Ethics without Ontology

In this brief book one of the most distinguished living American philosophers takes up the question of whether ethical judgments can properly be considered objectivea question that has vexed philosophers over the past century. Looking at the efforts of philosophers from the Enlightenment through the twentieth century, Hilary Putnam traces the ways in which ethical problems arise in a historical context. Putnams central concern is ontologyindeed, the very idea of ontology as the division of philosophy concerned with what (ultimately) exists. Reviewing what he deems the disastrous consequences of ontologys influence on analytic philosophyin particular, the contortions it imposes upon debates about the objective of ethical judgmentsPutnam proposes abandoning the very idea of ontology. He argues persuasively that the attempt to provide an ontological explanation of the objectivity of either mathematics or ethics is, in fact, an attempt to provide justifications that are extraneous to mathematics and ethicsand is thus deeply misguided.