Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality

"Offering more than a thinker’s life and career, Parfit is a crash course in the evolution of moral philosophy, and the best account I have read of what “doing philosophy” entails. . . . Superb."—Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal

"Parfit is written engagingly, ably balancing philosophy and biography. Readers outside the field will find Edmonds’s descriptions of Parfit’s philosophical contributions fascinating and clear. . . . Parfit’s philosophy was philosophy at its best and Parfit is an excellent introduction to that philosophy and the life in which it grew to occupy such a central role."—Oliver Traldi, Washington Post

"The best intellectual biography I’ve ever read."—Paul Bloom, author of The Sweet Spot

"Edmonds has pulled it off, and few could be better suited to the task. . . . He writes stylishly, with a light touch. The book is packed with anecdotes that leaven the discussion of Parfit’s weighty professional output."—Sarah Richmond, Times Literary Supplement

"Parfit made contributions to questions about identity, future generations, and freedom, but his central project was to argue for the objective nature of morality. Edmonds’s companionable biography tracks this work while assembling a portrait of how Parfit grew from a young boy with strong moral intuitions to a kind, perfectionistic man who believed that the stakes of his mission were so high that he should devote almost all of his waking hours to it."—New Yorker

"A lively new biography."—The Economist

"[Edmonds] manages to make Parfit’s cloistered, eccentric life of the mind a source of endless astonishment. . . .It is surely the best biography of a philosopher since Ray Monk’s hitherto peerless Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius."—Julian Baggini, Prospect

"This fascinating biography. . .combines lucid philosophical exegesis with astute psychological analysis. Edmonds clearly loves his subject. . . and he documents his life with exhaustive honesty."—Jane O’Grady, Literary Review

"This is both a fabulous book and a necessary biography of a significant Oxford academic who a lot of people have sort of heard of but can’t quite place. . . . It will be a curiously dull reader to complete this volume and not be affected by some of the powerful ideas that are raised along the way."—Richard Lofthouse, QUAD

"A fascinating and important person. I do highly recommend the biography."—Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist

"Very readable."—Nigel Warburton, The New European

"Rich and dense. . . . Parfit is a tremendous fabric of stories, memories, references, personal testimonies, research material and original quotations, and it is an equally, tremendously, heartfelt invitation to feel and engage with the rhythm and presence of a life. It is absorbing, fascinating, replete with occasions for pause and reflection, full of echoes of lives past, lives lived, lives almost obsessively examined."—Mika Provata-Carlone, Bookanista

"[A] gripping biography."—Joe Humphreys, The Irish Times

"Superb, terrific. . . [Edmonds] reconstructs a whole new world."—Cass Sunstein

"It’s hard to imagine a more sympathetic, fair-minded, and appropriately skilled biographer for Parfit than David Edmonds. . . . [An] excellent biography."—Frank B. Farrell, Commonweal Magazine

"David Edmonds has written an exemplary biography. It is thorough, revealing, and yet sympathetic, and written by someone who admires the life of someone he nevertheless confesses to find a very puzzling subject."—Simon Blackburn, Society

"A sharp and sympathetic biography."—Michael Gibson, City Journal

"Dave Edmonds is an adept populariser of recondite ideas and his book about Derek Parfit, the mysterious and reclusive philosopher who spent most of his adult life at All Souls College, is essential reading."—Jason Cowley, The Times 

"David Edmonds, himself philosophically trained, is a very engaging writer on the subject of philosophers’ lives. . . . He treats his reader with respect, but knows that a spoonful of gossip, or biography, helps the philosophy go down. I recommend [Parfit] highly."—Theodore Dalrymple, The Lamp

"This superb biography reveals him as a genius to some, a fool to others, eccentric to all."—The Telegraph

“Picture in your head: ‘a philosopher.’ Does he have a wild mane of white hair? Does he ride an old-fashioned bike everywhere, speak in a British accent? Does he have eccentric habits, like carrying a vodka bottle full of water? Does he spend every second of his life trying to solve the most important problems of human existence, and is everyone who meets him in awe of his intellect? The person you imagined existed. His name was Derek Parfit, he was utterly fascinating and delightful and brilliant, and with this book David Edmonds has painted him a beautiful, thorough, and compelling portrait.”—Michael Schur, creator of The Good Place and author of How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

“In his monumental biography of the moral philosopher Derek Parfit, David Edmonds renders the movements of a quicksilver mind, the allure of a charismatic personality, the drama of a cloistered life.”—Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

“Although Derek Parfit led a uniquely cloistered existence, immersed in his work, his life was not without drama, as David Edmonds’s sympathetic but not uncritical biography shows. This is likely to be the definitive biography of this irresistibly intriguing, indefatigable, and finally elusive thinker: for many, the great moral philosopher of our time.”—Joyce Carol Oates

“To write an entertaining biography of the philosopher on whom, of all those I have encountered, the label ‘genius’ best fits, is quite a feat. David Edmonds does that in this beautifully written and thoroughly researched volume that also offers fascinating glimpses of academic philosophy and life in Oxford during the past sixty years.”—Peter Singer, author of Ethics in the Real World

“Derek Parfit’s electrifyingly original philosophy transformed thinking about who we are, what matters in life, and how we should care about the future. And the man was as original as his work. In this revelatory and fascinating biography, David Edmonds describes how the young Parfit’s many passions contracted into a fervent, all-consuming search for moral truth.”—Larissa MacFarquhar, author of Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help

“Derek Parfit was perhaps the most important philosopher of his era. This scintillating and insightful portrait of him is one of the best intellectual biographies I have read.”—Tyler Cowen, author of Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals

“A delight-filled, page-turning romp through the life and thought of one of the world’s greatest moral philosophers—completely unknown to most but with ideas that could change the way we think about ourselves and the future of humanity.”—Ruth Chang, University of Oxford

“Derek Parfit was the most brilliant and original moral philosopher in well over a century. In certain ways saintly, he was also legendarily eccentric. David Edmonds’s eagerly awaited biography tells the fascinating story of Parfit’s life in a lively and engaging manner while also providing accessible explanations of his most important philosophical ideas. Both instructive and entertaining, this is greatly rewarding reading.”—Jeff McMahan, University of Oxford

“A beautifully written and psychologically sophisticated biography. Even readers who disagree with Parfit’s ideas will learn from and be moved by this fascinating book.”—Cheryl Misak, University of Toronto

“A wonderful read and splendidly done.”—Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize–winning economist and New York Times bestselling coauthor of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism