This introductory ethics text opens with an examination of a central problem about ethics--its apparent immunity from observational testing. In an informal yet precise style, Professor Harman considers possible responses to this problem, such as extreme nihilism, emotivism, and ethical naturalism. He next takes up the way morality appears to involve some sort of moral law, and asks how this is to be understood, incorporating Kant's theory, the Hare's and Sartre's in his discussion. Then the possibility of a social source of moral law is explored. Finally, after a consideration of how moral principles can be said to give one reasons to do things, Harman discusses egoism and utilitarianism as views about the nature of reasons. -Publisher