The Oxford Companion to Philosophy Part 14. The book is alphabetized by the whole headings of entries, as distinct from the first word of a heading. Hence, for example, abandonment comes before a priori and a posteriori. It is wise to look elsewhere if something seems to be missing. At the end of the book there is also a useful appendix on Logical Symbols as well as the appendices A Chronological Table of Philosophy and Maps of Philosophy. | 110 British philosophy today reconciled with the causal theory of knowledge. b Vagueness. A brief but provocative paper by Gareth Evans Can There Be Vague Objects which appeared in 1978 inspired a considerable amount of work on the question whether vagueness was simply a feature of language or knowledge or also of the world itself. There has been a flowering of work on traditional ontological issues concerning causality identity modality time proper-ties and particulars. Ethics. Three important developments should be mentioned. a The work of Bernard Williams Alasdair MacIntyre based in the USA since 1972 and Derek Parfit has highlighted the central place of the self and ideas of the self in ethics. Parfit in particular has questioned our ordinary view of the self as retaining its numerical identity through time and shown how his alternative view breaks down the boundaries between persons and so undermines egoism. b John Mackie s influential critique of moral objectivism Ethics Inventing Right and Wrong published in 1977 has provoked two kinds of critical response. One is a defence of objectivism or realism championed by Jonathan Dancy John McDowell based in the USA since 1986 and David McNaughton. Although realism has its American proponents the British version rejects ethical naturalism the view that moral properties are reducible to non-moral properties . The other response offered by Simon Blackburn is quasi-realism or projectivism which takes ethical values to be real though minddependent qualities. c British moral philosophers have also played in influential role in the revival of interest in two central ideas in ethics consequentialism and the virtues. Here we should name on the one hand R. M. Hare arguably the father of contemporary moral theory d. 2002 and on the other Elizabeth Anscombe d. 2001 and Phillipa Foot. Philosophy of science. Perhaps the most striking development in philosophy of science in recent years has been the detailed engagement with the .
