2006-12-27 brilliant

This densely argued little book provides what is perhaps the most influential formulation of moral skepticism of the 20th century in the form of what Mackie calls an 'error theory' of moral judgment. Mackie asserts that there is a deep and pervasive error in ordinary moral thought, in that it postulates the existence of properties and entities which cannot be part of a sensible, scientific ontology. After an elaboration of his fundamental negative thesis, Mackie goes on to develop a proto-contractual account of morality that presumably can be affirmed without making the error that haunts ordinary moral thought and the philosophical tradition (although I must add that the second part of the book stands in a somewhat awkward relation to the first). Obligatory reading for anyone interested in the foundations of ethics.