Reasons and Persons
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season560 pages, about 11 hours: the length of 1.8 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbPart One opens with the claim that self-interest theory and common-sense morality are collectively self-defeating.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA reader compares Parfit’s use of detailed examples to Douglas Hofstadter’s.
The case for it
on personal identity
“ends up leading to powerful conclusions about ethics and morals”
a book blog on its scope
“Very few works in the subject can compare with Parfit’s in scope, fertility, imaginative resource”
P. F. Strawson · The New York Review of Books, 1984 on analytic philosophy
“I loved and gave me a sense of how powerful analytic philosophy can be”
David Chalmers · What Is It Like to Be a Philosopher?, 2016 on Part 3
““self” being a false construct is both the best part and the easiest to read”
a book blog
The case against
on the Two Hells
“Two Hells are both so utterly implausible that I immediately become suspicious of any conclusions”
a book blog on the arguments
“happy to double the difficulty for 10% more precision”
a book blog on meta-ethics coverage
“spends virtually no time on meta-ethics (perhaps too little)”
Bernard Williams · London Review of Books, 1984 on its difficulty
“This is, it has to be said, a difficult book.”
a book blog
