The Moral Point of View Author:Kurt Baier Kurt Baier, The Moral Point of View (1957) — Baier's position is essentially an investigation into the conditions that make up something like a "moral point of view." Once this view has been described, the problem is just one of adopting it or rejecting it, i.e., acting from within or outside the moral point of view, and the task of the practical... more » thinker is to show one that moral reasons are overriding reasons in cases in which a conflict with self interest arise.
What is important for our purposes is Baier's heavy reliance upon a Hobbsian world view in which a rational person would have to assert that a moral society is to be desired over a state of nature. "The very raison d'etre of a morality is to yield reasons which overrule the reasons of self interest in cases where everyone's following self-interest would be harmful to everyone." This re-introduces the social element (already contained in Toulmin) into ethical theory and sets the stage for Rawls' society based description of ethics.« less