Can we base freedom on ignorance? -- Starting from where we are -- Why there is trouble over knowledge -- Scepticism and liberty -- Why must we not interfere? -- The fear of society -- The public side of morality -- Individuals in the modern melting-pot -- Individualism, solitude and privacy -- Morality and harm -- Rethinking relativism -- How large is a culture? -- Varieties of subjectivism -- The problem of private validity -- Social Darwinist egoism -- Moving forward through the modern world -- Doubts, reasonable and otherwise -- What about values? -- Back to the main question -- How much have things changed? -- Envoi -- Index of proper names.
Summary
In this lively and approachable book, moral philosopher Mary Midgley turns a spotlight on the fashionable view that we no longer need or use moral judgements. She shows how the question of whether or not we can make moral judgements must inevitably affect our attitudes to events that occur in our daily lives as she suggests that this mistrust of moral judgements may be making life even harder for us than it needs to be.
