In this classic work, Alasdair MacIntyre guides the reader through the history of moral philosophy from the Greeks to contemporary times. He emphasizes the importance of a historical context to moral concepts and ideas. MacIntyre illustrates the relevance of philosophical queries on moral concepts enabling the reader to understand the importance of a historical account of ethics.

Contents

Preface to the second edition
Preface

1. The Philosophical Point of the the History of Ethics
2. The Prephilosophical History of of "Good" and the Transition to Philosophy
3. The Sophists and Socrates
4. Plato: The Gorgias
5. Plato: The Republic
6. Postscript to Plato
7. Aristotle's Ethics
8. Postscript to Greek Ethics
9. Christianity
10. Luther, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Spinoza
11. New Values
12. The British Eighteenth-Century Argument
13. The French Eighteenth-Century Argument
14. Kant
15. Hegel and Marx
16. Kierkegaard to Nietzsche
17. Reformers, Utopians, Idealists
18. Modern Moral Philosophy