Knowing What To Do: Imagination, Virtue, and Platonism in Ethics - Hardcover

The book must be praised as an inspiring expression of an ethical vision with deep historical roots and urgent contemporary relevance ... Timothy Chappell's book is itself an ethical exemplar, a study in the contemplation of value, a testament to ordinary goodness. Event hose who disagree must contemplate his arguments; since "if we can't see individual specific things, we can't see anything at all" (Luke Brunning, The Times Literary Supplement)

Knowing What to Do is an excellent book: the clear prose and application of literature, philosophy, and history make it an enjoyable read. This book appeals to nonspecialists and specialists alike. The focus of this book is mostly on metaethics and normative ethics, but it also concerns areas in applied ethics, such as environmental ethics and biomedical ethics, as well as epistemology. Additionally, anyone interested in issues concerning philosophical methodology will find this book useful. (Nicholas R. Baima, Ethics)

A book that frequently challenges the conventional expectations of a philosophy research monograph ... his non-conventional approach not only serves to illuminate important aspects of moral thought that normally receive little or no attention in systematic moral theory, but also helps to support the claim that these are aspects of moral thought that moral philosophers may want to say more about (Hallvard Lillehammer, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

[M]akes available in the context of contemporary debates a version of ethics which could deliver the discipline from the tyranny of theory... Imagination plays a large role in Chappell's own presentation, and this is one of the many delights for the reader.... If knowing what to do, knowing what is required to live well, is a real concern of yours, then this book is a valuable asset for your search. It should lead to a revision of the teaching of ethics in higher education. (Patrick Riordan, Heythrop Journal)

Timothy Chappell develops a picture of what philosophical ethics can be like, once set aside from the idealising and reductive pressures of conventional moral theory. His question is 'How are we to know what to do?', and the answer he defends is 'By developing our moral imaginations'. The series of studies presented in Knowing What To Do contribute to the case that the moral imagination is a key part of human excellence or virtue by showing that it plays a wide variety of roles in our practical and evaluative lives. There is no short-cut or formulaic way of knowing what to do; but the longer and more painstaking approach is more rewarding anyway. This approach involves developing our repertoire of natural human capacities for imagination, open deliberation, and contemplative attention to the world, the people, and the reality of value around us.