Table of Contents

1: Introduction: Reasons Fundamentalism
2: Metaphysical Objections
3: Motivation and the Appeal of Expressivism
4: Epistemology and Determinateness
5: Reasons and their Strength
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

T. M. Scanlon received a BA from Princeton in 1962 and a PhD from Harvard in 1968, in between studying for a year at Brasenose College, Oxford. He taught at Princeton from 1966 until 1984, and at Harvard since that time. Scanlon is the author of many articles in moral and political philosophy, and of three books: What We Owe to Each Other (Harvard University Press, 1998), The Difficulty of Tolerance: Essays in Political Philosophy (CUP, 2003), and
Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame (Harvard University Press, 2008).

Reviews

`a powerful and superbly written short book.'
Barry Maguire, The Times Literary Supplement
`T. M. Scanlon's new book is essential reading for anybody interested in metaethics and practical rationality.'
Laura Schroeter and François Schroeter, Ethics
`a much needed challenge to all forms of non-cognitivism.'
Bruce Russell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
`Scanlon delivers new insights and develops new ways of thinking about normative claims. His book thereby introduces engaging ways of discussing normative theory that should be further developed and brought to bear on actual discussions. As such Being Realistic about Reasons shows us an independent thinker outlining his current thinking about normative claims. His book is a challenge to all non-cognitivist theories of moral thinking and proponents who try
to interpret moral terms in naturalistic terms such as "water" and the likes. Hopefully it will be taken on.'
Metapsychology Reviews Online
`T. M. Scanlon is a towering figure in moral and political philosophy ... Throughout, this new book reveals the impressive creative intelligence that always characterizes Scanlon's work. It is an important work, which all metaethicists will have to come to grips with, since it defends a distinctive position about these central metaethical questions.'
Ralph Wedgwood, The Philosophical Quarterly
`intelligent and candid book'
A. W. Price, Mind