Amazon Resale
Buy new:
-8% £23.45
£3.99 delivery Tuesday, 7 January
Dispatches from: Amazon
Sold by: Amazon
£23.45 with 8 percent savings
RRP: £25.49
FREE Returns
£3.99 delivery Tuesday, 7 January. Order within 2 hrs 39 mins. Details
In stock
££23.45 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££23.45
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Amazon
Amazon
Dispatches from
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Returns
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund within 30 days of receipt
Read full Amazon return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
£17.42
Purchase from the UK's book specialist. Fast, same or next day dispatch with trusted Royal Mail shipping. 20 million+ items sold. Purchase from the UK's book specialist. Fast, same or next day dispatch with trusted Royal Mail shipping. 20 million+ items sold. See less
FREE delivery 9 - 11 January. Details
Or fastest delivery Thursday, 9 January. Order within 14 hrs 39 mins. Details
Only 1 left in stock.
££23.45 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££23.45
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatched from and sold by WeBuyGames.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Derek Parfit
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) Paperback – 20 Feb. 1986

by Derek Parfit (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 209 ratings
See all formats and editions
Prime Student members get 10% off Qualifying items | Terms
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£23.45","priceAmount":23.45,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"23","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"45","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"fFPDYA9ZLe2uqxYgsEz6VGFV0xK2Rc%2B9OqLhNP4Cq314AwQ4K6dJ5%2BwjeKIhQ8%2BkJI5KW5jqaLH9%2BgonVJ3ArOhRLHSZW6ztY2NDqKFzBO28okvVyHlmApP1VGZ2fabE","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"£17.42","priceAmount":17.42,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"17","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"42","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"fFPDYA9ZLe2uqxYgsEz6VGFV0xK2Rc%2B9tLCfx5PYwty0K35w22FetdPiAvGsQljY7vVMWbbxmAbvtCW2Wkm0gIi%2FAhf%2F1%2FX2eGT26RxcOldHU5IbgMtTDTMOC%2BuS5Uj07lBWa6b3DM7u1xAZV56dZwv88JZCv%2F4Xa2txA66WuxJrwEdUnG1tnDUtlvrg9%2Fm9","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Challenging, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity, Parfit claims that we have a false view about our own nature. It is often rational to act against our own best interests, he argues, and most of us have moral views that are self-defeating. We often act wrongly, although we know there will be no one with serious grounds for complaint, and when we consider future generations it is very hard to avoid conclusions that most of us will find very disturbing.
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-10
    019824908X
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0198249085
  3. Edition
    Revised ed.
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press, USA
  5. Publication date
    20 Feb. 1986
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    2.49 x 19.69 x 12.85 cm
  8. Print length
    560 pages
  9. See all details
Next slide of product details
Kindle Storyteller Award 2024
Check out this year's winner: 'Stateside' by J.D KIRK. Read more

Frequently bought together

Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks)
This item: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks)
£23.45
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jan 7
In stock
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
+
On What Matters: Volume One (The Berkeley Tanner Lectures)
£26.99
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jan 7
In stock
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
+
On What Matters: Volume Three: 3
£29.49
Get it as soon as Tuesday, Jan 7
Only 11 left in stock (more on the way).
Sent from and sold by Amazon.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your basket.
Details
Added to Basket
spCSRF_Treatment
Some of these items are dispatched sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Product description

Review

In Reasons and Persons, [Parfit's] clipped prose, with its repetitive sentences, poetic cadence and sly humour becomes the vehicle for a depth and range of insight rarely matched in recent philosophy. ― Kieran Setiya, Times Literary Supplement

Very few works in the subject can compare with Parfit's in scope, fertility, imaginative resource, and cogency of reasoning. ― P.F. Strawson, The New York Review of Books

Book Description

Challenging, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity, Derek Parfit claims that we have a false view about our own nature

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press, USA; Revised ed. edition (20 Feb. 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 019824908X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198249085
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2.49 x 19.69 x 12.85 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 209 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Derek Parfit

Derek Parfit

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
209 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • BMM
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but not an easy read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 December 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This is a worthwhile read if you are interested in the topic but Parfit is hard work
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Sofia Arce
    5.0 out of 5 stars Trust, persevere, believe in your heart
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 August 2022
    Verified Purchase
    Follow your heart wherever it takes you. At times it is scary, but one must persevere with the heart
    Helpful
     Report
  • John Saunders
    4.0 out of 5 stars A good copy of one of the most distinguished modern philosophers
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2019
    Verified Purchase
    The author took the photo on the cover: it's really dreary. The Master's taste didn't extend to photography! Brilliant book.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Matt Morris
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Enlightening
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2024
    This book is an interesting mixture of what Parfit himself calls the "High Road" (Meta-Ethics, arguments about the structure and permissible claims of ethical theories) and the "Low Road" (a wide range of "intuition pump" thought experiements, some of which have become common parlance since the book came out around 40 years ago). Reading it is a weird mixture of jolts of new ideas, and then a painstaking working out of their consequences.

    It's not something you will be able to digest in a quick read-through. But it *is* accessible to someone who didn't study philosophy at university. Some grounding in logical forms may help.

    I am lucky enough to have some paid spare time between jobs at the moment, and I've spent the equivalent of two working weeks coming fully to grips with Reasons and Persons, and I have not regretted a single hour.

    A suggested tack to take: I read through first (making sure I understood the arguments at each point), then for any given section I waited for at least a day before I wrote section-level notes, then for any given chapter I waited for at least a day before I wrote chapter-level summaries. In other words, I approached it with the level of attention a student might give a foundational textbook in their field.

    I found it fascinating, and genuinely mind-changing. I will go back and re-read things I've read before (Peter Singer, etc) because I think this book will make me view those other works differently. I cannot think of another book that has had any effect nearly as profound.

    "Reasons and Persons" is not perfect. There are sections where Parfit could have used an editor to help sharpen up the text. There are digressions that distract more than enlighten. It could sometimes use more signposting about where things are heading, although signposts aren't absent.

    But this book is also amazing, a genuine one-off, not comparable in terms of density of new ideas to anything else I've ever read. It repays close study and attention. I don't necessarily agree with every last word, but it will permanently change the way I see the world in a number of respects - and this is am amazing thing for me to encouter at my post-50-year-old age.

    So in conclusion I really recommend giving this a go, if you're interested in modern ethics. It may be that you hit the weeds, need to put it down for a bit, and pick it up a day, a week, or even some months after. That's OK. There is treasure here, and you don't tend to find treasure just lying on the ground. But this book repays effort like nothing else I can remembder reading for decades.
    Helpful
     Report
  • Stein Smaaland
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Promptly delivery of quality book to Norway. Thanks. Stein Smaaland
    Helpful
     Report
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thx
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 June 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I will be back for more
    One person found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Frohicky
    5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and game changing.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2011
    Verified Purchase
    Quite simply an awesome book, rigorous and detailed on every point, and beautiful because of it. A definite challenge that any ethical theorist must defeat.
    5 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • Nick H
    1.0 out of 5 stars Unsubstantiated and uninspiring
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2024
    Verified Purchase
    If, like me, you find yourself disagreeing with some of the authors founding assertions by page 6 then you're not going to get much out of this book as everything else is based on these.
    There's also an awful lot of terms, either implicitly or explicitly defined, so as to make his conclusions almost tautologies.
    I ended up just leaping from main section to main section trying to find anything useful to take away from this book.
    Disapointing.
    Helpful
     Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Celina Zingler
    5.0 out of 5 stars Gutes Buch
    Reviewed in Germany on 14 July 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Super schönes Buch.
    Report
  • Pina
    5.0 out of 5 stars Parfit apre un mondo
    Reviewed in Italy on 19 November 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Ci ho scritto la tesi quindi per me questo libro è fenomenale come il suo autore.
    Report
  • Will Siegmund
    5.0 out of 5 stars The ideas of a genius contained in a terribly bound book
    Reviewed in the United States on 9 January 2019
    Verified Purchase
    A lot of professional moral philosophers consider this the best work on ethics since Sidgwick's Methods of Ethics, which was published an entire century prior. Though I am not knowledgeable enough about the history of ethics to offer a meaningful comment on that, I would be really impressed if there were another book on ethics published this century that is more original and thoughtful. One of my professor's estimated that 50% of the contemporary literature in ethics is working directly from ideas in this book. Parfit's writing style is really simple, but that makes the book exceptionally dense with arguments, and there is a strong sense that he spent a lot of time thinking about every word put into the book (given that he was publishing papers about topics in the book 15 years before it was published, I don't think that's a stretch). The ideas themselves are also airtight in their reasoning. Reasons and Persons is divided into four sections, of which I think the 3rd and 4th are the most fun and interesting. The first two systematically showing that ethical egoism and common-sense intuitions about morality are incoherent and that consequentialism solve all the problems these two bases of morality contain. From what my philosophy professors indicate, Parfit is considered to have succeeded. The third section is on personal identity and shows that the two classic western conceptions of how someone keeps their identity over time -- through the continuity of one's memories or body -- both have fatal flaws. He advocates for a reductionist picture of personal identity as a series of relationships to other people and things that wither and change over time. There is no core self tethering it all together. He then discusses the ethical implications of the view. The fourth section is maybe my favorite single section of any philosophy book I've read. It discusses four serious problems in population ethics -- The Nonidentity Problem, the Repugnant Conclusion, the Absurd Conclusion, and the Mere Addition Paradox -- that he thinks any good moral theory must solve. The only problem is that none of the traditional conceptions, most alarmingly deontology and consequentialism, are up to the task. Deontology can't explain the Nonidentity Problem, and Utilitarianism fails to avoid the Mere Addition Paradox. Therefore, no moral theory as of yet is perfectly satisfying. This fourth book has spawned its own industry in professional ethics, and mountains of papers can been written attempting to solve these problems. Thus far, no Deontological solutions to the Nonidentity Problem nor Consequentialist solutions to the Mere Addition Paradox have satisfied people.

    In Summary, the book is exceptionally dense but deeply rewarding if you're patient with some of its ideas. I'm not sure I would recommend it to a lay-person interested in ethics (there are many other great ethics books that are more introductory), but if you are really into philosophy and aren't afraid of a profoundly rewarding but substantial challenge, then I couldn't recommend another contemporary philosophical work book more thoroughly other than A Theory of Justice.

    Also worth noting: the softcover binding on the book is absolutely terrible. My softcover edition fell apart within a year and decent care of the book. Exasperated, I spent extra for a hardcover because I wanted to keep the book for a long time; it's that valuable to me. Assuming you get a softcover, would avoid traveling with the book at all and try to treat it very gently. The ideas in the book are why I gave it 5 stars, not the physical book of the softcover, which deserves maybe 2 stars.
    Report
  • JohnWesleyHarding
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on 4 February 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing book
    Report
  • Daniel Garcia
    5.0 out of 5 stars Classic (even when wrong)
    Reviewed in Germany on 8 September 2017
    Verified Purchase
    This book is extremely rich in ideas. I find many of them wrong (e.g. self-interest is very narrowly defined, risk is not modeled correctly...) but still thought-provoking and challenging. Fantastic read.
    Report