This 2006 volume uncovers the historical roots of naturalistic, secular contemporary ethics.

Introduction; Part I. Whichcote and cudworth: 1. The negative answer of English Calvinism; 2. Whichcote and Cudworth's positive answer; 3 Whichcote and Cudworth on religious liberty; 4. Rationalism, sentimentalism, and Ralph Cudworth; 5. The emergence of non-Christian ethics; Part II. Shaftesbury: 6. Shaftesbury and the Cambridge Platonists; 7. Shaftesbury's Inquiry: a misanthropic faith in human nature; 8. The Moralists, a Philosophical Rhapsody; 9. A philosophical faultline; Part III. Hutcheson: 10. Early influences on Francis Hutcheson; 11. Hutcheson's attack on egoism; 12. Hutcheson's attack on moral rationalism; 13. A Copernican positive answer, an attenuated moral realism; 14. Explaining away vice; Part IV. Hume: 15. David Hume's new 'science of man'; 16. Hume's arguments against moral rationalism; 17. Hume's associative moral sentiments; 18. Hume's progressive view of human nature; 19. Comparison and contingency in Hume's moral account; 20. What is a Humean account, and what difference does it make?