The Intuitionist Ethics of W. D. Ross

Obligation, Intrinsic Value, and Moral Judgment

Robert Audi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040685488
• Topic: Philosophy

This is the first full-scale monograph on the moral philosophy of W. D. Ross. It shows why Ross is admired as a major figure in ethics. He provided one of the most distinctive and powerful theories in the field, and Robert Audi sets out and explains Ross's comprehensive ethics, including his theory of obligation—of duty and the right—and his theory of value, of the good and the bad. Ross is conceptually sophisticated, rich in ideas, and historically informed. He reflects the best in Aristotle's ethics and is an astute critic of Kant, Mill, Moore, and others.

Audi clarifies Ross's substantive moral views, from their metaphysical grounds to their practical applications, and explains how Ross illuminates much in contemporary ethics, theoretical and applied—intuition, reflective equilibrium, defeasibility, and many distinctions: between grounds and constitution, basic and consequential obligations, commensurability and combinability, moral stringency and moral predominance, enumerative and intuitive induction, rightness and creditworthiness, and many others. The Intuitionist Ethics of W. D. Ross, presents Ross as demonstrating the powers of intuition in moral practice, recognizing the diversity of standards for determining duty, and preserving the plurality of values in moral reflection. He is a judicious exemplar of full-scale intuitionism, as both a method of moral thinking and a major option in doing and teaching ethics.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I. Ross's Comprehensive Theory of Obligation: Metaethics, Epistemology, and Standards of Duty
• Part II. Ross's Theories of Value and Moral Creditworthiness
• Part III. Challenges and Extensions
• References
• Index