Stephen Darwall presents a series of essays that explore the view that morality is second-personal, entailing mutual accountability and the authority to address demands. He illustrates the power of the second-personal framework to illuminate a wide variety of issues in moral, political, and legal philosophy.

• Introduction


• I: Morality


• 1: Morality's Distinctiveness


• 2: Bipolar Obligation


• 3: Moral Obligation: Form and Substance


• 4: 'But It Would Be Wrong'


• 5: Morality and Principle


• II: Autonomy


• 6: Because I Want It


• 7: The Value of Autonomy and Autonomy of the Will


• III: Authority and Law


• 8: Authority and Second-Personal Reasons for Acting


• 9: Authority and Reasons: Exclusionary and Second Personal


• 10: Law and the Second-Person Standpoint


• 11: Civil Recourse as Mutual Accountability (co-authored with Julian Darwall)


• Works Cited


• Index

Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University and John Dewey Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. He has written widely on the history and foundations of ethics. His most important books include: Impartial Reason (1983), The British Moralists and the Internal 'Ought': 1640-1740, Philosophical Ethics (1998), Welfare and Rational Care (2002), and The Second-Person Standpoint (2006). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, with David Velleman, founding co-editor of Philosophers' Imprint.