Right Actions and Good Persons: Controversies Between Eudaimonistic and Deontic Moral Theories

First published in 1999, this work tests the ancient against the modern in discussing whether modern approaches to ethics remain sufficiently able to provide a serious and justifiable account of morality. Marjaana Kopperi explores ancient, medieval and enlightenment philosophy to compare their notion of moral agents and ‘the good life’ with the more action-based notions of modern philosophy. Kopperi aims to examine how the promoters of agent-based ethical views deal with questions of what constitutes a good life and whether it can or should be quantified or justified.