A Whig history of ethics - A review of The 'Invention of Autonomy' by J. B. Schneewind

J. B. Schneewind's The Invention of Autonomy has been hailed as a major int erpretation of modern moral thought. Schneewind's narrative, however, elide s several serious interpretive issues, particularly in the transition form late medieval to early modern thought. This results in potentially distorte d accounts of Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius, and G. W. Leibniz. Since these thinkers play a crucial role in Schneewind's argument, uncertainty over the ir work calls into question at least some of Schneewind's larger agenda for the history of ethics.