Introduction

Abstract

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this unique collection. When I was asked by the series editors to edit this book, they had particular goals in mind. One goal is that anyone coming to the study of ethics for the first time should be able to pick up this book, read its pages and become knowledgeable about major debates in this area. A second goal is that this book might serve as a snapshot of the leading upcoming figures in the area of ethics broadly construed, each offering us important analyses that we can use to chart the future direction of their thought afterwards. I certainly hope that New Waves in Ethics satisfactorily speaks to these goals. Of course, it would be impossible to cover every debate within any academic discipline and every philosopher likely to be a leading future figure. Nevertheless, I am confident that many of the more substantial debates and issues are addressed in some detail within these pages. Therefore, while I make no claims to completeness, this collection offers major contributions by the leading upcoming figures in ethics on many of the most pressing issues in the field. Readers interested in learning more about topics such as meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics, as well as political ethics and philosophy, will find much in these pages.