Daniel Farnham

In this dissertation, I argue that the structure of eudaimonist ethics is similar to the structure of Kant's ethics and its relatives. In Chapter One, I discuss some different ways of thinking about the good life of a person and its relation to morality, as a way of situating eudaimonism and clarifying what is distinctive about it. In Chapter Two I argue that eudaimonism does not violate strong intuitions about the subjective aspect of the good life. In Chapter Three I discuss and defend the view of our nature to which Aristotle and other eudaimonists are committed. I argue reflection on our practical thinking reveals incompatibilities between the presuppositions we make in the practical sphere and a reductive naturalism. The Interlude explicates eudaimonia's conceptual role in the structure of human willing and the formal constraints of completeness and self-sufficiency . In Chapter Four, I argue that a dominant end interpretation of eudaimonism is motivated by an untenable consequentialist interpretation of our reasons for acting. In Chapter Five I develop a formal conception of eudaimonism, based on central features of our practical thought, or willing. The two key steps here are recognizing the essential intersubjective appeal at work in our willing, and recognizing the nature of this appeal. In Chapter Six I show how this formal conception can respond to a common objection to eudaimonist theory, that it presents an unacceptably egoistic account of our reasons for being moral

Contractarianism in some form has been at the center of recent debates in moral and political philosophy. Jean Hampton was one of the most gifted philosophers involved in these debates and provided both important criticisms of prominent contractarian theories plus powerful defenses and applications of the core ideas of contractarianism. In these essays, she brought her distinctive approach, animated by concern for the intrinsic worth of persons, to bear on topics such as guilt, punishment, self-respect, family relations, and the maintenance and justification of the state. Edited by Daniel Farnham, this collection is an essential contribution to understanding the problems and prospectus of contractarianism in moral, legal and political philosophy.