As a young lecturer in philosophy and the eldest son of a prominent Jewish family, Alan Montefiore faced two very different understandings of his identity: the more traditional view that an identity such as his carried with it, as a matter of given fact, certain duties and obligations, and an opposing view, emphasized by his studies in philosophy, according to which there can be no rationally compelling move from statements of fact-whatever the alleged facts may be-to "judgments of value."...

Originally published in 1958, this book shows how a systematic consideration of what exactly may be meant by calling anything ‘good’, inevitably leads on to the more general and fundamental problem of the relations between value-judgments and statements of fact. It does on to explain some of the difficult and far-reaching issues which this problem involves. The book is intended as an introduction for students interested in finding out the nature and point of modern methods of philosophic a...

This book collects essays by Alan Montefiore on the role philosophy plays in the formation of the self, and how philosophical questions regarding the nature of reason, truth, and identity inform ethics and politics. It offers a comprehensive overview of Montefiore’s influential, non-dogmatic philosophical voice.Throughout his 70-year career, Montefiore sought to bridge the analytic/continental divide and develop a new way of thinking about philosophy. He defines philosophy as the s...

Isaiah Berlin was born a century ago. One of the most celebrated British thinkers of the twentieth century, he was a tireless champion of freedom and diversity against control and conformity. His generous, open vision of life is displayed with special immediacy in his brilliant pen-portraits of contemporaries, Personal Impressions, in which he sees the point of radically differing personalities, enters into their distinctive outlooks, and describes his encounters with them, in arrestingly ...

First published in 1989*, Goals, No-Goals and Own Goals* presents a stimulating debate between three scientists and three philosophers about the significance and nature of goal-directed and intentional behaviour. At one extreme David McFarland brings into radical question the need for either of these concepts, at least in the scientific study of animal behaviour. At the other extreme, Alan Montefiore argues that such concepts are indispensable to any explication of the meaningful use of la...

Integrity in the Private and Public Domains explores the issue of public and private integrity in politics, the media, health, science, fund-raising, the economy and the public sector.Over twenty essays by well-known figures such as Amelie Rorty, David Vines, the late Hugo Gryn, Alan Montefiore and Hilary Lawson present a compelling insight into debates over integrity today.A key chapter of the book concerns the highly publicised donation to Oxford University by Gert...

First published in 1973, Philosophy and Personal Relations raises some fundamental questions like can philosophical argument modify, undermine or reinforce the terms of certain personal relationships? If so, how? This collection of studies, by a group of English-speaking philosophers focuses on these questions. The contributors discuss such topics as the teaching of moral philosophy, the notion of ‘using people’, the concept of love and the philosophical problems raised by honesty...