Best/Most Important Books in Ethics of the Past 200 Years
So with over 600 votes, here were the 'top ten':
1. Mill, Utilitarianism (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)
2. Rawls, A Theory of Justice loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 247–229
3. Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 312–149, loses to Rawls, A Theory of Justice by 313–146
4. Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 317–165, loses to Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics by 221–210
5. Moore, Principia Ethica loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 364–114, loses to Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality by 232–211
6. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 342–129, loses to Moore, Principia Ethica by 228–205
7. Marx, The 1844 Manuscripts loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 356–111, loses to Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil by 209–176
8. Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 373–77, loses to Marx, The 1844 Manuscripts by 213–178
9. Hegel, Philosophy of Right loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 347–105, loses to Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy by 187–185
10. Mackie, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong loses to Mill, Utilitarianism by 378–60, loses to Hegel, Philosophy of Right by 194–169
Fast T Friend on 30 Jan 12That's a really good question. I set out to write the book because I wanted to find out why I was restless in situations where I supposedly should have been perfectly content. You know, literally sitting on a mountaintop, seeing the countryside, I would still feel restless. And I think I found a kind of answer. To put it very bluntly, if you are successful in following the Buddhist precepts, you cease to be human. In fact, I think one can find support for this view in the Buddhist sources themselves. If you succeed to cease desiring, you're no longer human. Of course, the Buddha himself supposedly remained enmeshed with humanity to teach others. But if you do succeed in obtaining the state that you're supposed to obtain, then you're no longer human. And that kind of invalidates the questions because a psychology would need to be developed for understanding those kinds of minds - they are not regular human minds.
