Parfit Review: Getting Better at Being Good – WSJ

Chances are, unless you re a philosopher, you ve never heard of Derek Parfit. A philosopher s philosopher, he spent most of his career far from the madding crowd in the cloisters of All Souls College, Oxford, determined to demonstrate that there was an objective basis for secular morality rooted in rational foundations. He produced just two books Reasons and Persons (1984) and the multi-volume On What Matters (2011, 2017) but, as David Edmonds makes clear in his wonderful biography, Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality, they were outsize in both length and influence.

via www.wsj.com

Janet Radcliffe Richards used to visit my formerly cute university back in the day. She was a formidable philosopher in her own right. I heard a few lectures by Derek when I was at Oxford in 1980. Those were the days. I’d like to read this book.