This book has a quality and depth which raise it far above the general run. It speaks not just to those for whom moral philosophy is a subject or academic discipline, but to all who are concerned with the moral problems of our time. Dr. Gaita has a strongly individual tone of voice and he has produced here a work of real stature.
Subtle, profound and immensely valuable … The book displays a seriousness which exemplifies something of what the getting of wisdom might entail.
It is a marvellous work, one which ought to change the tone as well as the focus of much contemporary moral philosophy … I found it impossible to read this book without bringing its arguments to bear on my own life. And I found it impossible to read without wishing to get back to philosophers– ancient and modern– with whom Gaita engages. I suspect that every serious reader will have the same experience. It is hard to think of higher praise for a book in moral philosophy.
An outstanding contribution to moral philosophy. It puts the rest of us to the question by its account of what it is to have a serious sense of good and evil and how moral philosophy ought to proceed. We all have a great deal to learn from Gaita, not least through disagreeing with him.
The book’s arguments turn on the discrepancy, beautifully displayed, between the concepts and terms in which moral understanding is expressed in life and the terms of epistemic appraisal characteristic of moral philosophy. Nearly all the issues which exercise moral philosophers look startlingly different form this new perspective. It is a book which no one interested in those issues should ignore.
A Socratic attempt to call moral philosophy back to seriousness … Even in questioning what is said in it one will be dealing with issue that are absolutely central to a serious understanding of ethical thought. In all, this is one of the deepest works in ethics I have read.
This outline of its themes does nothing to convey the richness, subtlety and power of Gaita’s book. One can only acknowledge the justice and admire the acuteness of many of its critical contributions to contemporary debates in moral philosophy … the book is full of insights on a wide variety of topics … The sensitivity of his account of the ‘absolute conception’ cannot be denied.
I have not read a book in philosophical ethics in some time that I take as seriously as Gaita’s book. There is purity about this work that is genuinely moving. He has managed to combine the great skills of analytical philosophy with the seriousness of Wittgenstein… A wonderful book.
Profound, moving … it points the way towards a mode of philosophical-moral thought radically different from what now passes for moral philosophy … The book is full of splendidly original and insightful discussions.
Gaita’s is a superb, richly textured discussion which engages directly with real people and their deeply serious moral concerns.
Gaita’s book is very important and needs to be addressed.
Related books
