Abstract

In this magisterial book Professor Schneewind traces the history of moral, political, and legal philosophy from late medieval scholasticism through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries to the development of Kant’s moral philosophy and concept of autonomy. The range of thinkers discussed is astounding. Almost every important—and many not so important—moral philosopher from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century has at least one of the many sections of the book devoted to a discussion of his views. There are, however, some omissions, perhaps the most important being that of the Anglican philosopher and theologian Richard Hooker, but he too is mentioned at a number of places. The knowledge Schneewind manifests of the moral, legal, and political philosophy of the three centuries he covers in detail is nothing less than astonishing.