During the past decade ethical theory has been in a lively state of development, and three basic approaches to ethics - Kantian ethics, consequentialism, and virtue ethics - have assumed positions of particular prominence.

Marcia W. Baron is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Urbana. She is the author of Kantian Ethics Almost Without Apology (1995).

Philip Pettit is Professor of Philosophy at Australian National University. He is the author of Republicanism (1996), The Common Mind (1993), and Not Just Deserts (1990), and is editor (with Robert E. Goodin) of A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Blackwell Publishers, paperback edition 1996) and Contemporary Political Philosophy: an Anthology (Blackwell Publishers, paperback edition 1997).

Michael Slote is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Goods and Virtues (1983), Common Sense Morality and Consequentialism (1985), Beyond Optimizing(1989), and From Morality to Virtue (1992).