Ethical Naturalism : Current Debates.

Roughly, ethical naturalism refers to any metaethical approach that holds that moral properties and facts are natural properties and facts. Though naturalistic approaches have languished in the shadow of Moore's "open question argument" for the better part of a century, moral naturalism is once again staking its claim to respectability. This edited volume of 12 original essays lays bare the current status of ethical naturalism and illuminates several areas for future inquiry. Broadly, the essays can be divided into two areas: those that analyze contemporary objections to ethical naturalism, and those that analyze debates within ethical naturalism. In the former category are essays covering naturalistic reduction (Gilbert Harman), normative naturalism (David Copp), compatibility with non-naturalism (Roger Crisp), moral semantics (Frank Jackson), Quinean indeterminacy (Richard Joyce), error theory (Terry Cuneo), and analytic naturalism (Nuccetelli and Seay). In the latter are discussions of externalist theories of motivation (Sergio Tenenbaum), moral realism (Michael Smith), supervenience (Michael Ridge), moral epistemology (Robert Audi), and lessons from experimental philosophy (Robert Shaver). Overall, these essays provide an excellent introduction to ethical naturalism and offer original arguments that surely will shape future debates. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty. L. A. Wilkinson University of Tennessee at Chattanooga