CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 617Philosophical Ethics and TheoryEthics in Business and EducationLegal Rights and Human Rights

The Right and the Good

Ross, David·2002
DOI 10.1093/0199252653.001.0001
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

The Right and the Good is a classic of 20th‐century philosophy by the great scholar Sir David Ross, which is now presented in a new edition with a substantial introduction by Philip Stratton–Lake, a leading expert on Ross. Ross's book was originally published in 1930, and is the pinnacle of ethical intuitionism, which was the dominant moral theory in British philosophy for much of the 19th and early 20th century. The central concern of the book is with rightness and goodness, and their relation to one another. Ross argues against notable rival ethical theories. The right act, he holds, cannot be derived from the moral value of the motive from which it is done; furthermore, rightness is not wholly determined by the value of the consequences of one's action, whether this value is some benefit for the agent, or some agent‐neutral good. Rather, the right act is determined by a plurality of self‐evident prima facie duties. Ross portrayed rightness and goodness as simple non‐natural properties. Philip Stratton provides a substantial introduction to the book, in which he discusses its central themes and clears up some common misunderstandings. A new bibliography and index are also included, along with editorial notes that aim to clarify certain points and indicate where Ross later changed his mind on particular issues. Intuitionism is now enjoying a considerable revival, and this new edition provides the context for a proper modern understanding of Ross's great work.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/0199252653.001.0001

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Ross, D.
Affiliations
British Academy (GB)
Corresponding author
Ross, David
ORCID
Ross, David
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford
Published
2002-08-01
DOI
10.1093/0199252653.001.0001
OpenAlex
W4212818722
Cited by
617
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 91 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 96 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 41 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 11
FWCI
3.22
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) (submittedVersion)
  • DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Ethics in Business and Education
  • Social Sciences › Law › Legal Rights and Human Rights
Keywords
David Ross, ethical intuitionism, rightness, goodness, prima facie duties, consequentialism, moral theory, British philosophy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review