Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel: And Other Writings on Ethics

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Oxford University Press, 2017 - 204 pages
Joseph Butler's Fifteen Sermons (1729) is a classic work of moral philosophy, which remains widely influential.

The topics Butler discusses include the role of conscience in human nature, self-love and egoism, compassion, resentment and forgiveness, and love of our neighbour and of God. The text of the enlarged and corrected second edition is here presented together with a selection of Butler's other ethical writings: A Dissertation of the Nature of Virtue, A Sermon Preached Before the House of Lords, and relevant extracts from his correspondence with Samuel Clarke. While this is a readers' edition that avoids cluttering Butler's text with textual variants and intrusive footnotes, it comes complete with scholarly apparatus intended to aid the reader in studying Butler's work in depth. David McNaughton contributes a substantial historical and philosophical introduction that highlights the continuing importance of these works. In addition, there are extensive notes at the end of the volume, including significant textual variants, and full details of Butler's sources and references, as well as short summaries of Butler's predecessors, and a selective bibliography. This will be the definitive resource for anyone interested in Butler's moral philosophy.

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Contents

Preface
ix
Introduction
xi
Notes on the Text
xxxvii
Fifteen Sermons Preached at the Rolls Chapel
xli
The Preface
xliii
Upon Human Nature
lvii
Upon Human Nature
lxvi
Upon Human Nature
lxxiii
Upon SelfDeceit
cxxiv
Upon the Love of Our Neighbour
cxxxiii
Upon the Love of Our Neighbour
cxliii
Upon the Love of God
cliii
Upon the Love of God
clx
Upon the Ignorance of Man
clxvii
A Dissertation of the Nature of Virtue
clxxv
in the Abbey Church of Westminster on Friday January 30 174041 Being the
clxxxii

Upon the Government of the Tongue
lxxviii
Upon Compassion
lxxxvi
Upon Compassion Preached the first Sunday in Lent
xciv
Upon the Character of Balaam Preached the Second Sunday after Easter
c
Upon Resentment
cviii
Upon Forgiveness of Injuries
cxv
A Selection from the Correspondence between Joseph Butler and Samuel Clarke
cxciii
Editors Notes
cxcix
Butlers Predecessors
20
Bibliography
30
Index
36
Copyright

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About the author (2017)

David McNaughton, Florida State University David McNaughton is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University and Professor Emeritus at Keele University. He is the founder and first President of the British Society for Ethical Theory. He is the author of Moral Vision (1988) and, with Eve Garrard, Forgiveness (2010), and of a number of papers on ethics, philosophy of religion, and the relations between the two. He is currently writing a book with Piers Rawling on their approach to practical reasons, and editing Butler's Analogy of Religion for OUP.

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