Derek Parfit war ein britischer Professor für Philosophie, dessen Werk sich auf persönliche Identität, Rationalität und Ethik konzentrierte. Seine Schriften erforschten die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen diesen zentralen philosophischen Konzepten. Er befasste sich mit der Komplexität dessen, was es bedeutet, eine Person zu sein und wie man handeln sollte. Parfits rigoroses Denken hatte einen bedeutenden Einfluss auf die moderne Moralphilosophie und Metaethik.
This is the first volume of a major work in moral philosophy, the long-awaited follow-up to Parfit's classic Reasons and Persons, a landmark of 20th-century philosophy. Parfit presents a powerful new treatment of reasons and a critical examination of the most prominent systematic moral theories, leading to his own ground-breaking conclusion.
Challenging, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity, Parfit claims that we have a false view about our own nature. It is often rational to act against our own best interests, he argues, and most of us have moral views that are self-defeating. We often act wrongly, although we know there will be no one with serious grounds for complaint, and when we consider future generations it is very hard to avoid conclusions that most of us will find very disturbing.