Essays on the History of Moral Philosophy

J. B. Schneewind presents a selection of his published essays on ethics, the history of ethics and moral psychology, together with a new piece offering an intellectual autobiography. The volume ranges across the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries: it includes Schneewind's early anti-foundationalist "Moral Knowledge and Moral Principles," the classic "The Misfortunes of Virtue," and other early essays on Kant's relation to pre-Kantian moral philosophy; also a long piece on "The Active Powers," and Schneewind's own interpretation of Kant's moral philosophy. These writings provide excellent introductions to Schneewind's two long books, and supplement them in important ways.

J. B. Schneewind is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He has studied at Cornell and Princeton and has taught at Chicago, Yale, Princeton, Hunter, Stanford, Leicester, Halle, Helsinki, and Johns Hopkins. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has been Chair of the Board of the Americal Philosopical Association and was awarded a Quinn Prize for Distinguished Service.