num_pages: 592
description: On What Matters is a major work in moral philosophy. It is the long-awaited follow-up to Derek Parfit's 1984 book Reasons and Persons  one of the landmarks of twentieth-century philosophy. In this first volume Parfit presents a powerful new treatment of reasons and rationality and a critical examination of three systematic moral theories -- Kant's ethics contractualism and consequentialism -- leading to his own ground-breaking synthetic conclusion. Along the way he discusses a wide range of moral issues such as the significance of consent treating people as a means rather than an end and free will and responsibility. On What Matters is already the most-discussed work in moral its publication is likely to establish it as a modern classic which everyone working on moral philosophy will have to read and which many others will turn to for stimulation and illumination.
language: English
title: On What Matters: Volume One
publisher: Oxford University Press